The Chaotic-Neutron

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Max-Planck Institute/P. Appleton (SSC/Caltech)

This false-color composite image of the Stephan’s Quintet galaxy cluster clearly shows one of the largest shock waves ever seen (green arc), produced by one galaxy falling toward another at over a million miles per hour. It is made up of data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and a ground-based telescope in Spain.

Four of the five galaxies in this image are involved in a violent collision, which has already stripped most of the hydrogen gas from the interiors of the galaxies. The centers of the galaxies appear as bright yellow-pink knots inside a blue haze of stars, and the galaxy producing all the turmoil, NGC7318b, is the left of two small bright regions in the middle right of the image. One galaxy, the large spiral at the bottom left of the image, is a foreground object and is not associated with the cluster.

The titanic shock wave, larger than our own Milky Way galaxy, was detected by the ground-based telescope using visible-light wavelengths. It consists of hot hydrogen gas. As NGC7318b collides with gas spread throughout the cluster, atoms of hydrogen are heated in the shock wave, producing the green glow.

Spitzer pointed its infrared spectrograph at the peak of this shock wave (middle of green glow) to learn more about its inner workings. This instrument breaks light apart into its basic components. Data from the instrument are referred to as spectra and are displayed as curving lines that indicate the amount of light coming at each specific wavelength.

The Spitzer spectrum showed a strong infrared signature for incredibly turbulent gas made up of hydrogen molecules. This gas is caused when atoms of hydrogen rapidly pair-up to form molecules in the wake of the shock wave. Molecular hydrogen, unlike atomic hydrogen, gives off most of its energy through vibrations that emit in the infrared.

This highly disturbed gas is the most turbulent molecular hydrogen ever seen. Astronomers were surprised not only by the turbulence of the gas, but by the incredible strength of the emission. The reason the molecular hydrogen emission is so powerful is not yet completely understood.

Stephan’s Quintet is located 300 million light-years away in the Pegasus constellation.

One thing to remember is that because galactic distances are so vast, even though galaxies frequently collide, the actual stars in them almost never do. The pictures make it look like there should be millions of individual collisions, but in fact, collision means just passing though one another.

The gravitational effects of course can totally rip the smaller galaxy apart. There are small satellite galaxies being sucked into the milky way as we speak! Cool huh ?!

Before i begin, this article has a lot of physics concepts in it. If physics is not your cup of cake, go ahead and read my other posts ! 

Now, did the title catch your eye ?! It sure did that to me. I went ahead and read the article over at NS and was amazed at what i saw there. The article details about an unknown scientist’s work in Germany about an attempt to make a GUT(Grand Unification Theory) which ended up opening new realms to explore and exploit.

Hyperspace is a concept which will enable a spacecraft to reach Mars in less than 3 hours and a star 11 light years away in only 80 days. Now that, is abstract physics at its best

If you are interested, go ahead and read the article. If not comprehensible, it sure is a nice read that reminds me of ‘Star Trek’.

Bird flu  

Bird flu has overshadowed the year 2005. The abominable virus claimed many bird lives in South East Asia before heading across Europe to Russia and Ukraine. However, the more scientists and officials talk about the deadly threat, the less credible it looks to people. Some people believe there is no such thing as bird flu. They think the whole story stemmed from the fights over the world market between the poultry producers. Others blame the pharmaceutical companies that are keen to spread panic and therefore make us buy more medicines. Which story should we believe in? Does the bird flu really exist? Does it pose a threat to humans? Did other threats of the worldwide proportions materialize?

It did not take long to tackle the problem; doctors found a pathogen and a vector – coronovirus and a palm cat, a viverrine animal normally used for food in China. However, the urgent measures could not stop another myth from spreading far and wide. The myth said that the SARS problem was made up to lower China’s economic growth and disrupt the exceedingly profitable tourist industry in South East Asia.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lev Sandakhchiyev:

“Discovering a new more dangerous type of previously unknown coronavirus in the patients was direct evidence of a real threat. The ‘spinning’ of that epidemic stressed the importance of international cooperation. Many people did realize that humankind was destined to face new or recurrent infectious diseases. Therefore, a system of global and domestic monitoring is highly required.”

Spent nuclear fuel

Following a heated debate in 2001, the Russian president signed into law the bill on storage and reutilization of spent nuclear fuel from foreign nuclear power spent nuclear fuelplants. Specialists were unanimous while explaining to their opponents that spent nuclear fuel was not just the waste material from the nuclear industry. According to them, it is a high-tech product that can be used for extracting raw materials and energy. Despite potentially huge profits Russia could make (one ton of spent nuclear fuel costs $1 million; total estimated amount of spent nuclear fuel is 200 thousand tons), environmentalists have been relentless in their opposition to the new law.

Nikolai Shingarev, Director of the Information Center of the Federal Agency on Nuclear Energy:

“No spent nuclear fuel is being brought into Russia despite the law. We will probably sign the first contract under the new legislation for a small consignment of spent nuclear fuel from a research reactor in Uzbekistan. Today Russia is receiving nuclear waste from the nuclear plants built in the Soviet era in Ukraine ($370 thousand per 1 ton) and Bulgaria ($600 thousand per one ton). Reutilization waste materials will be stored in Russia only if the governments OKs the storage and only if fuel had been originally produced in Russia. 75% of revenues will be allocated for environmental programs and the remaining 25% will make part of local budgets.”

10 myths of the past, which never materialized

Steam-driven locomotive: serious scientists were asserting that cows would stop bearing offspring and produce milk at the sight of a locomotive. They also clamed that air would be squeezed out of train carriages at 20 km per hour and passengers will suffocate as a result.

Robot: intelligent machines will shake off dependence and take command of the world; humans would submit to the power of the machines.

Spacecraft: spacecraft were making holes in the atmosphere during the takeoff; the earth’s protective anti-radiation layer of the atmosphere will be eventually destroyed and thus the earth will be exposed to dangerous space particles.

Microwave oven: fried sausages can irradiate in the dark; radiation from food cooked in the oven will pile up in the human body and cause cancer.

Cell phone: radiation emitted by a cell phone receiver can affect the brain by liquefying it. Paradoxically, a cell phone phobia could not stop the massive spread of cellular communications all over the world.

Vaccination: the danger of vaccination is one of the longstanding fears in the world; the first objectors appeared shortly after the first vaccination campaign launched by Dr. Edward Jenner in 1796; many objected to vaccination in Russia at the end of the 1990s.

Environmental pollution: some people feared that the civilization would come to end by 2020 due to sky-high levels of industrial and communal pollution which should result in a lack of oxygen and poisonous evaporation.

Asbestos: Micro particles of asbestos cause lung cancer. Asbestos was produced in Canada and the USSR. Canadian asbestos companies went bankrupt following an anti-asbestos propaganda campaign instigated by the competitors. Russia’s asbestos makers have survived the bad times. The incidence rate of cancer in the town of Asbest does not exceed an average national incidence rate of cancer.

Global warming: industrial emissions of carbon dioxide cause the greenhouse effect that leads to overheating of the earth’s surface. Consequently, polar ice will melt away causing the global ocean level rise by one meter.

Ozone holes: Freon used in refrigerators and deodorants will destroy the ozone layer of the atmosphere, which protects Earth against the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation. As a result, the number of cancer and other deadly diseases will grow.

via PRAVDA

The British government was spooked back in 1935. Not because of Hitler’s air force or his infantry. It was newspaper reports that the Nazis might have a super-weapon that could incinerate living tissue or detonate a bomb at long distance. A “death ray,” the reports called it.

Flooded by letters begging for a response, the British Air Ministry asked prominent physicist Robert Watson-Watt to see if a radio-wave-based death ray was feasible.

Within ten days Watson-Watt reported that such a weapon was unlikely. But using radio waves to locate an approaching bomber was a real possibility. And that’s how radar was born.

Now, seventy years later, the invention may be coming full circle, Aviation Week reports.

Here’s an article that talks about Ed Witten’s work. I had no clue about him before this but i see that many people have acknowledged his invaluable contributions to Super String Theory. I guess, that does make him to be one big shots in Physics during our time.

I linked previously to Dr. Michio Kaku. His site is loaded with information on Theoretical physics. Here is a comment that he made on Ed Mitten. (An excerpt from the article)

“I do believe there really is a category for a genius who is a supernova — a supernova that lights up the entire scientific landscape and that is Ed Witten,” said theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, the author of “Parallel Worlds and Hyperspace.”

“I think he is as close as you are going to get to a living Albert Einstein today.”

That is so freaking cool. When people compare him with Einstein, i feel guilty of not knowing about a person of such significance. Shame on me …

Here i am, off to go read more on him and work on my research some more

Update : Found some more stories and interesting posts on the same subject. One over at Kuro5hin and some posts by physicists at their blogs – Peter Woit and Lubos Motl. Both have interesting opinions and comments. Read on.

Whoopy doo. I almost have a Time Machine in my hands !

Now if only i can just create a blackhole and get a computer with a mega huge cpu power to solve a billion variables accurately, i will be done …

Now read on about “A User’s Guide to Time Travel” – All it takes is a grasp of theoretical physics, control of the space-time continuum, and maybe a ball of cosmic string.

A very interesting and captivating article about some of the theories and concepts you need to know before trying to even talk about time travel to anyone ! Definitely a nice lay-man’s intro to the subject …

Also, here is the author’s site. Dr. Michio Kaku is the co-founder of String Field Theory. If you have never had the chance to read anything on Field theory, then believe me, after the basic reading i’ve done, i’d salute him a 100 times ! He’s got a great site going on, full of technical information. A nice site if you like theoretical physics and many other scientific phenomena.

Update : Saw this article “Realistic Time Machine? New design could forgo exotic ingredient” and found it interesting and relevant to the topic. While all the suggested theories seem good, nothing can be commented about them until a practical model is developed.