Are the Fundamental Constants Changing?

September 28th, 2017

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Recent findings suggest that the fundamental constants might not be as stable as we assumed. And be sure to signup for your free trial of The Great Courses Plus at http://ow.ly/rcsA30beNw1

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Webb et al. 1998, A Search for Time Variation of the Fine Structure Constant
https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9803165

Webb et al. 2011, A Search for Time Variation of the Fine Structure Constant
https://arxiv.org/abs/1008.3907

Martins & Pinho 2016, Stability of Fundamental Couplings: a Global Analysis
https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.08724

The laws of physics are the same everywhere in the universe. At least we astrophysicists hope so. After all, it’s hard to unravel the complexities of distant parts of the universe if we don’t know the basic rules. But what if this is wrong? There is a hint of evidence that the fundamental constants that govern our universe may evolve over time, and even from one location to another.

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Posted in Physics |

The Future of Space Telescopes

September 20th, 2017

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The mysteries of our universe seem limitless. However to unlock them, we’re going to need some incredible technologies to peer deeper and more sharply into space time.

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The Kepler mission has determined that terrestrial planets – that is, rocky planets like our Earth are extremely common, and may orbit most stars in the Milky Way. But these planets are extremely difficult to directly image because they’re dense and small. Our Sun is about ten billion times brighter than Earth. Train a distant telescope on us, and it will be overwhelmed by the Sun’s rays. So how can we find terrestrial planets around stars light years away?

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Posted in Physics |

Neutron Stars Collide in New LIGO Signal?

September 13th, 2017

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LIGO may have just detected gravitational waves from the collision of two Neutron Stars. And go to http://curiositystream.com/spacetime
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tstyqz2g7o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ2RNBAFLj0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx4562gesw0&t=71

Last year LIGO announced the detection of gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes. The science world went a little crazy. Only a few weeks ago a new rumour emerged: that LIGO had, for the first time, spotted gravitational waves from the collision of a pair of neutron stars. If it’s true, some long-standing astrophysical mysteries are about to be unlocked.

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Posted in Physics |

White Holes | Space Time

August 30th, 2017

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Black holes are very well known but… What is a White Hole?
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Black Hole Playlist
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How Time Becomes Space Inside a Black Hole
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Are You a Boltzmann Brain?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhy4Z_32kQo

Lurking in the depths of the mathematics of Einstein’s general relativity is an object even stranger than the mysterious black hole. In fact it’s the black hole’s mirror twin, the white hole. Some even think that these could be the origin of our universe.

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Posted in Physics |

First Detection of Life

August 24th, 2017

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What does life look like from space?
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In 1990, an experiment conceived by Carl Sagan was performed using using the Galileo spacecraft. The purpose? To detect life on a planet based on measurements by a space probe. The experiment was successful, and abundant life was unequivocally confirmed. That planet? The Earth. Now, a quarter century later, we’re on the verge of conducting that same experiment on a world orbiting another star.

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Posted in Physics |

What it’s like to watch a Total Solar Eclipse

August 22nd, 2017

The total solar eclipse from Madras, Oregon on August 21, 2017. As the moon passed in front of the sun turning day to night and revealing the sun’s corona, apparently all I could think to say was ‘Oh my goodness!’

This awe-inspiring phenomenon returned to the US on April 8, 2024, when total solar eclipse crossed North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

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Everyone says not to photograph your first solar eclipse and I think they might be right. I was focused on getting the exposure right for Bailey’s beads and the diamond ring, plus making sure to get the corona and solar flares. This was a bit stressful but I’m delighted with the results.

This video originally included more info but since I’m uploading from Madras where the internet is sluggish, I cut out three minutes so the upload would happen before I had to leave for my flight.

Special thanks also to Dr. Teagan Wall for sharing this experience with me and Raquel Nuno for inspiring me to come to Oregon.

Music from http://epidemicsound.com “Spinning Earth 2” and
Kevin MacLeod http://incompetech.com “Big Mojo”

Posted in Uncategorized |

Extraterrestrial Superstorms

August 16th, 2017

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Earth has its share of monster storms, but even our most powerful hurricanes are a breeze compared to the great, planet-sized tempests of the gas giants. LegalZoom is not a law firm or a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Get 15% off your next purchase at https://www.legalzoom.com/spacetime. …

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The great vortices of the Jovian planets are true storms, analogous in many ways to Earth’s hurricanes. There are, of course, some differences. For example, these storms are as big as entire planets. The largest and oldest storm in the solar system is Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, stretching an incredible two to three times the diameter of the planet Earth. Meanwhile the fastest winds ever measured, clocking fifteen hundred miles per hour, once raged in Neptune’s Great Dark Spot. Saturn’s Polar Vortex is a 20,000-mile-wide monster shaped like a hexagon. Even plain-looking Uranus hides USA-sized hurricanes below its methane haze. There are many unsolved mysteries surrounding these epic storms. We may be close to finding some answers, following the Juno spacecraft’s recent flyby of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.

Juno’s interactive website: https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/

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Andres64
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dqtW…

Keith Gaughan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dqtW…

Vacuum Diagrams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dqtW…

youteub akount
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dqtW…

Don Solaris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dqtW…

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Posted in Physics |

The One-Electron Universe | Space Time

August 10th, 2017

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Could it be that all the electrons in the universe are simply one, single electron moving back and forth through time?

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In the spring of 1940, the great physicist John Archibald Wheeler had a flash of insight. He picked up the phone and called Richard Feynman. The fateful conversation began, “Feynman, I know why all electrons have the same charge and the same mass.” “Why?” asked Wheeler’s former graduate student. “Because, they are all the same electron!” Wheeler went on to describe the One-Electron Universe idea: that there exists only one electron, and that electron traverses time in both directions. It bounces in time, eventually traversing the entire past and future history of the universe in both directions, and interacting with itself countless times on each pass. In this way it fills the universe with the appearance of countless electrons. And when the electron is moving backwards in time it is a positron; the antimatter counterpart of the electron.

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0xFFF1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgdNBQCdhdA&lc=z23sjnwjrwnljxe3macdp435v2eqfl1uknp1kknjllxw03c010c

Daniel Grass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgdNBQCdhdA&lc=z230gbubioqjyn1vfacdp43azemsjdresxvjbu412tdw03c010c

M Paulson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgdNBQCdhdA&lc=z221xpzafrikhxyjf04t1aokgiuxpnkzxeknjelcsx0jbk0h00410

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Posted in Physics |

Dark Flow

August 2nd, 2017

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Why does the universe seem to be moving in one particular direction?

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Space is not static. Everything moves. Planets orbit stars, stars orbit within galaxies, galaxies whirl within the gravitational fields of giant clusters. And of course, the universe is expanding; distant galaxies are thrust apart from each other as the space between them grows. But there’s no preferred direction to any of this motion. Motion due to the expansion of the universe – what we call the Hubble flow – is equal in all directions. The random motion of galaxies – what we call their peculiar motion – should also have no preferred direction. On the largest scales of the universe, there should be no preference for up or down or left or right. At least that’s what we thought. Observations of the cosmic microwave background suggest that the galaxy clusters across the cosmos may be moving, ever so slightly, towards the same point beyond the cosmic horizon. We call this dark flow.

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VacuumDiagrams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG52mXN-uWI&lc=z12mir3gvw20gxvnq23md5ipdy2xvb33y

Samuel Benda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG52mXN-uWI&lc=z12vgjnosweevr1kw22oct0jfwugib4pu04

JoJoModding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG52mXN-uWI&lc=z134h3i4zuqowhcow04cjfeh3pnmwpmirbk

Squid Master
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The Secrets of Feynman Diagrams

July 27th, 2017

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Unlock the secrets of Feynman Diagrams. Part 5 in our Quantum Field Theory series. And if you’re submitting an answer to our challenge question email your answer by August 2nd to pbsspacetime [AT] gmail.com with the subject line “Feynman Diagram Challenge.”

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Feynman’s path integral shows us that, to properly calculate the probability of a particle traveling from point A to point B, we need to add up the contributions from all conceivable paths between those points – including the impossible paths! In fact we can go even further: according to Feynman’s approach, every conceivable happening that leads from a measured initial state to a measured final state DOES in a sense happen. To calculate the probability of any quantum system evolving from one state into any other state we need to sum over every conceivable intermediate state. This is impossible because there are infinite possible intermediate states.

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Superphilipp
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Lewinham
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8shnjlGwmg&lc=z12ajhwg3nubdnhaz04cfjfjumr2w5krek40k

Myrmidon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8shnjlGwmg&lc=z12xupq5qqiqdbl4h04chd4x0syuxfnb1nk0k
Sure people love Star Wars. But I think they missed a golden opportunity to call the project Ronald Ray-gun.

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