The Final Frontier

[cee-dee]

Space. There's  lot of it and that's only what we can see (so far).

These scientific types say they're seeing "so far back in time" (to the beginning of the universe?) that I wonder if some things have really been thought through?

We (OK, the scientific types) can see billions of Galaxies and trillions of stars and they're looking for Earth-like planets but ain't definitely found one yet. Yes, they've found some in the Goldilocks-zone near stars but they've also found some really strange Planets along with some Hellish places too.

Along with those, they've found some orphan Planets wandering through space which they conclude "must" have been flung out of their Solar system, possibly by a sling-shot from a large Planet in the same system but they don't have much to say about the fact that "an object, when propelled by a force will continue in the direction of that force until acted upon by another force." Simply put, if that orphan Planet was flung out, it must still be travelling the same speed as when it was flung out. Where's it going? Any heading our way?

There's other people maintaining a listening watch in case there's a radio signal coming from "somewhere out there". Well, if it's "come a long way", it'll have taken a long time to get here and the place from whence it came may no longer be there so there's no point in replying?

They're looking for life like us? Well, on the balance of probabilities given the number of stars we know about, there should be life "out there" but why should it be like us? We've found weird life on this planet in weird places so life "out there" could be "weird" (to us) too? Thing is, we'd appear to be weird to them too?

[cee-dee]

The distance from the Earth to the horizon of the observable Universe is the same in all directions, about 40 billion light years, about 24 gigaparsecs.

Starting with the same stuff as "our" Big Bang, others would create the same things in subsequent reactions.

[joamur_gosof]

ok,got it cd on depth....and hmm ok  will look into a few experts on possible combinations of reactions and see if a new reaction would create all new ...albeit from the same stuff that reacted differently............its all on whether there is more unknown stuff out there than known ,if you know what I mean...if known is a very small percent,then its help towards a new 'whatever' may be neligable and therefore not 'all made from same stuff' 

maybe

[joamur_gosof]

well cant find anything conclusive ,but the key seems to be when they discover what dark matter is as thats the majority of the universe by far.

[cee-dee]

Ah no, there's more dark energy than dark matter...... so "they" say. Some say they don't exist......

Then there's dark fluid and dark flow. I suppose they might not exist either?

Well, one thing's for sure, it's definitely dark outside.

[joamur_gosof]

Well whatever it is that may or may not exist...once they have that sussed ,they can then see what you can do with it as well as why its everywhere.

Possible in time they will as well and that will be the key to the whole thing. I would think learning how to travel fast in it would be on the agenda so they could whip about looking for the elusive alien.

Amazing really...one theory is its flat ..hey been there before lol

[joamur_gosof]

>A mysterious X-ray signal has been found in a detailed study of galaxy clusters using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton. One intriguing possibility is that the X-rays are produced by the decay of sterile neutrinos, a type of particle that has been proposed as a candidate for dark matter.

While holding exciting potential, these results must be confirmed with additional data to rule out other explanations and determine whether it is plausible that dark matter has been observed.

Astronomers think dark matter constitutes 85% of the matter in the Universe, but does not emit or absorb light like “normal” matter such as protons, neutrons and electrons that make up the familiar elements observed in planets, stars, and galaxies.

[malacandran]

Could "Dark Matter" explain some phenonema such as "Ghosts"?  These have been sighted, apparently, for ages past.

Yet they don't seem expilicable by our modern scientific theories. This might be because our theories rely on "normal" matter. Such as is formed by protons, neutrons and electrons.  But other forms of matter may be possible - if they can be confirmed by data.

As pointed out in the excellent post by joamur-gosof. 

[cee-dee]

All these theories only confuse the issue.

It depends upon which theory you're reading. One bunch of theorists hold that 99.9% of all matter in the Universe is Plasma but they say they're ignoring any Dark Matter which MAY be "out there".

http://www.plasma-universe.com/99.999%25_plasma 

http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_cr.html#plasma

[joamur_gosof]

I don't agree all the theories confuse the subject as the theories are how it's all got here (which is very advanced) as without theories you have nothing to prove right or wrong.

The key is whatever you or they want to call the majority of the universe as we know it..lots of something.

I like that one ''could be ghosts'' malac....original thinkers the Sumer folk (thanks cd) suggested thats where everyone goes after death to a wretched life of floating about in the abyss..If the abyss is not of 'normal' then who knows what era your seeing glimpses of or in facr what normal you may or not see. 

I reckon its within the next 50 to 100 yrs and all will know...then of course the problem becomes making a getaway vehicle for the two by two crew.

[cee-dee]

So, if you're not confused already, you might be after reading this about the Large Hadron Collider?:-

"Supersymmetry fills some gaps in the Standard Model and provides a basis to unify nature's forces.

It predicts each of the particles to have more massive partners. So the particle that is light – the photon – would have a partner called the photino. The quark, the building block of an atom’s protons and neutrons, would have a partner called the squark.

But when the LHC was colliding matter at its pre-upgrade energies, no sign of these superparticles was seen in the debris, which led to some consternation among theorists.

Now, with the accelerator about to reopen in the coming weeks, there is high hope the first evidence of Supersymmetry can be found.

The machine is going to double the collision energy, taking it into a domain where those theorists say the gluino really ought to emerge in sufficient numbers to be noticed. The gluino is the superpartner of the gluon, which "glues" the quarks together inside protons and neutrons.

The LHC’s detectors would not see it directly. What they would track is its decay, which scientists would then have to reconstruct.

But importantly, those decay products should include the lightest and most stable superparticle, known as the neutralino – the particle that researchers have proposed is what makes up dark matter, the missing mass in the cosmos that binds galaxies together on the sky but which cannot be seen directly with telescopes."

If Quarks and Squarks weren't enough to confuse you, Gluons glueing Quarks together inside Photons and Neutrons surely will?

[joamur_gosof]

lol ..theories are still cool though,but the names they give em ..haha ..the jiggiling sprocket fell off the spoongul and thats how we were made lol

[cee-dee]

Ponder this:-

A Saudi Arabian cleric has made a groundbreaking discovery that could redefine science in the 21st century –- the Earth is not rotating.

What’s more, the sun is orbiting the static body, not the other way around.

The breakthrough was made by Sheikh Bandar al-Khaibari who delivered his thesis during a lecture in the United Arab Emirates, having been asked by a student if the Earth rotates.

Reported by al Arabiya, the Sheikh said the Earth is “stationary and does not move,” explaining his research by noting that airplanes wouldn’t be able to reach their destination were the Earth spinning on its axis.

The newspaper reported that the Sheikh went on to dismiss the traditional Copernican astronomical model, insisting that any science countering his “stationary” thesis, namely NASA’s lunar missions, was a fabrication of Hollywood.

Neither NASA nor the European Space Agency has yet to comment on the remarkable Saudi discovery.

I'm off

[joamur_gosof]

He is probably right in the very distant past and future and hollywood do make good films so that's a point...and planes go the other way round tell him  🙂

[cee-dee]

The lunacy never ends does it?

[joamur_gosof]

Yeh but its fun pondering...really will be the next big step though figuring out dark matter. Pointless too if we don't have an ark by ice age 74 .