How Much Light Has The Universe Created Since the Big Bang?

MAY 27, 2013

The universe, most cosmologists tell us, began with a bang. At some point, the lights turned on. How much light has the universe produced since it was born, 13.8 billion years ago?

It seems a difficult answer at first glance. Turn on a light bulb, turn it off and the photons appear to vanish. In space, however, we can track them down. Every light particle ever radiated by galaxies and stars is still travelling, which is why we can peer so far back in time with our telescopes.

A new paper in the Astrophysical Journal explores the nature of this extragalactic background light, or EBL. Measuring the EBL, the team states, “is as fundamental to cosmology as measuring the heat radiation left over from the Big Bang (the cosmic microwave background) at radio wavelengths.”

Turns out that several NASA spacecraft have helped us understand the answer. They peered at the universe in every wavelength of light, ranging from long radio waves to short, energy-filled gamma rays. While their work doesn’t go back to the origin of the universe, it does give good measurements for the last five billion years or so. (About the age of the solar system, coincidentally.)

This all-sky Fermi view includes only sources with energies greater than 10 GeV. From some of these sources, Fermi’s LAT detects only one gamma-ray photon every four months. Brighter colors indicate brighter gamma-ray sources. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

http://www.universetoday.com/102403/how-much-light-has-the-universe-created-since-the-big-bang/

Einstein's exoplanet

May 27, 2013

Einstein's exoplanet, Kepler-76b, is a Jupiter-sized planet discovered using an effect of Einstein’s relativity. It orbits its star every 1.5 days. Credit: David A. Aguilar, CfA

Eight hundred and eighty nine exoplanets (planets around stars other than our Sun) have been discovered to date. Most of them were found using the Kepler satellite, which spots small dips in a star's light as an orbiting planet periodically blocked our view (a "transit"). The satellite recently halted its operations due to a faulty gyroscope, and so its mission could possibly be over, but there remain a large dataset of possible other exoplanets for study. Meanwhile, NASA has selected a new mission for development: TESS (the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), on which CfA astronomers, who have played active roles in exoplanet research, continue their leadership.

The Kepler dataset has been steadily mined for transiting planets. In a dramatic first, CfA astronomer Dave Latham and four of his colleagues have discovered a new planet in the Kepler data by searching not for transits but for a less well known effect of Einstein's relativity: relativistic beaming. (Latham is being honored this week with a conference entitled, "Exoplanets in the Post-Kepler Era.")

The effect can occur when an orbiting planet induces a slight wobble in the star's motion with a corresponding modulation of stellar brightness. The effect in an exoplanet context was first predicted by two CfA astronomers in 2003, Avi Loeb and Scott Gaudi, in a paper the referee claimed would never lead to practical results; the variation in the brightness is typically only a few parts per ten thousand.

http://phys.org/news/2013-05-einstein-exoplanet.html

Mammatocumulus clouds

Mammatocumulus clouds Over Minnesota

Image Credit : Adam Brown

This is a 4 shot vertical panorama at Harmony Park in Geneva, Minnesota during Project Earth, 2010 right before we got slammed by serious thunderstorms.

Three tornadoes were reported less than 10 miles away a little later.

No injuries were reported at Harmony Park.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adambrownphoto/4750390471/

Clouds Over Table Mountain

Clouds Over Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa.

Isn't it Amazing....

Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland

Eilean Donan (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Donnain) is a small island in Loch Duich in the western Highlands of Scotland. It lies about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from the village of Dornie, and is dominated by a picturesque castle which frequently appears in photographs, film and television. Eilean Donan is part of the Kintail National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scotland.In 2001, the island had a recorded population of just one person.

Eilean Donan (which means simply "island of Donnán") is named after Donnán of Eigg, a Celtic saint martyred in 617. 

Donnán is said to have established a church on the island, though no trace of this remains.The castle was founded in the thirteenth century, and became a stronghold of the Clan Mackenzie and their allies the Clan Macrae. In the early eighteenth century the Mackenzies were involved in the Jacobite rebellions, which led to the castle's destruction by government ships in 1719. The present buildings are the result of twentieth-century reconstruction of the ruins by Lieutenant-Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap.

Flame Nebula

The hidden fires of the Flame Nebula

This image, the first to be released publicly from VISTA, the world’s largest survey telescope, shows the spectacular star-forming region known as the Flame Nebula, or NGC 2024, in the constellation of Orion (the Hunter) and its surroundings. In views of this evocative object in visible light the core of the nebula is completely hidden behind obscuring dust, but in this VISTA view, taken in infrared light, the cluster of very young stars at the object’s heart is revealed. The wide-field VISTA view also includes the glow of the reflection nebula NGC 2023, just below centre, and the ghostly outline of the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) towards the lower right. The bright bluish star towards the right is one of the three bright stars forming the Belt of Orion. The image was created from VISTA images taken through J, H and Ks filters in the near-infrared part of the spectrum. The image shows about half the area of the full VISTA field and is about 40 x 50 arcminutes in extent. The total exposure time was 14 minutes.

Credit:

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

Billion-Year-Old Water

Billion-Year-Old Water Preserved in Canadian Mine

The ancient water contains chemicals that could support life without sunlight.

Ker Than
for National Geographic
Published May 18, 2013

Pockets of water trapped in rocks from a Canadian mine are over a billion years old, and the water could contain life forms that can survive independently from the sun, scientists said this week.

The ancient water was collected from boreholes at Timmins Mine beneath Ontario, Canada, at a depth of about 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers).

"When these rocks formed, this part of Canada was the ocean floor," said study co-author Barbara Sherwood Lollar, an Earth scientist at Canada's University of Toronto.

"When we go down [into the mine] with students, we like to say imagine you're walking on the seafloor 2.6 billion years ago."

Working with U.K. colleagues Chris Ballentine and Greg Holland, Sherwood Lollar and her team found that the water was rich in dissolved gases such as hydrogen and methane, which could provide energy for microbes like those found around hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean.

In addition, the water contained different rare gases that include the elements helium, neon, argon, and xenon, which were created through interactions with the surrounding radioactive rock. By measuring the concentrations of isotopes of these "noble gases"—so called because they rarely interact with other elements—the team could estimate how long the water had been trapped underground and whether it had been isolated.

Depending on the noble gas analyzed, the age estimates for the water varied between 1.1 billion years old and 2.6 billion years old—or as old as the rocks in the mine itself.

"It shows us that there's been very little mixing between this water and the surface water," Sherwood Lollar said. "What we want to do with further work is see if we can narrow that [age range] down."

Read More : 


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130517-billion-year-old-water-mine-canada-ancient-microbes-science/?source=hp_dl4_mews_billion_year_old_water_20130518

New York - The Big Apple

According to the Museum of the City of New York, the phrase "big apple" was first used by Martin Wayfarer to describe New York City in 1909. He used it in a metaphor describing how New York, "the big apple," gets a disproportionate share of the sap from the country's tree of wealth which is rooted in the Mississippi Valley.

The saying evolved in the 1920s when New York Morning Telegraph sports writer John J. FitzGerald overheard African American stable workers using the phrase while talking about New York's racing scene, which was considered "the big time." Fitzgerald liked it so much he named his racing column "Around the Big Apple." Jazz musicians in the 1930s and 40s made it more popular by using it in the same way, referring to the New York jazz scene as "the big time."

The name became less prominent for the next two decades until the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau used a red apple during its campaign to increase tourism in the 1970s. Since then the apple has become an international symbol for New York City and the phrase, its unofficial nickname.

Read more: "The Big Apple" | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/big-apple.html#ixzz2TQssPusy

GOLD TRAIN: Amazing Russian Metro

Above: Komsomolskaya Metro Station, Moscow

Well, in all truth, even if you come from Paris, London, or Vienna, with their much nicer underground transportation systems, you’ll still be amazed at the Russian Metro!

One of Moscow’s most popular tours is “A Day in the Moscow Metro.”  not kidding! They actually take you on a day-long tour to ride from station to station, during which time they tell you all about the history and art featured in each. And the day, spent doing that, is likely to become one of the major highlights of your Russian trip!

Without further ado, presenting The Magnificent Russian Metro! 

Moscow Metro (Moskovsky Metropoliten) first opened in 1935. It is the second busiest metro system in the world after Tokyo’s Twin Cities subway. Length, 305 kilometers, 185 stations. Moscow Metro carries 7 million people per day!

Above: Arbatskaya Metro Station, Moscow. As on this picture, tourists happily snap pictures of beautiful statures, chandeliers, frescoes and paintings.

Above: Kievskaya Metro Station, Moscow. One of the original stations, built in the 1930s. As in this mosaic, exquisitely performed Soviet art dominates some of the historic stations.

One of the absolutely amazing facts about the Russian Metro is that during WWII, it doubled as a giant bomb shelter – by far the most luxurious, comfortable and spacious bomb shelter in the world.

Above: Another historic Moscow Metro Station, complete with beautiful marble paneling and bronze statues. Take a look on the right! See the famous statue of the “good luck dog?” Notice his nose? It’s almost white. That’s because everyone who passes by this dog, rubs his nose for good luck. 

More magnificent classic stations:

Below: several newer Moscow Metro Stations.

Below: One of the Museum Metro cars, complete with art decking its walls. No cattle car here!

And now, the beautiful St. Petersburg Metro!

Rivaling Moscow Metro in its splendor, and mainly built in the 1950s, it’s the 5th busiest metro system in the world. In addition, it is also the deepest underground system in the world, with some stations placed well beneath the Neva River bed.

Above: Pushkinskaya Station, St. Petersburg. Monument to the Russian writer, Alexander Pushkin.

Above and below: more palacial St. Petersburg Metro Stations.

One of GOLD TRAIN’s most dramatic and crucial episodes takes place at  Sportivnaya Station. “Sportivnaya” translates as “Sports,” and the theme is that of the Ancient Greek Olympic Games.

Ancient Greece is considered the cradle of democracy and that all wars stopped during the Greek Olympic Games. Both of these facts have special significance

Below: Sportivnaya Station with its Ancient Greek theme.

More images of Sportivnaya Station.

  The incredibly deep Metro escalator, reaching all the way under the Neva River bed, much like the one, Jade Snow boarded in GOLD TRAIN.

One of the St. Petersburg Metro entrances, much like in the dramatic GOLD TRAIN episode.

 

For descriptions/excerpts/trailers from GOLD TRAIN and other Lada Ray’s books: LadaRay.com