Gravitational waves

I am sitting here at home on a snowy President's Day morning, waiting for our new refrigerator to arrive, and I started thinking about the recent gravitational wave discovery and what that means. Even after having several days to let the discovery sink in, I am still coming to grips with it.

(To add a side comment, this has already been an incredible year to teach astronomy for the first time. We've had the Pluto flyby, eclipses, exoplanet discoveries, possibly another planet discovery and now LIGO's announcement.)

Very simply, the discovery of gravitational waves opens up an entire new realm of astronomy. Astronomers use every wavelength available (radio, microwave, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X Ray and gamma ray) and use a range of methods to gather information from them. (They also use cosmic rays and neutrinos now that I think about it.) 

One of the best ways to learn more about an object is to compare it in multiple frequencies. Now they use gravity as a tool as well.

Much has been made about the double black hole merger that LIGO described in their big announcement. ANY rearrangement of matter would also lead to these waves. Supernovae, colliding stars and who knows what else is colliding and rearranging out there in the universe.

It is a higher leap forward for astronomy and for science as well.

Black holes and neutrinos, but not together

Black holes and their weird properties (from Symmetry magazine)

 http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/black-holes

Are neutrinos and anti neutrinos the same particle? (Again, from Symmetry magazine, how, what's the word I'm looking for?)

http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/is-the-neutrino-its-own-antiparticle

I'll offer some commentary on these articles in a future post.

Physics for the snowbound

This week marks the fifth time in my 21 years of teaching that I have had an entire week of school cancelled due to weather and snow. We have about 26 inches (66 cm) of snow outside and it has made the roads treacherous and now the sidewalks are impassible. And now I have heard that tomorrow (Friday) will be our fifth day in a row of no school. So that means that our planned snow days are used, and any more days off will have to made up. Hmm.

At least the internet works! 

Babylonian mathematics was 1500 years ahead of others.

http://www.space.com/31765-ancient-babylonians-tracked-jupiter-with-math.html?cmpid=514648

Archival film footage from CERN from 1961!

http://cern.ch/go/FJb9

And finally, Quantum physics themed short stories. They are actually quite good - check them out.

http://bit.ly/1OL9kyD

Quantum magnetic loops???

Perhaps the most fascinating news that I have heard lately is that of scientists using magnetic fields to tie particles in loops. I don't even know what that means yet, but it sounds absurdly interesting. And I do like the absurd.

My son and I have really been into the Mythbusters this season, even as they end their show. I predict that Adam will continue to have a TV presence, and Jamie will disappear into his workshop, never to be heard from again.  The Mythbusters, as well as other people at Discovery channel, have been working on content for a virtual reality app for phones.  Instead of watching a screen that is the size of you device, you can turn and point your device to view their show in a 360 degree circle.  Very cool.

To round it out today, I was dipping into the past this weekend to listen to a lot of David Bowie. I am not poetic enough to really say much about him, other than he was an original and will be missed. Okay, one more thing about Bowie - he was three years ahead of grunge music.

CNN tribute to David Bowie

Ground control to Major Tom...


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So much news

I am doing a news blast here with many articles that I have collected, and some that I have yet to read. Enjoy, and send me a message if you really like one of them.

Planetary Exploration Timelines: A Look Ahead to 2016

What could dark matter be?

Closest Earth-size Alien Planet Found, May Be a Venus Twin

Are We Living in a Multiverse?

10 ExoPlanets that could host alien life

Different news

What can I do to catch you up with recent events? 

Some particle physics news: http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/the-particle-physics-of-you

New views of Pluto and Charon: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/a-day-on-pluto-a-day-on-charon

I have made some progress with my telescope. My older one is a 5 inch reflector. It is all metal and has a sturdy stand but it needs attention from time to time. I bought an adapter unit so I could use my iPhone to take astronmical pictures (planets and star trails and things like that). I had to figure a way to balance the telescope when I added the adapter and my iPhone. One of my friends mentioned "why don't you put an extra weight on the other end?" That seemed like an easy change, so I bought some weights, a carabiner and a chain (from an id tag) so I can hang all of those things on when I use the adapter. It works very well.

Now I just need to take some pictures. 

Catching up

This has been a difficult time to do a lot of blogging. Last summer was much better. I wonder what accounts for the difference...


Anyway, I don't want this to be a place where I complain a lot, but I will. It has been BUSY.  A little bit has been taken off my plate lately, somewhat against my wishes. I will consider sharing more about that later.  At least it has diminished my responsibilities for the moment and that is alright with me.

Astronomy class continues to be great. Despite some hiccups (rare ones) my students have been up to the challenge and respond in thoughtful ways. Today we discussed a way to choose people for a fictional trip to another world. The premise is that the Earth is dying and we need to send a group to a new world (sounds like Interstellar).  There is no perfect way to choose people, but we made our own lists and then discussed how to make choices. I always like it when they come up with a new idea or new perspective.

Over time, I think I am getting less enthusiastic for teaching subjects in which there is one "correct" answer. Everyone accepts the answer and there is nothing to talk about (unless you can't figure out that answer and that can be frustrating). (I.e. Physics)

I noticed the beautiful alignment of planets earlier in October. I took this photo as I got in my car at home and was about to drive to school. So this is taken at about 6:45 am looking east. The moon is the easiest to see and a small dot to the lower left of the moon is Venus. As time went on in October, you could see Mars and Jupiter there as well. It was quite a sight to see!