State of the Universe
"You have about as much chance of going out with Penny as the Hubble Telescope has of finding that at the center of each black hole there's a little man with a flashlight trying to find the circuit breaker." Sheldon Cooper [The Big Bang Theory]
NASA Mission News Flash (May 18, 2009)
Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel have completed the final spacewalk to service and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. During the spacewalk, the astronauts replaced the second of Hubble's two original battery modules, which launched with the telescope in 1990, as well as one of Hubble's three Fine Guidance Sensors, which lock onto guide stars and help to aim the telescope. They also attached three insulation panels, called New Outer Blanket Layers, to the outside of Hubble. With this, all planned repairs and upgrades to Hubble have been completed.
- HubbleSite is the home of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the renowned orbiting telescope whose discoveries have forever altered our knowledge of the universe.
When the Shuttle Atlantis releases the Hubble Space Telescope from its resting place in the payload bay (May 2009), it will signal the beginning of the end of the space classic. The unenviable death will come from the planned obsolescence of Hubble, making way for newer and more expensive toys to play with. And we don't even have to wait. Thursday as American astronauts were overhauling the Hubble, European scientists launched the Herschel space telescope and a companion spacecraft from French Guiana.
The Herschel Space Telescope, the largest ever launched, (telescope's mirror, which has a diameter of 11.5 feet. The mirror on the Hubble has a diameter of 7.9 feet) will observe chunks of ice and dust left over from the formation of planets.
A companion spacecraft called Planck separated from the Ariane rocket soon after launch on a mission to measure radiation from the Big Bang.
The Herschel telescope and Planck will need several weeks to reach their separate orbits nearly a million miles from Earth. The telescope will map the cosmos for up to three years. Planck will stay in orbit for 1 3/4 years.
To ensure accurate readings of tiny microwaves, equipment aboard the Planck and Herschel will be kept at nearly absolute zero (minus 273 degrees Celsius) using helium. When the helium is used up, both instruments, worth a total of $952 million, will overheat and become inoperable.
Our replacement will be the The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). A large, infrared-optimized space telescope, scheduled for launch in 2014 with instruments designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range.
JWST will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Both the mirror and sunshade won't fit onto the rocket fully open, so both will fold up and open once JWST is in outer space. JWST will reside in an orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth. Because of the high orbit (The L2 orbit is an elliptical orbit about the semi-stable second Lagrange point . It is one of the five solutions by the mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange in the 18th century to the three-body problem. Lagrange was searching for a stable configuration in which three bodies could orbit each other yet stay in the same position relative to each other. He found five such solutions, and they are called the five Lagrange points in honor of their discoverer.) JWST will be subject to the same maintenance issues as Herschel.
QUESTION:
"After they die, if I go get them, can I have them? Or, do I wait and see if they land in my backyard?"
To be honest, I'm going to miss the Hubble Space Telescope once it downloads its "last light". The Hubble Space Telescope was named after Edwin Powell Hubble who's observations revolutionized astronomy, not only did we realize there were other galaxies in the universe, but he also determine that if the universe was expanding outwards. Hubble theorized that all matter must have been coming from a central point, and something must have caused that expansion to begin with. This observation lead to the development of the Big Bang Theory.
"Observations always involve theory." Edwin Powell Hubble
Hubble devised a system for classifying the galaxies he observed, as he sorted them by content, distance, shape, and brightness. While doing so, he observed a redshift in the emission of light from the galaxies, and theorized that they were moving away from each other at a rate constant to the distance between them. From this, he formulated Hubble's Law (1929), allowing astronomers to determine the age of the universe, and proving that the universe was expanding.
Albert Einstein had already introduced his general theory of relativity, and produced a model of space based on that theory (1917). Einstein stated that space was curved by gravity, therefore that it must be able to expand or contract, then he revised his theory, stating that the universe was static and immobile. Hubble's discoveries, allowed Einstein to return to his initial space model, and Einstein visited Hubble in 1931 to thank him.
The redshift (If a source of the light is moving away from an observer, then redshift (z > 0) occurs; if the source moves towards the observer, then blue shift (z < 0) occurs. This is true for all electromagnetic waves and is explained by the Doppler effect.) is a way that Astronomers use to talk about the distance to far away galaxies - the bigger the redshift the further away the galaxy. Because astronomers can't head out into space with a Stanley tape measure, the optical spectrum emitted by galaxies, are compared to a standard (dimensionless quantity called z) to determine redshifts.
Then astronomers convert redshifts into distances. This conversion depends on the history of the universe as a whole, and has changed substantially in the last 10 years, making these measurements more consistent to astronomers.
Using Time to Measure Distance
A light nanosecond is the distance light can travel in a billionth of a second which is about 1 foot (about 30 cm).
A light second is 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers).
A light year is the distance light travels in on year, or 5,865,696,000,000 miles (9,460,800,000,000 kilometers). I wonder if there are, "leap light years"?
(Young Earth Creationists WARNING!)
So just how old is the universe? Current theory and observations suggest that the universe is between 13.5 and 14 billion years old. This is determined by calculating how long the most distant light took to enter earths view. So that's about 762,540,480,000,000,000,000,000 miles to your right and the same all around you. No that does not mean that "you are" the center of the universe. That is just and average of the theory because I don't know which way you're facing.
Given these distances to be correct, the light that we see as distant objects left its source let's say 13.5 billion years ago. That makes waiting five years for the JWST to see first light seem like nothing because it will record light already 13.5 + billion years old. This intrigued me. Of the deep space objects that have been imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope so far, "How many still exist right now," and "If they do, where are they now?"
Let's explore a hypothetical case (rounded off math) of any telescope receiving deep space light. Our planet is located in the outer reaches of the Milky Way, which most astronomers date as old as the universe. The Milky Way, sometimes called the Galaxy is rotating around the Milky Way's center. Relative to the universe, the galaxy is moving at a speed of c.370 mi per sec (c.590 km per sec) in the direction of the constellation Leo. Our solar system is traveling at a speed of c.150 mi per sec (c.240 km per sec) in a nearly circular orbit and takes 200-230 million years to complete one revolution around the Milky Way (to keep things simple, we will just use the Milky Way speed).
So if our 100,000 light year across, 200,000,000,000 star, Milky Way moved at a constant speed of 370 miles per second (11,668,320,000 miles a year) for 13.5 billion years, thus placing our telescope in just the the right spot and the right time to see a 13.5 billion light year distant nebula, "cool." Allot has change since the photons started their journey (not even considering how fast the nebula is moving) to us and we traveled a long way to get here and just in time. What do you mean, "Just in time," you may ask?
Well, I mean NONE of the deep space objects we see now are where we might think they are, today. Most don't even exist. If you don't believe me I challenge you to prove me wrong. To do so, start today by aiming a world class telescope at a deep space object, and correct the telescope's track regularly to point at the object for 13.5 billion years. If it's still visible then, I was wrong. I'll put on some coffee.
To consider that there are protons banging into other protons creating photons that traveling at the speed of light for billions of years before being detected could make me feel very small with little value. Where as, knowing the Creator of the universe places value in me changes my reference point to include Him. He has set His spotting scope on me, though it is me that makes the corrections to keep myself in focus. I just pray that He does not expect me to be here in 13.5 billion years.
As, billions of science dollars get spent by astronomers and cosmologists to gaze into deep space, their goal remains the same, where did we came from and when. It's kind of like those CSI shows, only the clues are "out of town". Looking for clues and putting together a cosmic crime scene if-you-will. I suggest that we put together some volunteers to travel into space and hold up a Bible in front of one of the telescopes. Then science would have the answer of where we came from. The when is another story.
Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, so what's my point? Studying history so that we don't repeat it makes sense, and cosmology is interesting, but will we ever see another Big Bang? If we do, will the guys still be at the North Pole?
P.S. Can someone let me know where I can find information about if redshift spectral data takes into consideration the light could be altered by big bodies warping space near the photon path? 13.5 billion years is a long time and the culprits would be long gone. That could be the new "CSI", Cosmological Space Interference.
A Few Possible Suspects
Snell's Law
Gravitational Redshift of Light
Gravitational Lensing
God bless,
Dennis
NASA Mission News Flash (May 18, 2009)
Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel have completed the final spacewalk to service and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. During the spacewalk, the astronauts replaced the second of Hubble's two original battery modules, which launched with the telescope in 1990, as well as one of Hubble's three Fine Guidance Sensors, which lock onto guide stars and help to aim the telescope. They also attached three insulation panels, called New Outer Blanket Layers, to the outside of Hubble. With this, all planned repairs and upgrades to Hubble have been completed.
- HubbleSite is the home of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the renowned orbiting telescope whose discoveries have forever altered our knowledge of the universe.
When the Shuttle Atlantis releases the Hubble Space Telescope from its resting place in the payload bay (May 2009), it will signal the beginning of the end of the space classic. The unenviable death will come from the planned obsolescence of Hubble, making way for newer and more expensive toys to play with. And we don't even have to wait. Thursday as American astronauts were overhauling the Hubble, European scientists launched the Herschel space telescope and a companion spacecraft from French Guiana.
The Herschel Space Telescope, the largest ever launched, (telescope's mirror, which has a diameter of 11.5 feet. The mirror on the Hubble has a diameter of 7.9 feet) will observe chunks of ice and dust left over from the formation of planets.
A companion spacecraft called Planck separated from the Ariane rocket soon after launch on a mission to measure radiation from the Big Bang.
The Herschel telescope and Planck will need several weeks to reach their separate orbits nearly a million miles from Earth. The telescope will map the cosmos for up to three years. Planck will stay in orbit for 1 3/4 years.
To ensure accurate readings of tiny microwaves, equipment aboard the Planck and Herschel will be kept at nearly absolute zero (minus 273 degrees Celsius) using helium. When the helium is used up, both instruments, worth a total of $952 million, will overheat and become inoperable.
Our replacement will be the The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). A large, infrared-optimized space telescope, scheduled for launch in 2014 with instruments designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range.
JWST will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Both the mirror and sunshade won't fit onto the rocket fully open, so both will fold up and open once JWST is in outer space. JWST will reside in an orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth. Because of the high orbit (The L2 orbit is an elliptical orbit about the semi-stable second Lagrange point . It is one of the five solutions by the mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange in the 18th century to the three-body problem. Lagrange was searching for a stable configuration in which three bodies could orbit each other yet stay in the same position relative to each other. He found five such solutions, and they are called the five Lagrange points in honor of their discoverer.) JWST will be subject to the same maintenance issues as Herschel.
QUESTION:
"After they die, if I go get them, can I have them? Or, do I wait and see if they land in my backyard?"
To be honest, I'm going to miss the Hubble Space Telescope once it downloads its "last light". The Hubble Space Telescope was named after Edwin Powell Hubble who's observations revolutionized astronomy, not only did we realize there were other galaxies in the universe, but he also determine that if the universe was expanding outwards. Hubble theorized that all matter must have been coming from a central point, and something must have caused that expansion to begin with. This observation lead to the development of the Big Bang Theory.
"Observations always involve theory." Edwin Powell Hubble
Hubble devised a system for classifying the galaxies he observed, as he sorted them by content, distance, shape, and brightness. While doing so, he observed a redshift in the emission of light from the galaxies, and theorized that they were moving away from each other at a rate constant to the distance between them. From this, he formulated Hubble's Law (1929), allowing astronomers to determine the age of the universe, and proving that the universe was expanding.
Albert Einstein had already introduced his general theory of relativity, and produced a model of space based on that theory (1917). Einstein stated that space was curved by gravity, therefore that it must be able to expand or contract, then he revised his theory, stating that the universe was static and immobile. Hubble's discoveries, allowed Einstein to return to his initial space model, and Einstein visited Hubble in 1931 to thank him.
The redshift (If a source of the light is moving away from an observer, then redshift (z > 0) occurs; if the source moves towards the observer, then blue shift (z < 0) occurs. This is true for all electromagnetic waves and is explained by the Doppler effect.) is a way that Astronomers use to talk about the distance to far away galaxies - the bigger the redshift the further away the galaxy. Because astronomers can't head out into space with a Stanley tape measure, the optical spectrum emitted by galaxies, are compared to a standard (dimensionless quantity called z) to determine redshifts.
Then astronomers convert redshifts into distances. This conversion depends on the history of the universe as a whole, and has changed substantially in the last 10 years, making these measurements more consistent to astronomers.
Using Time to Measure Distance
A light nanosecond is the distance light can travel in a billionth of a second which is about 1 foot (about 30 cm).
A light second is 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers).
A light year is the distance light travels in on year, or 5,865,696,000,000 miles (9,460,800,000,000 kilometers). I wonder if there are, "leap light years"?
(Young Earth Creationists WARNING!)
So just how old is the universe? Current theory and observations suggest that the universe is between 13.5 and 14 billion years old. This is determined by calculating how long the most distant light took to enter earths view. So that's about 762,540,480,000,000,000,000,000 miles to your right and the same all around you. No that does not mean that "you are" the center of the universe. That is just and average of the theory because I don't know which way you're facing.
Given these distances to be correct, the light that we see as distant objects left its source let's say 13.5 billion years ago. That makes waiting five years for the JWST to see first light seem like nothing because it will record light already 13.5 + billion years old. This intrigued me. Of the deep space objects that have been imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope so far, "How many still exist right now," and "If they do, where are they now?"
Let's explore a hypothetical case (rounded off math) of any telescope receiving deep space light. Our planet is located in the outer reaches of the Milky Way, which most astronomers date as old as the universe. The Milky Way, sometimes called the Galaxy is rotating around the Milky Way's center. Relative to the universe, the galaxy is moving at a speed of c.370 mi per sec (c.590 km per sec) in the direction of the constellation Leo. Our solar system is traveling at a speed of c.150 mi per sec (c.240 km per sec) in a nearly circular orbit and takes 200-230 million years to complete one revolution around the Milky Way (to keep things simple, we will just use the Milky Way speed).
So if our 100,000 light year across, 200,000,000,000 star, Milky Way moved at a constant speed of 370 miles per second (11,668,320,000 miles a year) for 13.5 billion years, thus placing our telescope in just the the right spot and the right time to see a 13.5 billion light year distant nebula, "cool." Allot has change since the photons started their journey (not even considering how fast the nebula is moving) to us and we traveled a long way to get here and just in time. What do you mean, "Just in time," you may ask?
Well, I mean NONE of the deep space objects we see now are where we might think they are, today. Most don't even exist. If you don't believe me I challenge you to prove me wrong. To do so, start today by aiming a world class telescope at a deep space object, and correct the telescope's track regularly to point at the object for 13.5 billion years. If it's still visible then, I was wrong. I'll put on some coffee.
To consider that there are protons banging into other protons creating photons that traveling at the speed of light for billions of years before being detected could make me feel very small with little value. Where as, knowing the Creator of the universe places value in me changes my reference point to include Him. He has set His spotting scope on me, though it is me that makes the corrections to keep myself in focus. I just pray that He does not expect me to be here in 13.5 billion years.
As, billions of science dollars get spent by astronomers and cosmologists to gaze into deep space, their goal remains the same, where did we came from and when. It's kind of like those CSI shows, only the clues are "out of town". Looking for clues and putting together a cosmic crime scene if-you-will. I suggest that we put together some volunteers to travel into space and hold up a Bible in front of one of the telescopes. Then science would have the answer of where we came from. The when is another story.
Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, so what's my point? Studying history so that we don't repeat it makes sense, and cosmology is interesting, but will we ever see another Big Bang? If we do, will the guys still be at the North Pole?
P.S. Can someone let me know where I can find information about if redshift spectral data takes into consideration the light could be altered by big bodies warping space near the photon path? 13.5 billion years is a long time and the culprits would be long gone. That could be the new "CSI", Cosmological Space Interference.
A Few Possible Suspects
Snell's Law
Gravitational Redshift of Light
Gravitational Lensing
God bless,
Dennis
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Brandon L. Lee on -
If God is Light and a thousand years is like a day and a day like a thousand years... Perhaps the Light got here far quicker than we think? They have slowed down Light using chilled sodium… Can God not speed it up? For life to exist as it does, do we not rely on cosmic radiation; that is to a curtain degree? Death…
© 2009 Created by Bryant McGill
