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“…the [Big Bang] definition is a mess.” – Prof. P. James E. Peebles, Princeton University, Feb. 2011
News: (Carmel, California) The world’s most widely respected astrophysics organization, the International Astronomical Union (or IAU), has affirmed that it has no definition for any Big Bang model.
LightSpeed HyperSpace
Because the speed of light (known as “c” to mathematicians and physicists) does not exactly match 300,000 kilometers per second, it makes calculations for physicists and mathematicians unnecessarily tedious.
Cosmology Professor Emeritus Jayant V. Narlikar
“To claim that you have simulated the Big Bang is like a schoolboy claiming after winning a high jump medal that he is close to jumping on to the moon.”
Cherenkov Radiation Credit: Wikipedia
A recent criticism of the apparently Faster-than-light (FTL) Neutrinos inspiring a lot of discussion is the claim that if Neutrinos are going FTL – they must cause Cerenkov radiation.
Why? That doesn’t make sense. How would they do that?
The beautiful blue glow of Cherenkov Radiation is only caused by charged particles, primarily electrons.
Gamma Ray Burst Transiting Two Extremely Distant Galaxies
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
The surprise was to discover that the cool gas in these presumably young galaxies was very rich in heavy elements (all called metals), a chemical composition usually only seen in older galaxies because it takes so long to make heavy elements. The ESO web site reports that an international team used the flash of a distant gamma-ray burst GRB 090323 as a probe to study the spectra of the two galaxies (G0 and G1).
The bright light emitted by the burst was absorbed by the gas in both galaxies. The measured absorption spectrum allowed an evaluation of the density of heavy elements.
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Here’s a fun article comparing the claims that 96% of the Universe (matter and energy) is missing according to Big Bang conjecture and that 96% of the world’s cash that is missing due to derivatives.
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Bitten Apple
When I take a photograph inside a building, where the light is dimmer, I usually use a flash.
Using a flash intentionally affects the subject of the photograph in a demonstrable way, and in an unintended way — some people react to a strong flash of light in their eyes. By contrast – Flashless photography does not affect the “model”; at least not with light.
Similarly, while X-rays show us the inner workings of some things, they also harm living photography subjects by damaging the DNA of living tissue.
Regarding the potentially Faster than light Neutrinos, it is vital to realize that only about one (1) Neutrino is detected by Italy’s OPERA every hour; that’s one Neutrino per hour.
When that single neutrino hits in Italy, its timed arrival is associated (extrapolated back) to a recorded proton pulse at CERN by using the time it would take for a photon to travel the same distance.
Inflation IllustrationHere’s a very clear article in (relatively) plain English explaining problems with the Cosmological Inflation conjecture by Sean Carroll in Discovery Magazine.
Credit: Jeb
While I disagree with the author’s conclusion that the final ingredients of a “settled” cosmology hypothesis will include Inflation, this article is very well summarized, explained and organized.
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Neutrinos are fundamental particles, more closely related to Electrons than Neutrons because they are not made up of smaller particles (Neutrons are made up of 3 Quarks). Muon vs Electron Neutrino Decay Tracks
Credit:Duke U. Saturday Academy
Here are three odd things about Neutrinos.
1. All three flavors (types) of Neutrinos have zero electric charge making them beyond invisible; nearly impossible to detect. They are only affected by the Weak force and gravity; both effects are extremely difficult to detect.
What makes Neutrinos unique among particles is that they seem to change flavor (called oscillation) . . . in very short distances.
Update: Added Glossary and Links to: the original paper, video talk, OPERA website; and step by step explanation of experiment details.
They have spent the subsequent seven months three years quietly verifying – that muon Neutrino particles seem to be traveling faster than the speed of light, called Superluminal Motion.
Prof. Dr. Antonio Ereditato, OPERA Spokesman
Dark Matter Illuminated? NewScientist reports that “NASA’s FERMI satellite has confirmed a previous hint that there is more antimatter than expected coming from space. The bad news is that the result strongly almost certainly rules out Dark Matter as the source.”
Credit: SymmetryMagazine.org
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Brünnhilde SingingThe voice you hear getting louder is Brünnhilde practicing Götterdämmerung. Thats because the search is all but over for “the most sought-after particle in modern physics” – the Higgs Boson.
The most expensive science experiment in history, the Large Hadron Collider, has failed to find the Higgs Boson which is required for Big Bang and Expanding Universe ideas (as well as its role as a key component of particle physics “Standard Model“).
CERN Higgs Boson Experiment -- Artist's Simulation
Credit: Lucas Taylor, Wikipedia
The hypothesized particle was not (yet) found within the wide range of values for mass where it needed to show up.
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This began as a simple question, but it has intrigued enough people that I decided to feature it as an article. Carmel Beach has many more grains of sand than our Milky Way has Stars
Carol:
“I have heard people say that there are more stars in the universe than there are the grains of sand ‘on the beach.’ What size is the beach and are the grains of sand coarse or fine? Or does the saying go “all the grains of sand on all the world’s beaches,” something I simply can’t believe to be true.”
Answer: Lets star(t) “close to home” and see how many sand grains we need to represent our own Milky Way galaxy.
There are (very) roughly 50 to 400 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy.
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Map: Our Sun from 5,000 Light Years Away
Here you go — “Map of Our Universe”
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(Update: July 20, 2011 – Today Mr. Siegel corrected his article where it had wrongly claimed my article had quoted Professor P.J.E. Peebles “out of context.”)
While Ethan Siegel generally does a good job illuminating science, he recently wrote a flawed critique of an article of mine “International Astronomical Union has no Definition for Big Bang.” This critique included a number of science errors.
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(c) Copyright 2011 David j Dilworth
Imagine resolving details of nearby stars and their planets.
Sub-nano-arc second resolution should be possible with my proposal for a telescope that is composed of a set of three sets of two (six total) lens-sensor spacecraft systems that send images and data back to Earth from three baselines that can begin sending newly useful data when the spacecraft are separated by 200 million miles. The baselines grow over some 100 to 200 years to about 100 billion miles (roughly 1100 AU, 2 hundredths of a light year or 160 terameters).
Solar Map
Credit: NASA
Six Directions for Six SpaceCraft
I just found a critique by Ethan Siegel implying that there is some flaw in my article explaining Big Bang’s lack of an adequate scientific definition and hypothesis (titled “International Astronomical Union has no Definition for Big Bang“).
While flattering (I’ve made mistakes before and far prefer to get them corrected quickly), the critique fails to identify any flaws in my article and contains a number of incorrect or misleading assertions — including the false claim that the complete quote by Professor Peebles is somehow out of context.
It also spends most of its extensive effort with an elaborate distraction where it tries but fails to describe a complete hypothesis for Big Bang. Since the article is copied on other blogs, its errors need correcting. So, here are some responses to the dispute article’s ideas and quotes.
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Here’s a fun article on possible identification of a new particle. FermiLab - Illinois
Update (July 2011): Unfortunately, this exciting potential evaporated under more rigorous scrutiny. But, that’s exactly the way science is supposed to work. We are supposed to abandon even our most treasured concepts when data can not support it, and embrace data even when it contradicts our wishes about natural phenomena.
Update (June 2011): Rats – verification by a second team failed; it shows no similar “bump” meaning that hope for the alleged new particle is evaporating, but not disappeared. Nevertheless, the amusing term remains :-)
It describes how the evidence is getting stronger – and we may have a new particle confirmed soon.
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Ever want to explore the whole night sky ? Whole Night Sky
Here you go thanks to Nick Risinger–
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Live video of our Earth from orbit (from the International Space Station or ISS) Earth from Orbit
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/isslivestream.asx
Credit NASA
And here’s the ISS ground tracking position to you can tell where on the earth it is. http://iss.astroviewer.net/
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Here’s a guide to the best Glossaries of Cosmological Principles.
“Cosmology Key Terms”, 1999, University of Virginia
Very good online glossary, roughly 350 entries, coherently written at a Scientific American reading level and concise. It strictly focuses on cosmology principles, dodging temptations to include references to people or equipment. It laudably avoids excessive or gratuitous math and obscure language.
Up to Date? : Even though last updated in 1999 it remains reliable, except for its missing entries.
Missing: There are no entries for LCDM, space, Malmquist bias, or “Relativistic Doppler.” For large scale structure it includes Voids, but not Bubbles, Blobs, Filaments, or Walls though these were established years before the last update.
Big Bang Bias? : There is no clear Big Bang bias, however it is almost completely silent on cosmology principles other than Big Bang / Expansion based ideas. It properly has an entry for “Big Bang model” and none for “Big Bang theory.” There is no entry for Static Universe.
On the other hand, there is an unbiased entry for Steady-State model and it does describe three different Redshift mechanisms rather than the usual one.
References: It has some embedded web links to itself (internal references) but there are no links to outside references.
Errors: The single error I found is describing a model as a hypothesis. Except in rare cases, a model is never as strong as a scientific hypothesis because while a hypothesis is required to be unambiguous models almost always have many ambiguous (typically undisclosed) assumptions and adjustable terms.
Recommended.
Glossary of Physical Cosmology Principles (2011) at CosmologyScience.com
(Disclosure – this is my own glossary! so I may have just a tiny conflict of interest :-) Possibly the web’s most up to date, complete and accurate Glossary of Cosmology principles from a physics point of view. Its 15,000+ words (which seems to make it the largest online glossary reviewed here) in some 150 entries focused strictly on cosmology principles, are written at a Scientific American reading level. It is rare because it presents all the best evidence and reasoning from both sides of the Big Bang controversy.
Hypothesis Application Form LCDMTo help clarify what a complete Physical Cosmology Hypothesis looks like I’ve provided an example blank Cosmology Hypothesis Application Form here. 
This is because no astronomical institutions (e.g. IAU, or AAS) and few published cosmology papers (I’m still waiting to see the first one) provide a complete or sufficient hypothesis for the Standard Cosmology Model they purport to be working under.
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The new record for the farthest object whose distance was directly measured is 450 million light years with an uncertainty of no more than 9 percent.
Our Milky Way galaxy is only 100,000 light years across. 450 million light years is more than four thousand times the diameter of our galaxy. Our “local” Supercluster centered on Virgo is only 150 million light years across – one-third of the new distance measurement record.
This was set by the world’s largest telescope, the Very Large Baseline Array telescope (VLBA) which extends from Hawaii to New Hampshire, and boasts a resolution a hundred times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope.
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IAU Conference, Paris