esiegel | November 3, 2014“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten.” -Neil Gaiman
When you consider the short life of a star cluster -- from a collapsing molecular cloud to a nebula rich in gas and dust to a bright cluster of shining stars until the time it dissociates -- you might think that they'd all be the same, except for a few details like mass and density profile. But then how would you explain this object?
Image credit: John C. Mirtle of http://www.astrofoto.ca/john/m026.htm.
Here's a cluster, 89…
esiegel | November 2, 2014“Once I knew only darkness and stillness… my life was without past or future… but a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living.” -Helen Keller
Our tiny, little fingers make all the difference in the world, enabling us the use and manipulation of advanced tools, among many other things. Why shouldn't we use them for luck, as Laura Marling would sing us in her song,
Cross Your Fingers,
or for our own artistic enjoyment wherever we go?
Image credit: Scientista Foundation / Cosmetic Proof, via http://www.…
esiegel | November 1, 2014"There is no secret ingredient. It's just you." -Po, Kung-Fu Panda
Each week at Starts With A Bang brings a fresh set of topics from around the Universe -- near and far, large and small, concrete and abstract -- for us to think about. This week has been a splendid example, with new articles on such diverse topics as:
Double the flame; half the time? (for Ask Ethan),
The forest man of India (for our Weekend Diversion),
Messier's final galaxy, M110 (for Messier Monday),
Ghostly physics (from contributor Paul Halpern),
Into the woods (from science communicator Brian Koberlein),
What is the…
esiegel | November 1, 2014“I think one of the coolest things you can do is disappear for a while, because it gives you the chance to re-emerge.” -Josh Homme
The Big Bang -- and General Relativity in general -- teaches us that in an expanding Universe, it's the fabric of space itself that evolves over time. One of the consequences of this is a bit puzzling: that since the Universe was denser in the past, it must have been hotter in the past as well.
Image credit: NASA / GSFC.
But if each individual photon has redshifted to longer wavelengths, and the energy of every photon is inversely proportional to that…
esiegel | November 1, 2014“Not man enough? NOT MAN ENOUGH? I have three Y chromosomes, six adams apples, pecs on my abs and FISTS FOR NIPPLES!” -Testosteraur
You've been waiting all year for a new Halloween photo (and profile photo) for me, and now that the big day has come, it's time to unveil what I've chosen!
Image credit: Disney channel / Alex Hirsch et al.
For those of you who aren't averse to quality television just becomes it comes in the form of a cartoon, you'll love the phenomenon that is Gravity Falls. And in one of the show's most iconic episodes -- Dipper vs. Manliness -- we meet the mythical creature…
esiegel | October 30, 2014“You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with.” -Wayne Dyer
We like to think of our Solar System as typical: a central star with a number of planets -- some gas giants and some rocky worlds -- in orbit around it. Yes, there's some variety, with binary or trinary star systems and huge variance in the masses of the central star being common ones, but from a planetary point of view, our Solar System is a rarity.
Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
Because even though there are hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy for planets to orbit, there are most likely around a…
esiegel | October 29, 2014“Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.” -Ovid
With all that we know of astronomy, with the hundreds of billions of galaxies and hundreds of billions of stars in each that we know are there, it might surprise you to learn that the stars -- for the most part -- don't segregate themselves by age, but rather live together in well-mixed populations.
Image credit: European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, of Planetary Nebula IC 1295.
So how, then could we possibly hope to find the oldest stars that are out there? Believe it or not, we have more than just a…
esiegel | October 28, 2014Wandering into the woods unprepared and without a plan sounds like a terrible idea. But if you're interested in scientific exploration at the frontiers, confronting the unknown with whatever you happen to have at your disposal, you have to take that risk. You have to be willing to take those steps. And you have to be okay with putting your best ideas out there -- for all to see -- knowing full well that you might get the entire thing wrong.
Image Credit: Arthur Eddington, Fundamental Theory.
Sometimes, that's indeed what happens. Some of the most revered and famous scientific minds in…
esiegel | October 28, 2014You've no doubt heard of quantum entanglement before: the idea that if you create a mixed quantum state that consists of two particles, you can then know the properties of one by measuring the properties of the other. The odd -- and counterintuitive -- thing about this is that once these particles are entangled, you can move them an arbitrary distance apart from one another, measure the properties of one, and instantly know about the properties of the other!
Image credit: John Jost / Jason Amini.
Does this violate the law of special relativity, which says the speed limit of everything in…
esiegel | October 27, 2014“The human mind is capable of excitement without the application of gross and violent stimulants; and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity who does not know this.” -William Wordsworth
Galaxies may be the most common type of object identified in the Messier catalogue, and considering that there are at least hundreds of billions of them in the Universe, you might think that Milky Way-type galaxies are everywhere. But it's not Milky Way-types that make up most of the Universe, it's this guy.
Image credit: Jim M., via http://justvisitinghappyvalley.blogspot.com/2013/10/…
esiegel | October 26, 2014“The trees are man’s best friends; but man has treated them as his worst enemies. The history of our race may be said to be the history of warfare upon the tree world. But while man has seemed to be the victor, his victories have brought upon him inevitable disasters.” -Nathaniel Egleston
When things you've grown to love leave your world, whether they leave of their own volition or they're taken from you, it can be agonizing. Have a listen to Damien Rice’s song,
The Animals Were Gone,
while you consider the following. Imagine that you live along a great, rushing river, with a huge sandbar…
esiegel | October 25, 2014"Sexism was the only thing that kept Jerrie Cobb out of space in 1960, and it cannot be allowed to stand in her way now." -Patricia Ireland
It isn't every week that you cover topics ranging from the birth of the Universe to the fundamental nature of space, and the go from sexism in NASA to the anthropic principle to... the math of reality television. But all that and more was on tap this past week at Starts With A Bang, with new articles on:
What is dark energy? (for Ask Ethan),
Had NASA believed in merit (for our Weekend Diversion),
The Eagle Nebula, M16 (for Messier Monday),
10 things you…
esiegel | October 25, 2014“The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long — and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy. Look at you: you’re the Prodigal Son; you’re quite a prize!” -Dr. Eldon Tyrell, Blade Runner
Some questions that we look at are fun to consider because of how far outside our own experience they are, but others are fun for the exact opposite reason: because they ask about a very common phenomenon whose explanation isn't so simple!
Image credit: James Brittin.
Think about fire, for example, and why a campfire with a single large log on it takes a certain amount of time to burn, but…
esiegel | October 23, 2014“Our external environment no longer seems to have any firm boundaries, any limits, or any positive cues about when to stop consuming anything. I mean, there is a reason that people get fat — it’s easy and cheap to get high-calorie, tasty food.” -Bob Harper
There are plenty of good things we can all do to get healthier, and then there are plenty of things we should never do to our bodies. Yet somehow, there's a show I know is doing it all the wrong way, and yet I can't look away.
Image credit: © NBC Universal / Trae Patton, Biggest Loser season 14 episode 11.
Yes, folks, I'm a fan of The…
esiegel | October 22, 2014“We were marching down the street, & we were at the head of the troops. We went on marching, & the troops went off to the left.” -Geoffrey Burbidge
It's such a part of our cosmic and scientific history, that it's difficult to remember that it's only been for the past 50 years that the Big Bang has been the leading theory-and-model that describes our Universe.
Image credit: Edwin Hubble, 1929.
Ever since the 1920s, when Edwin Hubble discovered the apparent expansion of our Universe, we've recognized that it's a much bigger place than simply what's in the Milky Way. But the Big Bang…
esiegel | October 21, 2014“The anthropic principle – the idea that our universe has the properties it does because we are here to say so and that if it were any different, we wouldn’t be around commenting on it – infuriates many physicists, including [Marc Davis from UC Berkeley]. It smacks of defeatism, as if we were acknowledging that we could not explain the universe from first principles. It also appears unscientific. For how do you verify the multiverse? Moreover, the anthropic principle is a tautology. “I think this explanation is ridiculous. Anthropic principle… bah,” said Davis. “I’m hoping they are wrong […
esiegel | October 20, 2014“The most amazing lesson in aerodynamics I ever had was the day I climbed a thermal in a glider at the same time as an eagle. I witnessed, close up, effortlessness and lightness combined with strength, precision and determination.” -Norman Foster
It's called the "Eagle Nebula" because the shape of the nebula itself faintly resembles the silhouette of that hyper-intelligent and skilled bird-of-prey, but what lies inside is far more spectacular than any early skywatcher imagined.
Image credit: Rogelio Bernal Andreo, via http://www.deepskycolors.com/archivo/2008/06/07/messier-16-The-Eagle-Ne…
esiegel | October 19, 2014“I would give my life to fly in space. It’s hard for me to talk about it but I would. I would then, and I will now.” -Jerrie Cobb, at age 67 in 1999
Some of the greatest heros of the 20th century are those who were an integral part of humanity taking our first steps into space. Yet not everyone who deserved one got their chance. Have a listen to Railroad Earth's amazing but incredibly sad song,
Bird In A House,
while I share with you a story about NASA's very first astronaut class.
Image credit: the Mercury 7 astronauts, NASA, taken March 1, 1960.
Not the famed Mercury 7, who were our…
esiegel | October 19, 2014"Out, you impostors!
Quack salving, cheating mountebanks! your skill
Is to make sound men sick, and sick men kill." -Philip Massinger
It's been a wild ride full of ups-and-downs this week, as we've covered topics from solidly-based science to the theoretically expected, all the way to physical impossibilities and unverifiable, outlandish claims. Sometimes, that's what you get here at Starts With A Bang! If you missed anything, take a look back at everything we've covered this past week, including:
How do black holes die? (for Ask Ethan),
Your city in fantasy (for our Weekend Diversion),
The…
esiegel | October 17, 2014“I must choose between despair and Energy —— I choose the latter.” -John Keats
Yes, we know that the fabric of the Universe is not made up of space and time but rather a unified spacetime; that the spacetime isn't static but rather expands as the Universe goes on; and that the expansion isn't slowing down but is rather accelerating as we continue. The term we give to this phenomenon is dark energy, and we arrive at it via multiple, independent lines of evidence.
Image credit: Supernova Cosmology Project / Amanullah et al., Ap.J. (2010).
But with all of that, just what exactly is dark…