Mind-blowing: gravity waves
I’m not going to tackle this one, because Ace has done a better job than I would have.
I think. I’m not sure, because I really don’t understand it, and neither (he says) does he.
Or most people on earth, for that matter. But if it’s true, we all were part of it.
(And I finally get a chance to use that “the universe” part of the category “getting philosophical: life, love, the universe.”)
Unified Field Theory.
Ancient Philosophers called it the Wu, the existence that was before the separation of yin and yang.
EM can be modeled via vectors and lines, as well as sine waves. The same can be said for light, both a point and a wave. Gravity was only so far a constant, its wave form had yet to be found or integrated.
The multiverse is out there still.
I’ll give it a go because I’ve always been into science and scifi.
I think Ace does a fine job, perhaps as a layman speaking to other laymen, even a better job than an expert might do, given that its very easy to assume a knowledge base in the listener that may not exist.
Scientifically, it is a very big deal and I think is likely to be confirmed. Ace relates that the scientists held off for 3 years, working to confirm all of the steps in their observations. Both because its very easy to get fine measurements wrong and announcing something this big, if confirmed makes careers and if wrong destroys them.
Reading through both links the parts that caught my eye where from the CNN link;
The hypothesis (too little evidence to call it a theory) of “multi-verses” posits that major events (and perhaps smaller ones too) result in a ‘split’ in reality, with two (or even more) universes being created as a result of an event. Such as Napoleon winning at Waterloo or Hitler not attacking Russia and defeating Britain, etc. Sheer speculation of course but SciFi is built on the “what if” scenario.
and from Ace…
That’s not as far fetched as many might suppose;
Theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre developed a mathematically solid proposition entitled the ‘Alcubierre Drive’;
And remember, reality is stranger than fiction;-)
Try this post at TRF.
neo…
In a nut-shell: accelerating matter is assumed to emit gravity waves. Such waves are inherently hard to detect. The pursuit of better detectors is a line of investigation already under way.
Because detecting gravity waves is so tough, these scientists sought out the indirect effects of the most massive gravity waves that could have ever existed: the Big Bang.
The mass being accelerated was the entire universe.
The acceleration seems to have been — in every sense of the words — off the charts.
Electromagnetic radiation is propagated by E and B fields.
E fields = electric current
B fields = the magnetic field that wraps itself around / interacts with E fields
The math rapidly gets daunting.
Google Maxwell’s Equations and have a go at Feynman’s Lectures on Physics.
E x B fields interact according to the ‘Right Hand Rule.’ This is the source of polarized light effects… and much else.
The operative assumption is that — since gravity bends light — that its bending force ALSO obeys the “Right Hand Rule.”
Weirdly, the images from this latest series confirm that the primordial E & B fields were torqued around the heavens consistent with “handedness” and Right-Handedness in particular.
Such a delightful alignment of imagery and expectations is too good to be true, so they’ve spent the last three-years triple checking everything.
BTW, there are other theories for one-point origin out there.
The biggest single problem in today’s cosmology is that the early inflation of the universe required to make the math fit is really all too much.
— As in moving way beyond the speed of light.
— As in not being crushed by Black Hole physics and math.
Some make the argument that Space-Time dropped down out of higher dimensions — and that it’s illusion that a hyper-expansion ever occurred. For how should it be that the transition ever occurred? What made the beginning so different than a Black Hole in the here and now?
Physics is still struggling to deal with sub-atomic particles.
We are all Kasper Hauser in one way or another. The universe is an onion, we peel back the skin only to reveal another layer of skin. Ever since the species began to question the unknowns of our existence and the mysteries of the heavens we have been on a bungling journey of discovery. Pondering the ‘big bang’ leads to the question of what came before the ‘big bang’ which leads to what came before what came before the ‘big bang’. I’m all for explorations into the whys and wherefores of the universe as we know it, but then there is the Rumsfeld factor.
“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.”
So shall it be for as long as humans ponder the known and the unknown. We are not gods, we are mortal beings on a beautiful rock circling a mortal star. The totality of it all is beyond our comprehension. Plant seeds, make babies who make more babies, and suck out the juice of every moment.
If you enjoy science fiction, you all might take a look at David Weber’s “Honor Harrington” series, starting with “On Basilisk Station.” It’s a terrific series based on interstellar travel via gravity waves. The multivolume story is based on political ideas from the French Revolution.
Those ideas never seem to die. Even in Outer Space when various factions ride the gravity waves.
Multiverses in this sense come from a theory of the beginning of the universe consistent with the existence of higher-dimensions (11+? I’ve lost count).
In layman’s terms and from memory: There’s a roiling field of energy many times bigger than our universe, where occasionally a bubble forms (a “big bang”). Each bubble is its own universe, with different values for the fundamental physical constants.
There was a short PBS series (4 episodes) that dealt with modern physics called “Fabric of the Cosmos.” Episode 4 explained this topic and the evidence for it: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/fabric-of-cosmos.html#fabric-multiverse
It was quite a good series, and I recommend it.
On the subject of gravitational waves, they should exist apart from the inflation of the universe. Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicted that massive objects orbiting each other (say, a black hole orbited by a neutron star) should give off waves of gravitational energy.
The problem with detecting them is that they interact with the very methods of detection, in most cases, light. These waves stretch space directionally, though. IIRC, the preferred method of detecting them was to compare laser interferometry of two perpendicular rays. One direction would be affected because of the expanding space while the other would not…or something like that.
Back in the day when I was a Physics major at Washington State University, we took a trip out to the LIGO (Laser Interferometry Gravitational-wave Observatory) being constructed on the Hanford reservation. The facility coordinated data with a sister site in Tennessee, I think. I don’t know what ever became of the site or even if it was ever finished. I don’t recall ever hearing of any discoveries made by it, so maybe it got cancelled.
Me, I’ve always had a nagging feeling that what we think of as “the universe,” as huge as it is, is just a small, probably infinitesimaly small, part of something else. A fish in the middle of the ocean down deep perceives the ocean as “the universe.”
Addendum:
Part 1 of the PBS series I mentioned dealt with the nature of space: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/fabric-of-cosmos.html#fabric-space
Although it didn’t get into gravitational waves per se, it has quite a lot of interesting topics in it. The history of the inquiry about space starts at about 4:25, then gets into the heavy “space as fabric” about 20:30. The series gets into the Higgs field/Higgs boson around 30:30 (the series is maybe 10 years old, and the Higgs boson was confirmed a year or so ago) and its implications on the nature of space. Finally, the idea that the universe may be a projection on the boundary of the space (multiverse again?) is at about 46:00.
Once again, I recommend this series. It’s not too hard to follow the material and it’s quite well illustrated, narrated and interesting.
Gravity is the ONE thing (the one big thing, anyway) that the scientists haven’t been able to find: it’s this invisible force they can only measure by its effects.
English major here! but this next link is mind-blowing — nothing like an actual picture to bring something home to you.
[A lot of our problems with the emotional legions of the Eco-Reds is that we humans have a tough time grasping problems on a scale that’s way different from the 5′-6′ range we operate in…. ] So, how big IS the solar system, anyway? and how tiny are we in that scale?
Staggering. This is an actual scale map of the solar system, with the Moon at one pixel.
http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html
Hop on, and scroll to the right. If you cheat, you won’t get the effect. (I’ll tell you what planet I made it out to.)
Scale: E.g., the BP oil spill. IIRC, it was a mess, but only locally, and only for a short while. Because the Gulf has been leaking oil from under the continental shelf for millions of years, and the habitat has adapted.
But even more to the point, it was only a pinprick in that environment. Notice how we haven’t heard from anyone about it in a few years now? Kinda like the Fukushima reactor scare. Or the hysteria over the Chernobyl meltdown. Or the blasted buildings of Hiroshima: bustling with activity and life now, but no one seems to put 2 and 2 together.
Oh, well. Makes five, anyway. 😉
I hope you all do the solar system tour above. It will readjust all your ideas about the Solar System, and the search for other planets.
The discovery is important for two reasons: First, it is the first solid evidence of gravitational waves, though still indirect. As Matt states, GW’s are weak and notoriously hard to detect. The fact that we have now seen the left over “ripples in the sand” is a a nice piece of evidence. The implication is that this is another bit of supporting evidence for General Relativity.
Note to Bev: don’t take such a mysterious view of gravity. It’s no more an “invisible” force than the electric, magnetic, or strong and weak forces.
Reason Number 2: The Inflation Theory is needed to explain the macroscopic “smoothness” of the cosmic microwave background. This is the hypothesized radiation remnant of the Big Bang at about the 300,000 year stage at which point radiation and matter became decoupled. That radiation is now cooled and expanded to give an overall temperature of the universe of about 3 K. If Inflation is a good working idea, it predicts that the inflation should have produced massive gravitational waves. The waves have not been detected, but what the study found was the effect on the CMWB that the waves left.
Caveat: No mechanism is in place for Inflation, but that it occurred now seems a bit more plausible.
Personal opinion: I think that all of this will become much more clear once there is a notion of how to bring General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics together. Once that is done I suspect problems both large (cosmology) and small (Standard Model) will be resolved. Until then, we are muddling along. But, despite what some people in an area known as “climate science” may tell you, the science is NEVER settled. And that is what makes it fun!
I’m not a big fan of Woody Allen these days, but this brings to mind a funny scene from Annie Hall.
A grade school age Woody is kvetching (not kvalling 🙂 to his parents and says, “The universe is expanding!” His mother, exasperated with his constant worrying, retorts “How is that your business?!?”
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it’s this invisible force they can only measure by its effects.
That’s why they called it a field effect for electromagnetism back then. Because it was an invisible force that could only be seen indirectly, such as the wind moving the wheat around on a field.
Much of what humans consider supernatural are merely forces which humans cannot understand nor control, yet. But advancement in human evolution is only due to individuals, not communities.
Ire con dios.
Thanks, Beverly, that was quite a trip!
And you’re right–it was actually suspenseful to start at the beginning and scroll through.
I’m glad it went out to Pluto, which is still a planet despite the killjoys out there. (And, yes, I am well aware of their arguments against it.)
As for the gravity waves, I glanced through one of my astronomy textbooks from the 1970s and was staggered by how many things have changed. It’s a different solar system now, and a totally different universe! YAY!!
What will the next decade or two bring?
Promethea,
I too am a big fan of David Weber, I highly recommend his “Safehold” series, my review on Amazon;
Simply the Greatest Science Fiction Series Ever Written
I’ve read several of Weber’s novels. The Honorverse books 6-8 really helped me analysis the political machinations of Democrat false flagging in around 2005. A lot of things made sense when considered from a certain angle. I considered the book to be a great predictor of certain political schemes.
Geoffrey Britain . . .
Thanks for the recommending the Safehold series. I’m going to go through neo’s amazon portal and order it right now. I’ll look for your book review.
Beverly Says:
March 18th, 2014 at 4:59 am
That is indeed a remarkable website. Since childhood, I’ve seen book illustrations and wall charts that show the Sun and planets to scale in size, OR in their orbital distances. This is the first diagram I’ve seen that shows them to scale in both size AND distance, and it required the internet to make it a reality.
There’s another way to do it, which involves going for a long walk:
The Thousand-Yard Model, or The Earth as a Peppercorn
Promethea, the first book in the series is pretty good. The second and later novels suffer more and more from the desk bound issue where leaders are stuck managing the fighters, rather than bottom up rank hierarchies.
I prefer bottom up perspectives, not top down ones, even semi omniscient top down rank hierarchies.
Ymarsakar . . .
Thanks for your input.
Geoffrey Britain . . .
I couldn’t find your review. I looked through all the 5-star reviews of Book 1 in the series.
Reality transcends physics, since physics is limited by its method. We have not a direct approach to reality, so everything physics can say to us is, in a sense, an illusion. Always keep this in mind and never make almost universal and inavoidal mistake of confusing so-called scientific picture of reality with reality itself.
I just mention that because, Hyperspace and Warp Drive. We all want it.
Yyyyyup.
Hhmmmm. Not to dispute Geoffrey, but my own experience with Weber has been less than spectacular. I’ve started at least two books by him (note: NOT in the harrington or safehold series) and just could not get into them. In both cases I read about 60 pages, found myself utterly bored, and set the book down and never got back to it. And that is an exceptionally rare thing. Once I’ve started something, I read it all the way through. The only other recent author I’m finding this to be the case with is Virgina Demarce (she writes some of the books in Eric Flint’s 1632+ series)
I have, on the other hand, read a number of Weber’s collaborations with people, and find THOSE to be quite good.
So… I think there is a difference in stylistic tastes here, which Geoffrey likes and I don’t. Who will agree with me, and who with him, I cannot say. Just a heads up that there are some who probably won’t like Weber at all…
Beverly, here is another way to look at the solar system: Gravity Wells.
As Robert Heinlein put it, if you’re out of the gravity well, you’re halfway to anywhere!
From the brilliant mind of Randall Munroe
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/gravity_wells.png
And similar to your link
Heights
http://xkcd.com/482/
Here’s another of his, that involves the “Exoplanet neighborhood”… what planets outside of the solar system are known.
http://xkcd.com/1298/large/
Some other similarly neat posters, not related to this topic:
Lakes and Oceans
http://xkcd.com/1040/large/
Money
http://xkcd.com/980/huge/#x=-6432&y=-8576&z=2
Movie Narrative Charts
http://xkcd.com/657/large/
Land Mammals, by aggregate weight
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/land_mammals.png