In high mass stars degeneracy pressure is not an issue because their core temperatures are so high that thermal pressures remain strong. There is no helium flash in high-mass stars. Because of this process the helium core fusion ignites gradually, the same as when hydrogen core fusion did at the beginning of the stars life. This process of fusing helium into carbon will last only about a few hundred thousand years. The supergiant star will be left again without energy. If the star has no energy there will be nothing to help with the crush of gravity. The density, temperature, core pressure all raise because the inert carbon core is shrinking and the crush of gravitational forces rise. Between the inert core and hydrogen -fusing shell another shell forms, a helium-fusing shell. The core that is continually being crushed by gravity and is shrinking away is also becoming hotter and hotter. It will eventually be hot enough for carbon fusion to ignite. This process can continue over and over creating new energy with new shells. For example other elements that can be created by this process is carbon into oxygen, oxygen into neon, neon into magnesium, Each time a new fusion begins the core of the star shrinks and get even hotter. Eventually iron begins to build up. Iron is special because this element can not generate nuclear energy. This iron is going to break down and collapse releasing an enormous amount of energy and blasting all the layer and layers of shells it had produced, into space. With out high-mass stars the elements that have been created and scattered would not have come together to build our Earth and us. The processes of making these elements only happen in high-mass stars because they are hot enough to produce the next step. Low-mass stars have degeneracy pressure that halts the process before the core could get hot enough (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.348-351).
When the dying star finally gets hot enough to create the element iron and iron can't continue the nuclear fusion process a supernova explosion will follow. The energy that has been building up layers upon layers throughout the previous supergiant life, are blasted off into space. What is left behind is a ball of neutrons called a neutron star. If the neutron star that is left behind has a very large mass, gravity may overcome neutron degeneracy pressure which could then collapse into a black hole. By using theoretical models, scientists can create their own supernovae explosion and study what the exact trigger may be. What we know today about the study and understanding of supernovae is also due to decades and cultures. For example the supernovae remnant is a cloud of debris in which a spinning neutron star lies in the middle. Over many years of photographs scientists have calculated that the nebula is growing larger and larger. If scientists calculate backwards they can pinpoint the history of this star. In this example Chinese observers recorded a guest star in this location in 1054. This could have been the supernova that created this nebula (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.3512-352).
Degeneracy pressure is important to white dwarfs because this is what keeps the white dwarf from collapsing. In a white dwarf there is no longer any fusion to maintain the heat and pressure that is coming in from gravitational forces; therefore there must be some other type of force (degeneracy pressure) that is fighting the battle against the crushing gravity, still giving the white dwarf a look of a stellar object. Degeneracy pressure actually supports brown dwarfs as well and when this pressure arises from closely packed electrons in white dwarfs it is called electron degeneracy pressure. This pressure balances the inward crush of gravity. As we have learned what is left of a high-star that has lived its life is a collapsed iron core now a ball of neutrons named as so, a neutrons star. Just as a white dwarf that is fighting the inward pressures of gravity, so is a neutron star. This pressure is also a degeneracy pressure, which fights against the gravitational forces when elements are packed closely together. In the case of a neutron star the pressure is called a neutron degeneracy pressure. A paperclip that has the density of a neutron star would outweigh Mount Everest, because of this density it would pass through the Earth and the Earth's center would resemble swiss cheese (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.363-369). White dwarfs and neutron stars have their own mass limits just as do black holes and other stellar matter. The mass limit of any one type of objects in important for classifications of families. In the case of a white dwarf their limit is 1.4Msun, otherwise known as the Chandrasekhar limit (Bhattacharya, 2011).
In a close binary systems white dwarf can gradually gain mass if its companion is a main-sequence or giant star. The gas from the companion star can fall toward the mass of the white dwarf. The falling matter forms a whirlpool like disk around the white dwarf because the law of conservation of angular momentum states that as the gas matter get closer and closer to the surface of the white dwarf it rotates faster and faster. This could only happen in a binary system because the companion star is the key ingredient to where the rapidly rotating disk called the accretion disk comes from. Nova comes from this whole equation also, as these hydrogen gases are being drifted toward the white dwarf and then gases fall to the surface of the white dwarf, gravity eventually makes a thin layer. Over time as layers build up and temperatures begin to rise within the white dwarf core once again it will create a big blaze of light that may shine for a few weeks. When this star comes back to life it is called a nova. Without a binary system were you have a white dwarf and a companion star you would not have the accretion disk caused by the companion star. Without the accretion disk and all the gaseous matter falling onto the surface of the white dwarf you would not have a heated core that would spark the nova. A supernovae remember in when a high-mass star is at the stage were it has produced an iron core and when the core collapses it explodes the layers of the star out into space (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.351-352).
A supernova is much brighter than what a nova would shine, but nova are still very bright. They can shine as bright as 100,000 Suns. When a nova takes place we can see it from Earth. In some cases they have repeated their nova blasts just after a few decades, this reinforces the fact that this nova is being fed by a companion star in a binary system (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.366-367).
Singularities and the Event Horizon
Singularity, the Schwarzschild radius, and Event Horizon all have in common that they push our limits about what we currently know in the subjects of physics and scientific knowledge. Singularity is at the point of a black hole in which all matter that took place in forming the black hole was to be crushed to bits and pieces that are tiny to a dense point somewhere in the center of the black hole. Before you get anywhere near the center of the black hole you have the event horizon which is the boundary line between the inside of the black hole and the universe. The event horizon is like a bottomless pit, and anything that goes in will never be seen again. It is a boundary not a vacuum as I once had thought. Gravitational forces are at play but not so much that you would be sucked into this black hole if you go anywhere near its outer vicinities. It is hard to imagine the size of a black hole. To figure out what the size of a event horizon could be, you would be looking for the Schwarzschild radius. The Schwarzschild radius of a black hole solely depends on the mass of the black hole itself. For example for a mass like that of our Sun we would say the Sun would have a Schwarzschild radius of 3km. The more massive the object the larger the radius will be. The mass of a stellar core must be greater than 3 solar masses to have the chances at creating a black hole. This is so because at the point of 3 solar masses according to the laws of physics there is nothing that can stop the collapse of a stellar corpse. As we recall the larger the stellar mass of the black whole is the larger the Schwarzschild radius will be (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.376-377).
Black holes may have a larger radius subject to what there stellar masses are but a black hole can also increase in size by accreting matter from their surroundings. Only the lowest angular momentum material will be available to feed the black hole (Power, Nayakshin, & King, 2011). If what scientist are thinking is true that a black hole starts from the process of the death of a star then we would find black holes throughout the galaxy because primordial stars could have dies anywhere in the galaxy. Astronomers have know for over ten years that pretty much every galaxy they have found has some type of black hole in them. Black holes have been around for many years, the oldest black holes every found is about two billion solar masses and formed around 13 billions years ago which was only 770 million years after the big bang (Greene, 2012).
References:
Bennett, J., Donahue, M., Schneider, N. & Voit, M. (2012) The essential cosmic perspective. (6th ed.) San Francisco, CA: Pearson Addison-Wesley
BHATTACHARYA, D. (2011). Beyond the Chandrasekhar limit: Structure and formation of compact stars. Pramana: Journal Of Physics, 77(1), 29-37. doi:10.1007/s12043-011-0109-0
Power, C., Nayakshin, S., & King, A. (2011). The accretion disc particle method for simulations of black hole feeding and feedback. Monthly Notices Of The Royal Astronomical Society, 412(1), 269-276. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17901.x
Greene, J. E. (2012). GOLDILOCKS BLACK HOLES. Scientific American, 306(1), 40-47.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Life in the Universe
Liquid water is the most common source of an item that is necessary for life. Other things that we need to look for are nutrients from which evolution has built our living cells on. Another big item we need is energy to fuel all of our daily activities of life. Energy could come from sunlight, chemical reactions or even the heat from the planet itself. DNA is the molecule that provides the genetic material of our life, it allows scientist to understand evolution that has occurred here on Earth over 4 billion years ago. Living organisms are the ones that copy DNA when reproducing on a molecular level. Living organisms pass their DNA onto their descendants, along the way a mutation might have occurred. A mutation is a change in an organism's DNA, it could be a fatal error or it could be an improvement. Oxygen was created about 2.5 million years ago; it was originally released through photosynthesis by single-celled organisms. These single-celled organisms are also called cyanobacteria. For millions and millions of years chemical reactions with surface rocks pulled oxygen right back out of the atmosphere. Over time surface rocks had become 100% saturated with oxygen, it then finally began to accumulate into the atmosphere. It may have only been a few hundred million years ago that it had reached the levels needed in the atmosphere to be able to breath. Oxygen is not needed in all organisms, about 2 million years ago it was deadly to the organisms living before oxygen was even created (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.505-510).
Mars may have had oxygen one point in time from the water molecules in the atmosphere but something happened about 3 billion years ago when it went through a dramatic climate change. The oxygen in water molecules would have remained in the atmosphere but over time it was lost from either being stripped away by solar wind or through being drawn out of the atmosphere by chemical reactions with surface rock. Venus may have been a brother or sister to Earth, but it is located a bit to close to the Sun. If you would move Earth into Venus's orbit today, over time Earth would become just like Venus, mainly due to the runaway greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide dissolves in liquid water, Venus or Mars does not have liquid water that carbon dioxide can break down into therefore it builds into the atmosphere (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.212-217). To be able to guide us to determine the number of civilizations in our galaxy that we could possibly make contact with scientist have come up with the Drake equation. It looks like this Nhp×Flife×Fciv×Fnow. The number of planets that could potentially harbor life is calculated in the Nhp. Flife is the fraction of the planets that actually harbor life. For example, Flife=1 would mean that all planets that are habitable currently have life. 1/1,000,000 would mean that only 1 in a million planets that are habitable actually have life. Nhp×Flife can tell us how many planets in this galaxy are life-bearing. Fciv will tell you the number of life bearing planets that have had the capacity to communicate at one time or another. This will tell you the number of planets whose species are intelligent enough to accomplish some type of communication. So if we take Nhp×Flife×Fciv we will get the number of planets that have at one point on time harbored life capable of interstellar communication. Fnow is the fraction at which these life bearing planets currently have life present as we speak, compared to billions of years in the past or even what could become in the future. Scientist do not know the values of the drake equation but if ever needed in the future it will be a helpful was to organize their thoughts. Fermi's paradox say galactic civilizations must exists but yet there is no evidence of this being so. But yet how can we say no other civilization exists if we can't travel to other solar systems and scope them out We can't base a definite a to other life existing if we do not have the current technology to have a very clear view of the billions of star clusters out there. If there is one civilization for every 1 millions stars then our universe should have about 100,000 civilizations and new ones being created every 50,000 years. This still may not be so! Maybe we can't see anyone else yet, or maybe it just is not possible to bring technology so far forward that we will never be able to detect anyone or no one will be able to detect us (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.519).
Interstellar travel is not as easy as it seems on TV. There are currently five spacecrafts that will be leaving our solar system to travel among the stars, but because they travel at less than 1/10,000 the speed of light it will take those 1000,000 years to reach the next star system. Einstein's theory of relativity tells us that real interstellar travel must be slower than the speed of light. If we would want to make a trip within our lifetime we would need a spacecraft that could travel very close to the speed of light we would need an energy source that is 2000 times more than what our whole world uses in one years time. Let's say we did achieve all of this someday; the spacecraft, the energy source, and traveling at speeds of light, the crew of the spacecraft would have extreme social and mental situation to deal with. Again according to Einstein's theory of relatively an object traveling at the speed of light will experience "time" passing much slower on the spacecraft that it would on Earth. For example, is a spacecraft traveling near the speed of light to a star system called Vega that is 50 light years away, the crew on board would have aged only two years, but on Earth 50 years would have passed. All the people and family you may have been connected to will either be dead or very aged. We have no idea what a "living" in every nook and cranny of our universe. It is very possible that alien life at any minute could come crashing into our atmosphere, it is possible that this has already happened and we do not even know it. It could have happened one billion years ago and we missed it.
Just because we have not seen it does not mean it is not there. We, as human beings need to remember we do not know everything and there are endless possibilities out there that go way over our heads. SETI stands for search for extraterrestrial intelligence. They are a funded organization that listens for signals that are being sent through interstellar space. They use large radio telescopes to search for alien radio signals. SETI have several projects under way that are capable of detecting signals. SETI scan millions of radio frequency bands simultaneously, if it is out there they will be able to pick it up. Of course there are always other thinks that we could be spending money on but the SETI is also providing jobs to people who are conducting the scanning. They are also providing work to the manufactures that are making the products that help with the radio transmission. It is one of those issues that will never have a right or wrong answer (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.519-525).
References:
Bennett, J., Donahue, M., Schneider, N. & Voit, M. (2012) The essential cosmic perspective. (6th ed.) San Francisco, CA: Pearson Addison-Wesley
Mars may have had oxygen one point in time from the water molecules in the atmosphere but something happened about 3 billion years ago when it went through a dramatic climate change. The oxygen in water molecules would have remained in the atmosphere but over time it was lost from either being stripped away by solar wind or through being drawn out of the atmosphere by chemical reactions with surface rock. Venus may have been a brother or sister to Earth, but it is located a bit to close to the Sun. If you would move Earth into Venus's orbit today, over time Earth would become just like Venus, mainly due to the runaway greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide dissolves in liquid water, Venus or Mars does not have liquid water that carbon dioxide can break down into therefore it builds into the atmosphere (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.212-217). To be able to guide us to determine the number of civilizations in our galaxy that we could possibly make contact with scientist have come up with the Drake equation. It looks like this Nhp×Flife×Fciv×Fnow. The number of planets that could potentially harbor life is calculated in the Nhp. Flife is the fraction of the planets that actually harbor life. For example, Flife=1 would mean that all planets that are habitable currently have life. 1/1,000,000 would mean that only 1 in a million planets that are habitable actually have life. Nhp×Flife can tell us how many planets in this galaxy are life-bearing. Fciv will tell you the number of life bearing planets that have had the capacity to communicate at one time or another. This will tell you the number of planets whose species are intelligent enough to accomplish some type of communication. So if we take Nhp×Flife×Fciv we will get the number of planets that have at one point on time harbored life capable of interstellar communication. Fnow is the fraction at which these life bearing planets currently have life present as we speak, compared to billions of years in the past or even what could become in the future. Scientist do not know the values of the drake equation but if ever needed in the future it will be a helpful was to organize their thoughts. Fermi's paradox say galactic civilizations must exists but yet there is no evidence of this being so. But yet how can we say no other civilization exists if we can't travel to other solar systems and scope them out We can't base a definite a to other life existing if we do not have the current technology to have a very clear view of the billions of star clusters out there. If there is one civilization for every 1 millions stars then our universe should have about 100,000 civilizations and new ones being created every 50,000 years. This still may not be so! Maybe we can't see anyone else yet, or maybe it just is not possible to bring technology so far forward that we will never be able to detect anyone or no one will be able to detect us (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.519).
Interstellar travel is not as easy as it seems on TV. There are currently five spacecrafts that will be leaving our solar system to travel among the stars, but because they travel at less than 1/10,000 the speed of light it will take those 1000,000 years to reach the next star system. Einstein's theory of relativity tells us that real interstellar travel must be slower than the speed of light. If we would want to make a trip within our lifetime we would need a spacecraft that could travel very close to the speed of light we would need an energy source that is 2000 times more than what our whole world uses in one years time. Let's say we did achieve all of this someday; the spacecraft, the energy source, and traveling at speeds of light, the crew of the spacecraft would have extreme social and mental situation to deal with. Again according to Einstein's theory of relatively an object traveling at the speed of light will experience "time" passing much slower on the spacecraft that it would on Earth. For example, is a spacecraft traveling near the speed of light to a star system called Vega that is 50 light years away, the crew on board would have aged only two years, but on Earth 50 years would have passed. All the people and family you may have been connected to will either be dead or very aged. We have no idea what a "living" in every nook and cranny of our universe. It is very possible that alien life at any minute could come crashing into our atmosphere, it is possible that this has already happened and we do not even know it. It could have happened one billion years ago and we missed it.
Just because we have not seen it does not mean it is not there. We, as human beings need to remember we do not know everything and there are endless possibilities out there that go way over our heads. SETI stands for search for extraterrestrial intelligence. They are a funded organization that listens for signals that are being sent through interstellar space. They use large radio telescopes to search for alien radio signals. SETI have several projects under way that are capable of detecting signals. SETI scan millions of radio frequency bands simultaneously, if it is out there they will be able to pick it up. Of course there are always other thinks that we could be spending money on but the SETI is also providing jobs to people who are conducting the scanning. They are also providing work to the manufactures that are making the products that help with the radio transmission. It is one of those issues that will never have a right or wrong answer (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.519-525).
References:
Bennett, J., Donahue, M., Schneider, N. & Voit, M. (2012) The essential cosmic perspective. (6th ed.) San Francisco, CA: Pearson Addison-Wesley
Light and the Formation of the Universe
The density of matter is called the critical density. Critical density also marks a dividing line between eternal expansion and eventual collapse. If the universe were to collapse, gravity would be the only force that would affect the expansion rate. When you put all luminosities of the galaxies together, it makes up about 0.5% of critical density. Overall matter could exceed critical density if dark matter made up over 200 times as much mass as the luminous matter does. This is not so, by observations of galaxy clusters it is said that they hold about 50 times more in dark matter than that of luminous matter. If galaxy clusters had more amounts of dark matter this would cause deviations from Hubble's Law. There are no observed deviations so therefore scientist must assume that overall matter is less that critical density and this is why our universe continues to expand and accelerate its expansion. It seems that our universe will be destined to continue this expansion forever (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.459).
Light travels at the speed of light, at the event horizon, which is the boundary line between the inside of a black hole, and the universe. At this boundary line the escape velocity is equals to the speed of light, meaning not even light can escape (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.373). When masses distort the space around them gravitational lensing occurs. When light passes by a massive object it bends the beams, this act is called gravitational lenses. Depending on how strongly the massive object bends the light's path, scientist can take measurements of the masses. Clusters of galaxies can act as a gravitational lens. Scientist can measure a cluster's mass without replying on Newton's laws with gravitational lensing because the gravities light-bending effect tend to distort the images of the galaxies that are lying behind the cluster you are observing. Mass is what causes the curvature of space-time, and the stronger the gravity the greater of the space-time curvature. For example, our planet Earth is traveling as straight as it possibly can at the very moment, but because of the mass of the Sun, the gravity of the Sun is curving the path of the Earth with its mass (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.451,372).
If matter density is exactly equal to the critical density our universe would be flat. But it is not, there is slightly more critical density than matter density and this gives us the space-time curvature. Cosmic microwave background is evidence left over from the big bang such as radiation that began to stream across the universe at the end of the era of nuclei; it is also still present today. Cosmic microwave background was first predicted by George Gamow and his colleagues in the 1940s they had the idea that is the big bang really occurred, radiation should still be present throughout the universe and it should be able to be detected by a microwave antenna. The background came from the heat of the universe, when the universe was young the temperature was about 3000 K, which is similar to a red giant star surface. Since that time when the universe was young it has expanded by a factor of about 1000, this has made the elements stretch out and has allowed the cosmic microwave background to cool to a few degrees above absolute zero (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.481).
Some questions left unanswered by the big bang theory are as follows: Where does the structure come from?, Why is the large scale universe so uniform?, and Why is the density of the universe close to the critical density? Starting with the first question where does the structure come from, the models of the big bang theory all have assumed that gravity collected matter around regions of slightly enhanced density in the early universe, but to be able to explain the origin of the universe requires that the big bang somehow produced slight density enhancements, but how? Inflation could do this because inflation stretches tiny quantum ripples to enormous sizes, this could have become the density enhancements which later formed galaxies. When we look to the right in the universe there are not much differences if we were to compare them to the left, for the second question why is the large-scale universe so uniform, the big bang does not tell us why throughout our universe it looks pretty much the same no matter where you go (of course leaving Earth out of this). Inflation can also help explain this because even though these different galaxies have not been in contact since the time of inflation they still were in contact with each other prior to that time and did exchange radiation that would have equalized their temperatures and density. The third question why is the density of the universe close to the critical density can not be explained by the big bang theory alone and it needs the explanation of inflation. Inflation actually predicts that the geometry of the universe should appear to be flat. If the critical density was lower than the amount of density of mass then our universe would start to collapse. The only way the universe could be flat and expand forever is if the overall density of matter is a little less than that of the critical density (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.486-488).
The scientific theory of inflation needs a special ingredient, some type of energy that was combined with gravity to make the universe expand a huge amount in only a brief second (Steinhardt, 2011). Dark Energy versus Dark Matter Dark matter is an unseen influence that provides gravity to the object and motion scientist observe. Dark matter is unseen for now; I believe we do not have the right equipments yet in our existence to actually see dark matter. Dark matter is something that was only proposed to exist. Over many decades their confidence in dark matter has become creditable because the scientific models that have assumed this substance exists have given predictions that were verified through observations. Through observations of orbital speeds and stars it has been discovered that most of our galaxy's mass lies beyond the Sun and tens of thousands light-years away from the galactic center. This mass as indicated by a more detailed study lies in the spherical halo, as we have learned our halo is not very luminous. If most of our galaxy's mass lies in the halo that is not very luminous then it must be dark matter, we are only able to detect it with rotation patterns and not by visible light. There is even evidence of dark matter in clusters of galaxies, through observations it was discovered that galaxy clusters have more dark matter than single galaxies do. By measuring cluster masses along with measuring the orbital speeds of the galaxies in the center, studying the x-ray emission from hot gases in between the clusters will give you a ratio between dark matter and luminous matter (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.446-447).
Newton's laws of motion and gravity are the most trusted tools used in science to this day. Either dark matter really does exist or we need to redo what we understand about gravity and motions. If our understanding of gravity and motion is correct then dark matter really does exist and we are observing the effects of its gravity in different motions and orbits, Science has come so far, and I really believe that in our current scientific theory's about dark matter ad its existence. I also believe that if humans still exist 1,000 years fro now; they will have invented a satellite that can detect dark matter. I really doubt dark matter is a substance that is only made up of one chemical compound. Dark matter and what it is made up of will be discovered someday.
Another substance that has a dark side is dark energy. Dark energy is what is causing the expansion of the universe. Dark energy's existence is something completely different than dark matter. As we had said dark matter is a type of matter that exists, we just can not see it due to our lack in technology. A force (dark energy) is pushing the galaxies in out universe apart. Scientist can tell the universe is expanding by some unseen force by the observations of white dwarf supernovae. The white dwarf supernovae are observed in galaxies very far away, the distance is measured by there lookback time and their redshift tells scientist how much the universe has expanded since the supernovae explosion (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.452-453). If a universe only contains ordinary matter the expansion rate would decrease over time not increase. Scientist are still not sure what is causing the expansion rate to accelerate, this is why it is called dark energy (Sapone, 2010). Lawrence Krauss is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist at Arizona State University, he and other theorist find it somewhat unsettling that our universe contains just enough dark energy and dark matter to balance out the objects and the existence of our universe (Pendick, 2009).
References :
Bennett, J., Donahue, M., Schneider, N. & Voit, M. (2012) The essential cosmic perspective. (6th ed.) San Francisco, CA: Pearson Addison-Wesley Steinhardt, P. J. (2011). The Inflation Debate. Scientific American, 304(4), 36-43.
SAPONE, D. (2010). DARK ENERGY IN PRACTICE. International Journal Of Modern Physics A: Particles & Fields; Gravitation; Cosmology; Nuclear Physics, 25(29), 5253-5331. Pendick, D. (2009). Is the Big Bang in trouble?. Astronomy, 37(4), 48-51.
Light travels at the speed of light, at the event horizon, which is the boundary line between the inside of a black hole, and the universe. At this boundary line the escape velocity is equals to the speed of light, meaning not even light can escape (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.373). When masses distort the space around them gravitational lensing occurs. When light passes by a massive object it bends the beams, this act is called gravitational lenses. Depending on how strongly the massive object bends the light's path, scientist can take measurements of the masses. Clusters of galaxies can act as a gravitational lens. Scientist can measure a cluster's mass without replying on Newton's laws with gravitational lensing because the gravities light-bending effect tend to distort the images of the galaxies that are lying behind the cluster you are observing. Mass is what causes the curvature of space-time, and the stronger the gravity the greater of the space-time curvature. For example, our planet Earth is traveling as straight as it possibly can at the very moment, but because of the mass of the Sun, the gravity of the Sun is curving the path of the Earth with its mass (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.451,372).
If matter density is exactly equal to the critical density our universe would be flat. But it is not, there is slightly more critical density than matter density and this gives us the space-time curvature. Cosmic microwave background is evidence left over from the big bang such as radiation that began to stream across the universe at the end of the era of nuclei; it is also still present today. Cosmic microwave background was first predicted by George Gamow and his colleagues in the 1940s they had the idea that is the big bang really occurred, radiation should still be present throughout the universe and it should be able to be detected by a microwave antenna. The background came from the heat of the universe, when the universe was young the temperature was about 3000 K, which is similar to a red giant star surface. Since that time when the universe was young it has expanded by a factor of about 1000, this has made the elements stretch out and has allowed the cosmic microwave background to cool to a few degrees above absolute zero (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.481).
Some questions left unanswered by the big bang theory are as follows: Where does the structure come from?, Why is the large scale universe so uniform?, and Why is the density of the universe close to the critical density? Starting with the first question where does the structure come from, the models of the big bang theory all have assumed that gravity collected matter around regions of slightly enhanced density in the early universe, but to be able to explain the origin of the universe requires that the big bang somehow produced slight density enhancements, but how? Inflation could do this because inflation stretches tiny quantum ripples to enormous sizes, this could have become the density enhancements which later formed galaxies. When we look to the right in the universe there are not much differences if we were to compare them to the left, for the second question why is the large-scale universe so uniform, the big bang does not tell us why throughout our universe it looks pretty much the same no matter where you go (of course leaving Earth out of this). Inflation can also help explain this because even though these different galaxies have not been in contact since the time of inflation they still were in contact with each other prior to that time and did exchange radiation that would have equalized their temperatures and density. The third question why is the density of the universe close to the critical density can not be explained by the big bang theory alone and it needs the explanation of inflation. Inflation actually predicts that the geometry of the universe should appear to be flat. If the critical density was lower than the amount of density of mass then our universe would start to collapse. The only way the universe could be flat and expand forever is if the overall density of matter is a little less than that of the critical density (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.486-488).
The scientific theory of inflation needs a special ingredient, some type of energy that was combined with gravity to make the universe expand a huge amount in only a brief second (Steinhardt, 2011). Dark Energy versus Dark Matter Dark matter is an unseen influence that provides gravity to the object and motion scientist observe. Dark matter is unseen for now; I believe we do not have the right equipments yet in our existence to actually see dark matter. Dark matter is something that was only proposed to exist. Over many decades their confidence in dark matter has become creditable because the scientific models that have assumed this substance exists have given predictions that were verified through observations. Through observations of orbital speeds and stars it has been discovered that most of our galaxy's mass lies beyond the Sun and tens of thousands light-years away from the galactic center. This mass as indicated by a more detailed study lies in the spherical halo, as we have learned our halo is not very luminous. If most of our galaxy's mass lies in the halo that is not very luminous then it must be dark matter, we are only able to detect it with rotation patterns and not by visible light. There is even evidence of dark matter in clusters of galaxies, through observations it was discovered that galaxy clusters have more dark matter than single galaxies do. By measuring cluster masses along with measuring the orbital speeds of the galaxies in the center, studying the x-ray emission from hot gases in between the clusters will give you a ratio between dark matter and luminous matter (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.446-447).
Newton's laws of motion and gravity are the most trusted tools used in science to this day. Either dark matter really does exist or we need to redo what we understand about gravity and motions. If our understanding of gravity and motion is correct then dark matter really does exist and we are observing the effects of its gravity in different motions and orbits, Science has come so far, and I really believe that in our current scientific theory's about dark matter ad its existence. I also believe that if humans still exist 1,000 years fro now; they will have invented a satellite that can detect dark matter. I really doubt dark matter is a substance that is only made up of one chemical compound. Dark matter and what it is made up of will be discovered someday.
Another substance that has a dark side is dark energy. Dark energy is what is causing the expansion of the universe. Dark energy's existence is something completely different than dark matter. As we had said dark matter is a type of matter that exists, we just can not see it due to our lack in technology. A force (dark energy) is pushing the galaxies in out universe apart. Scientist can tell the universe is expanding by some unseen force by the observations of white dwarf supernovae. The white dwarf supernovae are observed in galaxies very far away, the distance is measured by there lookback time and their redshift tells scientist how much the universe has expanded since the supernovae explosion (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.452-453). If a universe only contains ordinary matter the expansion rate would decrease over time not increase. Scientist are still not sure what is causing the expansion rate to accelerate, this is why it is called dark energy (Sapone, 2010). Lawrence Krauss is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist at Arizona State University, he and other theorist find it somewhat unsettling that our universe contains just enough dark energy and dark matter to balance out the objects and the existence of our universe (Pendick, 2009).
References :
Bennett, J., Donahue, M., Schneider, N. & Voit, M. (2012) The essential cosmic perspective. (6th ed.) San Francisco, CA: Pearson Addison-Wesley Steinhardt, P. J. (2011). The Inflation Debate. Scientific American, 304(4), 36-43.
SAPONE, D. (2010). DARK ENERGY IN PRACTICE. International Journal Of Modern Physics A: Particles & Fields; Gravitation; Cosmology; Nuclear Physics, 25(29), 5253-5331. Pendick, D. (2009). Is the Big Bang in trouble?. Astronomy, 37(4), 48-51.
Our Sun and the Stars
The process at which the Sun creates energy begins with hydrogen nuclei which are individual protons. Four protons are needed to make one helium nucleus. It begins with two protons that fuse and create a deuterium nucleus. The creation of the deuterium nucleus equals to one proton and one neutron, then two protons that have just created the one proton and one neutron will add another proton to the mix. We now have a nucleus of helium-3 made up of two proton (which use to be three) and one neutron. You will need two sets of these helium-3 to come together to form helium-4. If we go back to the beginning of forming the neutron, it actually takes four protons to start the process of turning those four protons to start the process of turning those four protons into helium-4. Helium-4 is ultimately made up with two proton and two neutrons, remembering it takes four protons to make one proton and one neutron. The reason this whole process creates energy is because the mass of a helium nucleus is a hair less than the combined mass of four hydrogen nuclei. In the process of being fused together, a little bit of mass is lost. This whole fusion reaction that is taking place can only happen if the protons come close enough together for an effect known a quantum tunneling (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.292-293).
Gravitational equilibrium is a balance of forces. A gravity force that is pulling inward as another force of gravity is pushing outward. To be able to keep the Sun's core temperature and fusion rate steady, you need gravitational equilibrium along with energy balance. If the output of energy from the Sun fluctuated Earth would not be a fun place to live. It may burn us up one minute but the freeze us the next. Fortunately the Sun does not fluctuate but stays very steady. With gravitational equilibrium is the Sun's core temperature rises or drops it will help the Sun to get back on track by allowing the core of the Sun to shrink or expand to allow the cooling off or heating up of the core. The photosphere looks bright and dark. The bright orange spots of all different shapes and sizes is the hot gases of the Sun rising. In between all these bright orange spot you also have dark orange streaks, lines, and curved of the cooler gases sinking back into the photosphere. Because of underlying convection, this is what makes the hot gases rise and fall and give its photosphere surface a look of granulation. Photons are rising out of the hot gasses providing sunlight to all the planets in orbit. The hot spots, or shades of black, you would see in photos are actually cooler than the rest of the photosphere areas, and because it is cooler it will show up in photos of the Sun as darker areas. The hottest gases flow much easier than cooler gases. You would think that since the sun spots are cooler the hotter gases surrounding that spot would flow right in and mix it all up, but it does not, there is something keeping these cooler areas from mixing in with the rest. Magnetic fields are doing just this. Magnetic fields can alter atoms and ions causing these dark areas to spit into two causing these sun spots to create arches filled with magnetic energy, these arches are also helping the processes of keeping these sun spots a cooler temperature. Eventually the magnetic field will become weak allowing the hotter gases to flow back in and mix everything up to the same temperature (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.294-297).
We can study the stars by measuring different stellar luminosities. Some stars are very far away and seem brighter than even the closest star to us. We can use the apparent brightness of the star and the luminosity of the star to find out more about its place in our universe and how hot it is really burning. Luminosity is a measure of a stars power and the apparent brightness is a measure of power per unit area meaning the amount of starlight reaching Earth per second per square. Other than the apparent brightness and luminosity, another important factor is the surface temperature of a star. The surface temperatures are put into classes of spectral types. The spectral type is important when identifying stars because it tells us what the hottest stars are and what the coolest stars are. It even maps out at what point a star is in its lifeline. It would be like looking at a photo of human beings of all different cycles in our life from conception to death. The hottest star which also has the bluest colors are called spectral type O. Spectral type O is the highest in the class and all others decline from here following the declining surface temperatures. OBAFGKM is the classes of spectral types (Oh Be A Fine Girl/Guy Kiss Me). The coolest stars are situated on the last letter of the spectral pattern as M. The have the coolest surface temperatures of as low a 3000 K and they burn a red color. The cool, red stars are much more common that the hot, blue stars. A few examples of the spectral types G-M are our Sun, Eridani, Cygni, Lacaille, Gliese A & B. Some of the B-F star types include Achernar, Vega, Sirius, and Altair, in this class we call these start the super giants. Some O types of stars on the spectral pattern are Centauri and Spica. The mass of a star is defiantly more difficult to measure out of all the things that we could measure in a start because we can only determine the masses by using Kepler's third law; we can only use the third law in binary star systems. This is a system in which two stars continuously orbit each other, and by using Kepler's third law we can measure both their orbital period and the separation in between them. They can also establish masses of many other different stars by observations of eclipsing binaries (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.309-314).
Our Sun falls into the main sequence class being a G2, a little lower than what is classified as the middle of the spectrum. The Sun will stay a main sequence star for most of its lifetime. When it starts to change it will move up the line of spectrums someday becoming a giant and a super giant during the end of its life. Eventually it will end up being a white dwarf that is no longer on the lifeline of the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram. Our sun will last such a long time because lower mass stars tend to exhaust their nuclear fuel on a steadier basic than higher mass stars which tend to exhaust the nuclear fuel quickly (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.320-321). As we had talked about earlier our Sun is the perfect star for life to be created among the planets that orbit it. Our Sun is a very low mass star and therefore the process of nuclear fusion will go on for a long time or about 10 billion years. You would not want to live around a high mass star as it burns their nuclear fusion at a very high rate and they would not last a 10 billion year lifespan. For life to be created on a planet orbiting a star you need billions of years to help the process. Look at our human development, we have been created but it has taken billions of years for us to evolve to that point, and hopefully humanity will last for a few billion of years before we fade out in time.
References:
Bennett, J., Donahue, M., Schneider, N. & Voit, M. (2012) The essential cosmic perspective. (6th ed.) San
Francisco, CA: Pearson Addison-Wesley
Gravitational equilibrium is a balance of forces. A gravity force that is pulling inward as another force of gravity is pushing outward. To be able to keep the Sun's core temperature and fusion rate steady, you need gravitational equilibrium along with energy balance. If the output of energy from the Sun fluctuated Earth would not be a fun place to live. It may burn us up one minute but the freeze us the next. Fortunately the Sun does not fluctuate but stays very steady. With gravitational equilibrium is the Sun's core temperature rises or drops it will help the Sun to get back on track by allowing the core of the Sun to shrink or expand to allow the cooling off or heating up of the core. The photosphere looks bright and dark. The bright orange spots of all different shapes and sizes is the hot gases of the Sun rising. In between all these bright orange spot you also have dark orange streaks, lines, and curved of the cooler gases sinking back into the photosphere. Because of underlying convection, this is what makes the hot gases rise and fall and give its photosphere surface a look of granulation. Photons are rising out of the hot gasses providing sunlight to all the planets in orbit. The hot spots, or shades of black, you would see in photos are actually cooler than the rest of the photosphere areas, and because it is cooler it will show up in photos of the Sun as darker areas. The hottest gases flow much easier than cooler gases. You would think that since the sun spots are cooler the hotter gases surrounding that spot would flow right in and mix it all up, but it does not, there is something keeping these cooler areas from mixing in with the rest. Magnetic fields are doing just this. Magnetic fields can alter atoms and ions causing these dark areas to spit into two causing these sun spots to create arches filled with magnetic energy, these arches are also helping the processes of keeping these sun spots a cooler temperature. Eventually the magnetic field will become weak allowing the hotter gases to flow back in and mix everything up to the same temperature (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.294-297).
We can study the stars by measuring different stellar luminosities. Some stars are very far away and seem brighter than even the closest star to us. We can use the apparent brightness of the star and the luminosity of the star to find out more about its place in our universe and how hot it is really burning. Luminosity is a measure of a stars power and the apparent brightness is a measure of power per unit area meaning the amount of starlight reaching Earth per second per square. Other than the apparent brightness and luminosity, another important factor is the surface temperature of a star. The surface temperatures are put into classes of spectral types. The spectral type is important when identifying stars because it tells us what the hottest stars are and what the coolest stars are. It even maps out at what point a star is in its lifeline. It would be like looking at a photo of human beings of all different cycles in our life from conception to death. The hottest star which also has the bluest colors are called spectral type O. Spectral type O is the highest in the class and all others decline from here following the declining surface temperatures. OBAFGKM is the classes of spectral types (Oh Be A Fine Girl/Guy Kiss Me). The coolest stars are situated on the last letter of the spectral pattern as M. The have the coolest surface temperatures of as low a 3000 K and they burn a red color. The cool, red stars are much more common that the hot, blue stars. A few examples of the spectral types G-M are our Sun, Eridani, Cygni, Lacaille, Gliese A & B. Some of the B-F star types include Achernar, Vega, Sirius, and Altair, in this class we call these start the super giants. Some O types of stars on the spectral pattern are Centauri and Spica. The mass of a star is defiantly more difficult to measure out of all the things that we could measure in a start because we can only determine the masses by using Kepler's third law; we can only use the third law in binary star systems. This is a system in which two stars continuously orbit each other, and by using Kepler's third law we can measure both their orbital period and the separation in between them. They can also establish masses of many other different stars by observations of eclipsing binaries (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.309-314).
Our Sun falls into the main sequence class being a G2, a little lower than what is classified as the middle of the spectrum. The Sun will stay a main sequence star for most of its lifetime. When it starts to change it will move up the line of spectrums someday becoming a giant and a super giant during the end of its life. Eventually it will end up being a white dwarf that is no longer on the lifeline of the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram. Our sun will last such a long time because lower mass stars tend to exhaust their nuclear fuel on a steadier basic than higher mass stars which tend to exhaust the nuclear fuel quickly (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.320-321). As we had talked about earlier our Sun is the perfect star for life to be created among the planets that orbit it. Our Sun is a very low mass star and therefore the process of nuclear fusion will go on for a long time or about 10 billion years. You would not want to live around a high mass star as it burns their nuclear fusion at a very high rate and they would not last a 10 billion year lifespan. For life to be created on a planet orbiting a star you need billions of years to help the process. Look at our human development, we have been created but it has taken billions of years for us to evolve to that point, and hopefully humanity will last for a few billion of years before we fade out in time.
References:
Bennett, J., Donahue, M., Schneider, N. & Voit, M. (2012) The essential cosmic perspective. (6th ed.) San
Francisco, CA: Pearson Addison-Wesley
Life in the Solar System
Extremophiles are living organisms that survive in areas that humans could not. That is why the extreme is at the beginning. Human could not live in certain extreme conditions such as places that do not have liquid water or a type of source of nutrients. We also could not live somewhere where we were unable to receive energy, such as sunlight or chemical reactions, food sources. Life is proven to live in many extreme circumstances that we could not. For example scientist have found that organisms can live in hot water, microscopic life forms have also been found deep underwater were no sunlight at all could possibly touch them giving them the disadvantage of not having a source of energy. Scientist have also found microbes living inside rock in Antarctica in the most extreme freezing temperatures living off of only a tiny droplet of water. If these organisms can live in places like these on Earth were we would not be able to live then why would they not be able to survive on another planet in that planets conditions even if we would not be able to do so. Not every organic molecules needs to survive off of nutrients, energy, and liquid water. We know nutrients and energy should be on every planet in our solar system because our star the Sun provides sunlight to all planets, some more than others. Even the planets closest to the sun could be harboring some type of microorganisms because here on Earth we have found some that have survived years of high doses of radiation to such extremes that a human would not last a second (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.510).
It is really exciting to think of Europa to have a liquid water ocean, this has to be proof that there is life on other planets especially since we know that it is a fact that many life forms here on Earth live at the very depths of our oceans never surfacing for any needs at all. Life 2 adapts over billions of years to the living conditions of the planets. Maybe our planet is the only plant to adapted to human lives but that does not mean that every single other planet in this solar system has some type of live forms on it because over a long period of time those organisms would have adapted to the planet's conditions.
References:
Bennett, J., Donahue, M., Schneider, N. & Voit, M. (2012) The essential cosmic perspective. (6th ed.) San Francisco, CA: Pearson Addison-Wesley
It is really exciting to think of Europa to have a liquid water ocean, this has to be proof that there is life on other planets especially since we know that it is a fact that many life forms here on Earth live at the very depths of our oceans never surfacing for any needs at all. Life 2 adapts over billions of years to the living conditions of the planets. Maybe our planet is the only plant to adapted to human lives but that does not mean that every single other planet in this solar system has some type of live forms on it because over a long period of time those organisms would have adapted to the planet's conditions.
References:
Bennett, J., Donahue, M., Schneider, N. & Voit, M. (2012) The essential cosmic perspective. (6th ed.) San Francisco, CA: Pearson Addison-Wesley
Terrestrial Planets and the Formation of the Solar System
The solar nebula is a massive form of clouds and gases that is said to have formed our entire solar system. The solar nebula is the beginning of the theory we have on how our solar system was formed called the nebular theory. When the solar nebula first began it is said to have been a large and spherical cloud of very cold, low-density gas. This cloud of gas would have been spread out beyond our belief, covering light-years of space and gravity alone may not have been able to make this whole cloud of cold gases start spinning. An explosion of a dying star could have started the spinning process along with the gravitational pull. Once this explosion happened the gravity would ensure that it would continue to spin. Over a long period of time the solar nebula shrinks in size looking much smaller like a spinning disk. Through this process of heating, spinning, and flattening we have the beginning of a solar system (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.160-161).
A protostar is a group of gases that will eventually become a star. Protostars are not true stars at this point of formation because their cores are not hot enough for nuclear fusion. The Sun is a high-mass star and it will have the nuclear fusion life span of about 10 billion years. The Suns core is at the point of processes nuclear fusion but over the next 5 billion years the nuclear fusion is the Sun will cease and will enter a new phase in it's life span (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.336-341). Both terrestrial and jovian planets are born from metal and rock; they both also are made up of mostly hydrogen and helium gases. The terrestrial planets are only made up of metals and rock, the reason they may be smaller from the jovian planets is because metal and rock made up 2 such a small amount in the solar nebula. Through the process of collecting solid bits of metal and rock they basically slammed into each other eventually making them large enough to call them planetesimals. Only the largest planetesimals survived all the collisions they encountered eventually making the inner four terrestrial planets.
The process of accretion, which is the process of making a planet, should have worked the same way on the jovian planets beyond the frost line in our solar system but it did not due to the seeds of ice. During formation of the Jovian planets they were surrounded by disks of gas making them large icy planetesimals. The jovian planets built up so much gas that they became one big icy seed in the end just as the started with icy seeds and also small amounts of metal and rock, but much less metal and rock than the terrestrial planets. As we know the main properties of the solar nebula are hydrogen and helium compounds. The frost line in our solar system is the point at which it is far enough from the sun to allow hydrogen compounds to turn into ices. The frost line lies between the present day of the obits of mars and Jupiter. Hence explaining the four inner planets known as terrestrial planets and the four once five outer planets known as the jovian planets. During the Earth's formation as planetesimals, water and gases became trapped under the Earth's surface. Through the process of volcanism be releasing gases that are mainly made up of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen; this is what has made the Earth's atmosphere. Much of the nitrogen still remains in the Earth's atmosphere. This is also what made the Earth's oceans thanks to our greenhouse effect. Oxygen is mainly a mystery but we do know that is was created originally on Earth by photosynthetic life. When our planet was made the inner core was the hottest when it was young. Over the years by letting of gases through volcanism created an atmosphere which also allowed water to be created on Earth. The process continues today as the 3 gases come out of erupting volcanoes, the gases go up into our atmosphere to be made into rainwater which then returns to the Earth breaking down the minerals from rock back into the sea to repeat the whole process over again. Through this process of giving us an atmosphere and liquid water on Earth provided a home for plants and microorganisms which intake CO2 and release oxygen allowing human life to then be created (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.218-220).
Scientist believe our moon was created by a giant impact between the Earth and another large planetesimals, which then blasted the outer layers of the moon into space forming what we know call the Moon. The Moon contains very little metal and also has a smaller proportion of easily evaporated ingredients, this would also support the theory that our Moon was created by a giant impact because the force of the impact would have evaporated those things off the layers of Earth that were blasted off during the impact. In the end it is believed that our Moon is made from a part of the Earth. The moons of Mars are more likely just captured asteroids that have been captured by Mars' atmosphere when it was extended a long time ago. These asteroids may have once orbited the sun but then became caught up in Mars own orbit a long time ago. Mars moons are call captured moons because they once orbited the sun. Our own moon is way to big to be captured which has brought about the theory of the giant impact (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.168-169).
The Greenhouse Effect
The atmospheres of Venus and Earth are very similar in the elements they once use to carry. Venus's atmosphere is made primarily of carbon dioxide. The Earth's atmosphere is made up of carbon dioxide also but also nitrogen and oxygen. The Earth has the same or even more 4 amount of carbon dioxide as Venus does, it is just found in different forms. Venus's atmosphere carries the carbon dioxide in gas form while so does the Earth but then it transforms into carbonated rocks through a process in which the carbon dioxide dissolves into water were it can start the chemical process of turning into rocks. The reason Venus keeps the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is because it does not have the oceans to begin the process the Earth goes through in making carbon dioxide into rock form. One reason Venus does not have the oceans and liquid water as Earth does, is because it is closer to the Sun than the Earth is. The greater the intensity of the sunlight the faster liquid water such as oceans would dissolve. The evaporation of the liquid water would cause a water vapor to increase in the atmosphere which is still a considered a greenhouse gas. This would then drive the temperatures higher causing even more liquid water to evaporate. This whole process would cause a runaway greenhouse effect and continue until all oceans were evaporated and all carbon dioxide out of the rocks was evaporated back into the atmosphere. If this process would happen on the planet Earth over a period of time our planet would be made into another Venus. Though Venus and Earth are very similar, the placements of the planets from our Sun makes a big difference on how the chemicals react on our planet and what type of greenhouse effect the planet will have. The greenhouse effect on Earth is perfect; its cycle is repeatable and steady (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.200-216).
In conclusion the place in which the Earth is placed from the Sun gives the Earth a good chance of a good greenhouse effect were the carbon dioxide that is in the atmosphere dissolves into rain water, which is carried through the oceans and mixes with eroded minerals in the oceans to make ricks such as limestone. Over millions of years the conveyor belt of the plate tectonics moves the rocks to zones in the ocean that are then carried downward. As they are then 5 pushed deeper into the mantle of the Earth some of the carbon dioxide is released so it is then outgassed back into the atmosphere through volcanoes. On Venus were there is a runaway greenhouse effect this whole process happens to quickly because of the heat from being closer to the sun and it making the planet warmer, higher temperatures holds more water vapor and additional water vapor increases the greenhouse effect (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.216-217).
Over the years the CO2 levels in our atmosphere have raised a lot. Although it is being understood more today than ever, when the war on the change in climate and our atmosphere first had started was back in 1896, it has taken almost a century for scientist to come up with the right amount of evidence to prove human activity is the cause of the increased levels in CO2 in our atmosphere. In 1980 they drilled through into the Greenland and the Antarctic ice caps to measure the CO2 back to the last ice age, they had found that there was a very low levels of gases which correlated with the low level in temperatures (Weart, 2011). Because of the increased CO2 levels on Earth in our atmosphere, which is causing a global warming, which is causing a climate change; this is affecting many people that we do not realize. For example in the Philippines they are regularly battered by typhoons and many believe because of the climate change the typhoons are getting stronger and stronger. Before the industrial revolution the atmospheric carbon dioxide was 280 parts per million, now it is 391 parts per million. Just in that short amount of 109 years the global average temperature rose 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit (Groppe & Dileo, 2012). Although this does not seem to be much especially since it did not even happen in our own lifetime, it still does not say to much for the future of our humanity over billions of years. 6
References:
Bennett, J., Donahue, M., Schneider, N. & Voit, M. (2012) The essential cosmic perspective. (6th ed.) San Francisco, CA: Pearson
Addison-Wesley Weart, S. (2011). Global warming: How skepticism became denial. Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists, 67(1), 41-50. doi:10.1177/0096340210392966
Groppe, E., & Dileo, D. R. (2012). Climate For Change. America, 206(10), 12-16.
A protostar is a group of gases that will eventually become a star. Protostars are not true stars at this point of formation because their cores are not hot enough for nuclear fusion. The Sun is a high-mass star and it will have the nuclear fusion life span of about 10 billion years. The Suns core is at the point of processes nuclear fusion but over the next 5 billion years the nuclear fusion is the Sun will cease and will enter a new phase in it's life span (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.336-341). Both terrestrial and jovian planets are born from metal and rock; they both also are made up of mostly hydrogen and helium gases. The terrestrial planets are only made up of metals and rock, the reason they may be smaller from the jovian planets is because metal and rock made up 2 such a small amount in the solar nebula. Through the process of collecting solid bits of metal and rock they basically slammed into each other eventually making them large enough to call them planetesimals. Only the largest planetesimals survived all the collisions they encountered eventually making the inner four terrestrial planets.
The process of accretion, which is the process of making a planet, should have worked the same way on the jovian planets beyond the frost line in our solar system but it did not due to the seeds of ice. During formation of the Jovian planets they were surrounded by disks of gas making them large icy planetesimals. The jovian planets built up so much gas that they became one big icy seed in the end just as the started with icy seeds and also small amounts of metal and rock, but much less metal and rock than the terrestrial planets. As we know the main properties of the solar nebula are hydrogen and helium compounds. The frost line in our solar system is the point at which it is far enough from the sun to allow hydrogen compounds to turn into ices. The frost line lies between the present day of the obits of mars and Jupiter. Hence explaining the four inner planets known as terrestrial planets and the four once five outer planets known as the jovian planets. During the Earth's formation as planetesimals, water and gases became trapped under the Earth's surface. Through the process of volcanism be releasing gases that are mainly made up of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen; this is what has made the Earth's atmosphere. Much of the nitrogen still remains in the Earth's atmosphere. This is also what made the Earth's oceans thanks to our greenhouse effect. Oxygen is mainly a mystery but we do know that is was created originally on Earth by photosynthetic life. When our planet was made the inner core was the hottest when it was young. Over the years by letting of gases through volcanism created an atmosphere which also allowed water to be created on Earth. The process continues today as the 3 gases come out of erupting volcanoes, the gases go up into our atmosphere to be made into rainwater which then returns to the Earth breaking down the minerals from rock back into the sea to repeat the whole process over again. Through this process of giving us an atmosphere and liquid water on Earth provided a home for plants and microorganisms which intake CO2 and release oxygen allowing human life to then be created (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.218-220).
Scientist believe our moon was created by a giant impact between the Earth and another large planetesimals, which then blasted the outer layers of the moon into space forming what we know call the Moon. The Moon contains very little metal and also has a smaller proportion of easily evaporated ingredients, this would also support the theory that our Moon was created by a giant impact because the force of the impact would have evaporated those things off the layers of Earth that were blasted off during the impact. In the end it is believed that our Moon is made from a part of the Earth. The moons of Mars are more likely just captured asteroids that have been captured by Mars' atmosphere when it was extended a long time ago. These asteroids may have once orbited the sun but then became caught up in Mars own orbit a long time ago. Mars moons are call captured moons because they once orbited the sun. Our own moon is way to big to be captured which has brought about the theory of the giant impact (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.168-169).
The Greenhouse Effect
The atmospheres of Venus and Earth are very similar in the elements they once use to carry. Venus's atmosphere is made primarily of carbon dioxide. The Earth's atmosphere is made up of carbon dioxide also but also nitrogen and oxygen. The Earth has the same or even more 4 amount of carbon dioxide as Venus does, it is just found in different forms. Venus's atmosphere carries the carbon dioxide in gas form while so does the Earth but then it transforms into carbonated rocks through a process in which the carbon dioxide dissolves into water were it can start the chemical process of turning into rocks. The reason Venus keeps the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is because it does not have the oceans to begin the process the Earth goes through in making carbon dioxide into rock form. One reason Venus does not have the oceans and liquid water as Earth does, is because it is closer to the Sun than the Earth is. The greater the intensity of the sunlight the faster liquid water such as oceans would dissolve. The evaporation of the liquid water would cause a water vapor to increase in the atmosphere which is still a considered a greenhouse gas. This would then drive the temperatures higher causing even more liquid water to evaporate. This whole process would cause a runaway greenhouse effect and continue until all oceans were evaporated and all carbon dioxide out of the rocks was evaporated back into the atmosphere. If this process would happen on the planet Earth over a period of time our planet would be made into another Venus. Though Venus and Earth are very similar, the placements of the planets from our Sun makes a big difference on how the chemicals react on our planet and what type of greenhouse effect the planet will have. The greenhouse effect on Earth is perfect; its cycle is repeatable and steady (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.200-216).
In conclusion the place in which the Earth is placed from the Sun gives the Earth a good chance of a good greenhouse effect were the carbon dioxide that is in the atmosphere dissolves into rain water, which is carried through the oceans and mixes with eroded minerals in the oceans to make ricks such as limestone. Over millions of years the conveyor belt of the plate tectonics moves the rocks to zones in the ocean that are then carried downward. As they are then 5 pushed deeper into the mantle of the Earth some of the carbon dioxide is released so it is then outgassed back into the atmosphere through volcanoes. On Venus were there is a runaway greenhouse effect this whole process happens to quickly because of the heat from being closer to the sun and it making the planet warmer, higher temperatures holds more water vapor and additional water vapor increases the greenhouse effect (Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 2012, p.216-217).
Over the years the CO2 levels in our atmosphere have raised a lot. Although it is being understood more today than ever, when the war on the change in climate and our atmosphere first had started was back in 1896, it has taken almost a century for scientist to come up with the right amount of evidence to prove human activity is the cause of the increased levels in CO2 in our atmosphere. In 1980 they drilled through into the Greenland and the Antarctic ice caps to measure the CO2 back to the last ice age, they had found that there was a very low levels of gases which correlated with the low level in temperatures (Weart, 2011). Because of the increased CO2 levels on Earth in our atmosphere, which is causing a global warming, which is causing a climate change; this is affecting many people that we do not realize. For example in the Philippines they are regularly battered by typhoons and many believe because of the climate change the typhoons are getting stronger and stronger. Before the industrial revolution the atmospheric carbon dioxide was 280 parts per million, now it is 391 parts per million. Just in that short amount of 109 years the global average temperature rose 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit (Groppe & Dileo, 2012). Although this does not seem to be much especially since it did not even happen in our own lifetime, it still does not say to much for the future of our humanity over billions of years. 6
References:
Bennett, J., Donahue, M., Schneider, N. & Voit, M. (2012) The essential cosmic perspective. (6th ed.) San Francisco, CA: Pearson
Addison-Wesley Weart, S. (2011). Global warming: How skepticism became denial. Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists, 67(1), 41-50. doi:10.1177/0096340210392966
Groppe, E., & Dileo, D. R. (2012). Climate For Change. America, 206(10), 12-16.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Postive Employment
Positive Psychology Applications
Not many people will be handed the perfect job on a silver platter. Nor will we all experience positive work environments and an optimistic boss. It is your choice to seek a pleasurable life, in the same respect it is a person's choice to seek happiness and enjoyment in the workplace. I believe the bigger question here is how do we seek pleasure in our employment. Many jobs may have no positive factors in the components that make up that position; regardless, it is still your responsibility to turn the situation into a positive outcome. A person committing to a change, whether it is within their own employment or seeking new employment, will naturally work harder at those things that brings them pleasure and enjoyment or satisfaction (Ben-Shahar, 2007).
For example, a jailer working in the county jail does not see "good" law abiding citizens on a daily basis. Instead they take care of the citizens that have been deemed a menace to society. How could this employee find any possible way to turn this situation into a positive work environment? This jailer could in fact little by little try to change the lives of those inmates. Through application of positive psychology in the workplace this employee could change the life of just one of the inmates in that jail to where then they alter their own life in never being a menace to society again. It is up to the employee to have the choice to have influence on the way they bring essence to their job performance (Ben-Shahar, 2007).
Within this paper we will discuss positive psychology application in the workplace and what, if any, negative effects this could have with the work environment. We will learn arguments for why this application should be used and what positive effects it may have on the lives of people within that workplace. We will also discuss the argument as to why no positive applications should be used in the work environment and why that is so. As with many employers there are rules and regulations that have to be followed. Positive psychology applications do not have to be material items; many applications of this require just you and the motivation for change to a more positive and optimistic work environment. One big component we can utilize is the MPS process which will break down a persons meaning in life, their pleasures in life, and also what strengths they may posses. The MPS process will structure those following components together to help you realize what job may have all of those qualities (Ben-Shahar, 2007).
Strengths and Challenges in Applying Positive Psychology in the Workplace
Much strength is involved in using positive psychology in the workforce. One reason is that with this application employees in general are happier. When a person is happy, the production output that they will accomplish in a days time will increase. High levels of stress and aggravation or poor working conditions, which in turn would cause stress, are linked to poor organizational numbers. Having employees who are emotionally happy, being well treated, and who have less stress to deal with at work make a productive employee. Not only does this harbor a productive happy employee but it is also said in increase the all around attitude of the organization and its clients, making everyone "happier" (Taris & Schreurs, 2009).
A challenge in applying positive psychology in the workplace may be the environment itself. There are so many rules and regulations in many different employments that sometimes the aurora of "happiness" is not allowed. For example, in one of our local court systems one of the Judges is a very complex person. But one thing is known by who has worked in his court is that noise, giggles, and happiness was not allowed. He liked his office very serious and quiet. I do not disagree with this as court matters are not to be taken lightly but being serious without some types of outbursts of kindness or happiness is needed; otherwise seriousness can turn into stressful situations. Although positive psychology is not all about being happy with your employment it still has much influence on how we become productive employees.
Arguments For and Against the Application of Positive Psychology in Employments
The benefits of having a positive work environment far outweigh any evil or negative components that could come from a more successful happy organization. When an organization is more on the upbeat positive side they are most likely producing at a higher rate than companies with poor attributions across the board. For example, we have many different littler departments in the Annex building where I work. If all the offices would be concerned with how we could improve the overall flow of documents that we all have to attend to on a daily basis we may have a more productive day. When you add in negative components rather than positive ones, the office may loose time and money by all the work that is put into finding out what other departments are doing wrong.
How This Knowledge Will Benefit Me
One major way this knowledge will benefit me is first the fact that I can acknowledge the information on positive psychology and how it could help me live a "happier" life within my workplace. I also can acknowledge that if I need to seek out happiness is certain areas, people, or material things, I will never find it. Whatever our situation is, there can be improvements made. Whether it be making your current employment a better place for you be or seeking out new employment where you may find happiness.
Summary and Conclusion
Whether it be in home, school, or work, being positive is something every single person should work on daily. For the most part it seems to easy to be negative or get into the drama and negative emotions going on in the workplace. From research and life experiences it shows that having a positive outlook on life is much healthier for a person all around and will bring you much satisfaction overall.
References
Ben-Shahar, T. (2007). Happier: Learn the secrets to daily joy and lasting fulfillment. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Taris, T. W., & Schreurs, P. G. (2009). Well-being and organizational performance: An organizational-level test of the happy-productive worker hypothesis. Work & Stress, 23(2), 120-136. doi:10.1080/02678370903072555
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