Space Time - Blog Posts
How does time work in a black hole?
Out of all the theories and fantasies created around blackholes, which of them, in your opinion, do you think could come closest to reality?
How Gravity Warps Light
Gravity is obviously pretty important. It holds your feet down to Earth so you don’t fly away into space, and (equally important) it keeps your ice cream from floating right out of your cone! We’ve learned a lot about gravity over the past few hundred years, but one of the strangest things we’ve discovered is that most of the gravity in the universe comes from an invisible source called “dark matter.” While our telescopes can’t directly see dark matter, they can help us figure out more about it thanks to a phenomenon called gravitational lensing.
The Gravity of the Situation
Anything that has mass is called matter, and all matter has gravity. Gravity pulls on everything that has mass and warps space-time, the underlying fabric of the universe. Things like llamas and doughnuts and even paper clips all warp space-time, but only a tiny bit since they aren’t very massive.
But huge clusters of galaxies are so massive that their gravity produces some pretty bizarre effects. Light always travels in a straight line, but sometimes its path is bent. When light passes close to a massive object, space-time is so warped that it curves the path the light must follow. Light that would normally be blocked by the galaxy cluster is bent around it, producing intensified — and sometimes multiple — images of the source. This process, called gravitational lensing, turns galaxy clusters into gigantic, intergalactic magnifying glasses that give us a glimpse of cosmic objects that would normally be too distant and faint for even our biggest telescopes to see.
Hubble “Sees” Dark Matter
Let’s recap — matter warps space-time. The more matter, the stronger the warp and the bigger its gravitational lensing effects. In fact, by studying “lensed” objects, we can map out the quantity and location of the unseen matter causing the distortion!
Thanks to gravitational lensing, scientists have measured the total mass of many galaxy clusters, which revealed that all the matter they can see isn’t enough to create the warping effects they observe. There’s more gravitational pull than there is visible stuff to do the pulling — a lot more! Scientists think dark matter accounts for this difference. It’s invisible to our eyes and telescopes, but it can’t hide its gravity!
The mismatch between what we see and what we know must be there may seem strange, but it’s not hard to imagine. You know that people can’t float in mid-air, so what if you saw a person appearing to do just that? You would know right away that there must be wires holding him up, even if you couldn’t see them.
Our Hubble Space Telescope observations are helping unravel the dark matter mystery. By studying gravitationally lensed galaxy clusters with Hubble, astronomers have figured out how much of the matter in the universe is “normal” and how much is “dark.” Even though normal matter makes up everything from pickles to planets, there’s about five times more dark matter in the universe than all the normal matter combined!
WFIRST Will Escalate the Search
One of our next major space telescopes, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), will take these gravitational lensing observations to the next level. WFIRST will be sensitive enough to use weak gravitational lensing to see how clumps of dark matter warp the appearance of distant galaxies. By observing lensing effects on this small scale, scientists will be able to fill in more of the gaps in our understanding of dark matter.
WFIRST will observe a sky area 100 times larger than Hubble does, but with the same awesome image quality. WFIRST will collect so much data in its first year that it will allow scientists to conduct in-depth studies that would have taken hundreds of years with previous telescopes.
WFIRST’s weak gravitational lensing observations will allow us to peer even further back in time than Hubble is capable of seeing. Scientists believe that the universe’s underlying dark matter structure played a major role in the formation and evolution of galaxies by attracting normal matter. Seeing the universe in its early stages will help scientists unravel how it has evolved over time and possibly provide clues to how it may continue to evolve. We don’t know what the future will hold, but WFIRST will help us find out.
This science is pretty mind-bending, even for scientists. Learn more as our current and future telescopes plan to help unlock these mysteries of the universe...
Hubble: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html WFIRST: https://wfirst.gsfc.nasa.gov/
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Five Record-Setting Gamma-ray Bursts!
For 10 years, our Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has scanned the sky for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the universe’s most luminous explosions!
Most GRBs occur when some types of massive stars run out of fuel and collapse to create new black holes. Others happen when two neutron stars, superdense remnants of stellar explosions, merge. Both kinds of cataclysmic events create jets of particles that move near the speed of light.
A new catalog of the highest-energy blasts provides scientists with fresh insights into how they work. Below are five record-setting events from the catalog that have helped scientists learn more about GRBs:
1. Super-short burst in Boötes!
The short burst 081102B, which occurred in the constellation Boötes on Nov. 2, 2008, is the briefest LAT-detected GRB, lasting just one-tenth of a second!
2. Long-lived burst!
Long-lived burst 160623A, spotted on June 23, 2016, in the constellation Cygnus, kept shining for almost 10 hours at LAT energies — the longest burst in the catalog.
For both long and short bursts, the high-energy gamma-ray emission lasts longer than the low-energy emission and happens later.
3. Highest energy gamma-rays!
The highest-energy individual gamma ray detected by Fermi’s LAT reached 94 billion electron volts (GeV) and traveled 3.8 billion light-years from the constellation Leo. It was emitted by 130427A, which also holds the record for the most gamma rays — 17 — with energies above 10 GeV.
4. In a constellation far, far away!
The farthest known GRB occurred 12.2 billion light-years away in the constellation Carina. Called 080916C, researchers calculate the explosion contained the power of 9,000 supernovae.
5. Probing the physics of our cosmos!
The known distance to 090510 helped test Einstein’s theory that the fabric of space-time is smooth and continuous. Fermi detected both a high-energy and a low-energy gamma ray at nearly the same instant. Having traveled the same distance in the same amount of time, they showed that all light, no matter its energy, moves at the same speed through the vacuum of space.
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Gravitational Waves in the Space-Time Continuum
Einstein's Theories of Relativity
Einstein has two theories of relativity. The first is The Theory of Special Relativity (1905). This is a theory of mechanics that correctly describes the motions of objects moving near the speed of light. This theory predicts that mass increases with velocity. The equation is E=MC^2 or Energy = Mass × Speed of Light ^2.
In 1916, Einstein proposed the Theory of General Relativity, which generalized his Theory of Special Relativity and had the first predictions of gravitational waves. It implied a few things.
Space-Time is a 4-Dimensional continuum.
Principle of equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass.
This suggests that Mass-Energy distorts the fabric of space-time in a predictable way (gravitational waves). It also implies
Strong gravitational force makes time slow down.
Light is altered by gravity
Gravity in strong gravitational fields will no longer obey Newton's Inverse-Square Law.
What is Newton's Inverse-Square Law?
Newton's Inverse-Square Law suggests that the force of gravity between any two objects is inversely proportional to the square of the separation distance between the two centers.
Stephen Hawking's Theory of Everything
Stephen Hawking's Theory of Everything is the solution to Einstein's equation in his Theory of General Relativity. It says that the mass density of the universe exceeds the critical density.
Critical Density: amount of mass needed to make a universe adopt a flat geometry.
This theory states that when the universe gets too big it will crash back into its center in a "Big Crunch" creating giant black hole. The energy from this "Big Crunch" will rebound and create a new "Big Bang".
Big Crunch: hypothetical scenario for the end of the known universe. The expansion of the universe will reverse and collapse on itself. The energy generated will create a new Big Bang, creating a new universe.
Big Bang: Matter will expand from a single point from a state of high density and matter. This will mark the birth of a new universe.
Basic Facts about Gravitational Waves
Invisible "ripples" in the Space-Time Continuum
Travel at the speed of light
186,000 miles per second / 299,337.984 Kilometers per second
11,160,000 miles per minute / 17,960,279.04 Kilometers per minute
669,600,000 miles per hour / 1,077,616,742.4 Kilometers per hour
There are four (4) defined categories
Continuous
Stochastic
Burst
Compact Binary Inspiral
What is LIGO?
The first proof of the existence of gravitational waves came in 1974. 20+ years after Einstein's death.
The first physical proof came in 2015, 100 years after his theory was published. The waves were detected by LIGO.
LIGO- Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
The waves detected in 2015 came from 2 black holes that collided 1.3 billion years ago in the constellation Hydra. 1.3 billion years ago multicellular life was just beginning to spread on Earth, it was before the time of the dinosaurs!
Continuous Gravitational Waves
Produced by a single spinning massive object.
Caused by imperfections on the surface.
The spin rate of the object is constant. The waves are come at a continuous frequency.
Stochastic Gravitational Waves
Smalles waves
Hardest to detect
Possibly caused by remnants of gravitational radiation left over from the Big Bang
Could possibly allow us to look at the history of the Universe.
Small waves from every direction mixed together.
Burst Gravitational Waves
Never been detected.
Like ever.
Never ever.
Not once.
Nope
No
N E V E R
We don't know anything about them.
If we learn about them they could reveal the greatest revolutionary information about the universe.
Compact Binary Inspiral Gravitational Waves
All waves detected by LIGO fall into this category.
Produced by orbiting pairs of massive and dense objects. (Neutron Stars, Black Holes)
Three (3) subclasses
Binary Neutron Star (BNS) // Two (2) Neutron Stars colliding
Binary Black Hole (BBH) // Two (2) Black Holes colliding
Neutron Star- Black Hole Binary (NSBH) // A black hole and a neutron star colliding
Each subclass creates its own unique wave pattern.
Waves are all caused by the smae mechanism called an "inspiral".
Occur over millions of years.
Over eons the objects orbit closer together.
The closer they get, the faster they spin.
Sources Used:
On The Shoulders Of Giants by Stephen Hawking
Oxford Astronomy Encyclopedia
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