Space: Who Knew, #13

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Magnetic Portals

I came across this article on Magnetic portals today and thought it would be a nice addition to my space series. Check it out...

So everyone knows that the Earth has a magnetosphere, or that is a magnetic field that extends far beyond the Earth. In this wiki article, it goes on to say that magnetic fields continue on infinitely, though weaken as the distance grows from its source. I also learned here that unlike geographic poles (ie- the north and south poles), magnetic poles wander independently of each other, and by as much as 15 km per year.

Not only that, but there is strong evidence that supports the theory of magnetic field reversals. That is, magnetic North becomes South and vise-verse. I first learned about this in college, its pretty interesting, quoted from here:

Based upon the study of lava flows of basalt throughout the world, it has been proposed that the Earth's magnetic field reverses at intervals, ranging from tens of thousands to many millions of years, with an average interval of approximately 250,000 years. The last such event, called the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal, is theorized to have occurred some 780,000 years ago.

There is no clear theory as to how the geomagnetic reversals might have occurred. Some scientists have produced models for the core of the Earth wherein the magnetic field is only quasi-stable and the poles can spontaneously migrate from one orientation to the other over the course of a few hundred to a few thousand years. Other scientists propose that the geodynamo first turns itself off, either spontaneously or through some external action like a comet impact, and then restarts itself with the magnetic "North" pole pointing either North or South. External events are not likely to be routine causes of magnetic field reversals due to the lack of a correlation between the age of impact craters and the timing of reversals. Regardless of the cause, when magnetic "North" reappears in the opposite direction this is a reversal, whereas turning off and returning in the same direction is called a geomagnetic excursion.

So that's pretty interesting indeed, we may be in for a new reversal some time in the future if this theory is correct. But whats this about magnetic portals then? Check out this article:

"It's called a flux transfer event or 'FTE,'" says space physicist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "Ten years ago I was pretty sure they didn't exist, but now the evidence is incontrovertible."

Indeed, today Sibeck is telling an international assembly of space physicists at the 2008 Plasma Workshop in Huntsville, Alabama, that FTEs are not just common, but possibly twice as common as anyone had ever imagined.

...

Researchers have long known that the Earth and sun must be connected. Earth's magnetosphere (the magnetic bubble that surrounds our planet) is filled with particles from the sun that arrive via the solar wind and penetrate the planet's magnetic defenses. They enter by following magnetic field lines that can be traced from terra firma all the way back to the sun's atmosphere.

"We used to think the connection was permanent and that solar wind could trickle into the near-Earth environment anytime the wind was active," says Sibeck. "We were wrong. The connections are not steady at all. They are often brief, bursty and very dynamic."

Several speakers at the Workshop have outlined how FTEs form: On the dayside of Earth (the side closest to the sun), Earth's magnetic field presses against the sun's magnetic field. Approximately every eight minutes, the two fields briefly merge or "reconnect," forming a portal through which particles can flow. The portal takes the form of a magnetic cylinder about as wide as Earth. The European Space Agency's fleet of four Cluster spacecraft and NASA's five THEMIS probes have flown through and surrounded these cylinders, measuring their dimensions and sensing the particles that shoot through. "They're real," says Sibeck.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30oct_ftes.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_magnetic_field
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere

Who knew???

Beautiful APOD today...

Check out today's APOD, very neat indeed. Also, here is the original source, looks like an awesome place to grab full size images directly from Hubble

http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/html/heic0822.html

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey day everyone!

Morning Snow

So WeatherBug informed me last night that we were likely to see early morning snow, and though I didn't get up early, I did squeeze a few shots in before work. As much as I dislike cold weather, I must admit- I enjoy the early snow, before it gets muddy and dark from exhaust. So here are a couple of the pics I took this morning....

TED Talk: Design of the Universe

I caught this video on TED today, it's pretty interesting...

It has to do with how scientists have been able to piece together what the known universe looks like based on observations from right here on Earth.

He provides some interesting data about dark matter and how clusters of galaxies tend to clump together due to the effects of gravity and dark matter over the course of billions of years. He sites data taken from the WMAP satellite and talks about the new Planck satellite that is due to launch later this (or next?) year.

Oh and I didn't realize that the Milky Way Galaxy is somewhat alone in the universe, or more aptly described, it isn't surrounded by large clumps of galaxies like much of the rest of the observable universe- but I'll let him describe that as he does a much better job.

South Park Sunset

I've slowly been adding to my HDR photography portfolio, and tonight's sunset was just the chance to try out my new tripod. Here are some of the photos I took at South Park. You can catch all my edited photos in a slideshow here.

False Alarm!

I won't go into all the details, but I'll mention that it was a false alarm, we're now home from the hospital, and Ashley has some medication for the pain. We're very unlikely to have the baby this week, apparently there was a mis-communication the last time she had her fetal-fibernectin test, the nurses told us it was positive, which means you're likely to have hte baby within the next two weeks.

It actually turns out the test was negative, soooo yeah. No baby today!

80% chance of having a baby today?

Just a quick update, I'm waiting to hear back from the doctor, Ashley may be having Braden today. Her contractions are now 2 minutes apart and she's rating them as 10's. We would have gone in already, but they sent us home last time her contractions were like this, so I guess we'll see what they say this time.

Chances are we'll be delivering in Green Bay if the baby hasn't dropped yet.

PC's new book

This guy is so funny.... read the whole article on CNN here.

You might want to take John Hodgman's new book, "More Information Than You Require," with a grain of salt. Or maybe the whole shaker.

Like its predecessor, "The Areas of My Expertise," Hodgman's latest is an almanac-style compendium of facts ranging from the historical to the trivial. Except it's largely bogus, often completely made up and delightfully absurd.

CNN:Why did you decide to do a second book?

John Hodgman: My first book was called "The Areas of My Expertise," and like my new book, it was a collection of fascinating trivia and historical oddities and amazing true facts -- with the advantage that all the amazing true facts were made up by me.

I really wanted to write the second book, "More Information Than You Require," because [with] the first book of fake facts [being] only 236 pages long, people might think that I was a sane person. By adding an additional 300 pages to the total world knowledge count, I now look completely insane.

CNN: How do you go about researching your book?

Hodgman: I compile it by not doing any. My research generally involves me sitting down and thinking of all the half-truths and common misperceptions I've picked up along the way, and then I'll supplement that with a little bit of surfing the Internet, which is my favorite repository of dubious scholarship, and then I fuse that into the kind of world-complete knowledge that only my book can provide -- unresearched, largely fictional and entirely true.

CNN: Your book contains some interesting information about the electoral process, for instance.

Hodgman: It is that time of year that we pretend to vote for a president -- and I say "pretend" because, of course, we cast our ballots and create the popular vote and then all of those ballots are taken to a vault in upstate New York and hidden away and never looked at again. And then it goes to the Electoral College.

Now the Electoral College is a beautiful college in upstate New York. A lot of people have visited its campus. The town of Electoral is not much to speak of, I have to say.

CNN:And in your book we learn some strange but "true" things about America's presidents, including Woodrow Wilson.

Hodgman: Yes, Wilson was incapacitated after he had a stroke, so they had to put him in a special "stroke box," and from that time on, his wife really acted as the de facto president. That's why he was given the nickname "The President Who Is Secretly a Lady," and lots of people thought she was running interference and making all the decisions, and from time to time, they would say "Look, we need to see the president."

He was locked away in a closet, and she would bring him out, and even then they were suspicious -- they thought he might be a ventriloquist dummy shaped as Woodrow Wilson. But she had them tricked -- it was ventriloquist dummy made entirely out of Woodrow Wilson.

HAHAHAH!!!!!

Its happened...

First snow... UGUGGUGUGH. Lemme repeat...

UUGHGHSUDH!

It snowed yesterday briefly, and although it was brief, the snow hasn't melted completely. First signs of winter are finally here.

Time to get out the shovels... (and snow blowers for you luckier ppl)

Dev strikes it rich with iPhone game

Caught this on CNN today:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/11/18/iphone.game.developer/index.html

Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside...

Another Update

Ashley is now home from the hospital, and she's feeling a little better. The number of contractions haven't lessened, but their intensity seems to have so that's a very good thing. Two more weeks left and the doctors won't try to stop her from going into labor. So that's an even better thing!

I have to send out a huge thanks to my family for all their love and support in all of this. My mom and sister took Isabella for a few hours on Saturday that really helped, and my dad has been awesome helping me with various projects around the house.

We're lucky to have the family and friends we do. Anyways, I hope everyone can enjoy their day today. The sun was out this morning which was super refreshing (and still no snow- so woot!)

Prego Update

I had to leave work early today because Ashley's contractions became pretty severe. We went to the hospital around 3 pm and stayed there while they did tests until about 5 pm. She is not yet dilated, so the contractions are just Braxton Hicks, and the fern test came back negative (which means she's not likely to have the baby with 1-2 weeks). They decided it was in Ashley's best interest if they kept her in the hospital, because her contractions were still quite frequent and many were pretty intense.

She's had these confounded things for about 7 weeks now, I don't know how she does it... Anyways, she's at the hospital now, and I'm sitting here missing her! Isabella and I brought her dinner and watched Finding Nemo for about an hour and a half before we left for home, so she had some company tonight at least...

As much as I love my little girl, and love the idea of having another child.... I don't think I'll ever put Ashley through this again. Looking forward to when Braden is born and she can be comfortable again!

You're a trooper Ash, I love you!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Mom, we love you so much, thanks for everything you do for us!

Happy Birthday!!

Solar Panels get efficiency boost

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/11/12/solar.coating/index.html

Pretty neat article. My hope is that in the near future, all homes will have the option of placing solar panels on their roofs, thereby generating their own power. It would surely revolutionize the way we produce power...

Congratulations Paul & Stacey!

We love you both and your little bundle of joy too, let us know if we can do anything for you... Stacey we pray for your speedy recovery!

Happy birthday baby Lucas!

Phoenix Lander goes silent

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/index.html

Well, looks like the Phoenix rover has died due to the harsh Martian winter, just as was predicted. NASA knew they only had a small window with which to actually use the rover before winter set in and cut off the lander's solar power source, and today they issued a statement declaring the mission officially over.

Maybe next summer the rover will again become functional, but that is highly unlikely to happen.

Space: Who Knew, #12

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Absolute Zero

Today's rant will be on Absolute Zero.

So what is Absolute Zero anyways? If we were to convert it to Fahrenheit, the Absolute Zero wouldn't be zero at all- it'd be a staggering -459.67 degrees. Nor would it be zero if we converted it to Celsius, Absolute Zero would still be -273.15 degrees. Now that's somewhat chilly!

So in what system is Absolute Zero actually equal to zero? That would be the Kelvin scale. It is defined more precisely as "the theoretical absence of all thermal energy". That means that on the molecular level, all atomic movement slows. As the temperature drops closer to absolute zero, atoms and even light, or the particles that make up light (the photon) behave different than at higher temperatures.

You'd think that the outer reaches of space might grow this cold, but in reality, the closest we humans have cataloged to absolute zero thus far is 1 degree K, recorded in the Boomerang Nebula:

In February 2003, the Boomerang Nebula, was found to be −272.15 °C; 1 K, the coldest place known outside a laboratory. The nebula is 5,000 light-years from Earth and is in the constellation Centaurus.^[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_zero

And actually, scientists have been able to push temperatures down far closer to absolute zero (but can never feasibly reach absolute zero) in the lab than has ever been observed in space. At these temperatures even light behaves differently, check it out:

The speed of light, as we've all heard, is a constant: 186,171 miles per second in a vacuum. But it is different in the real world, outside a vacuum; for instance, light not only bends but also slows ever so slightly when it passes through glass or water. Still, that's nothing compared with what happens when Hau shines a laser beam of light into a BEC: it's like hurling a baseball into a pillow. "First, we got the speed down to that of a bicycle," Hau says. "Now it's at a crawl, and we can actually stop it—keep light bottled up entirely inside the BEC, look at it, play with it and then release it when we're ready."

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/12359501.html

What an amazing concept...

So what does all this really have to do with space? Well, I recently read Michio Kaku's book "Parallel Worlds", and am currently chewing through Brian Green's "The Elegant Universe". In Parallel Worlds, he speaks a little about what our universe looks like, and the properties it exhibits. Scientists widely believe that the universe is still expanding, but many hypothesized that the expansion was slowing. Recent studies have shown that the data suggests otherwise- the expansion of the universe is actually speeding up.

From the moment of the big bang, the universe, like the outside of a balloon, seems to be expanding. Just as if you were inflating the balloon. He talked a little about what would happen if the expansion kept going, pushing our galaxy, and our solar system further away from the known cosmos. He called it the Big Freeze I believe:

The idea of heat death stems from the second law of thermodynamics, which states that entropy tends to increase in an isolated system. If the universe lasts for a sufficient time, it will asymptotically approach a state where all energy is evenly distributed. In other words, in nature there is a tendency to the dissipation (energy loss) of mechanical energy (motion); hence, by extrapolation, there exists the view that the mechanical movement of the universe will run down in time due to the second law.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Freeze

So anyways, theres no real need to fret, because as Sir Martin Rees so elequently puts it in his TED talk: "...by that time... human beings will look nothing like they do now..."

Who knew???

Isabella-isms

Okay so I had to share this. So in the Disney movie Cinderella, Cinderella wears a sparkling blue dress to the ball. Isabella has a pair of jammee's that look like it, its a blue one piece foot-length gown. Well she now calls this dress, her "Bellarella dress"

I give it a 10 on the cuteometer

The other funny one that I can think of is when we go to the hospital with Isabella (or any place that has an elevator for that matter), when we use the elevator, we've gotten into the habit of calling it the "Bellavator".

Nice.

Ascension Cube Maps

I've added several renders of the cube maps that I have in progress. Check em out here.