The Birth of the Big Bang and the Timeline of Everything We Know

Modern scientific thought owes itself to the contributions of many great men and women. Without these individuals, our universe would (literally) look quite different. However, there are two scientists in the field of cosmology who stand out among all the rest: Edwin Hubble and Georges Lemaître. By 1930, other cosmologists had concluded that the static (non-evolving) model of the universe was unsatisfactory.

This discovery is largely due to the efforts of Edwin Hubble. Using the world’s largest telescope, which is located at Mt. Wilson in California, he showed that the distant galaxies all appeared to be receding from us. What"s more, these far flung galaxies were traveling away from us at speeds proportional to their distances -- Enter Lemaître -- Lemaître used these findings to draw attention to his earlier paper, in which he explained the relationship between the distance of a galaxy and the recession velocity of that same galaxy. By putting together Hubble’s observations with Lemaître’s paper, a majority of astronomers became convinced that the universe was indeed expanding. This revolutionized the study of cosmology.

Why was this find so notable? Shortly after this discovery, Lemaître reasoned that traveling back in time should lead to an epoch in which all the matter in the universe was packed together in an extremely dense state – a primeval atom. And this was the birth of Big Bang cosmology.

So, let us take a moment to delve into the Big Bang--into the timeline of everything that has ever existed...

Image:
NASA/ESO

Standard Candles - Measuring Cosmic Distances:

Among the various questions we are often asked about, the one that comes to the forefront of the mind deals with how we accurately estimate how distant objects truly are from us. It"s a difficult task all together since humans are inherently incapable of truly grasping how large the distance that separates the sun from Pluto or the Oort cloud is (not to mention our crappy depth perception) -- let alone trying to wrap your mind around the 4.37 light-year gap separating our solar system and its closest neighbors in the Alpha Centauri system. Then, we must contemplate the vastness of the universe outside of our peripheral view.. like, all of the planetary systems across our galaxy at large and of our local group -- a region of space containing more than 54 galaxies. We know that much more exists beyond our local group, which brings us to the point of this article... how exactly are distances measured? Lets take a look:

First up, Cepheid variable stars: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/measuring-cosmic-distances/

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cal-tech

Your Particle Physics Guide (1/2)

Here at From Quarks To Quasars, we like to cover particle physics topics regularly. The content is abstract and difficult enough to comprehend as it is. But what can further compound the problem for the average science enthusiast is the array of jargon we sometimes use, that is, the unique expressions typically associated with the field of science. Ultimately, showing someone the standard model and then expecting them to understand particle physics is a bit like someone watching a documentary on the pyramids of Giza and then being expected to decipher the cryptic hieroglyphics lining the walls on the inside. Both are things that will take years of study to fully understand (and even then, there is a lot we don"t get).

That being said, we have compiled a beginner"s guide to the basics of the Standard Model terminology, and included some very common misconceptions and descriptions of the more abstract workings.

See the article here: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/your-particle-physics-guide-p1/

Unedited Image (Original Source Unknown): http://ow.ly/s7D7r

Sci-fi Becomes Sci-fact: Star Wars-style Holograms on the Proverbial Horizon

Announcements about technological strides like this make me very happy to be alive at this moment in time. According to scientists, who hail from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, holograms similar in many ways to the those featured in the Star Wars movies (with Princess Leia) have been developed that can be produced inexpensively. Hopefully soon, gone will be the days of conventional 3D movies (the kind that give us awful headaches, or make us want to puke).

But how do they work? http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/sci-fi-becomes-sci-fact-star-wars-style-holograms-on-the-proverbial-horizon/

Image Credit: gamma097 on deviant art (Unedited: http://ow.ly/rU8qj)

Black Holes and You: Schwarzschild Radius

It can be easy for one to feel insignificant in this universe. After all, we are small creatures on a relatively small rock that orbits one of many billion stars within one of many billion galaxies. However, the next time you find yourself experiencing this dilemma, try to take a moment and think about this one simple-but-astounding fact: You are made of matter. To be more specific, you are made of atoms.

While many writers, such as Carl Sagan, have elaborated on the deep connection between our atoms and the stars, I’d like to talk instead about a different astronomical feature, one that is less-obvious but a no less-real connection to celestial objects: black holes.

Find out what you have in common with black holes at:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/black-holes-and-you-schwarzschild-radius/

Image before editing:
NASA

Explaining Dark Matter: Axions

Many of you probably understand the basics of an elusive type of matter called dark matter, something that is required to explain numerous anomalous characteristics of the universe. The most prominent features that dark matter explains are the observed gravitational lensing from low visible matter galaxies and the large structure formation observable in the cosmic microwave background radiation. If you need a refresher course, you can read about dark matter here: http://tinyurl.com/darkFQTQ

The ambiguous name "dark" matter, reflects our inability to figure out what this matter is; however, we do have a few ideas about what this form of matter could be made of. One of these hypothetical particles is called axions. Sometimes called sterile neutrinos, they are certainly not a new idea in the field of particle physics. It was first proposed in 1977. These particles are described as having no spin and no charge; in addition, they are described as interacting noticeably with the strong and weak force and having meager mass (considerably less than an electron).

Knowing what exactly constitutes dark matter is fairly important to cosmology, considering over 80% of the matter in the universe makes up it.

So let"s take a closer look at axions:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/explaining-dark-matter-axions/

Cosmic Jewelry: Did the Gold around your Neck Come from Colliding Dead Stars?

Most of us spend our lives chasing gold. For better or worse, this element determines many things over the course of our lives: where we can go to school, where we live, what kind of car we drive, who we marry, and even whether or not we eat. There are two rather simple reasons that we value gold so highly—it is beautiful, and it is rare.

And it’s not just rare on Earth; gold is also rare in the universe.

Find out where we get it at:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/cosmic-jewelry-did-the-gold-around-your-neck-come-from-colliding-dead-stars/

Image before editing:
NASA

Pulsars: What are they? Why do they spin so fast?

Today, the nature of certain cosmic phenomena (like stars, supernovae and black holes) are well understood by those outside research physics, as they are not only written about extensively - due, in part, to how much funding is generated to further our knowledge of them - but because most of this information makes its way into the public domain of scientific literature. However, several flavors of wonder - like quasars, blazars and magnetars - are often looked over in favor of more well-known objects. Another one is neutron stars. They can be regarded as the objects that "didn"t quite make it" to become a black hole. As such, for many, they are skipped over as uninteresting and/or not worth the time. If you are one of those people, you have no idea what you are missing out on. Neutron stars are truly some of the most mind-bending objects in the universe.

See why here: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/pulsars-what-are-they-why-do-they-spin-so-fast-2/

Image Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

The Kardashev Scale: A Type I Civilization -- Living in a Planetary Culture

To measure the level of a civilization’s advancement, the Kardashev scale focuses on the amount of energy that a civilization is able to harness. Obviously, the amount of power available to a civilization is linked to how widespread the civilization is (you can’t harness the power of a star if you are confined to your home planet, and you certainly can’t harness the power of a galaxy if you can’t even get out of your solar system). In short, according to the Kardashev scale, Interstellar Travelers = Advanced society.

To learn what it will take for us to reach this level, see:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/10829/

Image source:
http://www.epicwallpapers.net/random-wallpapers/sci-fi-city-wallpaper-1604.html

The Subjectiveness of Time:

We like stability. We like to know that each day the Sun is going to rise, the mailman will bring our paper, and time will march slowly on -- just the same as it always has. What’s more, we like to image that this experience is larger than ourselves. When the Sun rises, we know that it’s rising for everyone, not just for us. When the mailman brings the paper, he isn’t making a special trip; he’ll stop at the neighbors as well. These are the common, everyday experiences that unite is all.

However, as it turns out, we are a bit more isolated that we might initially assume.

Want to know how time isolates us? Take a look at:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/the-subjectiveness-of-time/

Image source:
http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-406635986/slideshow

A Cool Experiment: The IceCube Neutrino Observatory

Up until the turn of the 21st century, neutrino detectors were pretty much unheard of. This made the hunt for the plentiful (but elusive) subatomic particle a lot more difficult than it needed to be. However, we recently created an observatory that will revolutionize our understanding of the universe. This observatory just happens to be located in one the coldest, most inhospitable place on Earth. You see, astronomers - the clever bunch they are - have turned a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice into the largest neutrino observatory in the world.

Want to learn how this observatory will help us find neutrinos and see photonic booms? Then check out:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/a-cool-experiment-the-icecube-neutrino-observatory/

Image source:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1113010258/icecube-cosmic-neutrino-discovery-astronomy-112113/

The Search for Dark Matter: The Preliminary Results of the LUX Dark Matter Detector

Dark matter: it is a difficult and troubling concept for many who try to understand it. After all, how can something that is so crucial to our existence exist, yet we cannot see it? Well, as a crude analogy, the very air we breathe fits into this same category. We cannot see air, but no one here is disputing the premise that air exists. Of course, this is because we can prove that air is there; however, we were unable to really see or define it for years--for centuries. In fact, we didn"t even discover oxygen (the third most abundant element in the universe that makes up nearly 21% of the earth"s atmosphere) until the 1770s. In a similar way (but using a very different approach than the one used to define air), we have started to get verification for dark matter through the scientific method.

According to our model of cosmology, dark matter is thought to make up 26.8% of the total energy density of the observable universe. This is in stark contrast to regular matter, which comes in at just 4.9%. Subtracted from the total energy density of our homogeneous universe, dark matter would come in at a whopping 84.5% of the total matter of the universe, utterly dominating it. Thus, in order to truly understand the cosmos, we need to define and understand its existence.

To read about dark matter and our quest to understand it, see:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/the-search-for-dark-matter-the-preliminary-results-of-the-lux-dark-matter-detector/

Image source:
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/image/april-2012-dark-matter-underground-2

How Does the Sun Appear on Other Planets?

Question: "I was recently thinking about how big the sun looks on our planet. I then started to wonder how big it would look on Mars then Jupiter, Saturn. So on so forth until we reached little Pluto. So I ask, how big would our personal star look on all the planets? Including Mercury and Venus."

To see what the Sun would look like from Pluto, see: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/how-does-the-sun-appear-on-other-planets/

3 Bat-shit Insane Apocalyptic Scenarios (and why they won"t occur):

References, sources, and further reading can be found here: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/3-bat-shit-insane-apocalyptic-scenarios-and-why-they-wont-occur/

To read the full article, see: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/3-bat-shit-insane-apocalyptic-scenarios-and-why-they-wont-occur/