Search found 34 matches

by gordhaddow
Fri Feb 24, 2006 2:23 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD picture 22-feb-2006
Replies: 2
Views: 2173

Since we are looking at several more than 3 bodies in this situation, I don't really think that it can be considered as a 'trojan' system at all, let alone an 'ordinary' one. Given relative proximities and masses, the integrated sum of the gravitational effects of the 'local' components (Saturn, acc...
by gordhaddow
Tue Feb 14, 2006 5:28 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: WMAP Resolves the Universe
Replies: 16
Views: 5442

SOMETHING happened 13.7by/ago - but then, something is happening all the time. On the other hand, before Harry delivers his opinions , maybe he can familiarize himself with at least some of the arithmetic to back them up, if not the real mathematics (and I'm not talking here about multivariate analy...
by gordhaddow
Sat Feb 04, 2006 5:57 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Goodbye APOD
Replies: 12
Views: 6094

The problem is not those who just don't want to (or are afraid to) consider anything that might challenge their beliefs on any level. As with any 'religion' (and there is no requirement for belief in any supreme being to establish a religion), the real problem is with those who choose to proselytize...
by gordhaddow
Wed Feb 01, 2006 10:24 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: 1 Feb 06 APOD
Replies: 1
Views: 1557

Only because the rest of the analemma isn't in the picture.
by gordhaddow
Wed Feb 01, 2006 6:20 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Dark Matter
Replies: 161
Views: 42443

Interesting links, Harry - too bad there hasn't been one with information less than 4 years old.
by gordhaddow
Sat Jan 28, 2006 11:51 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Starburst Galaxy
Replies: 32
Views: 14504

The neutron star may give us more ideas of the ongoings of a blackhole since it is part of the stage of becoming a blackhole. A neutron star is not a 'stage' on the way to a black hole; any mass with the initial properties which would result in a black hole cannot form a neutron star at any time be...
by gordhaddow
Sat Jan 28, 2006 11:32 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: The Expanding Light Echoes of SN 1987A
Replies: 17
Views: 5182

If the light is reflected from a minute particle, it is reflected in multiple directions, including directly back where it came from, so it is going to be reflected again from the particles it missed the first time by.
Gord
by gordhaddow
Sat Jan 28, 2006 11:08 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Starburst Galaxy
Replies: 32
Views: 14504

Actually, the radius of the event horizon for a given mass is smaller than the radius of a neutron star of equivalent mass. And a black hole is only giving up mass if we can grant that gravitons are not massless. Anything that we can detect being 'excreted' by a black hole was probably never within ...
by gordhaddow
Wed Jan 25, 2006 3:38 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Mars Rocks! (now APOD 26/01/2006)
Replies: 36
Views: 18467

How about a mastodon molar in a piece of jaw?
by gordhaddow
Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:24 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Dark Matter
Replies: 161
Views: 42443

Hey, the whole credo for tenure has always been 'publish, publish, publish'. And if you don't have anything to contribute within the 'mainstream', and you can't write fiction effectively, you need an outlet for something you can shoot out in a short time with little effort.
by gordhaddow
Fri Jan 20, 2006 1:48 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: LL Ori and the Orion Nebula 20th Jan
Replies: 8
Views: 3833

Maybe that star imbedded in the right edge has a 'wind' or 'jets' that has tunnelled right through the cloud?
by gordhaddow
Fri Jan 13, 2006 3:38 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Newtonian (Classical) Vs Einsteinan Modern) Physics
Replies: 16
Views: 6751

Newtonian physics is sufficient for most normal orbital calculations; even for Mercury, the total impact of General Relativity on the orbital precession is only 43 arc-seconds (43/3600 degrees) per century. Several things have to be taken into consideration in determining what the gravitational curv...
by gordhaddow
Thu Jan 12, 2006 3:19 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Double Sun Illusion
Replies: 6
Views: 2151

In all probability, the actual position of the sun would have been directly behind the thickest part of the cloud, and the images you saw were 'sun dogs' created in the thinner fringes. These bright spots are created at 22-1/2* from the sun's position (in any direction), usually in high ice clouds. ...
by gordhaddow
Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:01 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Question about Peiades
Replies: 11
Views: 4047

Those blue strands, identified as 'reflection nebulae', are streamers of carbon dust; the dust grains reflect light toward the blue end of the spectrum, while increasingly absorbing frequencies further toward the red end. The carbon has to have been formed in now-dead stars; the 'streamers' may be t...
by gordhaddow
Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:21 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Dark Matter
Replies: 161
Views: 42443

What was it Albert said about Werner's ideas: "I can't believe that God plays at dicing." And somebody else responded, "Not only does she play at dicing, but she throws them under the table where nobody can see them".
by gordhaddow
Sun Dec 25, 2005 4:20 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Thinner than a razor blade?
Replies: 20
Views: 5686

A more technical treatment can be found at

http://cc.oulu.fi/~hsalo/salo2001_icarus153.pdf
by gordhaddow
Wed Dec 21, 2005 2:36 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Sunset/moonrise
Replies: 2
Views: 1465

There are numerous ephemeris sites available online, as well as some such as:

http://www.jgiesen.de/sunmoonpolar/index.html

(for moonrise/set), which allow coordinate input.
by gordhaddow
Tue Dec 20, 2005 1:56 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: stella core
Replies: 49
Views: 8998

Finally some real math! Only 1 potential loophole here; the function they use to integrate pressure/density [13] assumes smooth integratability, based on the gas model. Plasma doesn't always allow that assumption, and the 'Iron Sun' postulate operates from an assumption that there can be discontinui...
by gordhaddow
Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:55 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Galaxies spin clockwise?
Replies: 4
Views: 1732

Sort of depends on whether we're seeing them from the 'top' or the 'bottom', doesn't it? It also depends on whether the images they are showing us have been 'corrected' for presentation, or whether they are still the reversed images as recorded by the receivers.
by gordhaddow
Mon Dec 19, 2005 5:49 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Thin Rings of Saturn
Replies: 2
Views: 1356

That is the moon Enceladus
by gordhaddow
Mon Dec 19, 2005 5:47 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: pin size point
Replies: 15
Views: 3645

The problem is that everything we see around us and study is in the 4-dimensional world. If some of the current theories are correct, and there could be as many as 11 dimensions (not that I'm qualified at all to say if/how correct they are!), ..... Actually, there is at least one theory out there t...
by gordhaddow
Mon Dec 19, 2005 5:43 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: The Big Bang
Replies: 32
Views: 11320

We always used to be told "believe 10% of what you read"; unfortunately, with the advent of the 'net, that has to be reduced by at least 1 magnitude. Even more unfortunately, without some background of understanding of what you are reading about, people have no idea whatsoever how to pick ...
by gordhaddow
Wed Dec 14, 2005 4:44 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: At the Center of the Milky Way
Replies: 47
Views: 14276

A classic question.
The detectors appear to work - even Joseph Weber's aluminum bar recorded 'events' back in the late '60s. The apparent problem was to be able to discriminate between 'gravitational events' and 'cosmic-ray events', either of which could (mathematically) produce the same result.
by gordhaddow
Tue Dec 13, 2005 4:17 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: Dark Matter
Replies: 161
Views: 42443

As I had to tell one of my science instructors at one time, there is an old saying that 'you can't have an Open Mind and an Open Mouth at the same time'.