Starship Asterisk*

astrolabe wrote:Hello Sputnick,

Let me know, I'll clear my slate and unlock the door. Gotta warn ya though, haven't had a drop in 8.5 light years.

You do have some around though? right? And after all that time it will be well aged.

astrolabe wrote:Hello Sputnick,

Amateur scientist? Well then, "Poe"-etic maybe, not poetic

Astro - if I ever ride my moped to Old Orchard Beach it would be great meeting you.
I rode from Ottawa to Victoria and return two summers ago, so almost anything is possible.

Determining Dark Matter density. The smaller galaxy's arm closest the large galaxy seems to be bent by rotation against what could be the (theoretical) Dark Matter envelope of the large galaxy. The smaller galaxy's arm farthest from the large galaxy shows no similar bend. Could the degree of bending...

astrolabe wrote:Hello Sputnick,

Scraped 'em off myself- from myself, even threw in a little egg for good measure. Oh, the perils of not being perfect!

Ain't love grand! What a time we shall have exploring Pluto.

Hello Sputnick, Hello All, Maybe it goes something like this: Philosophy that is subjective skews observation with preconceived ideas. Philosophy that is objective is not philosophy it is pure speculation through observation. Speculation through observation that is backed up by measurement and test...

Hello All, Maybe it goes something like this: Philosophy that is subjective skews observation with preconceived ideas. Philosophy that is objective is not philosophy it is pure speculation through observation. Speculation through observation that is backed up by measurement and testing is science. ...

astrolabe wrote:Hello Sputnick,

I wll, wouldn't mind going there myself. I know I've got some tar and feather's left over somewhere. if when we get there we'll have to have a chat.

Tar and feathers you scraped off from yourself? Or simply what you have kept around to fix your nest?

astrolabe wrote:Hello Sputnick,

Sounds like it. I don't buy it though.

Sounds like what? You don't buy what? I have no idea what you're saying.

Chris, Couldn't the fact of Gravitational Lensing and the "Einstein Cross" be considered evidence of bending light? Wouldn't physics dictate that for a single point source to appear as several separate sources after passing through a large gravity well, the light's path would need to have...

Hello Sputnick, Your last point: Speed of Light - a question for Chris or anyone - If light travels in straight lines only, as Chris you have said, why then do even writers like David N. Schramm and Michael Riordan in their 'Shadows of Creation' published 1991 speak repeatedly of light being "...

Hello All, My use of the term TAR BABY was in bad taste, unfair, and inappropriate, my apologies. I've been tarred and feathered so often I'm becoming comfortable with the costume .. convenient for Hallowe'en - and if I can rearrange my feathers, and find a way to inject helium into the tar, I migh...

Hello Sputnick, What energies? Theoretically (using that term loosely of course) the energies generated from the 'friction' or other interaction of Dark Matter as it encounters itself. I think measurements will reveal heat slightly higher than the Cosmic Background Radiation .. unless of course the...

Astrophysical cosmology (a branch of science) requires two kinds of staring into space ( visualization if you prefer): (1) Peering into the view that the laws of nature and current equipment allow us of physical outer space. (2) Making our own scenery (mine usually with grid lines) in the mind's ey...

I agree with those points, but I also point out that it might be premature to count Einstein wrong. There have been plenty of cases in history where the community had to make a choice of which way to go, and pretty much everyone went one way, except for one brilliant maverick who went the other-- a...

Hello all, it seems the primary thrust of this thread involves two related claims that are meeting with a skeptical welcome: 1) science should be treated as an inclusional, rather than exclusional, enterprise, on the grounds that it is hard to know what strange-sounding ideas might eventually prove...

astrolabe wrote:Hello Sputnick,

What is science?

Hey Astro - I asked first .. but I think it was Cecelia Payne that defined it 'as a search for the unknown.'

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081115.html

Such a beautiful photo -
If these Galaxies are enveloped in Dark Matter - the envelopes will be interacting .. possibly exchanging energies - are these exchanges being searched for?

Speed of Light - a question for Chris or anyone - If light travels in straight lines only, as Chris you have said, why then do even writers like David N. Schramm and Michael Riordan in their 'Shadows of Creation' published 1991 speak repeatedly of light being "bent" by gravitational lensin...

I think it should be mentioned that it is only a theory that empty space is expanding. Observations clearly reveal that matter is moving and creating greater distances from other matter. However, the fabric of space itself -there is no direct evidence of it's expansion and this assumption is based ...

Everyone on the forum should know by now that I base my understanding of physics on instinct based on my minimal knowledge (although my knowledge is growing as I read three books in the past five days .. the last being The Shadows of Creation by Michael Riordan and David Schramm, copyright 1991 .. t...

Hello Sputnick, Nevermind all that other gobbledegook, did I read Einstein's quote incorrectly? I appeared in three posts that I know of and each one was worded the same. I've become lost in the multiplicity of posts, Astro .. is this the quote you are referring to? "It has often been said, an...

Hello All, Einstein's quote did not call for physicists to become philosophers. Here, Chris, is proof that he did .. First paragraph of his lecture 'Physics and Reality'. "It has often been said, and certainly not without justification, that the man of science is a poor philosopher. Why then s...

Hello Sputnick, All I see is that Einstein said that physicist were poor philosophers and that they should let the philosophers do the philosophising. Am I mistaken? Hi Astro - I'm so glad you wrote - your question fits right into what I was to post this morning. I won't be able to post much this w...

Good reason perhaps but as you admit it is not proven fact. Again, you seem to confuse fact and theory. We aren't talking about facts here, we are talking scientific theory. And of course, such theories cannot be proven. In this case, I simply provided an important piece of observational evidence t...

Of course, we use theory to interpret our observations. But there is, in fact, direct evidence that the expansion we observe is caused by the metric expansion of space, and not by the expansion of matter in a fixed metric. This direct evidence is in the form of temperature measurements of the CMB o...