Ok guys, once in a lifetime news here, the draconid meteor shower is due in October, as per usual, but this time, as the comet that produces the debris that we view as the shower passes, we shall see it from up close, and pass through a cloud of its debris from an earlier pass by the sun. This shall cause a meteor storm to occur, with possibly more than 1 meteor (sometimes known as shooting stars) per second. This is truly worth going out to look for, it doesnt happen very often. If i can do, I'll post pictures of it on here, and if not, please feel free to send me yoyrs to include on this blog.
Tips on viewing the storm: you dont need any equipment like telescopes or binoculars, just avoid looking towards the moon, as it is a gibbous moon and will therefore be quite bright. Look out between the hours of 6pm and 10pm on the 8th of October, and try on the 7th and the 9th just in case.
Hope you all see an amazing event!!
Happy meteor gazing!!
Monday, 3 October 2011
Saturday, 1 October 2011
STUDENTastro
Its official dear readers, this is now definitely STUDENTastro. I moved into university digs two weeks ago, and I have just managed to set my laptop up to the internet, so lets resume the blog!!
Firstly, I'd like to thank you all for reading this in the first place, I only do this because it seems that you enjoy reading my ramblings about the universe and all it holds.
But, going back down to business, I'm sure you'll have read somewhere, or heard someone mention (especially if you follow me on twitter) that the folks over at CERN thought that they had managed to accellerate a neutrino to a speed greater than the speed of light. It now trandspires that this wasnt correct, and there was a malfunction in some of the equipment used to measure the speed of the neutrino.
I therefore presume that you're wondering why I'm mentioning something that didnt happen? Well, its because if it had happened, it would have had massive repercussions for the entire world in which we live, not just the realm of high energy particle physics.
Essentially what it would have meant was that Albert Einstein was wrong about there being a "cosmic speed limit" at which only light has the ability to travel. This would have meant that General Relativity, as well as Special Relativity would have been greatly compromised as valid scientific theories, as would any theory that has come since, and has been based off this idea of a cosmic speed limit.
So, besides kncoking us back 100 years in terms of our understanding of the universe, how else would this news have effected us? This is where things get... Interesting. If an object can travel faster than light, the time travel would be much more possible, as would teleportation. However, the more unusual repercussion would be to our understanding of cause and effect. As it stands, action 2 can cause action 2, but action 2 cannot have caused action 1 because it occured after action one had been completed. But if objects can travel faster than light, this wouldnt be the case. Actoin 1 could both cause AND BE CAUSED BY action 2. Weird isnt it?
So this is why physics sighs with relief that this was not the case, and it was just an instrumental error. Or was it...? The folks over at CERN are going to recreate the experiment a few more thousand times, just to make sure.
Hope you enjoyed this post, and I'm glad to be back on your internets!! Feel free to comment below with suggestions for future posts and your questions!!
Happy stargazing guys
Firstly, I'd like to thank you all for reading this in the first place, I only do this because it seems that you enjoy reading my ramblings about the universe and all it holds.
But, going back down to business, I'm sure you'll have read somewhere, or heard someone mention (especially if you follow me on twitter) that the folks over at CERN thought that they had managed to accellerate a neutrino to a speed greater than the speed of light. It now trandspires that this wasnt correct, and there was a malfunction in some of the equipment used to measure the speed of the neutrino.
I therefore presume that you're wondering why I'm mentioning something that didnt happen? Well, its because if it had happened, it would have had massive repercussions for the entire world in which we live, not just the realm of high energy particle physics.
Essentially what it would have meant was that Albert Einstein was wrong about there being a "cosmic speed limit" at which only light has the ability to travel. This would have meant that General Relativity, as well as Special Relativity would have been greatly compromised as valid scientific theories, as would any theory that has come since, and has been based off this idea of a cosmic speed limit.
So, besides kncoking us back 100 years in terms of our understanding of the universe, how else would this news have effected us? This is where things get... Interesting. If an object can travel faster than light, the time travel would be much more possible, as would teleportation. However, the more unusual repercussion would be to our understanding of cause and effect. As it stands, action 2 can cause action 2, but action 2 cannot have caused action 1 because it occured after action one had been completed. But if objects can travel faster than light, this wouldnt be the case. Actoin 1 could both cause AND BE CAUSED BY action 2. Weird isnt it?
So this is why physics sighs with relief that this was not the case, and it was just an instrumental error. Or was it...? The folks over at CERN are going to recreate the experiment a few more thousand times, just to make sure.
Hope you enjoyed this post, and I'm glad to be back on your internets!! Feel free to comment below with suggestions for future posts and your questions!!
Happy stargazing guys
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