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Astronomy/Cosmology/Astrophysics thread - Even though there are no gods I still pray

BecomingJulie said:
They probably will start selling Black Hole covers (one size fits everyone, all equally badly) from a catalogue between the pages of the Radio Times before too much longer .....
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Only £999.99 in from Reginal Covers, in 1,000,000 monthly instalments... with the q's head embossed in the middle of these limited edition items....
 
Ah, so I was a bit late with that prediction, then -- they're obviously now selling Black Hole covers from catalogues inserted between the pages of cheap TV papers. Next to the talking Bibles, knitted woolly boots with pop-poms and cheesy "Scandinavian" patterns, and "DVD projectors" that produce a flickery, blurred picture the size of a large envelope and dim enough to be viewable only during a Total Eclipse of the Sun ..... We're doomed, I tell you!
 
steewith2ees said:
I know, plus relativistic jets and accretion discs, they will all be visible and define where the hole is.... but the holes still black! 8) =D
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Nope. The other phenomena you mention come from outside the event horizon whilst Hawking Radiation is considered to... well to radiate from the Event Horizon itself. Therefore not completely black. It's a level of pedantry above and beyond what is generally considered reasonable though admittedly :o

In skygazing news, supermoon again this weekend. Closest approach in decades apparently. Should look pretty :)
 
I was waiting for this =D You're right, it's not pedantic at all, its what this thread is for, and the real pedantry starts here.

Are they actually visible? The consensus appears to be "yes, but only indirectly, and not always". Physicist David Muccigrosso states "Black holes themselves are not visible. Hawking radiation occurs in the particles near the event horizon, so while it's a bit of a semantic argument as to whether that counts as part of the black hole, the general consensus is that it doesn't. Therefore, by convention, Hawking radiation is only an indirect property of black holes and their accretion disks."

:?
 
I know it's closer to home. Well, It is home but we're still a planet so I'll leave this here.

Green Airglow

Shambles, Perhaps this might explain your green sky last night. It was already dark and cloudy by the time I left work so I wouldn't have been able to see if we had it up here too. Interesting read.
 
That's proper Sadie - i remember the last alert we had in the midlands about the possibility of the aurora coming as far south as us (it does on rare occasions) but arguing with my pa about whether the green glow we could sort of distinguish through the cloudy skies was genuine (it didn't appear sheet - like as many auroras will) but the glow was still discernible. That may be that one put to bed - quality find.

And with regards to Shams comments on the black hole stuff, just in case he hasn't had a proper viddy of 'Einstein Online' http://www.einstein-online.info/ (I'm sure he probably has) - it has tons of stuff regarding the relativity / quanta relationship as is currently understood without a definitive quantum theory of gravity, which is where I get a lot of the more prescient ideas about this stuff
 
^ I actually haven't come across that particular site before, Stee, so many thanks for the recommendation and I'm adding it to my bookmarks now =D

Sadie said:
I know it's closer to home. Well, It is home but we're still a planet so I'll leave this here.

Green Airglow

Shambles, Perhaps this might explain your green sky last night. It was already dark and cloudy by the time I left work so I wouldn't have been able to see if we had it up here too. Interesting read.
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That must be the very blighter itself! I'd never heard of this phenomena before and am glad to hear I wasn't hallucinating when rambling on about how weirdly green the sky was at dusk last night :D

That other article you sent me this morning is also well worth posting here - Why has Saturn changed colour?. Not all of Saturn (afaik) but the already-freaky hexagon vortex around the north pole. Once a glorious blue and now very definitely yellow-gold. And not just the vortex itself but the entire region. Wee-urd. Answers onna postcard... :?
 
Saw the Prof. last night in Wolverhampton giving a talk on Cosmology. He went over the concepts he explores in his new book, which I caved in and bought a signed copy of........ (sucker) but I would have got it anyhoo as its another collaboration with Jeff Forshaw and of all of the books I have their joint efforts (Why does E=MC2 and the like) are among the best for thickos like moi who need their hands holding regarding the maths.

cover.jpg.rendition.460.707.png
 
^ What was he talking about, Stee?

In nerdy news (or, if you prefer redtops wiv pix, The Sun also covered the story), a satellite thought to have been lost for 50 years has recently been confirmed as being rediscovered still sending back info. Not much to add to that but it kinda lends weight to the idea that they don't make 'em like they used to. The ones lost elsewhere seem to mostly be rediscovered as smears on a distant rocky tundra if at all.
 
Shambles said:
^ What was he talking about, Stee?

In nerdy news (or, if you prefer redtops wiv pix, The Sun also covered the story), a satellite thought to have been lost for 50 years has recently been confirmed as being rediscovered still sending back info. Not much to add to that but it kinda lends weight to the idea that they don't make 'em like they used to. The ones lost elsewhere seem to mostly be rediscovered as smears on a distant rocky tundra if at all.
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That's quality. I hope a taxidermist will stuff me with my two fingers up (in a 'V' sign, not my ass) and send me into orbit. Would be a great way to bow out grinning at all the poor fucks choking boiling and drowning from runaway CO2 as I pass overhead every 92 minutes...

Cox was great. About 45 minutes pissing about with Robin Ince and responding to questions with an hours worth of space either side. He basically re presented the historical model of the universe but with a new pre big bang 'epoch of cosmic inflation' added into it as the main emphasis. I was pretty stunned - I suspected it would be good but I wasn't expecting what is to me completely brand new physics - a period of at least 10-35 seconds that resulted in a 'big bang' once the universe had expanded to about 'the size of a melon'.

Don't ask me where this has come from, but that's the purpose of the book 'Universal'. The first chapter re - iterates the above, then promises to qualify it. I'm only on chapter 5 (there's tons of fucking maths so I'm having to read lots of sections over and over) but the notion of this 'epoch of inflation' is presented so confidently that it's just a proper thrill to see where they have come up with this from.

On a druggie note, all the graphics (including the fantastic front cover /\/\ ) were produced by fellow Manc and Factory Records legend Peter Saville. Savage!
 
Fascinating reading back through the first few pages of this. Like many of the threads I've contributed to this year - too fucking easy to demark where the PSA was introduced.

(Already feeling nostalgic about 6 months ago - I need to start living in the here and now at some point)
 
Only just joined bluelight today after previous reading through many of the thread, and i must im very pleased to find one like this. Just out of curiosity, are any of you physicists/scientists or just have a strong interest in astronomy?
 
Hi madammadeleine.

I would not be able to go anywhere near this on a professional level I'm far too thick and not all of the stars I regularly see are of a stellar nature. We do have members who are professionals doing scientific research but I have never been aware of anyone who has contributed to this thread that has a job in the space or fundamental physics sector. We have a cracking mathematician round here somewhere, but no one has come forward to say they do this or that as of yet. They may be wishing to keep some level of anonymity but if they were posting or lurking on a regular basis then I do not see how they would be able to resist laughing the content of my posts out of the park.
 
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