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Comment by Dallas the Phallus on January 14, 2011 at 1:14pm

Why time slows down when approaching the Speed of Light.

Ok, so you’ve heard that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. (That’s not quite true. The expansion of the universe allows for faster than light travel but that’s another post.) You’re also aware that time slows down the closer you get to the speed of light. You know, the ‘One twin goes off to Alpha Centauri at the speed of light and comes back after 80,000 years but he’s only aged 3 months’ story.

Ever wonder why? Here’s the crib notes.

Everything in the universe always travels exactly at Light Speed.

Time dilation: Special relativity declares a law for all motion: The combined speed of any object’s motion through space and it’s motion though time is always precisely equal to the speed of light.

That’s right, everything. You, me, the computer screen you’re looking at, your grandma’s French toast, Santa Clause… everything.

Everything is traveling through Spacetime: space (the three dimensions we experience and the nine others that m-theory predicts) and time.

Adding the total movement through both space and time always equals light speed. Always. Always. Always.

Since you must travel constantly at exactly the speed of light, when you increase your speed through space, you decrease your speed through time.

Your head (and the rest of you) is traveling through spacetime at the speed of light. But, when you’re at rest (not accelerating) all of your head’s movement is through time, none of it is traveling (accelerating) through space. Every time your head moves (accelerates) through space; in a car, in a plane, in a spaceship… even nodding up and down, some of it’s movement in time is lost since it is now moving through space. Cool huh.

What about light?

Since light waves use all of their motion to travel through space at Light Speed, they have absolutely no motion through Time. Every photon that has ever been produced exists in an ageless state. (To us, the light seems to move through time but to the photon, time is standing still. This is one of the seemingly odd realizations fo Ensteins Theory of Relativity.)

The universe ages, light does not.

Comment by Jaume on January 10, 2011 at 7:41pm

Smallest exoplanet found so far, orbiting Kepler-10

Astronomers have discovered the smallest planet outside our solar system, and the first that is undoubtedly rocky like Earth.

Measurements of unprecedented precision have shown that the planet, Kepler 10b, has a diameter slightly lower than Earth's, and a mass 4.6 times higher. [more]

 

(Actually, given that iron is the most stable element and that Earth's core is all iron and nickel, there's no way a rocky planet smaller than Earth could be 4.6 times as massive. See here for the most accurate data there is on the Kepler mission.)

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on December 22, 2010 at 8:34pm

Hmmm, yes, so it would seem. That would have to mean it was cold and not hot then? Becuase the temp would have to be pretty low to liquify hydrogen, not so?

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on December 22, 2010 at 2:52pm

Interesting. Thanks.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on December 22, 2010 at 2:44pm

We say that Jupiter and Saturn are the gas giants, made entirely of gas, but do we know for certain that there is no solid surface under all that atmosphere? Could it be that there is solid ground under all that? How can we know?

Comment by Jennifer Ulean Breedlove on December 21, 2010 at 3:33am

I was just trying to get that link pulled back up it disappeared on my computer. lol.. Thanks Michel I will remember this group from now on.

Comment by Jesus_Was_A_Man_Or_Myth_Or_Both on December 1, 2010 at 5:52pm

The Estimated Number of Stars in the Universe Just Tripled

A study by Yale astronomer Pieter van Dokkum just took the estimated number of stars in the universe—100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 100 sextillion—and tripled it. And you thought nothing good ever happens on Wednesdays.
Van Dokkum’s study in the journal Nature focuses on red dwarfs, a class of small, cool stars. They’re so small and cool, in fact, that up to now astronomers haven’t been able to spot them in galaxies outside our own. That’s a serious holdup when you’re trying to account for all the stars there are.
As a consequence, when estimating how much of a galaxy’s mass stars account for – important to understanding a galaxy’s life history – astronomers basically had to assume that the relative abundance of red-dwarf stars found in the Milky Way held true throughout the universe for every galaxy type and at every epoch of the universe’s evolution, Dr. van Dokkum says. “We always knew that was sort of a stretch, but it was the only thing we had. Until you see evidence to the contrary you kind of go with that assumption,” he says. [Christian Science Monitor]

Comment by Sydni Moser on November 18, 2010 at 2:39pm

Michel, thanks for your input on Kaku's take on UFOs - I had no idea why he would make such a comment, I had given him much more credit than that. Live and learn...

Comment by Sydni Moser on November 17, 2010 at 12:31am

vimanaboy | August 23, 2010

Theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku discusses Leslie Kean's new book, "UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record."

Air date: Monday August 23, 2010

http://www.ufosontherecord.com
http://www.mkaku.org

Comment by Shine on October 31, 2010 at 1:38pm

Lol!

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