Michio Kaku provides a fast 42-minute review of physics, science, and the Universe. Though a quick history and primer, Kaku is entertaining and adds his learned perspective.
Michio Kaku: The Universe in a Nutshell
The Universe in a Nutshell: The Physics of Everything
Michio Kaku, Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics at CUNY
Hubble eXtreme Deep Field: a new, improved portrait of mankind's deepest-ever view of the Universe ▲ ▲ ▲
▲ ▲ ▲ The newly discovered galaxy, named MACS0647-JD, is very young and only a tiny fraction of the size of our Milky Way.
NASA's Great Observatories Find Candidate for Most Distant Galaxy
WASHINGTON -- By combining the power of NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes and one of nature's own natural "zoom lenses" in space, astronomers have set a new record for finding the most distant galaxy seen in the universe.
The farthest galaxy appears as a diminutive blob that is only a tiny fraction of the size of our Milky Way galaxy. But it offers a peek back into a time when the universe was 3 percent of its present age of 13.7 billion years. The newly discovered galaxy, named MACS0647-JD, was observed 420 million years after the Big Bang, the theorized beginning of the universe. Its light has traveled 13.3 billion years to reach Earth.
This find is the latest discovery from a program that uses natural zoom lenses to reveal distant galaxies in the early universe. The Cluster Lensing And Supernova Survey with Hubble (CLASH), an international group led by Marc Postman of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., is using massive galaxy clusters as cosmic telescopes to magnify distant galaxies behind them. This effect is called gravitational lensing.
Along the way, 8 billion years into its journey, light from MACS0647-JD took a detour along multiple paths around the massive galaxy cluster MACS J0647+7015. Without the cluster's magnification powers, astronomers would not have seen this remote galaxy. Because of gravitational lensing, the CLASH research team was able to observe three magnified images of MACS0647-JD with the Hubble telescope. The cluster's gravity boosted the light from the faraway galaxy, making the images appear about eight, seven, and two times brighter than they otherwise would that enabled astronomers to detect the galaxy more efficiently and with greater confidence.
"This cluster does what no manmade telescope can do," said Postman. "Without the magnification, it would require a Herculean effort to observe this galaxy."
MACS0647-JD is so small it may be in the first steps of forming a larger galaxy. An analysis shows the galaxy is less than 600 light-years wide. Based on observations of somewhat closer galaxies, astronomers estimate that a typical galaxy of a similar age should be about 2,000 light-years wide. For comparison, the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy companion to the Milky Way, is 14,000 light-years wide. Our Milky Way is 150,000 light-years across.
"This object may be one of many building blocks of a galaxy," said the study's lead author, Dan Coe of the Space Telescope Science Institute. "Over the next 13 billion years, it may have dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of merging events with other galaxies and galaxy fragments."
NGC 3344 is a glorious spiral galaxy around half the size of the Milky Way, which lies 25 million light-years distant. We are fortunate enough to see NGC 3344 face-on, allowing us to study its structure in detail.
NASA - Computer Model Shows a Disk Galaxy's Life History
This cosmological simulation follows the development of a single disk galaxy over about 13.5 billion years, from shortly after the Big Bang to the present time. Colors indicate old stars (red), young stars (white and bright blue) and the distribution of gas density (pale blue); the view is 300,000 light-years across.
The simulation ran on the Pleiades supercomputer at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and required about 1 million CPU hours. It assumes a universe dominated by dark energy and dark matter. Credit: F. Governato and T. Quinn (Univ. of Washington), A. Brooks (Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison), and J. Wadsley (McMaster Univ.).
Our Universe consists of galaxies and galaxy clusters expanding at an accelerating rate in all directions connected by a cosmic web of gravity. Is there a boundary to the Universe and therefore to an ultimate map of the Universe? Is the Universe infinite in all directions?
Would a map of the Universe be the ultimate map created by humanity? Time will tell, but Anthony Aguirre has an even bigger idea. What if there are other Universes, even an infinity of Universes? Could these Universes ultimately be mapped in relation to our Universe and others? That would truly be the ultimate, and never-ending, map!
How Big Is The Universe? (BBC)
It is one of the most baffling questions that scientists can ask: how big is the Universe that we live in?
Horizon follows the cosmologists who are creating the most ambitious map in history - a map of everything in existence....
This is an extraordinary accomplishment and webinar. The public was invited to participate in a "Meet the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field Observing Team" webinar, where three key astronomers of the XDF observing team described how they assembled the landmark image and explained what it tells us about the evolving universe. The webinar begins at 4:00 in video below.
Ray Villard (STScI) introduced and moderated the panel. The team present were Garth Illingworth, Dan McGee, and Pascal Oesch, all from University of California Santa Cruz. Each presented background and procedures on the eXtreme Deep Field image. Some notable concepts, facts, and quotes are below the video.
Hubble eXtreme Deep Field: Some Notable Concepts, Facts, Quotes
Ultimately the search is for the first galaxies. XDF is key to understanding the origins of galaxies, the search for the first galaxies, when and how did galaxies form and grow, how the Milky Way and Andromeda formed.
Hubble is a time machine: XDF sees galaxies forming 13.2 billion years ago, 450 million years after the Big Bang, and sees back in time through 96% of the life of the Universe.
Galaxies earlier than 800 million years after the Big Bang can only be seen in infrared light. XDF reveals these galaxies unseen in deepest visible-light Hubble Utra Deep Field images.
Hubble is at its limit of detection, for finding any earlier galaxies (400 million years after the Big Bang). The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will discover the first galaxies and probably the first stars. The gain in efficiency and resolution will be a factor of 100 with the JWST and will be "astonishingly powerful". The project is working towards a 2018 launch date.
The Universe is basically the same in any direction, is symmetric. No asymmetries have been detected.
XDF is full of galaxies and there might be even more fainter galaxies beyond the image that cannot be currently seen. There are more galaxies, and fainter galaxies, in the image than expected beforehand. The Universe is full of tiny, little galaxies in the early times that are building up.
The numbers of galaxies, in redshift 12 to 15, is estimated to decrease. The number of galaxies probably increased around redshift 10. Beyond the redshift is the cosmic glow, the cosmic microwave background, from the Big Bang.
Very small gravitational lensing effect in XDF. Galaxy clusters and very large galaxies were avoided which cause this effect. There is tiny "weak lensing" effect in image.
The age of the galaxy images, particularly using powerful microwave telescopes, has been determined independently. Beyond the scope of the XDF to determine.
XDF is not designed to search for or detect dark energy or dark matter. Supernova searches originally detected dark energy. Galaxy cluster and weak lensing large-scale observations originally detected dark matter.
Deep in the XDF image, the early galaxies are smaller with more intense light and much closer together. The Universe was a tenth (1/10) if its size now. Presumably these galaxies would build up to larger current galaxies such as the Milky Way and Andromeda. The early galaxies are the seeds from which current galaxies evolved. These early galaxies grew, collided, merged in a very dynamic and dramatic process.
The cosmic microwave background was about 400,000 years after the Big Bang, very soon afterwards. The limit of the XDF is 400 million years after the Big Bang. Perhaps first galaxies formed about 150 to 200 million years after the Big Bang. Perhaps the first stars came together about 100 - 150 million years after the Big Bang. Before that were the Dark Ages. The first stars and galaxies ended the Dark Ages.
The earliest galaxies observed are moving away from each other as the Universe expands, increasingly separating from each other. A small fraction of these galaxies were pulled towards each other by gravity, if close enough. The example of the expanding balloon with dots on it...
XDF and Hubble cannot detect individual stars within the early galaxies. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) probably will not be able to either and therefore will not be able to detect the individual "first stars". The JWST will probably be able to detect early supernova, however.
XDF is really about galaxies and not about the formation of the Universe itself. A major change in the Universe occurred from about a few hundred million years to 900 million years after the Big Bang. The change from neutral hydrogen to ionized hydrogen in the Universe and within the XDF time frame was most likely caused by the galaxies. XDF will not add significantly to cosmology, however.
Hubble eXtreme Deep Field: a new, improved portrait of mankind's deepest-ever view of the Universe Countless planets, stars, galaxies, clusters... Farthest View Ever of the Universe: Hubble eXtreme Deep Field
SEPTEMBER 25, 2012: Like photographers assembling a portfolio of best shots, astronomers have assembled a new, improved portrait of mankind's deepest-ever view of the universe. Called the eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, the photo was assembled by combining 10 years of NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken of a patch of sky at the center of the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The XDF is a small fraction of the angular diameter of the full Moon. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is an image of a small area of space in the constellation Fornax, created using Hubble Space Telescope data from 2003 and 2004. By collecting faint light over many hours of observation, it revealed thousands of galaxies, both nearby and very distant, making it the deepest image of the universe ever taken at that time. The new full-color XDF image reaches much fainter galaxies and includes very deep exposures in red light from Hubble's new infrared camera, enabling new studies of the earliest galaxies in the universe. The XDF contains about 5,500 galaxies even within its smaller field of view. The faintest galaxies are one ten-billionth the brightness of what the human eye can see.
Fly Through the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field This video takes you through Hubble's deepest view of the universe, from its location in the sky to the dimmest, most distant galaxies.
Hubble Extreme Deep Field Pushes Back Frontiers of Time and Space This video explains how astronomers meticulously assembled mankind's deepest view of the universe from combining Hubble Space Telescope exposures taken over the past decade. Guest scientists are Dr. Garth Illingworth and Dr. Marc Postman.
The public is invited to participate in a "Meet the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field Observing Team" webinar, where three key astronomers of the XDF observing team will describe how they assembled the landmark image and explain what it tells us about the evolving universe. Participants will be able to send in questions for the panel of experts to discuss. The webinar will be broadcast at 1:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday, September 27, 2012. To participate in the webinar, please visit: http://hubblesite.org/go/xdf/ .
SKA Radio Telescope Will Explored the Universe 13 Billion Years Ago
(Credit: SPDO/Swinburne Astronomy Productions)
The SKA, Square Kilometre Array, radio telescope isn't planned for completion until 2024, but IBM is now collaborating to eventually process the incredible amount of data that will result. This is Really Big Data, as in well over 1 exabyte daily, which is more than the world's daily Internet traffic.
Introducing the SKA
The SKA telescope central core will be either in Australia or South Africa. A decision for the location will be made in 2012. A global community of astronomers from more than 20 countries is setting out to build the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the world’s largest radio telescope.
This extremely powerful survey telescope will have millions of antennas to collect radio signals, forming a collection area equivalent to one square kilometre but spanning a huge surface area - over 3000 km wide or approximately the width of the continental United States. The SKA will be 50 times more sensitive than any former radio device and more than 10,000 times faster than today’s instruments.
The SKA is expected to produce a few Exabytes of data per day for a single beam per one square kilometer. After processing this data the expectation is that per year between 300 and 1500 Petabytes of data need to be stored. In comparison, the approximately 15 Petabytes produced by the large hadron collider at CERN per year of operation is approximately 10 to 100 times less than the envisioned capacity of SKA.
From Big Bang to Big Data: ASTRON and IBM Collaborate to Explore Origins of the Univers
ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy and IBM today announced an initial 32.9 million EURO, five-year collaboration to research extremely fast, but low-power exascale computer systems targeted for the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The SKA is an international consortium to build the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope. Scientists estimate that the processing power required to operate the telescope will be equal to several millions of today's fastest computers.
ASTRON is one of the leading scientific partners in the international consortium that is developing the SKA. Upon completion in 2024, the telescope will be used to explore evolving galaxies, dark matter and even the very origins of the universe—dating back more than 13 billion years.
The detailed, all-sky picture of the infant universe created from seven years of WMAP data. The image reveals 13.7 billion year old temperature fluctuations (shown as color differences) that correspond to the seeds that grew to become the galaxies. The signal from the our Galaxy was subtracted using the multi-frequency data. This image shows a temperature range of ± 200 microKelvin. Credit: NASA / WMAP Science Team The Expanding Universe In 1998, astrophysicists discovered a baffling phenomenon: the Universe is expanding at an ever-faster rate. Either an enigmatic force called dark energy is to blame or a reworking of gravitational theory is in order. In this new Science Bulletins video, watch a Fermilab team assemble the Dark Energy Camera, a device that could finally solve this space-stretching mystery.
Content of the Universe
WMAP data reveals that its contents include 4.6% atoms, the building blocks of stars and planets. Dark matter comprises 23% of the universe. This matter, different from atoms, does not emit or absorb light. It has only been detected indirectly by its gravity. 72% of the universe, is composed of "dark energy", that acts as a sort of anti-gravity. This energy, distinct from dark matter, is responsible for the present-day acceleration of the universal expansion. WMAP data is accurate to two digits, so the total of these numbers is not 100%. This reflects the current limits of WMAP's ability to define Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Credit: NASA / WMAP Science Team
Why Reality is a Computed Simulation
Tom Campbell, the author of My Big TOE (Theory of Everything) takes you on a fast ride in the short video below. Campbell explains why our so-called objective reality is actually a virtual reality. The graphic shown in the video is a table from Brian Whitworth. A similar and more concise table from his 2007 paper, The Physical World as a Virtual Reality, is below the video. One of Whitworth's conclusions was, "if the Universe is virtual then so are we". As Campbell notes, Whitworth concluded that only a virtual reality fits all the physical data and therefore is the only logical conclusion as to the nature of our reality. Ultimately, reality is information and what our consciousness interprets to be our reality is digital data. I'll go one further and say life, including humans, are software installed on a biological platform.
Why Reality is a Computed Simulation Words from NASA/DoD physicist Thomas Campbell, author of "My Big TOE"
The Physical World as a Virtual Reality: Brian Whitworth Table 1. Virtual properties and physical outcomes
Virtual Property, Physical Outcome
Virtual Reality Creation Virtual worlds must begin with an information influx from “nothing”, that also begins VR time/ space. The Big Bang The universe was created out of nothing by a “big bang” in a single event that also created time and space.
Digital Processing All events/objects that arise from digital processing must have a minimum quantity or quanta. Quantum Minima Light is quantized as photons. Matter, energy, time, and space may be the same, i.e. have a minimum amount.
Maximum Processing Rate Events in a VR world must have a maximum rate, limited by a finite processor. Light Speed The speed of light is a fixed maximum for our universe, and nothing in our space-time can move faster.
Non-local Effects A computer processor is equidistance to all screen “pixels”, so its effects can be “non-local” with respect to its screen. Wave Function Collapse The quantum wave function collapse is non-local - entangled photons on opposite sides of the universe may instantly conform to its requirements.
Processing Load Effects If a virtual processing network is overloaded, its processing outputs must be reduced. Matter and Speed Effects Space curves near a massive body and time dilates at high speeds.
Information Conservation If a stable VR is not to gain or lose information it must conserve it. Physical Conservation Physical existence properties like matter, energy, charge, spin etc are either conserved or equivalently transform.
Algorithmic Simplicity Calculations repeated at every point of a huge VR universe must be simple and easily calculated. Physical Law Simplicity Core physical processes are describable by relatively simple mathematical formulae, e.g. gravity.
Choice Creation A random number function in the VR processor could provide the choices needed to create information. Quantum Randomness The quantum “dice throw” is to the best of our knowledge truly random, and unpredictable by any world event.
Complementary Uncertainty Calculating one property of a self-registering interface may displace complementary data. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle One cannot know both a quantum object’s position and momentum, as knowing either makes the other unknown.
Digital Equivalence Every digital object created by the same code is identical. Quantum Equivalence All quantum objects, like photons or electrons, are identical to each other.
Digital Transitions Digital processes simulate event continuity as a series of state transitions, like the frames of a film. Quantum Transitions Quantum mechanics suggests that reality is a series of state transitions at the quantum level.
About Tom Campbell
Tom Campbell began researching altered states of consciousness with Bob Monroe Journeys Out Of The Body, Far Journeys, and The Ultimate Journey) at Monroe Laboratories in the early 1970s where he and a few others were instrumental in getting Monroe's laboratory for the study of consciousness up and running. These early drug-free consciousness pioneers helped design experiments, developed the technology for creating specific altered states, and were the main subjects of study (guinea pigs) all at the same time. Campbell has been experimenting with, and exploring the subjective and objective mind ever since. For the past thirty years, Campbell has been focused on scientifically exploring the properties, boundaries, and abilities of consciousness.
During that same time period, he has excelled as a working scientist, a professional physicist dedicated to pushing back the frontiers of cutting edge technology, large-system simulation, technology development and integration, and complex system vulnerability and risk analysis. Presently, and for the past 20 years, he has been at the heart of developing US missile defense systems.
