A To Z Challenge: Unified Theory And Unraveling The Universe's Mysteries

Unified theory, also known as Grand Unified Theory (GUT) or the Theory of Everything (TOE), is the name for an as-yet undiscovered theory that would unite all the known physical forces into one complete theory. Since Albert Einstein physicists have been attempting to combine gravitation, the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, and electromagnetism, and by so doing discover a fundamental equation or system that governs the universe.

One theory that holds promise toward producing a unified theory is M-theory. Gathering the attention of physicists like Stephen Hawking and Brian Greene, M-theory is the unification of five separate string theories, which it can combine by adding an additional 11th dimension. It's still being hashed out--but string theory has potential to successfully combine all known forces into one.

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Sources:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/614522/unified-field-theory
http://physics.about.com/od/physicsmtop/g/M-Theory.htm
http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/research/gr/public/qg_ss.html
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/M-theory
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-stephen-hawking-cedars-sinai-20130410,0,7704203.story
http://phys.org/news/2011-03-elegant-multiverse-professor-brian-greene.html

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Do you think scientists will develop a unified theory/GUT/TOE within the next few decades? Do you think it will have a effect on society, or that we haven't achieved enough to really take advantage of a fundamental theory?


-----The Golden Eagle

A To Z Blogging Challenge: Cosmology And Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (+ IWSG)

Cosmology is the study of the universe as a whole: It's origin, its current state, and its future. Cosmology differs from astrophysics in that the latter is more focused on moons, planets, galaxies, stars, and other intergalactic forces, though there is significant overlap between the two fields; many scientific discoveries in one area of study affect the other.

One recent development in cosmology has been a better, much more detailed image of the universe's cosmic microwave background radiation, or CMBR, taken by the European Space Agency's Planck satellite. CMBR is considered to be a significant piece of evidence that the Big Bang (an extremely rapid explosion some 12-15 billion years ago considered by many cosmologists to have created the universe) actually happened. Assuming the Big Bang Theory is accurate, it calls for photon radiation (light) just after the initial explosion; these photons have since extended their wavelengths to become microwaves, hence the name cosmic microwave background radiation.

The radiation pattern shows fluctuations that, in some of the earliest moments of the Big Bang, caused the formation of galaxies and the other objects in the universe. It also supports the idea that the universe expanded very, very rapidly just after the Big Bang, and then slowed down, which would explain the size of the universe. The initial rapid expansion is called inflation.

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Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cosmology
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/cosmo/lectures/lec23.html
http://www.superstringtheory.com/cosmo/
http://www.newscientist.com/topic/cosmology
http://dawn.com/2013/04/03/plank-probes-map-a-picture-of-our-universe/
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Planck/Planck_reveals_an_almost_perfect_Universe
http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-powered-the-big-bang/

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And now, for the IWSG part of my post. In case you don't know what the Insecure Writer's Support Group is, check out this page on Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog.

My insecurity today is letting my writing sit for long periods of time; I haven't worked on my novel (my as-yet-unfinished NaNoWriMo novel, just to give you an idea for how long it's been around) in almost a month, and that's not unusual for me. A lot of people would argue you're supposed to write every day, even if it's just a few words, so my question is: Have you tried writing every day? Did it work? Were you more productive in the long term, or do you prefer to write in spurts?


Do you think cosmologists will someday be able to pinpoint the origin and the future of the universe? 


-----The Golden Eagle

A To Z Blogging Challenge: Astrophysics And Asteroids

Today is the kickoff of the A to Z Blogging Challenge!

My theme this year is science. Specifically, recent discoveries in science: Last year I explored various fields and gave overviews of what they were all about, but this time I've decided to track down some interesting discoveries/recent developments in scientific fields and post about those. I'm also winging the challenge--not exactly by choice, but I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up with on a moment's notice. (Hopefully our internet connection will stop acting weird and let me blog normally soon. Pages are taking minutes to load for some reason.)

But before we finally get to the actual content of my post, I'd like to give a shout-out to the creator of the A to Z Challenge, Arlee Bird. He's an amazing blogger and built a challenge that has allowed people to explore the web and get to know people they'd normally never find.

Now, for my first A to Z Challenge entry: Astrophysics and Asteroids

Astrophysics is the study of space and the universe, such as stars, planets, matter, energy, and practically everything that involves the world beyond Earth. It's the examination of how celestial objects form or self-destruct; it raises questions about what occurred and is occurring in the universe.

The universe, of course, includes asteroids. On February 15th this year, as you've most probably heard, an asteroid (a "superbolide", bolide referring to the bright light it produced) hit the atmosphere and exploded over the Ural Mountains in Russia, above the town of Chelyabinsk. The asteroid was around 17-20 meters across and had a total impact energy of 440 kilotons of TNT, though around 90 kilotons was released as light.


Astrophysics has helped determine the size, velocity, and the likelihood of such an event occurring again. The chances of another asteroid exploding in the atmosphere is not, in fact, as low as you might think; since much of Earth's surface area is uninhabited by people, these types of explosions may occur from every few decades (which is the shortest estimate) to about 100 years and just go unnoticed. More are being found these days due to sensors put in place for the detection of nuclear blasts.

One thing astrophysics can't do, however, is predict such asteroids in advance. They're too minute for current methods and technology to find before they strike the planet, though there are plans to build a new satellite that would orbit the Sun and could be capable of pinpointing the smaller objects.




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Sources:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/meteor-strike.html
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fireball_130301.html
http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/
http://io9.com/5985276/incredible-details-are-emerging-about-russias-chelyabinsk-meteor

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Do you think there should be more effort put into defending Earth from asteroids?

If you're participating in the A to Z Challenge, what did you choose for letter A?


-----The Golden Eagle

A-Z Blogging Challenge: D Stands For: Dark Matter

Scientists know little about dark matter.

Even though they think it makes up 23% of the universe, and 80% of all matter, dark matter is not detectable along the electromagnetic spectrum (i.e. radio, microwave, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet, x-ray). A few of the only signs of dark matter are temperature distribution in hot gas, the rotational speeds of galaxies (stars revolve around the center of their galaxies), and gravitation lensing (which is when light curves around an object to reach whatever's observing it).

(SOURCE)

These effects are attributed to dark matter because there is no clear way of explaining them without it. If dark matter really is playing a part in the universe, then it would explain the so-called "missing mass" and the current laws of physics would still work.

A video on dark matter:

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA scienceNOW.

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Although, dark matter is only one theory. It's obvious something is interfering with the way the universe should (according to our laws and calculations) work, but dark matter might not be the final theory. There could be something else that's affecting the way we arrive at our current answers; modified gravity laws and quantum gravity laws are two theories that do not involve dark matter.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter

Do you think we'll figure out what's acting on the universe and find a way of observing it directly, instead of being able to only note its effects?


-----The Golden Eagle