I looked that up and the closest I got was synchrotron radiation.

Synchrotron radiation gives me a point to start looking for science that’s been done to answer questions like mine about where all that radiation comes from and why, while keeping some distance from the fringe stuff that blames it all on legendary lightning bolts of Thor that Velikovsky reinterpreted some old legends as being about, or blames it on artists’ conceptions of “black holes” and their spirals and jets without having any explanation of how they work.

No, can’t say I did.

Ivan.

This blog is one of my faves, and this post is another reason why.

Thanks, Phil!

It’s not what came out, and I completely missed it. I’ll have to watch that in future.

Ivan.

Undoubtedly with so much still to discover, why are we wasting time, energy and people fighting wars? Or even trying to find more horrific ways to bring down an enemy? And don’t anybody bring out the old chestnuts about pennicillin, or teflon, or even dynamite. Nothing can justify war as a bringer of goodness.

Enough of the rant, but any good persuasion to encourage kids and college students to follow the never-ending idea of “Why is it so?”, (with apologies to the late Prof. Julius Sumner Miller, who used that phrase to great effect here on Australian TV a couple of decades ago.) Well I certainly remembered him, but not only for the phrase. I guess many budding young scientists, now working in their chosen fields, do also. For me, it was too late, but I can still learn and be amazed.

Ivan. ( B.Zero, Uni. of Hard Knocks.) (Heck, I’m not even a batchelor anymore – I’m married!)

I’m wondering if the way astronomy is discussed is about popularizing support for it without explaining what’s really known, because that would be over the average person’s head, or if the way it’s discussed is about guiding funding by emphasizing the words that influence supporters, such as “black hole,” and that’s why practically nothing is publicly explained.

Gary 7

I actually view space as “without heat of any kind”, ie at zero degrees absolute, and in fact “without cold of any kind”, if you get what I mean. It is only the “solid” object in space, ie the element hydrogen or whatever, that is agitated, thereby raising the temperature a mite or two. When that element has been heated for a long time, along with all the others so effected, I guess it is really raised in energy levels to a point where it re-radiates some of that energy and we see it as a glow, albeit in the microwave region, in this case, and in other parts of the EM spectrum across the whole gamut in all galaxies otherwise.

But I did wonder if that density was high enough to constitute an ultra-light solid, in effect. That would mean it would be very very hot. It would mean that there would be Mass, lots of it. Maybe even account for some of the “missing” mass of the universe?

Hey, what does metalic hydrogen look like? There must be some point where it does exist. Maybe not for long as it heats up, but there must be a temperature differential as one moves around so to speak. Are there cooler areas in Space behind other objects, such as in shadows? Being cooler, they would be more condensed, thereby having a slightly higher mass per given volume, and also a higher gravity. Or am I off beam with that one?

Ivan.

If you were to gather that gas together at sea level density it would be very hot indeed; it would shine like the sun.

space is very cold, very large, but has the very occassional very small very hot thing.

(please tell me that all made sense!! I just came of a 16 hour shift and should be nowhere near the memespace!)

Another thing though, in the Chandra X-Ray image and complementary discription, there is mention of the surrounding interstellar gas being many millions of degrees HOT. (You thought I was going to ask if it was degrees F or C didn’t you. Dur, I’m not even going to mention that. Hot is hot!)

Does this mean that the mean temperature of space in that (huge) vicinity is similar to the center of the Sun, or only the relatively sparse gas molecules or elements in that cloud the only things that could be heated by that radiation from the nearby (?) stars? I mean could we as space travellers actually venture there, and for the time being, not heat up and melt and eventually vaporise?

So, any estimate as to the average density of elements in that area, and how would it compare with our neck of the woods?

Ivan.

Thanks,

GAry 7

I also see my typos are as bad as ever. That’s Robert A. Heinlein’s novel ‘Friday’ (New English Library, 1982) of course with the red-haired heroine on the cover sitting on a hovercar with a backdrop of burning city.
Asa big SF buff Iread alot of novels and that one still has about the best openings I’ve ever read -’nuff said.

Dunno if any authors named Gheinelin exist .. if so haven’t read them

Apologies for those typos – stuffing up names is always embarassing. (Sigh)

Lorne Ipsum – if you’re reading this – try NOT to lookat the Sun too much! It’ll send you blind -and that’s for real – just ask a certain Galileo Galilei.

Gary Ansorge : If you’re reading this have you read GHeinelin’s novel ‘Friday’? That’s my fave – gripping from the start witha very sexy heroine and a nice little interstellar voyage at the end – witty, amusing, highly readable. If you haven’t already readit it, I’d certainly recommend it ..

Why is this?