On a clear night with the naked eye, we see what we believe to be stars scattered in every direction across the sky. With binoculars or a small telescope, we can see some of these "stars" are not actually stars at all but star forming regions. The prettiest of these is also our nearest, the … Continue reading The Orion Nebula
Black holes seem to have captured the imagination more so than all other cosmic bodies or phenomena. Blockbusters like Interstellar and Event Horizon have certainly increased the profile of black holes and worm holes. With a captured imagination comes misconceptions and inaccuracies. To begin, most physicists believe black holes aren't even holes at all! Black … Continue reading If The Sun Suddenly Collapsed into a Black Hole.
Cosmologists have been debating the shape of the universe for decades. From simple observation we know the spherical shape of Earth, stars and other celestial bodies. Although, what shape is the entire universe the galaxies are embedded in? In cosmology, a difference is made between the observable universe and the global universe. As the name … Continue reading The Shape of The Universe.
Where is the edge of the universe? Most importantly, what happens if we try to get there? Let's state the obvious, surely there can be no edge to our universe if the universe is infinite. On the other hand, how can it be part of our universe if we can't interact with it? After all, … Continue reading The Edge of The Universe.
In the past year of blogging for GLAMsci, most questions and feedback came from the speed of light series. I thought some housekeeping was in order to post an answer to the most frequently asked question - why isn't the speed of light infinite? To be fair, in my posts I discussed the finding of … Continue reading Why Is The Speed of Light Finite?
Gravity, one of science and nature's biggest mysteries and of all the forces of Nature, the least understood. Out of all the forces Gravity is the weakest and the weakest by far. Gravity, like the other forces of nature, came into existence very soon after the instant of the Big Bang and held its influence … Continue reading Forces of Nature Series : Gravity
It is fair to say that absolutely everybody knows who Albert Einstein is. What many people don't know is why he is regarded as a genius. Einstein's theories of Special and General Relativity have transformed our notion of reality and these theories are central to modern physics. They govern the laws of nature and our … Continue reading Introduction to Special Relativity
So far, we have focused on the grandeur and scale of the heavenly bodies and how they were formed in the Primordial Era of our Universe following the Big Bang. Visible matter i.e. stars, galaxies, planets, nebulae, interstellar dust, comets and asteroids only accounts for 5% of what the universe is actually made of. In … Continue reading Electrons, Quarks, The Higgs Field and The Building Blocks of the Universe
My first award! Thank you It's Not What It's Why for this nomination The award rules are: Thank the person who nominated you Share the award on your blog Share seven random facts about yourself Tag 15 fellow bloggers and let them know that they have been nominated. So, these are the facts about GlamSci Bloggers: Christine: … Continue reading Versatile Blogger Award
In the modern world, everything we know is built on a foundation of numbers and their relationships. It's hard to imagine a time when that was a radical idea, but such a time existed. In fact, 2500 years ago, the Pythagoreans (named after their founder) were a mystic cult based on this very premise. It's difficult … Continue reading The Shape of Things to Come – Geometry as a Path Through the Universe (and Other Puns)
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