The Great Attractor, Dark Flow, and the Large Scale Structures of the Universe

Feb 20, 2020

Did you know that there are structures in the universe bigger than galaxies AND they are all moving towards some unknown source? This week on Space But Messier!

Today we are talking about the large scale structure of the universe. These include things like Clusters, Superclusters, Voids, Filaments, Walls and something called the Great Attractor, all contributing to this idea of dark flow. 

First, we’ll give a bit of an overview of what we teased at the beginning, then we’ll walk you through the details.

If we start at scale, we have: 
Planet Earth
Larger Planets like Saturn and Uranus, Minecraft World 
Jupiter and small stars
Stars
Nebulae
Star Clusters
Galaxy Milky Way: 120,000 ly
Local Group: The cluster of Galaxies we live in; 10 million ly across
Virgo Cluster: 30mil light years across, Largest cluster of galaxies in the Virgo SuperCluster:
Virgo SuperCluster: 110 mil ly across. Contains over 100 galaxy clusters

We thought we belonged to the Virgo Super...

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NASA: A Brief History

Jan 13, 2020

While NASA is the United States of America’s Space Agency, it’s formation was truly an international affair. NASA stands for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, they are responsible for many of the missions into deep space and the first manned mission to the Moon.

Theodore von Karman

To start from the beginning though, we actually need to start in Budapest in the 1880s at the home of Theodore Von Karmen. Being a prodigy in mathematics, von Karmen was guided into engineering by his father and eventually directed an aeronautical institute in Germany. However in 1930, when Hitler came to power, von Karem being Jewish, moved to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena to lead an aeronautical laboratory. In 1936, Theodore Von Karmen was visited by two men, John Parsons and Edward Foreman, inquiring his help in building rockets. Joined by students Frank Malina, Apollo Milton Olin Smith and Tsien Hsue-shen, the Suicide Squad as they were known, sparked...

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Intro to Quantum Mechanics

Jul 08, 2019

Quantum Mechanics

Quantum mechanics is the branch of physics relating to the very small.

In fact, classical physics problems and solutions cease to be relevant. Classical physics is used to predict the future. Ladder, speed, friction trains, etc...

The quantum realm includes particles at the atomic level and it follows its own laws of physics. Electrons, Neutrons, Protons, Electromagnetic fields, because their behavior is not predictable, Quantum Physics works primarily in probabilities.

But what is it?

Quantum mechanics was created and discovered over many decades, beginning as a set of mathematical outcomes of experiments that the math of classical mechanics couldn't explain. It began in the 1900s, around the same time that Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity. Now, Relativity was a completely separate mathematical revolution in physics that describes the motion of things at high speeds, time travel, things like that.

This is where we want to detour and have a...

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Flat Earth Theory

Jan 23, 2019

 

 

Most citizens on Earth have been taught from a young age that the Earth is a round planet orbiting our Sun because 2,000 years of scientific research tells us so. What if I told you the Earth wasn’t round, but that it was a flat disc. I’d be speculating of course, along with a small group of people known as Flat Earthers. Here are the core tenants of their theory as quoted by the Flat Earth Society:

Flat Earth
“The earth is in the form of a disk with the North Pole in the center and Antarctica as a wall around the edge. In this model, circumnavigation is performed by moving in a great circle around the North Pole.”

 Antarctica
The earth is surrounded on all sides by an ice wall that holds the oceans back. This ice wall is what explorers have named Antarctica- a 150-foot-tall wall of ice, around the rim. NASA employees, they say, guard this ice wall to prevent people from climbing over and falling off the disc. Beyond the ice wall is...

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5 Cheapest Telescopes You Can Consider For Viewing Planets

Dec 19, 2018

The best telescopes aren’t always the most expensive ones. In fact, if you look hard enough, you’d be able to find a cheap telescope that is still of great quality.

When it comes to viewing the planets within our own solar system, the go-to telescope would have to be the refractor telescope. Refractor telescopes work using two lenses that bend light and usually, this would be enough to view our neighboring planets as well as other astronomical objects within our solar system.

Reflector telescopes, on the other hand, are often cheaper than refractor telescopes. More than that, they also have a superior optical ability and are often the most sought-after telescope in the market. Nevertheless, when it comes to getting an affordable telescope, it all comes down to how willing you are to search and ask.

With this being said, here are 5 of the cheapest telescopes you can consider for viewing planets; as recommended by Jason Cook of TelescopicWatch.

  1.   Orion SpaceProbe 3...
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NASA: A History

Jul 02, 2018

While NASA is the United States of America’s Space Agency, it’s formation was truly an international affair. NASA stands for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, they are responsible for many of the missions into deep space and the first manned mission to the Moon.

Theodore von Karman

To start from the beginning though, we actually need to start in Budapest in the 1880s at the home of Theodore Von Karmen. Being a prodigy in mathematics, von Karmen was guided into engineering by his father and eventually directed an aeronautical institute in Germany. However in 1930, when Hitler came to power, von Karem being Jewish,  moved to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena to lead an aeronautical laboratory. In 1936, Theordore Von Karmen was visited by two men, John Parsons and Edward Foreman, inquiring his help in building rockets. Joined by students Frank Malina, Apollo Milton Olin Smith and Tsien Hsue-shen, the Suicide Squad as they were known,...

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Planet Spotlight: Mercury

Jun 25, 2018

 

Mercury has appeared many times over the ages in works by Isaac Asimov, C. S. Lewis, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke and H. P. Lovecraft. Also, in the animated television show Invader Zim, Mercury is turned into a prototype giant spaceship by the extinct Martians.

 

Fun Facts:

  • Smallest planet in our solar system, just a little bigger than Earth’s moon, but far heavier because it is made of heavier elements like Iron.
  • Closest planet to the sun, but it’s actually not the hottest. Venus is hotter.
  • Along with Venus, Earth, and Mars, Mercury is one of the rocky planets with a solid surface covered with craters.
  • It has a thin atmosphere, and it doesn’t have any moons or rings
  • Mercury takes 59 Earth days to make one full rotation, but because it’s the closest planet to the sun, it doesn’t take very long to go all the way around. One year on Mercury is just 88 Earth days. If you lived on Mercury, you’d have a birthday every three months!
  • ...
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(Our) Life on Mars!

Jun 11, 2018

News!

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found new evidence preserved in rocks on Mars that suggests the planet could have supported ancient life. You’ve probably heard, but what does this really mean? So in order to have life, you need certain organic molecules or building blocks. Organic molecules contain carbon and hydrogen, and also may include oxygen, nitrogen and other elements. They were found in three-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks near the surface. This is such a big deal because, as put by NASA’s Jen Eigenbrode,

" The Martian surface is exposed to radiation from space. Both radiation and harsh chemicals break down organic matter.Finding ancient organic molecules in the top five centimeters of rock that was deposited when Mars may have been habitable, bodes well for us to learn the story of organic molecules on Mars with future missions that will drill deeper.”

 

Topic: (Our) Life on Mars!

This will be the last episode to cover my experience at...

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Jeff Bezos Interview and Astronaut Training with Space Nation

Jun 04, 2018

Still at the International Space Development Conference, and I was perusing the different booths yesterday, I saw a man in a bright yellow t-shirt, with a familiar logo. If you haven’t listened in awhile, here’s the basic rundown. A company called Space Nation released an app that allows you to train to be an astronaut, where 100 of the top performers will be chosen to enter a physical Astronaut training boot camp, where 1 will be sent to space. This man however, was none other than Space Nation’s Captain and Co-Founder Kalle Vaha Jaakola. (because CEO is boring he says) After meeting him, he was nice enough to sit down and chat with me and answer all of my questions. This episode is almost all him, so feel free to check it out! 

 

Among the many faces there,  Jeff Bezos also gave me his 2 cents. Last Night, Jeff Bezos was here at ISDC, accepting the Gerard K. O’Neill Memorial Award for furthering space settlement. Jeff Bezos is...

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#SaveTheExpanse

May 28, 2018

The news for this week is exciting because here at ISDC, we get the first glimpse of what’s coming, not only in space development, but in space gaming. I may not have stopped by this particular booth if it weren’t for a huge display of Neil DeGrasse Tyson in his retro-color glory, pointing at me saying, "WE NEED YOU!," which is absolutely incredible. So I approached the Neil deGrasse Tyson painting to check it out and interviewed the man attending the booth. Check out the podcast episode to hear his description!

Today, however is dedicated to a movement that is close to my heart, a science fiction adventure so exhilarating, that you are missing out if you have not watched this show, and that is, The Expanse. Now this segment was not planned, I must say… but I was sitting eating my lunch, when all of the sudden, I looked up and thought… "Is that James Holden? And Amos, oh my god the pilot guy, that the cast of the Expanse!" So I packed my belongings,...

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