Large Hardon Collider

[Kryssan]

Here, I guess for those having issues:



Link


BIG image. Definately breaks forums. The blue stuff is the xray part of the image, the galaxy imprint is visual which is overlaid on it. On the NASA site you can view them separately and with legends. If the link works, that is, I guess.

[Mizango]

Oh, what this is going to be the nerdiest question ever, but what is your favorite cosmic phenomenon everyone? Mine is most definitely the Quasar!

They are the most luminous, powerful, and energetic objects known in the universe. They inhabit the very centres of active young galaxies and can emit up to a thousand times the energy of our entire Milky Way.

Largest, baddest, meanest motherfuckers in the universe. God I want one.. to bad none are around anymore.

Yeah man, Quasars are easily on list of top 3 followed closely by Pulsars. But my favorite would definitely have to Super massive black holes!

The idea of a giant black hole acting as a Galactic nucleus exerting an overwhelming amount of powerful gravitational force on nearby gas and stars, causing them to move at super sonic speeds is mind blowingly awesome. I mean there is no other way to put it, take a standard Black hole and super size that mofo a billion times over and voila!

If we took a good look at our giant elliptical neighbor Galaxy Messier 87 which is one of the two brightest objects in the Virgo cluster of galaxies, which is also a radio galaxy with a super bright jet emerging from its galactic nucleus which has long been suspected to contain a SMBH. Recent observations of the M87 galaxy via the Hubble Space Telescope reveal that there is indeed a disk of gas that is roughly 500 light years in diameter whose orbital speeds would imply a central mass of some 4 billion solar masses, which is fucking insane lol.

The basic ratio of this central mass to the central light output is more than 100 times the standard Solar value. Mind you that there is no "normal" population or cluster of stars that has such a high mass to light ratio that we know of. All of the afore mentioned parameters are 100% consistent with the presence of dun dun dun, a super massive black hole like we have at the center of our Milky way galaxy.

Super Massive Black Holes are what get my juices flowing like nobody business! Well maybe with the exception of Exo-Planets... I can get off on some Exo-Planets as well. Those 2 are easily a tie for my top spots lol.

[Eliseos]

this is going to be the nerdiest question ever, but what is your favorite cosmic phenomenon everyone?

Supernovas, for me. They spread out the stars material, and are the reason why elements higher than Iron on the periodic table exist. It helps spread material out to form new stars, planets and other celestial bodies. Type 1a (I think it's 1a, anyways, the one where a white dwarf exceeds the Chandrasekhar limit) give us an almost exact distance marker anywhere in the visible universe. They also make for awesome images.

EDIT: Also, the NASA link works for me.

[Mizango]

Yeah I agree with the Supernova one as well. People look at the periodic table all through school and have no idea what the hell they are looking at lol. It's pretty neat when you can look at the remnants of what was once a star and see what is essentially all of the building blocks essential for life floating through space. Spewing endless tons upon tons of life giving and life taking elements every second, it is a tremendous show of force in every sense of the word.

The myriad of carbons, oxygens, helium and hydrogens are beautiful. Even our noble gases, precious stones and along with everything we know all have a common origin.

I wish people would use Google and look into Iridium deposits here on here and take into account that Iridium is what makes up a lot of Meteors and Comets that wisp through space for millions of years and realize that it does not occur naturally here on Earth and add 2 and 2 together. Look at things like the Willamette Meteorite and then tell me how things work deep down.

Supernovas are awesome. I may have a sight for you to check out Eliseos where you can help us scour and hunt for Supernovas seeing as how there are countless numbers of them out there in the cosmos. I participate and it is a lot of fun, Ill post the link when I get home this evening.

This was a great idea Neo lol. BEST NERD QUESTION EVAR

[Kryssan]

I like the images from the dark matter Sombrero galaxy (M104). It's got a SMBH in the center of it, or the scientists have really missed their mark. It's only 1 billionish solar masses though, but it's also in the Virgo part.



Quasars/Pulsars/Neutron stars definitely on the list of interests for stellar objects. Not really sure what I'd label as my favourite though.

[Neosutra]

I like the super nova answer. I find it funny that most people dont even know this is the 2nd iteration of our current star (i.e. the current solar system is a remnant of the original sun's supernova/collapse).

And I LOVE Neutron stars as well. Just simply for how fast they spin. "Hi, I have the mass of the Sun in a 10 mile diameter sphere, rotating at 100times a second.." The angular momentum on them is borderline relativistic <3.

[Kryssan]

I like the super nova answer. I find it funny that most people dont even know this is the 2nd iteration of our current star (i.e. the current solar system is a remnant of the original sun's supernova/collapse).

And I LOVE Neutron stars as well. Just simply for how fast they spin. "Hi, I have the mass of the Sun in a 10 mile diameter sphere, rotating at 100times a second.." The angular momentum on them is borderline relativistic <3.

The reason I like neutron stars is because they almost always appear as binaries, and the affects of the binary system is extremely interesting. And when you start getting into applied theory where the 'binary' is actually a black hole and a neutron star together, things get really interesting...

[zoobernut]

I was going to either say Pulsar or Super Massive black hole. The pulsar because of the massive amount of energy being spewed out and how violent it is, and the SMB because they are big mysterious dark, and seem to have a fundamental connection to the formation of galaxies and maybe the universe.


Edit: Hey I just noticed I hit 2k posts again. I randomly lost about 45 posts the other day for some reason... weird.

[Eliseos]

The sad thing is, most people wouldn't even know how to read the Periodic table if you gave them one

Supernova hunting sounds exciting. I wish I could have seen what the crab nebula looked like when it exploded in 1054 AD, since apparently it was visible during the daytime.

Binary systems involving a neutron star or black hole are fascinating too. I was watching one of Walter Lewin's lectures where he was discussing the work he used to do involving x-ray observations with high-altitude balloons. He went through the whole geometry of the accretion disk, explaining how they could figure out the distance between the x-ray source and the donor star using the delay between the x-ray and the visible light. Also, fuck those balloons, I'd be so nervous when they were preparing to fly it, with how delicate the balloon actually is. The material was thinner than seran wrap, and it was about 600 feet long. Fuckkkkk that.

[Mizango]

I like the super nova answer. I find it funny that most people dont even know this is the 2nd iteration of our current star (i.e. the current solar system is a remnant of the original sun's supernova/collapse).

Yeah that is surprising that people have no clue about that. I remember the first time mentioning that to someone and them being totally like "wut". I mean I'd assume you'd at least learn about the little nook we live in but I guess that's asking too much.

Sadly it seems that ignorance really is bliss.

And I LOVE Neutron stars as well. Just simply for how fast they spin. "Hi, I have the mass of the Sun in a 10 mile diameter sphere, rotating at 100times a second.." The angular momentum on them is borderline relativistic <3.

Yeah man, I agree wholeheartedly. That is some phenomenal shit right there lol. I love seeing animations of those. Man NASA used to have a time lapse photos of Pulsars and Quasars, they were fucking win.

Gonna see if I can find them.

[Neosutra]

I need to keep my wife from this discussion. She has been trying to decide whether to go back and finish her Phd in astrophysics, when she JUST finished her MBA and got a new job (love physics, but 120k a year with MBA > 40k a year as an associate professor). Physicists should get bonuses for being awesome =/

[Eliseos]

I need to keep my wife from this discussion. She has been trying to decide whether to go back and finish her Phd in astrophysics, when she JUST finished her MBA and got a new job (love physics, but 120k a year with MBA > 40k a year as an associate professor). Physicists should get bonuses for being awesome =/

If you don't mind my asking, what is her new job?

[Kryssan]

Most people don't even know our star has names other than 'Sun', unless you specifically point it out. Even though it should be obvious. Granted, most of them mean 'sun' or 'star' in some form or another, but that's not the name...


It's kinda like how every once in a while during a WWII battle/history conversation I'll ask if they know who Erwin Rommel was and get blank stares... *sigh*


For me, the best part that's the most aggravating is that I can explain how a breeder reactor is a virtually limitless fuel supply using nothing but a periodic table and a chart of the nuclides... yet people don't know how to read them so its completely pointless.

[Mizango]

I need to keep my wife from this discussion. She has been trying to decide whether to go back and finish her Phd in astrophysics, when she JUST finished her MBA and got a new job (love physics, but 120k a year with MBA > 40k a year as an associate professor). Physicists should get bonuses for being awesome =/

Oh yeah easily, we never get enough credit Man your wife sounds awesome, nothing hotter than a smart female.

Ill be back to school soon for the same thing. I figured out after these years that you cant put a price tag on what you love. So come hell or high water Ill have my Astrophysics degree sooner rather than later.

[Eliseos]

Ill be back to school soon for the same thing. I figured out after these years that you cant put a price tag on what you love. So come hell or high water Ill have my Astrophysics degree sooner rather than later.

That's why I decided to double major with Physics, my university offers an Astronomy emphasis. If I don't do it now, I'll regret it later on, even if it takes me two more years to complete.

[Mizango]

The sad thing is, most people wouldn't even know how to read the Periodic table if you gave them one

Sad but very true. It is marvelous when you know what you are looking at. I daughter has a huge poster of the PToE on her wall and spent this summer explaining to her how to read it properly.

She's 9 and gets it.

[Mizango]

That's why I decided to double major with Physics, my university offers an Astronomy emphasis. If I don't do it now, I'll regret it later on, even if it takes me two more years to complete.

Exactly, you're a smart one. Stay on top of that shit and don't look back. Before switching my major to Computers I was going into Microbiology and Physics as well. Woozie almost kicked me through the computer when he found out I switched lol.

Now that I got that out of the way I can go back and take my time this time around. I dont see any of this as work so putting in more years is nothing.

[Neosutra]

If you don't mind my asking, what is her new job?

Cant really say due to the nature of our work, but Ill just leave it as "we work in the defense industry".

We've both worked at the national lab for a bit, and I love the research aspects of the job. I just decided that if I am going to work 16 hour days, Im going to get paid well for it.

Ill be deciding whether to go back to that after this deployment, or whether to sell out and go do patent law when I get back..

I think we would both be happy being poor physicists... but the porsche cayman S keeps calling to me. That and I can do most of my work on my own tbh..

And to Mizango: No, smart chicks just argue more. Get a dumb one and just says "ok" when you ask her to pull the car into the garage, and not "why".

[Mizango]

ROFL

[Eliseos]

Cant really say due to the nature of our work, but Ill just leave it as "we work in the defense industry".

We've both worked at the national lab for a bit, and I love the research aspects of the job. I just decided that if I am going to work 16 hour days, Im going to get paid well for it.

Ill be deciding whether to go back to that after this deployment, or whether to sell out and go do patent law when I get back..

I think we would both be happy being poor physicists... but the porsche cayman S keeps calling to me. That and I can do most of my work on my own tbh..

And to Mizango: No, smart chicks just argue more. Get a dumb one and just says "ok" when you ask her to pull the car into the garage, and not "why".

Ah, awesome. Developing things for the military has always been a pipe dream of mine. I went to a career fair at school a few months back, one of the companies developed parts for naval fighter jets, and the space shuttle. Would have been an amazing internship. Another student here got an internship with NASA, helping develop the toilet on the ISS (hopefully he wasn't responsible for it breaking down a couple weeks ago lol).