Okay, here’s an example of something I ran across on Science Daily that made me think two things. First, wow, that sounds really important. Second, I have no idea what this means to my world.According to Peter Michelson, professor of physics at Stanford University and principal investigator for Fermi's Large Area Telescope, two gamma ray photons spent the last 7.3 Billion years racing across the universe to end up at the Fermi orbiting telescope at pretty much the same time.
Why is this big news? Well, it seems one of the gamma rays was of the heavy variety, having a million times more energy than the other. Einstein theorized that all electromagnetic radiation travels through space at essentially the same speed. There are those who disagree, theorizing that the energy laden rays would move more slowly than their lightweight siblings.
Image: NASA/Sonoma State University/Aurore SimonnetThis is more than just a disagreement over speed, it’s an attempt to mess with the current understanding of the role of gravity (apparently it’s more than just the stuff that keeps us from floating off into space).
The fact that the gamma rays arrived here at almost the exact same time – they were within nine-tenths of a second of one another, totally whacks the new theory. As stated by Professor Michelson, “Einstein still rules”.
That’s interesting to learn, but aside from not being able to relate this development to my own life, it raises so many additional questions. Such as...
- These gamma rays were supposedly created and sent off more than 7 billion years ago. How did we know they were coming? Are we just out there looking for random gamma rays to measure so we can test Einstein’s theories?
- Is it normal for gamma rays to travel together? Are they on some kind of package tour to see the universe on 25 Altarian dollars per day?
- Did the gamma rays stop when they got to the telescope or did we just observe them as they were passing through? Will anything stop them? Do I need to worry about this?
- How long do gamma rays live?
2 comments:
I don't make comments very often on your blog, but I do wonder if you ever check to see them. With Trey adding one blog after another and another, etc. on top of yours, you would have to scroll down quite a bit to get back to yours to check - ooops, wait a mintue - just realized you could click on your name and get only your blog! Okay, got that figured out.
My thoughts about this energy coming to earth - what if there is some super intelligent race out there that sent these rays as some form of spy instrument to search the universe for other intelligent beings and find us sorely lacking! MOM
Mom -
I usually see all the comments so don't worry about them getting lost.
Re: gamma rays being a spy instrument sent by intelligent life somewhere out in the universe - it's entirely possible that you're absolutely right.
What we know about our universe pales in comparison to what we don't know.
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