The Possibility of Achieving Faster than the Speed of Light

For almost a century, the speed of light is a renowned and acknowledged speed limit from special relativity. Although the math works out, only now have we as human beings are able to verify this almost century old "fact." Intriguing enough, due to the recent CERN announcement that neutrinos travel faster than the speed of light, this fact may be under scrutiny.

If we assume that everything checks out from error analysis and from replicated experiments, this may not call for a total reorganization for general relativity. Present quantum theories speculate that at the scale of smaller than atoms, there are wormholes at the sizes of a "billion trillion trillionth" of a centimeter across.
Unlike light, and other electromagnetic radiation from the electromagnetic spectrum, neutrinos actually have mass (shown here). However, because the mass is almost significant to the point where neutrinos are able to pass through Earth (and even your own body, as every second "tens of thousands of neutrinos" actually do so) without interacting with most of the matter on or within Earth, it may be possible for neutrinos to interact with the tiny micro-microscopic wormholes. Common concepts of wormholes are that it is not just able to transport objects instantaneously over any distance, but it is also able to transport objects backwards or forwards into time. Therefore some question that if neutrinos do have the capability of traveling through wormholes, does that mean they are capable of traveling through time as well. Unfortunately for those who believe in time travel in the sense of going forwards or backwards in time, wormholes may not be the answer they are looking for. Current theories from special relativity speculate that it is impossible to use a wormhole like a time machine. The video here shows why such a thing is predicted to not exist.

Although quantum theory has been criticized for being unable to justify numerous phenomenons in the cosmos, if neutrinos do travel through wormholes theorized by quantum theory, it may be a strong support to some portions of quantum theory. The scientific implications are unknown to me, but perhaps this may lead to a revolution where quantum theory and Einstein's theory of relativity may be united into one theory that may be able to encompass a larger understanding of the universe than our present scientific paradigm. Unfortunately due to my lack of knowledge of the unification process and problems of quantum theory and general relativity, I am unable to prove more information. However, the prospects of physics may be looking better than ever. The possibilities of justifying actual wormhole existence may be close. That may lead to a new way of understanding the universe and its almost limitless phenomenons. 

4 Dimensional Universe

When the fact that the universe is four dimensional was heard by me, I was dumbstruck. It almost feels like we as human beings are unable to detect and understand four dimensional space! But it may be simpler than what most people imagine! 

Here's a website that helps visualize 4 dimensional space! Although it does not exactly help to show the shape of the universe, it does show the nature of the universe. It also helps to describe the expansion of the universe with the use of the scale of time! Here's an image to show what I mean:

Despite the idea of the universe being in 4 dimensions, there are other theories out there that place the dimension of the universe at above 10 dimensions or more. One of these theories is called M-Theory, or also known as string theory. Popularly known as Sheldon Cooper of Big Bang Theory's field of study. M-theory dictates that the universe actually has 11 dimensions. For those who want to read on M-theory and its implications, check out these two websites!

1) http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/23/18/14.html

2) http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/research/gr/public/qg_ss.html

UFOs, and Their Negative and Positive Impacts on Humanity!

I recently read a website on UFOs, abductions, and ancient astronauts. In addition to that, I also read Alien Impact by Michael Craft over the summer. It is interesting to see that despite the continuous generation of UFO "sightings" from the general public, scientists seem to be quite persuaded that such sightings were driven by a mix of belief and unsubstantiated support. In almost all cases, all UFO sightings described in 'Alien Impact' seemed to have shown that UFO sightings are perhaps a psychological creation that has no relevance to the real world. Perhaps the sudden realization of space being ever changing due to the very recently opened space frontier, and also the endless possibilities of worlds out there in the universe that have the capacity for life, we as humans long for a meeting with an alien race. 'Alien Impact' goes as far as to saying that UFO sightings may be ingrained within western civilization as a type of culture that manifests itself due to people's own beliefs. The website I've provided also shows philosophically sound skepticism against wild propositions.

On another note, despite the negativity of UFOs and their unsupported existence, their contribution to humankind may not be all negative! NASA has managed to test the notion of the 'flying saucer' and has deemed it a more efficient way of getting aircraft off the ground than mere rockets. A video below shows exactly how this is done:

Despite the fact that many scientists insist that UFOs are humanity's creation, it is odd to also think that humanity has benefited from such ideas. Perhaps developing technologies such as this, be it that they are still in primitive stages, may help us revolutionize atmospheric and space flight as we know it!

The "Face of Mars"

When NASA's Viking 1 Orbiter first took a picture of the "Face" of Mars, also known as Cydonia, it started a controversial uproar about whether it was an artificial formation, or a natural formation.

NASA believes that the formation of the face is due to optical illusion; that is, the formation of the shapes were only present at the time this photo was shot because of the sun's shadows and not because of the actual formation of Cydonia.

Other more high detailed and up to date pictures from the European Space Agency's Mars Express:

These pictures depict a much less obvious face, not to mention the third picture almost looks like a skull! In any case, it is believed by most scientists (although some still persistantly disagree) that Cydonia is a natural formation. In some cases, these scientists that disagree that Cydonia is natural is due to what seems to be an elaborate layout of multiple pyramid looking structures near the location of Cydonia. This leads these scientists to believe that this location may be part of an ancient martian city. The nature of these pyramids will be discussed in the next post!

Of course, all this picture taking is all speculation. I tend to believe that nothing can get settled by mere images. Although there are numerous rovers on Mars, they hardly make a dent in the missing archaeological aspect of Mars. Only when we have the technology to send an excavation team down to the surface of Mars with the right equipment, will there be sufficient evidence to show that some sort of life form, intelligent or not, lived on Mars. Not to mention, since scientists have still no evidence at all of knowing where life comes from, it is sad to say that Earth can potentially be the only planet that has life (and how lonely THAT would be in such a grand, gigantic universe!).

For more high resolution pictures of the "Face," click here!

The Largest Volcano in the Solar System

The tallest peak in the solar system coincidentally (or so we assume!) is also the tallest and largest volcano in the solar system! Located on Mars, Olympus Mons stands at a wooping 27 kilometers! This is approximately three times as tall as Mount Everest. Not to mention, Olympus Mons is not just extremely tall, it is also extremely wide, with 600 kilometers in diameter.

On May 26th, 2004, the Mars Express (a satellite circling Mars) took a picture of Olympus Mons directly looking down from its peak:

Picture Link
This overhead view shows the summit crater area of the volcano, with 102 kilometer wide, 3 kilometer deep caldera pits!

An interesting thing to understand is that Olympus Mon has a very shallow slope, with an outer region with around 5 degrees of slope angle. This means that as long as you are not on any slope of the volcano, you can never see the top since Mar's surface curvature will prevent it from coming into view.

Scientists suggest that one of the reasons why this volcano of such magnitude was created on Mars is that Mars has no tectonic plate activity. Imagine a non-moving crust on a hotspot. This allows for the lava to rush out of the crust without any interruption for hundreds, if not thousands of years. This century, or millennium buildup may be the cause of this gigantic volcano.

In fact, this volcano was so massive that astronomers in the 19th century were able to distinguish it from the normal martian atmosphere!

Click here to read more about Olympus Mons!

The Milky Way Galaxy

While physicists and astronomers discuss about the larger scheme of things like the Big Bang, the formation of the universe, and laws of physics that define movement through time and space, it is troubling to say that being within our own galaxy, scientists have been having a difficult time even grasping the shape of the Milky Way.

In the 1950s, astronomers produced the map of our galaxy based off radio observations of gas. Such studies suggest that the Milky Way is made of four major spiraling arms.

 Image Source
 The four major arms were Norma, Scutum-Crux, Sagittarius, Persues, while our Solar System is located on a "small, partial" arm called the Orion. For decades, astronomers have produced the structure of the milky way based only on radio signals.

By the 1990s, the use of infrared telescopes became the accepted form of mapping the Milky Way since infrared could penetrate dust and thus have better resolution in crowded sectors of our galaxy. However, such use of infrared observations have overthrown many preconceptions of the structure of the galaxy!

In 2008, A team of scientists using the Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope showed that the Milky Way had two major arms instead of four!

Image Source
"These major arms, the Scutum-Centaurus and Perseus arms, have the greatest densities of both young, bright stars, and older, so-called red-giant stars. The two minor arms, Sagittarius and Norma, are filled with gas and pockets of young stars. Benjamin said the two major arms seem to connect up nicely with the near and far ends of the galaxy's central bar."

For additional information and curiosity of the minor arms, Far/Near 3kpc, please view this link.

However, that was what NASA said in 2008.  In 2009, another group of scientists used Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) and revitalized the previous concepts that the Milky Way Galaxy has four arms instead of two.

VLBA is "a system of 10 radio-telescope antennas stretching from Hawaii to New England and the Caribbean, provides the best ability to see the finest detail, called resolving power, of any astronomical tool in the world. The VLBA can routinely produce images hundreds of times more detailed than those produced by the Hubble Space Telescope," and thus making the claim these scientists are trying to assert, as the most recognized idea of the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy yet.

To more understand this competing theory, please click here.

Yet, another group of scientists based off Brazil by 2010 are starting to claim that the Milky Way Galaxy may in fact be a square instead of the circular shape previous scientists have conceived of its structure as.

Their data which is built upon the 2008 VLBA study shown above, indicates that many parts of the 'spirals' didn't neatly circle the galactic center, but were in fact straight.

Although not the first group of scientists to claim this, this group of scientists also believe that their data shows that the Milky Way Galaxy is composed of not two or four arms, but three!

To understand more about these Brazilian scientist's standpoints, click on this link.

This long, messy pursuit of knowledge of how our galaxy looks like from another galaxy's point of view illustrates science perfectly, as competing theories continue to grow to seek more support until one theory is agreed upon by the majority of astronomers. Unfortunately for the time being, it would seem that the shape and size of the Milky Way Galaxy, our own tiny backyard within the almost infinite universe, remains uncertain.

The Mystery of Gamma Ray Bursts Uncovered - Please View Clips from Top to Bottom!

Massive Gamma Ray bursts in space have baffled scientists for decades due to the unprecedented explosive power observed and inconceivable mass required to generate such phenomenons. The following movies show the unraveling of this mystery through the use of laymen's terms!













This phenomenon was discovered 40 years ago, and has remained a mystery until NASA managed to obtain the technology and knowledge to record the 'afterglow' of gamma ray bursts on May 9th, 2005. (If you don't understand, then obviously you have't watched the cool movies yet!)
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/short_burst_oct5.html