Multiverse

Multiverses can be distinguished in 4 different levels

Level I is where other such regions far away in space where the apparent laws of physics are the same, but where history would be different because things happened differently.

Level II is where regions of space where even the apparent laws of physics are different.

Level III is where parallel worlds elsewhere in Hilbert space where quantum reality plays out.

Level IV is where totally disconnected realities are governed by different mathematical equations.


Here are George Ellis' main anti-multiverse arguments:

Inflation might be wrong

String theory may be wrong

Quantum mechanics may be wrong

Multiverses may be unfalsifiable

Some claimed multiverse evidence is dubious

Fine-tuning arguments may assume too much

It's a slippery slope to even bigger multiverses


Inflation makes Level I multiverse

Level I multiverse with string theory makes Level II multiverse

Level II multiverse with quantum mechanics makes Level III multiverse


For more information go to: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=multiverse-the-case-for-parallel-universe

Space Junk

Picture Courtesy of CosmOnline

Dangers of Junk


A 1mm metal chip can cause as much damage as a .22-caliber bullet

A pea-sized lump of debris moving at about 8 km per second is as dangerous as a 180 kg safe travelling at 100 km per hour.

A metal sphere the size of a tennis ball is as deadly as 25 sticks of dynamite.


Since the late 1950's, debris has increased to about 14000 for objects bigger than 10 cm in diameter.


Since the launch of Sputnik in the 1950's, there are 6500 satellites in orbit. Some 3000 satellites are operating in orbit at any one time.


In 2005, there were 13 collisions between objects.

It is predicted that by 2012, there will be 130 collisions between objects.

Some major collisions include a fragment of Ariane rocket that struck a French military satellite, cutting its 20 ft boom in half in 1996 and a 950 kg retired Russian satellite collided with a 560 kg operational satellite in 2009.

For more information go to http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/blog/2011/07/04/close-earth-space-bit-rubbish

Right Hand Column has my Pictures Published

Possible Mini Ice Age

Firstly, recent research in the UK, predicts an 8% chance that we will return to Maunder minimum conditions over the next 40 years, based on past behaviour of the Sun over the last 9000 years.

Secondly, there are still debates over the details of the Little Ice Age and the role played by the Maunder minimum. In Europe, there were considerably more cold winters in this interval, but they were not unrelentingly cold as they were in an ice age. Also, the Earth's climate is evidently a highly complicated system, involving interconnected feedback systems, so it is difficult to disentangle causes and effects. For instance, several recent studies have suggested that solar-induced changes to the jet stream in the northern hemisphere may cause colder winters in Europe but this would be offset by milder winters in Greenland.

Finally, even if the Sun were to head into a quiet period, others argue that the reduction in solar irradiance on Earth would still be small compared with the heating caused by man-made global warming. Mike Lockwood, a researcher at the University of Reading, estimates that the change in climate radiative forcing since the Maunder minimum is about one tenth of the change caused by man-made trace greenhouse gases.

(Info from physicsworld)

Picture Courtesy of NASA