Gravity
Category archives for Gravity
It’s hard to leave this world
Posted by Ethan on June 22, 2012 
“Some prophecies are self-fulfilling But I’ve had to work for all of mine Better times will come to me, God willing Cause I can’t leave this world behind” -Josh Ritter You sure can’t leave this world behind. At least, not very easily. The reason for it, of course, is gravity. Here on the surface of…
Why You’ll Never Escape From A Black Hole
Posted by Ethan on May 10, 2012 “They say ‘A flat ocean is an ocean of trouble. And an ocean of waves… can also be trouble.’ So, it’s like, that balance. You know, it’s that great Oriental way of thinking, you know, they think they’ve tricked you, and then, they have.” -Nigel Tufnel Black holes* are some of the most perplexing objects…
Exoplanet Bullies make Earth-like Planets Impossible
Posted by Ethan on May 8, 2012 “There’s nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.” -Woody Hayes There’s no doubt that we lucked out when it came to the formation of our Solar System. Our inner Solar System, where temperatures are ideal for liquid water and life-as-we-know-it, is full of rocky planets and devoid of any…
Black Holes don’t eat as much as they accrete!
Posted by Ethan on May 2, 2012 “This is the way I wanna die. Torn apart by angry fans who want me to play a different song.” -Regina Spektor You’re familiar with the classic picture of a black hole: a dark, dense region at the center from which no light can escape, surrounded by an accretion disk of matter that constantly feeds…
A Cosmic Smashup and a Dark Matter Mystery?
Posted by Ethan on March 5, 2012 “I soon became convinced… that all the theorizing would be empty brain exercise and therefore a waste of time unless one first ascertained what the population of the Universe really consists of.” -Fritz Zwicky You very likely know that there are four fundamental forces in the Universe: gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear…
The Most Distant, Dark Galaxy Ever Found!
Posted by Ethan on February 28, 2012 “One mustn’t look at the abyss, because there is at the bottom an inexpressible charm which attracts us.” -Gustave Flaubert The deepest depths of space, out beyond our atmosphere, our Solar System, and even our galaxy, hold the richness of the great Universe beyond. Stretching for billions of light years in every direction, there are…
How The Universe Destroys Its “Death Stars”
Posted by Ethan on February 15, 2012 “What’s that star? It’s the Death Star. What does it do? It does Death. It does Death, buddy. Get out of my way!” -Eddie Izzard Like it was for many people, the original, very first Star Wars movie was one of my favorites as a child. And while there was a lot to be in…
The Big Bang for Beginners
Posted by Ethan on February 9, 2012 “It took less than an hour to make the atoms, a few hundred million years to make the stars and planets, but five billion years to make man!” -George Gamow Let’s pretend that, for all of our history on Earth, we had never once bothered to look up with any instruments beyond what our own…
Defending Physics Against Cracked.com
Posted by Ethan on January 30, 2012 “In science, “fact” can only mean “confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.” I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.” -Stephen Jay Gould Those of you who follow me on either google+, facebook or twitter…
Dark Energy, Accelerated Expansion, and Energy Conservation: Does it all make sense?
Posted by Ethan on December 2, 2011 “I have long held an opinion… that the various forms under which the forces of matter are made manifest have one common origin; or, in other words, are so directly related and mutually dependent, that they are convertible, as it were, one into another, and possess equivalents of power in their action.” -Michael Faraday For…
