QUANTIME

Nothing Before something was there, there was absolutely nothing. Is it possible to imagine that? An emptiness, so vast, that even our universe would be hardly imperceptible in such a huge void? The blackness is impenetrable, there is no light, nothing to observe, nothing to look at, so why even bother looking at all? Our language is short of concepts to convey this extreme nothingness, so very nothing that one couldn’t even imagine that no observer could be there, to determine there’s nothing he could look at and that there is no purpose whatsoever to even watch. This void is so empty, that no object could exist there, for even the most dense object would have to have been evaporated due to the infinite vacuum. There’s just nothing there. But then, weirdly enough, something pops into existence. Why? How? How can I imagine how that works, what it looks like? From where and from what? I try to visualize this, by looking at boiling water. As the external pressure on the water decrea

Prince Pioneer Once upon a time long, long ago on a world far from ours, only just within the next universe, there was a bunch of habitable planets known as Dhoop, where a handsome young prince by the name of Pioneer held his beautiful fiancee in his five upper tentacles. Everything in their solar system was quite alright, all planets governed by their individual rules but united for all general goals. Prince Pioneer said goodbye to his beloved princess Anima, for he had to go on a minor space patrol mission. The prince was a prince because he could tell very clearly how things were, and he knew very well, how to direct other folks to do the right things in the proper manner. So he had hardly anything difficult to do. Besides, his father, the revered king of Dhoop, still ran the Union. That’s how he became interested and fascinated by space, time, relativity and all kinds of subjects related. Of course, this tale is written down in a language from Earth and that is why many of

New gravity theorems The following four new theorems may be controversial, but I love a good debate. If gravity is a pulling force, then a gravitational object will not push a dent into its environment, it will rather warp the environment by pulling the fabric towards itself. The fabric of space itself is made up of gravitational matter, from planets and rocks to gravel and subatomic particles. Therefore the gravitational pull between a large object and the matter surrounding it, is mutual. T he graphical representation of a gravitational pit (trough), deepening as the mass of the gravitational object is larger, is only partly correct. Wormholes do not exist. Elaboration of theorem 1 In videos as well as images contained in documents, the ‘fabric of space’ is drawn as a sheet, represented by a grid of lines. The spot in the grid where a gravitational object sits is represented by a dent, on top of which the object is shown. See Figure 1 . Figure 1 Gravity dents the f

Jim Bridenstine and Michelle Thaller Quite recently, the President Of The United States appointed Jim Bridenstine to be the new chief of NASA. The NY Times of 09/02 printed: > While Mr. Bridenstine has criticized NASA’s spending on global warming science, he has voiced support for some of the agency’s earth observation missions, particularly for studying extreme weather. “People often say, ‘Why are you so involved in space issues?’” Mr. Bridenstine said at the commercial space transportation conference. “‘You don’t have any space interests in Oklahoma.’ You bet I do. My constituents get killed in tornadoes. I care about space.” < That may make some people cheer, but The Guardian issued on 09/12: > Bridenstine is a climate denier -  Scientists and astronauts are usually chosen to lead Nasa, for obvious reasons. Bridenstine is neither – he’s a member of Congress (and would be the first politician ever to lead Nasa), formerly executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space

With Cassini having plunged into the unfathomable depths of Saturn, I had to wipe a few tears. The mission has been completed, so much is clear. But I could see the look in the eyes of the mission controllers as if they were hoping for a miracle: Cassini would transmit: "I'm not done yet, I overshoot Saturn for a visit to Uranus and Neptune, if you're okay with that". But of course that wouldn't happen, although the thought crossed my mind that in the afterlife one might run into Cassini once more... As if it were alive, with thoughts and feelings. Quite like V'ger (Voyager 6 in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"). Back to reality: Cassini wasn't our latest or last probe into the depth of space. Mankind keeps building new and more intelligent space missions, because what we already achieved is quite a lot, but still just not enough. Therefore I truly hope that we keep educating brilliant youngsters who keep up the good work that somany cosmo-, a

Observation I have been looking at a 3D model of the Laniakea supercluster of galaxies, containing among others the Virgo Cluster, in which we know our Milky Way to exist. Regardless of me being an observer down on Earth in that Milky Way, or an observer even outside the imaginary 3D box in which Laniakea was situated, from any random point in the universe, I can only observe things that have already happened, have already come to be or have already extinguished. I can never see things that must yet come into existence. Therefore anything that is observed is a result of events that have already occurred and as it only becomes visible when its emitted or reflected light has had the time to reach me/the observer, I can only look into the past. Figure 1. Laniakea supercluster Planck Units Outside of planck length one can only observe the effect of a cause , or causes, that are an effect of something else. The present, the ‘right now’, the ‘here’ within one planck time, is al

As of young age, I have always had a huge fascination for astronomy. At times, already an adult, I would devour the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy or gaze at the heavens at night to sense the depth of space. It did however not run down to an interest in the technology to get there, but merely the awe about all that is, how it came to be and how it works.  I could have sat and regret my lack of mathematical abilities, but in practice I seemed to have developed a sensitivity for various areas of physics, like that of equilibrium, momentum and resistance. With this Fingerspitzengefühl I dared into the realm of astrophysics and quantum field theory.  I am deeply amazed by the works of the great minds, that drove this area of science into the 21st century status quo. From all the ancient Greek philosophers, Galilei, Copernicus and Newton via Planck, Bohr, Einstein and Russel to Hawking, Greene, Higgs, Filippenko, DeGrasse Tyson, Rebecca Smethurst, Matt O'Dowd and many oth

If a human on Earth (or through the Hubble telescope, because of its relatively low orbit) gazes into space, he looks into the past. A glance at the Sun shows it as it was eight minutes ago. On the edge of the observable universe, one sees object who have been there at least 13.8 billion years ago. Observing far away objects is not time traveling. If it were, that would mean that our line of sight would be a moving object. We only collect light that reached us from that distance and so this light (and other wavelengths of electromagnetic emissions) is what travelled the distance. If we want to observe a far object as it really is, we will have to go there. Let us imagine that we go on board a space vessel which can reach nearly the speed of light, let’s say 99,99%  c  (for further ease of use:  c -  [c superscript minus]). This is a thought experiment because: Motion at nearly light speed is impossible according to Einstein’s theories and: As no scientist has yet fal