QUANTIME

Daar had ik nog niet eerder bij stilgestaan, maar het klopt. 'Zie de maan schijnt door de bomen' aan het begin van december lukt alléén als je je vrij dicht bij bomen bevindt, anders schijnt de maan óver de bomen heen. Ik vertel wel eens meer verhaaltjes over wat er buiten onze dampkring allemaal gebeurt en wat we van binnen de dampkring kunnen waarnemen. In dat opzicht zijn de Hubble Space Telescope en de James Webb Space Telescope enorm waardevol, want ze kunnen voor ons zichtbaar maken wat we met het blote oog of een kleine hobbytelescoop onmogelijk kunnen zien. Wanneer ik me in zo'n gesprek dan laat ontvallen dat de maan 's winters hoger staat dan 's zomers, zegt de gesprekspartner vaak, ja maar de zon staat toch juist 's zomers hoger? Waarom de maan dan juist 's winters? Ik begin met uitleggen dat de zon heel groot is en heel ver weg staat. Als de aarde een knikkertje zou zijn van 1 cm doorsnede, dan zou de zon een doorsnede hebben van 1 meter en 9 cm,

Het is nog lang geen lente. Het is pas enkele dagen 2023 en de lente laat nog twee-en-een-halve maand op zich wachten. Maar dat geeft niets: ik heb een nieuw geluid voor de nieuwe lente bedacht en daarmee begin in nu alvast. Allereerst heb ik een nieuw stukje uitgewerkt op het gebied van sterrenkunde. Nou eigenlijk gaat het over de maan. Ten tweede wil ik alle eerdere quantime-posts terugzetten in Nederlands. En de taal wat vereenvoudigen, wat toegangkelijker maken, misschien. Dat overziende, hoop ik dat 2023 een gezellig astronomisch jaar gaat worden.

Time The flow of time apparently goes in one direction only, namely 'forward' as in 'away from the origin of time - the Big Bang - into the future. At the same time (pun) it is the direction of causality. Light speed is not about light; it is in fact the speed of causality [1]. As Earthlings, we perceive time as flowing from one second to the next, but a range of seconds tied to one specific event may be perceived as one 'moment' in the present. But our seconds derive from clocks, which are an arrangement of matter and thus of particles. 'The flow of time depends fundamentally on motion', says Matt O'Dowd in an episode of Space Time [2]. Speed When some object moves faster relative to you as an observer, the slower its clock appears to tick, but the other way around: for the observer on board the object, it appears as though you are moving away from that observer end therefore your clock appears to tock slower according to him. At the speed of ligh

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