Sounds of Space

There is no sound in space! Due to the absence of air molecules which are responsible for carrying sound waves here on Earth, space is essentially a quite and eerie place. But sounds of magnetic waves can be heard from special listening devices that were planted on voyager 1 and 2. These sounds are an echo of radio waves caused by the clouds in Jupiter’s atmosphere. I find these sounds scary. What do you think?

The Known Universe

Ive seen too many images and videos that demonstrate the scale of Earth in relation to much larger objects in the universe. But this one, dare i say, is the best one i have seen so far. So please check it out this short clip. I recommend watching it in HD. You will not be dissapointed.

Gravity Waves

gravity waves

As a regular listener of Astronomy Cast i was intrigued to hear Pamela Gay’s description of what gravity waves are and how they behave. Her ablities to use simple analogies to describe difficult concepts at such ease really amazes me. Anyway ill try my best to describe gravity waves.

So the idea for gravitational waves is really derived from Einstein’s theories about gravity. As theorized by Einstein, large body of objects such as stars bend the space and form a gravity pool. Gravity manifests itself by bending space. Gravity waves are basically a wrinkle created in a space time continuum. Scientists have been able to detect these waves by observing stars that have exploded into a supernovae. A star that has exploded will send out waves that will cause ripples in the space time continuum. These ripples are analogous to shock waves produced when a bomb is exploded here on Earth. Very cool science. You can learn more about this from this podcast.