Space Time Bubbles
Well, I've had enough of doom-and-gloom for a bit. So I'm not gonna say anything about you-know-what today. Instead we go back to more ice abstracts, because I am really, really starting to love those. What we have here are methane bubbles, formed from decomposing organic material at the bottom of Abraham Lake in Alberta and then trapped in the thick ice as the bubbles rise. The lake is fed by glacial rivers and so in the deeper parts of the lake you get this rich blue-green color. On top of that the wind is blowing here pretty much constantly, keeping the ice surface clean. In this picture you can even see the snow streaking through the frame. The wind was so strong at this particular time that I could not use a tripod on the ice (it just got blown across the smooth ice surface, even with spikes on and weighed down by a bag!!). So I had to use the iPhone, which turns out to be surprisingly good at taking pictures of this particular phenomenon. I did not know if Id get the snow streaking visible in camera (the snow was whipping very fast) but it showed up brilliantly!
So, of course my strange brain has to go straight from this odd little visual phenomenon to the realms of science fiction. What the heck are "space time bubbles"? Well, there is a theory that says that the fabric of space-time is "bubbly" (I don't really know what that means, but it sounds cool). And we might even be able to use that property to generate bubbles that warp space around a special kind of drive and allow for faster-than-light travel. There have even been some experiments which seem to support the theory and open the possibility for a "warp" drive that creates a bubble in space time and allows the ship to travel faster than the speed of light. Sound familiar? Well, here's the reality of it:
dailygalaxy.com/2019/03/warp-bubbles-nasa-manipulating-sp...
While the article linked above is rather dense and above my intellectual ability, it does contain one of the single greatest phrases I've ever read in a scientific journal, "... a naked singularity at the front of the bubble". Which sounds like good times to me! But apparently this would be a bad thing. Sometimes I really think physicists are just pranking us, having figured out how to get paid handsomely to outdo each other with outrageous and often hilarious stories about the way the universe works. Any physicists out there? I'm on to you! But keep it up please, it's pure awesomeness.
Space Time Bubbles
Well, I've had enough of doom-and-gloom for a bit. So I'm not gonna say anything about you-know-what today. Instead we go back to more ice abstracts, because I am really, really starting to love those. What we have here are methane bubbles, formed from decomposing organic material at the bottom of Abraham Lake in Alberta and then trapped in the thick ice as the bubbles rise. The lake is fed by glacial rivers and so in the deeper parts of the lake you get this rich blue-green color. On top of that the wind is blowing here pretty much constantly, keeping the ice surface clean. In this picture you can even see the snow streaking through the frame. The wind was so strong at this particular time that I could not use a tripod on the ice (it just got blown across the smooth ice surface, even with spikes on and weighed down by a bag!!). So I had to use the iPhone, which turns out to be surprisingly good at taking pictures of this particular phenomenon. I did not know if Id get the snow streaking visible in camera (the snow was whipping very fast) but it showed up brilliantly!
So, of course my strange brain has to go straight from this odd little visual phenomenon to the realms of science fiction. What the heck are "space time bubbles"? Well, there is a theory that says that the fabric of space-time is "bubbly" (I don't really know what that means, but it sounds cool). And we might even be able to use that property to generate bubbles that warp space around a special kind of drive and allow for faster-than-light travel. There have even been some experiments which seem to support the theory and open the possibility for a "warp" drive that creates a bubble in space time and allows the ship to travel faster than the speed of light. Sound familiar? Well, here's the reality of it:
dailygalaxy.com/2019/03/warp-bubbles-nasa-manipulating-sp...
While the article linked above is rather dense and above my intellectual ability, it does contain one of the single greatest phrases I've ever read in a scientific journal, "... a naked singularity at the front of the bubble". Which sounds like good times to me! But apparently this would be a bad thing. Sometimes I really think physicists are just pranking us, having figured out how to get paid handsomely to outdo each other with outrageous and often hilarious stories about the way the universe works. Any physicists out there? I'm on to you! But keep it up please, it's pure awesomeness.