Next Stop, Warp Drive

[JadziaKathryn]

Source of Antimatter Found

So, how do we harness it? Ideas?

[Elessar]

I like this, it uses AM as a fusion catalyst:

http://www.engr.psu.edu/antimatter/Papers/ICAN.pdf

[justTripn]

Thanks Jadziakathryn! I forwarded that to the astronomy club list.

Elessar, about that antimatter propulsion design, I guess I'll have to take your word for it . . .

But I'd really rather hear about the thermodynamics of freeon. (sp?)

[Asso]

T'Pol!
I'm about to arrive!

[Elessar]

Thanks Jadziakathryn! I forwarded that to the astronomy club list.

Elessar, about that antimatter propulsion design, I guess I'll have to take your word for it . . .

But I'd really rather hear about the thermodynamics of freeon. (sp?)

Freon . But specifically, R-134a. "Freon" refers to one of any dozens of "freons".

[Linda]

Uh, is anti-matter related to dark matter? Are they the same thing or different? Please give the simplistic explanation!

[JadziaKathryn]

I couldn't get past the title of that paper, so I'll just nod and smile. I would be the civilian historian hitching rides on Starfleet ships to do research.

Uh, is anti-matter related to dark matter? Are they the same thing or different? Please give the simplistic explanation!

I don't think dark matter and antimatter are the same thing, but don't quote me on that. The article I linked, happily for me written in layman's terms I could understand, said that this discovery means they don't have to try to explain antimatter's existence using dark matter. That seems to imply they aren't the same thing.

It also said that antimatter electrons are positrons. Here's the thing that confuses me: wasn't Data made with a positronic network? So he'd need to have some kind of antimatter containment field, right? That seems weird.

[Asso]

Mh...
I don't think fiction and reality can work well together.

[CX]

Anti-matter is just like regular matter, except that it has the opposite charge in that their nucleus has a negative charge and their orbitals have a positive charge. At least that's my understanding of it.

[Asso]

Simple and exact.

[Linda]

Okay, thanks, CX, that is a simplistic explanation for anti-matter which I can understand! Now, what is dark matter? I saw a National Geographic program that said the galaxies are clumped where dark matter is heaviest (if I am understanding that correctly). And that dark energy is the stuff that is making the universe expand at an increasing rate. They also said that there is no center to the universe???? I should have recorded this show because I will have to watch it several times until I absorb it and 'get' all of what they are saying.

[justTripn]

I'm so glad you asked. Dark matter is strictly speaking the extra matter we know is out there which is not in the form of stars (the only matter we can see from here). Theoretically it could be regular matter in the form of burned out stars. But there doesn't seem to be enouph of those to account for the extra matter. We know there is ALOT of matter out there we can't see because the stars spin way too fast around the galaxies.

I think the best guess now is that dark matter is mostly an exotic particle that ONLY interacts with regular matter through gravitation, which is of course a very weak force. (For instance, these particles don't interact electromagnetically). So the particles of dark matter probably zip straight through us all the time (like a TNG out-of-phase universe) and forms a big cloud surrounding the galaxy because of graviational attraction. So dark matter particles only makes a difference on very large scales like galaxies and the universe as a whole.

Anyway, that's the top theory.

And dark matter is NOT directly analogous to dark energy. Dark energy got the name dark energy because the guys who named it recognized it would be a REALLY cool name, an instant hit.

[Linda]

Okay, that makes sense to me, jT. And now I remember that the Nat Geo program had animated pictures of 'dark matter' particles streaming right through the solid earth. Guess I am very visual in my learning process. When I think of the Big Bang, I see a point of origin from which an explosion occurs, throwing matter out in all directions from it. So when the program said there is no center to the universe - everything is just moving away from everything else - it destroys my picture of what happened in the Big Bang. I really want to have clear 'pictures' of these things, and how the history of the universe progresses. Each time I think I have it, something is said that that throws my understanding out of joint, LOL. So no wonder I write off beat scenes like Trip Tucker carrying V'Las's head in a sack, right? (If that makes any sense?) Well, I am no Einstein, for sure! But I love struggling to understand all this stuff - it is fascinating.

[justTripn]

How the universe can expand with no center to the universe:

Either the universe is finite or it is infinite. Lately scientists (I just take their word for this) are saying that the universe is probably truely infinite. If the universe is infinate it is easy to see how it expands with no center. The usual analogy is a loaf of bread backing with raisins in it (The rasins are stars. As the bread rises (the universe expands) the rasins (stars) move farther apart. Now just do this with and infinite loaf of bread.)

If the universe is finite, it's more tricky to imagine. In a finite universe if you go straight ahead through space you will eventually come back to the same spot. So, the two dimensional analogy is a beach ball with poka dots on it. The surface of the beach ball is finite but there is no edge to the beach ball surface (you can't fall off the edge). As the beach ball (universe) expands the dots (stars) get farther and farther apart.

[justTripn]

Also there is an edge to the visible universe--which is defined by how far light has had time to travel since the Big Bang. The visible universe IS finite. It is a sphere with radius of about 13 billion years, or whatever the age of the universe is, and it is of course centered on US, the observers. But we trust there is more universe beyond that. And some other planet in some other galaxy will of course have a different visible universe centered on it.