Mid-morning. You headed to the grocery early
as Linda was up making a fresh Georgia peach pie – flour was needed. Carol is
working on clothes washing and Linda is cleaning up the kitchen. The plan is to
go to the early show at the Regal to see Mission Impossible and dine in
on popcorn and cola – an old time summer treat. – Amorella
0925
hours. This morning I sent Doug an article.
** **
Science & Environment
Fading cosmos quantified in 21 colours
By
Jonathan Webb
10 August 2015
A team of astronomers has published a multi-coloured survey of
five chunks of space - and offered the best estimate yet of how fast the
Universe is fading.
They analysed the light from 200,000 galaxies in 21 wavelengths
and found that the energy output of the Universe has nearly halved in two
billion years.
This agrees with previous calculations, confirming that the
lights are slowly going out right across this spectrum.
The drop is largely due to the falling rate at which new stars
are formed.
The results, which come from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA)
survey, were unveiled at the general assembly
of the International Astronomical Union in Honolulu, Hawaii.
"We used as many space and ground-based telescopes as we
could get our hands on to measure the energy output of over 200,000 galaxies
across as broad a wavelength range as possible," said GAMA's principal
investigator Prof Simon Driver, from the International Centre for Radio
Astronomy Research in Western Australia.
He and his team are now opening up this huge collection of data
for other astronomers to work on.
"The data release means that a whole lot more people
outside the team are going to be able to jump on the data and do science with
it, which is incredibly important," said Dr Stephen Wilkins of the
University of Sussex, another GAMA team member.
He told BBC
News that the strength of GAMA is that it combines so many wavelengths, where
previous surveys have concentrated on a few.
Because the team used a variety of the world's most powerful
telescopes - both earthbound and in orbit - their analysis spans wavelengths
from UV light to infrared, including the small strip of visible wavelengths in
the middle.
That means they can look at light from stars that are both young
and old, as well as light that has been absorbed and then re-emitted by dust.
So the new assessment of the Universe's decline includes information from a
huge variety of galaxies, including those hidden behind dust.
'Nodding off'
"We know that star formation peaked a few billion years ago
and has been declining since. This is just a new way of measuring that
decline," Dr Wilkins said.
"It's a new spin, and it completely agrees with the
previous results - but it's tightened the error bars as well."
Specifically, when the team totted up the total energy output of
galaxies at three different ages, they saw a steady slump. In total, from 2.25
billion years ago to 0.75 billion years ago, the Universe's output apparently
fell by about 40%.
"The rate
at which stars are forming is slowing down so much that we are now starting to
see the total energy output of all the stars decreasing," Dr Wilkins
explained. This happens because the stars that already exist - on average - get
older, smaller and less energetic.
Prof Driver wrapped the findings into a sad but cosy analogy:
"The Universe will decline from here on in, like an old age that lasts
forever," he said. "The Universe has basically sat down on the sofa,
pulled up a blanket and is about to nod off for an eternal doze."
The eventual end of the Universe is still an awfully long way
off, the team said - and it is far too early to put a date on it.
"The rate at which stars form is probably going to decline
more and more," Dr Wilkins said. "So the Universe will, based on our
expectations, become fainter and fainter and fainter. But there's a huge amount
of uncertainty there because we don't understand so much of the underlying
cosmology."
The team's
analysis of the great cosmic drowsiness has been submitted to
the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, but is not yet
peer-reviewed.
Dr Aprajita Verma, an astrophysicist at the University of
Oxford, said GAMA offered a unique and valuable data set because of its spread
of wavelengths.
"We know that galaxies can exhibit very different
properties if you look at them purely in the visible, compared to other
wavelengths," she told the BBC. "This study is making a census of
their emissions, right the way from the UV through to the sub-millimetre
range."
Dr Verma was
also pleased the wider research community would get its hands on the data.
"It will spawn lots of new studies," she said.
Selected and
edited from - http://www.bbcDOTcom/news/science-environment-33846857
** **
0932
hours. I love the set up formula of the BBC science articles – very easy to
read.
Of real interest is that the stars are
fading away, quite slowly from a human being’s standard but this appears to be
the way physics is. – Amorella
0935
hours. This article coupled with yesterday’s shows that any sense of lasting
permanence of our species is a wishful illusion – not even a tombstone. Shakespeare’s
lines come to mind –
“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how
infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action
how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the
paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”
0947
hours. Not even dust, Hamlet, no dust at all. Nothing. This is how the world
ends, not even with a whimper – so much for the poetry. Here today; gone tomorrow.
Such an indignity to human arrogance and pride – I like this aspect – a bit of
dark humor for the species to go out on. Cheers.
Your humor indeed. Darkness when there remains
nothing, not even with a capital, boy. Post. – Amorella
After
seeing Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and coming home, the three of
you had Carol’s chicken salad and Linda’s peach pie. Praise for both. Linda and
Carol are both presently taking or attempting nap time. – Amorella
1543
hours. I am thinking about naptime myself.
You
three had mixed vegetables and more chicken salad for supper. After the news
the girls went upstairs to read their books and you watched two shows: “Falling
Skies” and “Extant”. – Amorella
2152
hours. I still enjoy “Falling Skies” to an extent but I like “Extant” better
though I am seeing too many similarities among the three robotic pieces of
media – “Ex Machina” “Extant” and “Human”.
You are seeing some similarities of genetics
in “Extant” and easily imagine the thoughts of Neanderthals observing their own
extinction to Homo sapiens. – Amorella
2158
hours. I realize neither species had time to think on these things – genetics
was nothing within their concepts. Still, it is interesting to speculate on
today. How would it be if we knew we were becoming extinct and there was
another species out there competing for our space and resources?
How would you feel if you realized the Homo
sapiens were becoming extinct and there was no species set to take your place? –
Amorella
2203
hours. What comes to mind first is Clarke’s Childhood’s End.
** **
Childhood's End
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Childhood's End is a 1953
science fiction novel by the British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows
the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival
begins decades of apparent utopia under indirect alien rule, at the cost of
human identity and culture. . . .
Plot summary
The
novel is divided into three parts, following a third-person omniscient narrative
with no main character.
Earth and the Overlords
In the
late 20th century, the United States and the Soviet Union are competing to
launch the first spaceship into orbit, for military purposes. However, when
vast alien spaceships suddenly position themselves above Earth's principal
cities, the space race is halted forever. After one week, the aliens announce
they are assuming supervision of international affairs to prevent humanity's
extinction. As the Overlords, they bring peace, and they claim that
interference will be limited. They interfere only twice with human affairs: in
South Africa, where sometime before their arrival Apartheid had collapsed and
was replaced with savage persecution of the white minority; and in Spain, where
they put an end to bull fighting. Some humans are suspicious of the Overlords'
benign intent, as they never appear in physical form. Overlord Karellen, the
"Supervisor for Earth," speaks directly only to Rikki Stormgren, the
Finnish UN Secretary-General. Karellen tells Stormgren that the Overlords will
reveal themselves in 50 years, when humanity will have become used to their
presence. Stormgren smuggles a device onto Karellen's ship in an attempt to see
Karellen's true form. He succeeds, is shocked and chooses to keep silent.
The Golden Age
Humankind
enters a golden age of prosperity at the expense of creativity. As promised,
five decades after their arrival the Overlords appear for the first time; they
resemble the traditional human folk images of demons—large bipeds with leathery
wings, horns and tails. The Overlords are interested in psychic research, which
humans suppose is part of their anthropological study. Rupert Boyce, a prolific
book collector on the subject, allows one Overlord, Rashaverak, to study these
books at his home. To impress his friends with Rashaverak's presence, Boyce
holds a party, during which he makes use of a Ouija board. An astrophysicist,
Jan Rodricks, asks the identity of the Overlords' home star. George Greggson's
wife Jean faints as the Ouija board reveals a star-catalog number consistent
with the direction in which Overlord supply ships appear and disappear. Jan
Rodricks stows away on an Overlord supply ship and travels 40 light-years to
their home planet. Due to the time dilation of special relativity at near-light
speeds, the elapsed time on the ship is only a few weeks, and he arranges to
endure it in drug-induced hibernation.
The Last Generation
Although
humanity and the Overlords have peaceful relations, some believe human
innovation is being suppressed and that culture is becoming stagnant. One of
these groups establishes "New Athens," an island colony devoted to
the creative arts, which George and Jean Greggson join. The Overlords conceal a
special interest in the Greggsons' children, Jeffrey and Jennifer Anne, and
intervene to save Jeffrey's life when a tsunami strikes the island. The
Overlords have been watching them since the incident with the Ouija board,
which revealed the seed of the coming transformation hidden within Jean.
Sixty
years after the Overlords' arrival, human children, beginning with the
Greggsons', begin to display clairvoyance and telekinetic powers. Karellen
reveals the Overlords' purpose; they serve the Overmind, a vast cosmic
intelligence, born of amalgamated ancient civilizations, and freed from the
limitations of material existence. Yet the Overlords themselves are strangely
unable to join the Overmind, but serve it as a bridge species, charged with
fostering other races' eventual merger with it. Because of this, Karellen
expresses his envy of humanity. For the transformed children's safety, they are
segregated on a continent of their own. No more human children are born, and
many parents find their lives stripped of meaning, and die or commit suicide.
The members of New Athens choose to destroy themselves with a nuclear bomb.
Jan
Rodricks emerges from hibernation on the Overlord supply ship and arrives on
their planet. The Overlords permit him a glimpse of how the Overmind
communicates with them. When Jan returns to Earth (approximately 80 years after
his departure by Earth time) he finds an unexpectedly altered planet. Humanity
has effectively become extinct, and he is now the last man alive. Hundreds of
millions of children – no longer fitting with what Rodricks defines as
"human" – remain on the quarantined continent. Barely moving, with
eyes closed and communicating by telepathy, they are the penultimate form of
human evolution, having become a single group mind readying themselves to join
the Overmind.
Some
Overlords remain on Earth to study the children from a safe distance. When the
evolved children mentally alter the Moon's rotation and make other planetary
manipulations, it becomes too dangerous to remain. The departing Overlords
offer to take Rodricks with them, but he chooses to stay to witness Earth's
end, and transmit a report of what he sees.
Before
they depart, Rodricks asks Rashaverak what encounter the Overlords had with
Humanity in the past and what went wrong. For it was always assumed that the
instinctual fear that Humans had of their "demonic" form was due to a
traumatic encounter with them in the distant past. Rashaverak explains that it
was the end of Humanity that was the traumatic event, and that the
Overlord's presence and association with it was the cause of Humanity's fear of
them. So the primal fear experienced by Humans was not due to a racial memory,
but rather a premonition.
The
Overlords are eager to escape from their own evolutionary dead end by studying
the Overmind, so Rodricks's information is potentially of great value to them.
By radio, Rodricks describes a vast burning column ascending from the planet.
As the column disappears, Rodricks experiences a profound sense of emptiness
when the Overlords have gone. Then material objects and the Earth itself begin
to dissolve into transparency. Jan reports no fear, but a powerful sense of
fulfillment. The Earth evaporates in a flash of light. Karellen looks back at
the receding Solar System and gives a final salute to the human species.
***
[Note] On September 3, 2014, Syfy
announced that Childhood's End had been greenlit for six one-hour
episodes, for a 2015 airing. . . . A trailer for the miniseries was released in
May 2015, with the series scheduled for broadcast in December 2015.
Selected and edited from Wikipedia – Childhood’s End
(novel)
** **
2222
hours. I did not know about the upcoming series. I hope it is modernized
time-wise and that it is well done. My science-fiction futures studies classes
were required to read the book. What I enjoyed most was that the Overlords were
in a genetic cul-de-sac – it was the humans that evolved. I can see this with
robotics – we create the human-like machines and they don’t take over – all they
have to do is wait and eventually our species will die out. The human-like
machines learn to adapt and become more humane, but they do not die – their machinery
just becomes more refined to the point they consider themselves their own
species and Homo sapiens were their ancestors of sorts. Anyway, that is my fun
thought in the moment.
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