02/18/2004
Cosmic Gems and Distances
Yesterday I noticed a roach, about an inch and a quarter long, on the sidewalk in the courtyard of our Marco Island condo unit. Actually, here in Florida I think they call such insects by other, more palatable names – I seem to recall palmetto bug as one of those names. Then, just around the corner, I saw one of Florida’s ubiquitous little lizards chomping down on one of these bugs, which was fully half the size of the lizard. Now I know why Floridians are so tolerant of the lizards. They’re nature’s way of keeping the roach population in check.
I was also surprised to find in the green lawns of our condo development a 1- to 2-inch long crab sidling along sideways. When I encountered another such crab on the beach, it at first took a swipe at my foot with its one oversized claw. Realizing the futility of its move, it then positioned the claw lengthwise along its side and stayed perfectly still while I moved my foot around it trying to get some response. With its claws drawn in, it resembled a small piece of wood and was relying on this camouflage to fool its predator.
Our rented condo this year overlooks a the marina on a small bay and, sitting on our lanai a few days ago, I was surprised to see a dolphin appear right under us. I hadn’t realized that dolphins wander so far out of their ocean or Gulf habitats. There are also pelicans galore frequenting the bay and I’ve had plenty of opportunity to confirm their flight pattern that employs the “ground effect” that I wrote about in my column of 12/11/2003. The birds glide so close to the water that their wingtips touch the water, at which point a few wing flaps adds enough momentum to let them glide again. It’s amazing how one doesn’t tire of watching them do this time after time – it’s somehow quite relaxing.
Today, I was amazed to see at least 20-30 complete starfish, limbs intact, washed up on the beach. They ranged in size from about 4 to 12 inches in diameter. This was the first time in a decade of beach walking here that I’ve seen more than a handful of starfish on a given day. I also realize that, in more than two weeks here, I haven’t seen a single dead fish (“real” fish, as distinguished from starfish) on the beach. This is truly surprising, especially after the last two years of red tide, when dead fish abounded. Unfortunately, this week’s local new programs indicate that the red scourge is working its way south from Sarasota and probably will be in back in our area soon.
OK, I know that I’ve talked about fish extensively in the last couple weeks so let’s turn our attention from the beach to the sky. Today’s Naples Daily News carried an item about the discovery of a tiny galaxy that was formed only about 700 or so million years after the Big Bang. This makes the galaxy, 13 billion light years from Earth, the most distant object ever seen. I found a picture of the galaxy on the SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space) HST Web site. It’s interesting that the Hubble Space Telescope picture was taken back in 1996. It apparently took recent spectroscopic measurements on the galaxy at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to show just how far away the galaxy is.
Why did it take so long? The Hubble picture was really a picture of a cluster of galaxies that is only about 5 billion light years away from us, relatively close. There was this little smear in the photo. The nearby galaxy cluster served as a lens that distorted and magnified the image of the distant galaxy to form in such a way that it ended up as this little crescent-shaped smear. Such smearing is a common characteristic of lensing of one galaxy by another intervening galaxy or galaxy cluster. The smeared image of the distant galaxy, 700 light years across, has been analyzed and “unsmeared” to reveal intense regions of star formation. To me, it is mind boggling that the time machine that is the Hubble telescope allows us to see something going on 13 billion years ago!
There was another news item last week about another discovery that not only was relevant to the Valentine theme but also provides a clue, not to our past but to our future. Specifically, this discovery foretells what will happen closer to home some 5 to 7 billion years from now. Longtime readers may recall that I have an interest in diamonds, having tried unsuccessfully to synthesize them while at Bell Labs many years ago. I’ve written about other more successful ventures in diamond synthesis, notably in Russia, that could upset the de Beers ability to control the diamond market. I’ve also written about speculation that on the outer planets Neptune and Uranus diamonds may be raining from the sky!
Well, perhaps you saw the news item that describes what can certainly be termed the mother of all diamonds, a truly monstrous gem. In jewelry terms, this sparkler is a mere 10 billion trillion trillion carats! If, like me, you have trouble visualizing a gem of that many carats, it might help to put it another way - the diamond is a sphere some 2500 miles across! This baby is bigger than our Moon! Unfortunately, if you’re thinking of purchasing this bauble for your love for next Valentine’s Day, you’re too late. This gem is some 300 trillion miles away! That’s 50 light years, so I’m afraid that, even with the fastest possible mode of transport at the speed of light, you have to allow a hundred years for the round trip.
On the other hand, if you’re the patient type, you might want to wait about 7 billion years. By then, a similar diamond will be available only about 90 million miles away. You say that sounds like it could be located in or on our sun? You’re right. In about 7 billion years the sun will have died and become a so-called white dwarf. Its interior will consist mainly of carbon, which will crystallize, forming a diamond core surrounded by a relatively thin covering of hydrogen and helium. Of course, by that time our own planet will have long been incinerated when the sun expanded out near or past our orbit before shrinking to become a white dwarf. Hopefully, you will have moved out far enough to avoid this calamity and also will have benefited from scientists soon finding the secret to perpetual youth we discussed last week.
The current super diamond was discovered by a group led by Travis Metcalfe of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The monstrous diamond forms the core of a white dwarf located in the constellation Centaurus in our own Milky Way galaxy. An obvious question is how in the world can we tell that the center of a particular star in this constellation has a crystallized diamond in its center? I looked for the answer on the Harvard Web site and it seems that the secret is in the “ringing” of the star. The white dwarf is like a gong and rings or pulses in a “harmonious” fashion. I’m not clear as to what manner of pulsations are picked up by the astronomers, but the procedure is similar to that used to determine our Earth’s interior structure and composition from seismic waves and their interactions.
After trying to comprehend these astronomical findings, I’m ready to go back to my beach walking and sitting on our lanai to watch the pelicans. My feeble brain needs a bit of relaxation.
Allen F. Bortrum
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