The FERMI Gamma ray telescope recently launched by NASA, has in only 5 months discovered 16 new pulsars. A pulsar is the rapidly spinning and highly magnetized core left behind when a massive star explodes. Most of the 1,800 cataloged pulsars were found through their periodic radio emissions. Astronomers believe these pulses are caused by narrow, lighthouse-like radio beams emanating from the pulsar’s magnetic poles.

The Vela Pulsar spins 11 times a second. It is the brightest most consistent source of gamma rays in the sky.

This movie shows one cycle of pulsed gamma rays from the Vela pulsar as constructed from photons detected by Fermi’s Large Area Telescope. The movie includes data from August 4 to Sept. 15, 2008. The bluer color in the latter part of the pulse indicates the presence of gamma rays with energies exceeding a billion electron volts. For comparison, visible light has energies between two and three electron volts. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

A pulsar’s radio beams only represent a fraction of its power. The gamma rays they emit represent far more. Somehow the pulsar is able to accelerate particles to near the speed of light along magnetic field lines. These particles emit gamma rays as they arc along these magnetic lines.

Eventually pulsars will lose energy and slow down. The radio and gamma emissions will drop below detectable levels unless a new source of energy is found. Some pulsars live near younger energy spewing stars and the pulsar is able to siphon off this energy, in the form of highly charged particles, and this fuels the pulsar to keep it spinning faster and faster.

If we take this one step further and speculate a bit: what if a pulsar, fueled by a neighboring star, spins fast enough to accelerate particles at the speed of light. Not close to but at or above the speed of light. Could this be enough energy to open a wormhole? To tear open the fabric of space to allow travel into the 5th dimension, where theoretically time travel could occur.

Could the power of this pulsar be harnessed and used as a source of energy? Could an advanced intelligence place a spinning pulsar next to a star and then travel across the universe and place another pulsar in a similar arrangement? We would have two high speed wormhole portals? Enter into one, and arrive almost instantaneously in the other? Hmmm… makes you think doesn’t it.

Take a gander at the latest all sky map of the newly found FERMI pulsars.

Sorry for spilling out over the side, but the thumbnail image just didn’t look right. You, my dedicated readers, deserve the full sized image.

FERMI has already discovered many GRB’s or gamma ray bursts, up in the sky, but now has confirmed the existence of 16 new pulsars never before detected. How many more are out there waiting to be discovered? Up until FERMI, radio astronomer’s were only able to see a pulsar if one of its poles happened to cross Earth’s line of sight. FERMI detects the highly charged photons they emit but in some cases only detects a few per minute. Yes, only a few tiny photons per minute. But with such a sensitive instrument what discoveries may lie ahead?

Perhaps FERMI will detect light (photons) from another world, another dimension, or the light of days past. Perhaps it will peer into another large area telescope from an intelligent race of people who search the heavens for evidence of others like themselves. No one wants to be alone. We all struggle to maintain a sense of belonging to a greater cause, a larger humanity; even if it is only a faint spot of light flickering at the end of the tunnel we call life.

Remember, never stop looking up at the night sky and asking…what if.

Victor Grippi
The Atomic Writer

The Atomic Writer has probed deeper and found evidence that a close by unknown source of cosmic rays may exist near Earth. For the first time in history we are pulling off the blindfold and witnessing the true state of our environment. Perhaps there has always been a close by object emitting high levels of cosmic rays? Perhaps it has just arrived? With only months of initial data it’s too soon to know for sure.

Also discovered in data released by Nasa is the following:
“Fermi’s Large Area Telescope is a state-of-the-art gamma-ray detector, but it’s also a terrific tool for investigating the high-energy electrons in cosmic rays,” said Alexander Moiseev, who presented the findings. Moiseev is an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

“Cosmic rays are hyperfast electrons, positrons, and atomic nuclei moving at nearly the speed of light. Astronomers believe that the highest-energy cosmic rays arise from exotic places within our galaxy, such as the wreckage of exploded stars.

“Unlike gamma rays, which travel from their sources in straight lines, cosmic rays wend their way around the galaxy. They can ricochet off of galactic gas atoms or become whipped up and redirected by magnetic fields. These events randomize the particle paths and make it difficult to tell where they originated. In fact, determining cosmic-ray sources is one of Fermi’s key goals.

“What’s most exciting about the Fermi, PAMELA, and H.E.S.S. data is that they may imply the presence of a nearby object that’s beaming cosmic rays our way. “If these particles were emitted far away, they’d have lost a lot of their energy by the time they reached us,” explained Luca Baldini, another Fermi collaborator at INFN.

“If a nearby source is sending electrons and positrons toward us, the likely culprit is a pulsar — the crushed, fast-spinning leftover of an exploded star. A more exotic possibility is on the table, too. The particles could arise from the annihilation of hypothetical particles that make-up so-called dark matter. This mysterious substance neither produces nor impedes light and reveals itself only by its gravitational effects.

“Fermi’s next step is to look for changes in the cosmic-ray electron flux in different parts of the sky,” Latronico said. “If there is a nearby source, that search will help us unravel where to begin looking for it.”

What do these observations mean? The Atomic Writer believes we are witnessing the blindfold being pulled away from our eyes. For the first time in history we are starting to see the true state of our environment.

We now know an object emitting high levels of cosmic rays exists in our neighborhood. Weather it just arrived or has always been with us, perhaps flaring up on occasion is unknown at this point. Could this be a harbinger of our ultimate fate? The FERMI instrument has the ability to look outside of the magnetic shield that surrounds the earth. This gives us the ability to determine a more accurate location of this object. We should be able to pinpoint its location and with this information we can take appropriate measures.

My guess is that we will see no visible light at the source. This will imply a possible link to dark matter which could be from, according to M-Theory, gravity leaking across an adjacent membrane from another universe. For more information on M-Theory, a subset of string theory check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-theory

“M-theory is not yet complete; however it can be applied in many situations (usually by exploiting string theoretic dualities). The theory of electromagnetism was also in such a state in the mid-19th century; there were separate theories for electricity and magnetism and, although they were known to be related, the exact relationship was not clear until James Clerk Maxwell published his equations, in his 1864 paper A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field. Witten has suggested that a general formulation of M-theory will probably require the development of new mathematical language. However, some scientists have questioned the tangible successes of M-theory given its current incompleteness, and limited predictive power, even after so many years of intense research.”

As readers of this blog, I know you are very smart and can put two and two together. If it turns out that the located source of this now detected cosmic ray object turns out to not interact with light, have no visible mass, and just be a point in the vacuum of space, can’t we assume the first observational evidence in support of M-Theory? If only a slight gravitational field can be measured, this would support the idea that a parallel universe exists outside of ours where only gravity and, vis-i-vis, cosmic rays leak out. M-Theory predicts multiple bubble universes floating in the fifth dimension, like balloons that sometimes come close to a neighboring balloon and touch. Could another bubble universe be coming our way. How will it affect the local physics of our environment?

More importantly, how will verification of parallel worlds affect the human race. With the popularity of television and movies dealing with plot lines that explore these topics, could mass consciousness be playing a part in what may soon be revealed to us by science? Are writers receiving a signal to prepare the masses for the realization that time travel, alternate realities, other Earth’s may exist out there? As we peel away more and more of the onion of reality, will we begin to regard science fiction as science reality? Will books like The Ninth Cube be read as possible factual stories that are no longer speculative?

I pose many questions in this blog, and I do so to illicit imagination and provoke thought in my readers. Too many writers out there cater to the mainstream masses for only one reason. That reason is money. They write garbage in order to sell more books. Writers like The Atomic Writer write to evoke an emotional response based on current observations in science. I speculate where needed and at times go to the extreme to prove a point. This is the essence of speculate writing. To extend the boundaries of the possible. To think out of the box and come to conclusions by turning mainstream convention on its head. If you, like me, enjoy and thrive in this environment, then this blog is for you. If you want middle of the road, a don’t dare to go there philosophy, then go read another blog. Here you will be challenged to think on your own. Don’t ever let anyone tell you you can’t do something. Always think for yourself.

Remember, never stop looking up at the night sky and asking…what if.

Victor Grippi
The Atomic Writer

NASA has also released the “first light” image taken from only 95 hours of data from this new instrument. This is only the beginning of great images this satellite will produce. The image is comparable to the EGRET instrument, on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, that took years to produce – instead of hours.

This is a flattened map of the entire sky:

To recap: the FEMI satellite will detect high energy signals like gamma ray bursts that originate from supernova, quasars, and potentially from evaporating black holes, or even the white hole end of wormholes. (for our time traveling friends) If you look at the above image, you can see a red shifted band across the middle of the image. This is from high energy signals, including gamma ray bursts.

Renaming the project to Fermi is a great tribute to an outstanding scientist who was instrumental in breaking new ground in quantum physics. He worked and pursued knowledge without any trace of a selfish motive or intent. This is crucial as we break new ground into technologies that may affect man or environment.

With the CERN LHC coming on-line this week, I want to underscore the importance of proceeding with caution. Most of the work the LHC will do is benign and will have little or no risk. However, one experiment planned is accelerating two particle beams, in opposite directions, and then smashing them together at 0.99999 the speed of light. This will create energies man has never seen before, and the resulting collision may reveal new exotic particles also never seen before. Now, this is a classic example of the need for science to proceed with wisdom and extreme caution as to the possible effects this line of experimentation may do to our environment. In my opinion, NASA should already be on Mars, and this my friends is the place to build a Large Hadron Collider. In the event a catastrophic black hole is produced, well there goes Mars, we’ll all say from a safe distance. Do we really need to find the elusive Higgs particle? Let’s just say it exists and leave it at that…

Perhaps I’m overreacting a bit. I mean heck, back during the Manhattan project scientists were concerned an atomic detonation would ignite hydrogen in the upper atmosphere and scorch the entire planet. Their worries were of course laid to rest when at the Trinity site on July 16, 1945, the upper atmosphere did not burn, the planet was saved. So atomic bombs were deemed safe and not too bad, since they did not destroy the planet. (at least not yet)

Biography of Enrico Fermi

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) was an Italian physicist who immigrated to the United States. He was the first to suggest a viable mechanism for astrophysical particle acceleration. This work is the foundation for our understanding of many types of sources to be studied by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, formerly known as GLAST.

Fermi is most noted for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor and for his major contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938 for his work on induced radioactivity and is today regarded as one of the top scientists of the 20th century.

In addition to his direct connection to the science, Fermi holds special significance to the U.S. Department of Energy, the Italian Space Agency, and the Italian Particle Physics Agency.

Until next time…

Victor Grippi
The Atomic Writer

What if: these 12 bursts are from a dying star, that creates a supernova, or from a pulsar, orbiting twin stars, or ?

OR What if: these could be newly formed black holes, how about the opening of one end of a wormhole, or an advanced communication medium…

The GLAST satellite may provide proof of hawking radiation, emitted from an evaporating black hole. We have detected GRB’s for years, but NASA’s new instrument will offer more data about these mysterious cosmic events.

The gamma-ray bursts were detected by the GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM), one of two instruments on the spacecraft.

“We are thrilled to be detecting gamma-ray bursts so early in the mission. GLAST and the GBM are off to a great start!” said Charles “Chip” Meegan, GBM principal investigator at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. “The detectors are working well and we’re really pleased with how the instrument is working. That said, we’re using this checkout period to scrutinize the data coming down from the detectors and fine tune flight and ground software and our daily operational processes.”

Another part of the mission is the Gamma Ray Coordination Network. This system will report the GRB’s just seconds after detection to ground based systems. This will allow the event to be monitored by several instruments providing even greater study of the source and duration of these events.

Here is a graph of one of the detected bursts:

This graph depicts a gamma-ray burst captured by the GLAST Burst Monitor on July 23. This powerful burst lasted over 50 seconds and was captured by each of the instrument’s 14 detectors. Credit: NASA

“The whole team is really coming together and we’re in good shape to begin pouring over the 100 megabytes of data we’re receiving daily from the spacecraft.” said Meegan. “The most exciting part of the mission is still ahead when we, hopefully, begin to answer long-standing questions about how these fantastically powerful gamma-ray bursts are produced.”

Bookmark this site, and I will keep you informed with the latest information on the GLAST mission.

Until next time….

-Victor Grippi
The Atomic Writer
victor@atomicwriter.com

But is time travel possible?

This will be another step in learning more about the possibility of time travel and how science can help us understand the universe we live in. Whether time travel is something we want to embrace or not, it is an area that needs to be understood. If time travel and solving Hawking radiation is proved to not be possible, then it is very important that we understand why.

When we went to the moon, new technologies emerged that weren’t even thought of. New exotic materials, processes, innovative solutions permeated into our society and culture forever changing who we are. In a similar fashion, moving out into the cosmos via wormhole technology will again forever change who and what we are. If we as a species are to survive the long run, we must move out to other planets and systems. We must not keep all our eggs in one basket. Our current technology is not capable of allowing us to reach the stars, it will take far too long. We must develop alternative forms of transportation before it is too late.

If we discover that time travel or hyper-travel is not possible then the resulting knowledge will not have been in vein. Knowing the physics of why time travel is not possible will open up new avenues unthinkable today. Quantum mechanics has already given us solid state electronics and perhaps someday the power of quantum computing. Both of these technologies were not imagined when Neils Bohr discovered that electrons in atoms are arranged according to the energy levels in their orbits.

Here is a link to the latest news from NASA:

GLAST update.

Sidebar:
The way our economy is going, reaching out into space and other worlds may be what is needed to solve the global economic slump we are all experiencing. No longer is it us against them, but a world community where we all must join together to push the limits of our imagination and with it we all rise as new technologies and industries are born from those who dare to think out of the box. Take care until next time.

-Victor Grippi
The Atomic Writer