Browsing Archive: April, 2015

Happy Anniversary Hubble!

Posted by on Friday, April 24, 2015, In : Astronomy 
Happy Anniversary to the Hubble Space Telescope! 

It was 25 years ago today that it was launched from the Discovery shuttle, and placed in orbit to start studying the Universe. And while it did need a proverbial pair of glasses shortly after launch, in those twenty five years it has done an amazing job of sending back photos and data of all aspects of the cosmos.

We have seen everything from detailed images of our neighbouring planets, to distant galaxies many millions of lightyears away, to st...
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Project X

Posted by on Sunday, April 19, 2015, In : Particle Physics 
With the LHC coming back on line, and starting on its next run of data collection, it seems like a good time to review another particle accelerator that is still in the developmental stage, and to advocate for more investment in the fundamental sciences.

Most people with a serious interest in science in general and particle physics in particular have heard of Fermilab. They were the lab that discovered many of the fundamental particles of nature. And they came close to discovering the Higgs bo...
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The AMS Excess

Posted by on Thursday, April 16, 2015, In : Astronomy 
There is another interesting result from the astrophysics community today, this time from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment, which is located on the International Space Station.

One of its tasks in recent years has been to measure protons, anti-protons, and helium nuclei that are present in high energy cosmic rays, and to record where they are coming from and how much energy they carry. Our best models of the Universe at present predict that these cosmic rays can be generated from a l...
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Organic Chemical Clouds

Posted by on Friday, April 10, 2015, In : Astronomy 
Today the ALMA telescope array in Chile has made an announcement that has caught the imagination of astronomers, astrobiologists, and sci-fi dreamers around the world. By analyzing the light spectrum from MWC480, a young star roughly 455 lightyears away from us, they have determined that it is surrounded by a chemical cloud that contains several complex organic compounds.

Of course organic compounds is still a long way from life, but it is a necessary precursor. This star is similar to what we...
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The LHC Is Resurrected!

Posted by on Sunday, April 5, 2015, In : Particle Physics 
Today is the day when the greatest we have ever known has been resurrected, to bring us into a bright new world and new understanding. That's right - the Large Hadron Collider has been successfully restarted after a two year upgrade, and is once more ready to explore the world of subatomic particle physics!

The LHC was built through the 2000s, and started up in 2008 only to have a major meltdown almost immediately. It was repaired and restarted the following year, and started hunting the Higgs...
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About Me


Dr. Chris Bird I am a theoretical physicist & mathematician, with training in electronics, programming, robotics, and a number of other related fields.

   

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