Airbrush

The concept that the universe is flat, or so nearly flat that any curvature is not detectable, means that it curves back on itself. Parallel lines may meet. Expansion of space, although may be a kind of curvature of space as you argue, is not the kind of curvature that the closed universe concept implies.

I believe the intense luminosity of quasars comes from the inner edge of the accretion disk, along with it spinning at high rps and something incredible going on near the poles. The jets are something else. If the jets were the brightest thing of a quasar it would not resemble the point source we see, but rather a band of luminosity. However, the cloud of gas and dust in the accretion disk conceals what is going on, and blocks the path, and only the polar regions allow light to escape. Do the radio waves penetrate the gas and dust, along with gamma and X-rays, anything else? Maybe quasars appear as point sources because the most intense energy release and luminosity that escapes from the black hole is very near both poles of the quasar. Since the distance between the two poles is extremely relatively short, we see what looks like a star at such great distance, hence the name quasi stellar radio source. I am still not clear on what generates so much power. According to wikipedia the reaction is about 20 times as energetic as nuclear fusion, but that seems low. What do you think?

"...if there is an unobservable part of the universe...." IF there is? Certainly there is, we know there are unobservable regions of the universe, simply beyond our visual horizon, the CMB. What is beyond that? Antimatter universes could exist if in a multiverse medium there are Big Bangs, here and there, now and then, on unimaginably vast scales of space and time. Among these budding universes are Big Bangs that had more antimatter than matter, so those became antimatter universes.

Interesting concept Mr. Alien. If this Big Bang area of expansion has a limit, and there are multiple Big Bangs separated by "hyperspace" (region of NO atoms or particles of any kind) then the next "bubble" universe could be an antimatter universe because it had a slight over abundance of antimatter?

Would this suggest that quasars brighted at meal time? Does that mean their accretion disks deliver fuel to the supermassive black hole at irregular intervals? BTW, do you have an opinion of what powers quasars? Is it simply gas and dust getting heated to Trillions of degrees or is matter-antimatter being created and annihilated?

"The Sun itself is about 40% richer in metal than other stars formed at the same time [~4.6 billion years ago] & location in the [Thin] Disk." Do you mean richer in metal than stars in our area? If so how can that be, for a supernova to enrich the Earth with more metals than our neighboring stars?

I thought a white dwarf is what is left AFTER a supernova. How can a white dwarf explode if it is so dense, about one ton per cc?

Space is expanding, but only between superclusters of galaxies. Space is not expanding within galaxies, nor within solar system, and certainly not within atoms. Gravity overcomes the expansion of space, and certainly the atomic forces prevent atoms from expanding.

Science never said what existed, or did not exist, before or at the moment of the Big Bang. There could have been matter from a pre-existing universe. The BB obliterated any trace of what pre-existed the BB. I don't believe a pure vacuum or absolutely nothing existed before the BB. Conditions existed which triggered the BB, and that ain't nothin'.

The term "mind control" sounds simple, yet it is very far reaching. If these super-advanced ETI can mind control their members, everyone must follow orders, like some giant ant hill.

That's a good point Arch. A One-Million-Years-Beyond-Us (OMYBU) ETI would have a hard time controlling their own countless numbers who are so far apart that their colonies declare independence. Decentralization would become more likely over time. Some rebels, no matter how few, may choose to expand out and never stop colonizing. So I propose the reason we don't see these rebels is because they decided we don't need to know about them. The distances are so great, and resources so abundant, that even OMYBU-ETI would expand out far slower than your optimistic estimate. Even the rebel ETI may have better things to do than colonize galaxies. Maybe there are a few OMYBU-ETI in our galaxy, but they just haven't reached us yet.

Your assumption is that an ETI one million years more advanced than us must necessarily "colonize" their entire galaxy. The only reason they would need to spread to nearby stars would be to avoid a disasterous death of their own star. That does not require colonizing an entire galaxy. At some point in their expansion they simply notice that the energy required to spread out further than some limit, such as 1,000 light years, is a wasted effort. Better to just practice safe sex and control population growth. They may choose to channel their energy towards improving living condition in the areas they already are living in. At some point in their growth they may turn inward and practice meditation and cultivate their arts and science. Or they can play around with parallel universes!

The most advanced ones, the ones that can harvest every bit of energy from their home star, have no limits on creating safe, comfortable habitats in their own neighborhood. They could use material from planets, moons, and asteroids, in their solar system to create space-cities on barren planets, or inside hollowed out moons or asteroids that rotate creating the kind of gravity they are accustomed to. They would have unlimited resources for building such mega-cities within maybe a few dozen light years from their home planets. If they need more space, they simply create more space-cities. They have no need for traveling a thousand light years, maybe not even 100 light years. Why should they send robotic probes on longer missions? They have seen enough. They are happy with what they have closer to home. If their star is going nova, or supernova, they simply move to other nearby stars, just far enough away to be safe. They don't even need to live near a star. They could build anywhere, or move stars to suit themselves. When it gets too crowded locally, they just restrict population growth. No need for long distance travel.

It only seems like we are alone. Even if there is an ETI (at least as advanced as we are) about every 1,000 light years around our galactic habitable zone, that is enough distance to effectively isolate all the ETIs in the Milky Way. Long-distance space travel may be more difficult than we imagine. The more advanced ETIs have nothing to gain by letting us know they are around. Why should they come to our solar system when they could create unlimited numbers of habitats closer to their home star? Or they have been here for thousands of years, but they are very good at hiding from us.

I have an opposable thumb bias. Maybe on other planets there are a myriad of ways intelligent creatures can evolve to find more effective ways of manipulating their environment. There could be unimaginable kinds of environments that foster creatures that get around in different ways. Spiders spins very strong fibers, bees build hives. We cannot produce building materials from our own bodies. But spiders and bees don't have the intelligence to make space ships or transmit signals into space.

...if you can find a bird that can build a space-ship by stripping bark off a twig using its' beak.

Technology requires more than just intelligence. It also requires hand-eye coordination and an opposable thumb. Dolphins may never develop any technology. Maybe technology is rare in the universe. It requires animals that evolved from creatures living in trees that evolved digital dexterity, before they can make tools and other things, and conduct physical experiments necessary for their knowledge to grow exponentially, the way it did for humans. Success as a species does not require technology, only adaptation, such as with cockroaches and sharks.

My guess is that the only reaction known that can produce that much energy is matter-antimatter annihilation. Does that also account for the energy release of a supernova or hypernova? Maybe the long GRBs, that are thought to be collapsing giant stars, must be rapidly rotating in order for a GRB jet to form. Otherwise the beam cannot break through the surrounding gas and dust?

Interesting stuff Arch. Does it also require rapid rotation of the death star and extreme magnetic fields to create antimatter?

That was a fascinating new episode of "The Universe". That is my favorite program. The giant binary is estimated at 8,000 light years away. I would also suppose the GRB beam, when the star goes supernova, would diffuse somewhat over such a great distance, but the experts think that the effects of that GRB would be very bad for Earth. It could be an ELE (extinction level event). The other estimate I heard was GRB may hit Earth about once every Billion years. We see them in other galaxies every day! The threat of NEOs is greater, but the threats of global warming and nuclear weapons detonation are much greater yet. About the mechanics of a GRB, did they say something about the jets are powered by matter-antimatter annihilation? How is antimatter created during a supernova? There is discussion about this on the History Channel discussion board, though the quality of discussion is not as good as here. http://boards.history.com/forum.jspa?forumID=800000060&start=0

Is there ANY region in the sky where we can see only empty void, all the way out to the edge of our visual horizon? Or do they need to do a long-term Hubble image of any possible "empty" region to make sure 10,000 galaxies are not hiding there?

How did you arrive at a sample of 50 quadrillion? My calculation is 10 sextillion stars (100 billion galaxies X 100 billion stars approx per galaxy = (10^11) X (10^11) = 10^22 = 10 sextillion). Maybe they ARE here but are so beyond us that they are good at picking up their beer cans and not be seen. Some photos of UFOs may be genuine, but I propose that most UFOs are either mistaken identity, delusion, or phantom projections by ETs that are later proven bogus, as a ET disinformation campaign, and the real ETs sneak around here using super stealth. Maybe they are smart enough to not be detected, because what would they have to gain by announcing their existence, or position in space? Nothing.

Fascinating clip! What I gathered was they said they could see 10,000 galaxies in a region of space as large as a grain of sand held at arm's length. Is that correct? Did they say the galaxies were 47 Billion ly away? I think that is wrong. The furthest galaxies or quasars visible are around 30 Billion ly. The CMB is at about 45 Billion ly.

Great stuff Arch. I like those kind of ideas. But I think it is easy to explain, Rare Earth. Conditions for intelligent life to evolve are few and far between. Maybe our solar system is uniquely gifted with favorable conditions protecting it from the deadly energy and conditions that exist throughout space. Maybe asteroid impacts are far more common in the universe than in our little oasis. And cosmic rays may be bad too.

Not spanning galaxies. Even the most massive black hole known, OJ287 at 18 Billion Solar, has an accretion disk only a little larger than our solar system, about 1/5 of a light year (extending out to about the middle of the inner Oort Cloud), and superimposed over our solar system it has an event horizon extending only to within the orbit of Mercury. More correct to say "spanning interstellar space". http://stardate.org/resources/news/blackholes/200801a.html My favorite bit of trivia: If the Earth was crushed down into a black hole the event horizon would form a sphere less than one inch in diameter! It would look like a small flat-black super ball.