Here on Earth death usually means the end but in space, stars can have quite the interesting afterlives, and stellar corpses can even interact. The fact that stellar remnants interact is nothing new, however a new theory based on observations and computer simulations may explain a new type of supernova and help end a debate about black holes. First, let me lay out a little background.

A white dwarf is the stellar remnant of a low mass star. A star of about 2 or less solar masses will die in what is called planetary nebulae and leave behind a white dwarf. They are small dense objects about the size of earth with the mass of the sun that have an inert carbon core and are no longer do nuclear burning. For higher mass stars they die in what is called a supernova, a massive explosion where the star blows off its outer layers and leaves behind a neutron star, or if massive enough a black hole. Now there are two different kinds of supernova explosions. One is what I just mentioned, when a high mass star explodes. The other kind is when a white dwarf has a companion star. The white dwarf collects, or accretes, matter from its companion star. Once it reaches high enough mass the surface of the white dwarf reignites nuclear burning eventually then exploding in a supernova. Each one of these kinds of supernovae has a very different light signature, or spectrum.

A new paper was published describing a new way of igniting a white dwarf and a new type of supernova. In this new process a white dwarf wanders too close to a black hole. The strong gravity of the black hole causes tidal disruption in the white dwarf, it pulls and flattens the white dwarf into a pancake shake, and this compresses the star’s material reigniting nuclear burning. As each section of the star is squeezed through a point of maximum compression, the extreme pressure causes a sharp increase in temperatures, which triggers explosive burning. The explosion ejects half the material from the star while the rest falls into the black hole. This in-falling material heats up and gives off x-rays. So this supernova should have a different spectrum and be followed up by a glow of x-rays.

Now the interesting thing is this process would only be possible with a black hole of a particular mass, neither too big nor too small. It would have to be between 500 to 1000 solar masses. Theoretically and observationally we only know of small black holes, several solar masses, or super massive ones on the order of millions of solar masses. So proof of this process would mean there are intermediate mass black holes, which would beg the question of where do these black holes come from?

These types of supernova are thought to be 100 times less frequent than the other types of supernova. The Synoptic Survey Telescope, planned for 2013, will be observing hundreds of supernova per year. So far this new process between white dwarfs and black holes has been successfully modeled with computer simulations, but hopefully with this new telescope we will be able to observe the spectrum of these supernova. This would provide proof for this theory, answer some questions, and lead to some new ones.

I had a friend ask me the other day where he could get one of those green ‘glow-in-the-dark’ cats he had read about. He wanted one for his girlfriend’s birthday. “Can I get one that starts blinking when it’s hungry, and what other colors were available?” His sense of humor is almost as dry as mine, so I’m still not sure whether or not he was baiting me. Just in case, I told him that I thought that he should go to his nearest chain pet store to pre-order one, but I didn’t think the blinking version would be out until just before Christmas.

Then he wanted to know how soon it would be before the Army created genetically enhanced super-soldiers or chimps could be modified to drive cars. I told him that the Army would probably opt for ‘Killer Robots’ to avoid the ethical hassles associated with playing with the human genome. As to chimps driving cars – they already do (see Jared Diamond’s excellent book, The Third Chimpanzee for why humans are actually one of the three native species of chimps on Earth).

The best way to understand the challenges of genetic modification (aka gene therapy) is to embrace the complexity of our genome. The execution of good aroma therapy, for instance, requires the ability to put odd smelling stuff in wax and light a candle. Now I’m sure there’s a lot more to this than meets the eye, but it is simply not very difficult to get some sort of beneficial, soothing effect, with technology that was available thousands of years ago.

Compare gene therapy. Imagine that you’ve got this computer program, 3.2 billion code words long, and you really don’t know what most of it does. Now imagine that this program operates by exposing portions of its code to its environment, using what amounts to a protein mask. Some parts are running, others aren’t, based on the parts that are covered up by this mask. Different parts of this mask are permanently configured in different cells, such as the parts that are always exposed in a liver cell but concealed in a bone cell, and other parts of this mask open and close depending on enumerable environmental factors, such as ion concentrations and the presence or absence of thousands of different molecules. So bits and pieces of this mask are winking on and off all the time, in every cell in our body. And that’s just the main code. Beyond this code, there are all sorts of micro-codes scattered through a cell’s cytoplasm that tells the cell how its monstrously complex genetic code is to be interpreted. Also consider that our 3.2 billion code genome, if stretched out as a single molecule of DNA, would be about six feet long. Yet it is so thin and coiled so tightly that it fits inside of a cell’s tiny nucleus. If you don’t think this system is absolutely remarkable, then you just haven’t been paying attention.

So now you set up to program this code nightmare. You have some piece of code you want to run, say, to make your hair green or your skin transparent (creepy!). If this were a computer program, you would just find the appropriate place to add the subroutine, QED. But with the genome, you have two problems. First, you don’t really know where to put it because you don’t really know how the program works. The second problem is that you can’t really control exactly where it goes. This second issue is the truly bad news. Regardless of how the code is delivered (sometimes even shot into a nucleus), whether or not it will ‘take’ depends on where it actually combines with the genome, which is to a large extent random.

There are, after all, only four letters to our wonderful genetic alphabet, and only short sequences can be used to match some location in the genome. So if your matching code is, say, 6 letters long, then the number of places that it might match in the genome is 3.2 billion divided by 4 to the 6th power, or about 800,000 different locations. Now add the fact that the availability of many of these locations winks on and off depending on the environment. Yikes.

Yet even in spite of this staggering complexity, progress is definitely being made, and each new step overcomes monumental odds. But as it stands now, it would be easier to build a shopping mall on the moon than confront some of the technical challenges waiting inside each and every one of our tiny cells. So the next time you get down on yourself for missing a three foot putt or can’t remember where you left your car keys, just keep in mind that you’re running some of the most complex software imaginable. There’s bound to be a few bugs.

Imagine a space exploration vehicle that needs little fuel, and can continually accelerate as long as it is in contact with solar radiation. This is the idea behind solar sails, which were first dreamt up by the great German astronomer, Johannes Kepler. Since then they have been in the minds of many astronomers, engineers, and science fiction authors. To date there has not been a successful deployment of a solar sail.

A spacecraft would deploy a large membrane of reflective material, this “sail” would reflect protons delivered by solar radiation. This exchange of momentum by reflecting photons would cause a resulting thrust of the space craft. Even though such a sail would generate a continuous acceleration, this technology is thought to be impractical for long distance travel because of the enormous sail that would be needed, the relatively slow start acceleration, and the small amounts of radiation available at distances far from the sun. By aiming the sail against the Sun, a reverse thrust, or deceleration would be achieved, making solar sails a fuel saving technology useful in repositioning satellites in Earth’s orbit or slowing satellites as they approach other planets.

NASA and Ames Research Center recently built NanoSail-D. The Sail was made from a composite of Aluminum and space age plastic. When opened the sail was suppose to span 100 square feet, and the entire space craft weighed less than 10 pounds. The purpose of this mission was to see if sails could be used to direct a satellite back into the Earth’s Atmosphere where it can be burned up, thus leaving less clutter in Earth’s orbit due to unused satellites.

However, not all missions end in glory. On August 2, the NanoSail-D space craft was launched from the Kwajalein Atoll aboard the SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket. There was a system failure in stage 1 of the launch, and the craft never reached orbit. This resulted in the loss of NanoSail-D. NASA has a spare NanaSail-D and is currently working on plans for a future launch. A similar mission also failed in 2005, when the Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios launched Cosmos 1.

If the technology for making and deploying large sails becomes available the practicality for deep space missions would change. It took Voyager more than three decades to escape the solar system using conventional rockets, but a spacecraft using large and efficient sails would be able to catch up to the Voyager spacecrafts in less than ten years.

Author Terence Witt discusses topics relating to Null Physics in monthly podcast series.

Terence Witt , author of Our Undiscovered Universe: Introducing Null Physics, is releasing a series of podcasts that will illuminate ideas he raises in his controversial physics book. The podcasts will focus on topics such as Null Cosmology and black holes.

“My goal from the very beginning has been to provide answers to important questions other theories ignore,” said Witt. “The purpose of the series is to expand on ideas from Our Undiscovered Universe and give readers a greater sense of the evidence that supports the theory.”

Topics discussed in the first podcast include:

• Null Cosmology versus Big Bang theory
• Null Cosmology interpretation of intergalactic redshift
• Challenges faced by Null Cosmology
• The Cosmic Fusion Cycle

The next podcast will premiere in early September. Witt will discuss one of the most intriguing topics in physics: black holes . Topics include the distance to the nearest black hole from Earth, the characteristics of a black hole, as well as white holes and wormholes.

For more information about the book and to access the podcast series, go to www.OurUndiscoveredUniverse.com . The podcast series is also available on iTunes.

About Terence Witt
Terence Witt is the founder and former CEO of Witt Biomedical Corporation. He holds a BSEE from Oregon State University and lives in Florida. Our Undiscovered Universe: Introducing Null Physics is his first book. To read more about Terence Witt and his latest breakthroughs go to OurUndiscoveredUniverse.com .

Victoria Lansdon
Public Relations Director
Aridian Publishing
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vlansdon@aridian.org