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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 134: MAR-APR 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Missing Planets In Globular Clusters If you lived on a planet circling a star in a globular cluster, you would see a night sky ablaze with thousands of stars all brighter than the brightest in the earth's sky. This is because globular clusters contain tens of thousands of stars all compressed into 5-25 parsecs -- they are much more tightly packed than those in the Milky Way in general. In fact, though, you would have to observe this blazing sky from a spaceship, because diligent searches have not detected any planets in any of the many globular clusters. In 1999, a team of 24 astronomers used the Hubble ... Telescope to search for planets in the cluster named 47 Tucanae. Their method was to look for dark planets crossing the bright disks of the cluster's stars. After patiently watching 34,000 stars, they came up empty-handed. For some unknown reason, planets never formed around the stars in 47 Tucanae -- or in any other globular clusters checked so far. Are globular clusters in general different from the rest of the Milky Way? Possibly, see below. (Anonymous; "No Globular Planets?" Astronomy, 28:34, October 2000. Anonymous; "Planets Come Up Missing in a Globular Cluster," Sky & Telescope, 104:23, October 2000.) Answer. Globular clusters are peculiar in several additional ways. For example, the globular ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 1160 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf134/sf134p04.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 66: Nov-Dec 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Globular Clusters Upset Theory Of Galaxy Formation A spherical cloud of globular clusters surrounds the Milky Way galaxy. Each cluster is itself a spherical groups of stars. Through the telescope, globular clusters are beautiful spherical aggregations of bright stars that seem to get ever denser toward the cluster's center. Globular clusters harbor many anomalies (AOB4 and AOB17 in Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos); here, we mention two involving spatial distribution and age. Many spiral galaxies, like our own Milky Way, spin ponderously in the center of a spherical cloud of scores, even hundreds, of globular clusters (see sketch). Not only do the globular ... surrounding us display a different spatial distribution (spherical rather than flat-spiral), but their individual ages undercut galaxy theory. All of the Milky Way's globular clusters were supposed to have been formed when our galaxy was created. Yet, the ages of these clusters vary by as much as 5 billion years. (Dayton, Leigh; "Globular Clusters Upset Theory of Galaxy," New Scientist, p. 34, May 13, 1989.) Comment. We cannot resist mentioning still another cluster anomaly: The globular clusters do not participate in the galaxy's general rotation. Where did these oddballs come from? Reference. The catalog volume: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos, mentioned above, is described here . From Science Frontiers #66, NOV-DEC 1989 . ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 1076 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf066/sf066a03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 28: Jul-Aug 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Beautiful objects, beautiful theories Imagine a million brilliant stars densely packed in a tight sphere by gravity. In the telescope these globular clusters are spectacular objects: a million points of light in disciplined motion around a center so closely packed with stars that they cannot all be resolved. Surely such an orderly assemblage of matter should be easy to model, given the laws of celestial mechanics and high-speed computers. No so! Both theory and computer models predict that a few stars may escape a globular cluster during its lifetime of several billion years, but that most will be drawn inevitably inward as the cluster collapses. However, observation, the ... arbiter, reveals that globular clusters do not follow this scenario. Indeed, some clusters seem to have collapsed already and are again evolving in a sort of "reincarnated" state that our best theories refuse to predict. (Lightman, Alan; "Misty Patches in the Sky," Science 83, 4:24, June 1983.) From Science Frontiers #28, JUL-AUG 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 431 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf028/sf028p03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects An 11-minute binary 4U1820-30 is an X-ray binary star located in the heart of the globular cluster NGC 6624. Its claim to fame is a very short period of rotation -- only 685 seconds. In just a shade over 11 minutes, a neutron star orbits a white dwarf, according to present thinking. The orbit diameter is only 1/7 the radius of our sun, which implies the stars themselves are also small. 4U1820-30 is the shortest-period binary ever found -- so short that astronomers are looking for other explanations. Another curious fact mentioned in this item is that X- ... binaries are much more common in globular clusters than elsewhere in the universe. What is so different about globular clusters? (King, A.R ., and Watson, M.G .; "The Shortest Period Binary Star," Nature, 323:105, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #48, NOV-DEC 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 408 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf048/sf048p07.htm
... The Large Residual in Neptune's Orbit ANF NEPTUNE'S INTRINSIC RADIATION ANF1 Measurements of Intrinsic Energy from Neptune ANL RING AND SATELLITE IRREGULARITIES ANL1 Disarray among Neptune's Moons ANL2 Neptune's Elusive Ring and Its Possible Incompleteness ANO TELESCOPIC ANOMALIES ANO1 Neptune's Variable Brightness AO STARS AND EXTENDED OBJECTS AOB STELLAR DYNAMICS AND DISTRIBUTION AOB1 Star Rings AOB2 Star Streams AOB3 Expansion of Our Galaxy's Globular-Cluster Population AOB4 Spherical Distribution of Globular Clusters and Their Apparent Nonparticipation in Galactic Rotation AOB5 Geocentrically Oriented Spectroscopic Binaries AOB6 Anomalously Slow Rotation of Stars AOB7 The Possible Existence of a Minimum Distance between Stars AOB8 Existence of a Lower Limit to the Number of Stars in Globular Clusters AOB9 Non-collapsing Globular Clusters AOB10 Sub-dwarfs Move Counter to Galactic Rotation AOB11 High Pulsar Velocities AOB12 Ubiquity of Binary ... Multiple-Star Systems AOB13 Pulsar Formation Rate Exceeds Supernova Frequency AOB14 Dearth of Population-III Stars AOB15 Curious Distribution of Anomalous Cepheids AOB16 Family of Population-I Stars in Galactic Halo AOB17 The Existence of Globular Clusters AOB18 The Existence of Stars AOB19 Absence of Binaries in Globular Clusters AOB20 Alignment of Axes of Young Stars AOB21 Young Stars with Anomalous Velocities AOF ANOMALIES DETECTED THROUGH STELLAR RADIATION AOF1 Star Color Changes in Historical Times AOF2 Anomalous Variable Objects: A Few Extreme Cases AOF3 Unidentified Objects at the Core of Our Galaxy AOF4 Anomalies of Wolf-Rayet Stars AOF5 Nova and Supernova Anomalies AOF6 Cepheid Anomalies AOF7 Apparent Absence of Bright Carbon Stars AOF8 The "Missing" Solar Neutrinos and, by Extension, Stellar Neutrino Deficits AOF9 Pulsar Anomalies AOF10 Unidentified Infrared Objects in Our Galaxy AOF11 Optical Bursters and Flare Stars AOF12 ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 356 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /cat-astr.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 97: Jan-Feb 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects How can some stars be older than the universe itself?The answer is, of course, if the astronomers' clocks keep bad time. On one hand, stellar age theory assures us that stars in the globular clusters that pervade the universe were born about 15 billion years ago. On the other hand, new measurements of the distance to the Virgo cluster of galaxies are equally adamant that these objects are much closer than thought -- so close that, assuming the standard Big Bang model and the resultant expanding universe, the age of the universe may be as small as 8 billion years! In other words, the universe is younger ... some of the stars in it; an obvious and painful dilemma for astronomy. How will this conflict between the two dominant astronomical paradigms play out? Many are betting that the Big Bang theory will require a major over-haul. Or more, as suggested in the next item. (Jacoby, George H.; "The Universe in Crisis," Nature, 371:741, 1994. Travis, John; "Hubble War Moves to High Ground," Science, 266:539, 1994.) Comment. A clever resolution of the above age problem would be for the ancient globular cluster stars to be left-overs or interlopers from an older universe. The globular clusters are anomalous in several other ways. See: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos. Ordering information here . ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 338 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf097/sf097a03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 66: Nov-Dec 1989 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Found: the lost pyramids of rock lake DOUBTS ABOUT TWO RITUALLY RECITED THEORIES Astronomy GLOBULAR CLUSTERS UPSET THEORY OF GALAXY FORMATION Down with the big bang NEPTUNE SPINS TOO FAST AND ITS MAGNETIC FIELD IS AWRY Biology The bird that smells like cow manure Army ants: a collective intelligence? The babirusa: a quasi-ruminant pig A BAT FALL Care for a cup of viruses? Geology DRUMLINS MAY RECORD CATASTROPHIC FLOODS STRANGE BLUE POOL FOUND AT THE BOTTOM OF CRATER LAKE Biogenic minerals Geophysics Rogue waves Psychology MEMORY STRUCTURE OF AUTISTIC IDIOT SAVANTS Was burt stitched up? General Cold fusion died only in the media ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 333 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf066/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 134: Mar-Apr 2001 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Water Signposts, Ritual Paths Incroyable? Astronomy Missing Martian Meteorites Speaking of ALH 84001 Missing Planets in Globular Clusters Biology Toppling-Penguin Theory Overturned Bigfoot Mile-High, But Light-Years from Acceptance What Sang First? Geology Plate Techtonics Subducted? I Must go Down to the Goo Again! Geophysics Weird Waterspout? Psychology Sleep-Work and Dream-Work ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 333 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf134/index.htm
... the Big Bang require too many adjustable parameters to make them work. The universe has too much largescale structure (interspersed "walls" and voids) to form in a time as short as 10-20 billion years. The average luminosity of quasars must decrease in just the right way so that their mean apparent brightness is the same at all redshifts, which is exceedingly unlikely. The ages of globular clusters appear older than the universe. The local streaming motions of galaxies are too high for a finite universe that is supposed to be everywhere uniform. Invisible dark matter of an unknown but non-baryonic nature must be the dominant ingredient of the entire universe. The most distant galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field show insufficient evidence of evolution, with some of them apparently having higher redshifts (z ... 6-7 ) than the faintest quasars. If the open universe we see today is extrapolated back near the beginning, the ratio of the actual density of matter in the universe to the critical density must differ from unity by just one part in 1059. Any larger deviation would result in a universe already collapsed on itself or already dissipated. (Van Flandern, Tom; "Top Ten Problems with the Big Bang," Meta Research Bul letin , 6:64, 1997. Bulletin address: P.O . box 15186, Chevy Chase, MD 20825-5186.) From Science Frontiers #116, MAR-APR 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 309 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf116/sf116p06.htm
... . The unthinkable assumption suggests that every 108 years or so, these ordinary, unassuming galaxies become supermassive (about 1013 solar masses) for several million years. When the core of a galaxy becomes supermassive, its stars are tugged into tight new orbits. The subsequent switching off of the supermass allows the galaxy to expand outwards again. The author claims to have found just such expansion effects among the globular clusters in our own galaxy. His data are striking and quite convincing. The notorious "missing mass" problem of cosmology disappears with the cyclic supermass assumption because the time-averaged mass of each galaxy will be much higher than that observed in its normal enervated state. Doesn't this sudden temporary appearance of mass violate the laws of physics? No, says the author, physicists habitually ... a superfluid, superconducting vacuum state, which is the ultimate source of all mass-energy, when they develop their theories of fundamental particles. If particle physicists can (and must) evoke such magic, so can astronomers. (Clube, Victor; "Do We Need a Revolution in Astronomy?" New Scientist, 80: 284, 1978.) Comment. The magic of supermassive injections is, of course, no more magical than the existence of gravitational force or God. From Science Frontiers #6 , February 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 287 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf006/sf006p05.htm
