(December 16, 2009 at 3:39 pm)rjh4 Wrote: (December 16, 2009 at 3:20 pm)Eilonnwy Wrote: Bam.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...-womb.html
Baby solar systems being born.
Ok. Some nice pictures and an explanation of what scientists "think" is ocurring. And this is supposed to be something to answer my questions a few posts back, particularly the one as to how you know that the millions of solar systems out there are at different stages of the same kind of formation? You can't be serious.
The most simple of the many many reasons why is to do with predictions made by relativity about the formation of solar systems and other galactic bodies that have been found in space over 50 years after the initial predictions were made- what was expected mathematically based on what we knew at the time turned out to be extremely accurate - but then what more do you expect from Einstein?
If General Relativity's predictions of the formation of solar systems is correct then we should be able to observe in space the following things:
Following the destruction of a star you would expect a reasonably uniform sea of particles containing Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Carbon, Oxygen etc.
You would expect to see over time in these clouds the formations of gravitational clusters in or near the center.
You would expect this gravitational cluster to begin to become very hot and very violent as it absorbs more and more matter.
You would expect that as the gravitational cluster obtained more mass and therefore asserted more influence on it's surrounding that the cloud of matter would start to rotate and become disk like.
You would expect that the irregularities in the cloud combined with the rotation of the disk of the cloud would lead to collisions of small objects in orbit.
You would expect that these collisions would continue as the disk continued to rotate, leading to small gravitational clusters similar to the one in the center.
You would expect that the heavier elements in would fall to the inside of the cloud over time because of gravity, leading to objects that are more metallic the closer you get to the central gravitational cluster.
You would expect over time that the cluster in the middle, being the largest and in the best position for absorption of materials would grow to a far more massive size, several degrees magnitude greater compared to the clusters in the cloud, becoming a star.
You would expect that because their are less heavy elements in the solar system than gases that the planets closer to the star will be significantly smaller because the is less matter to work with, and it is also too hot for large scale gaseous structures to form too close to the star.
You would expect the outer planets to be gaseous and much larger than the planets closer to the star.
You would expect debris in the solar system such as rings around planets, asteroids on the outer edge of the solar system (the kupier belt around our solar system was predicted decades before it was seen) and small clouds of matter would be more prevalent the further out you go because of less gravitational pull from the center during formation.
These are but a few of the many many predictions we can make with relativity that we see time and time again in different solar systems throughout the galaxy, this is because of the fundamental constants of the universe that lead to certain type of allowed behavior and predictable chains of events. This has only ever been confirmed by observation - the only discrepancies to arise are very minor and inevitably lead to a better understanding and more comprehensive framework with which to make predictions.
As for my credentials, i have none in physics yet, though i plan to pursue a degree in particle physics wheni have completed my MSITP Server certification. I'm just an enthusiast (understatement
) at this stage who has spent hundreds of hours reading and researching the observable universe.
If you still have a problem with any of these ideas feel free to ask more.