Aurora explained!

After the events of the last few months and also because we are now at solar maximum, i have taken this opportunity to explain a bit about the phenomenon that as many of you will know as the northern lights or the aurora.
Now a few weeks ago there was a large M class flare that had a a glancing blow off us, despite this we calculated that in some places KP indexes of 7-8 which is huge numbers, i will explain in more depth what KP is later on so just stick with me for a while, so i can explain the basics.

Firstly how is the aurora caused? Well it is caused by the sun is the simply answer, that big ball of hydrogen and helium gas that burns tonnes of matter every second. The complex answer is this, the sun, much like the earth has magnetic properties ans has a magnetic field, now as the hot matter and gas boils and bubbles away these magnetic field lines hold it in place. However if you imagine an elastic band, the magnetic field can only hold so much pressure until they snap back into position much like and elastic band, and when this happens all that hot matter and gas flies off into space. this is known as a CME or coronal mass ejection.
Now if this CME is fired towards us then we have a show in store. The matter will collide with out val-Allen belts part of our magnetic field, the majority of it will be filtered around however there is a gap at the northern and southern poles where they flow into the earth. The matter can be filtered in through here now this is where things get interesting as the matter collides with particles in the atmosphere it excites them and causes the glow and colors that we know as the aurora borealis or aurora australis.

The stronger the blast the higher the KP index is, this is a way of measuring how far the aurora will be visible, you can view this on websites such as www.spaceweather.com (don't let your boss catch you) or get apps for your mobile device. Now depending on where you live will depend on the KP index level before you can see it. You don't even need to live in a dark place it can be seen as long as you are away from direct sources of light pollution, from a park of some description perhaps. An interesting fact that we have no idea why is that the aurora is at its most active at about 11pm so if you have a dog this is an excellent opportunity to take it for its last walk...and glance north or even just up!

The I.S.S

Dear all, after speaking to many people who like yourselves read this blog it has come to my attention that some people wish for me to talk about multiverses, however unfortunatley i do not have the time at the moment to write about such a complex matter (for those who dont know the multiverse theorys are that of which suggest the universe will not end), as i am currently standing at one of novetels lovley macs in the beuatiful city of York, where i am meant to be on holiday but i just cant keep away from my beloved followers, so after much thinking about what to write about i decided that the best topic would be somthing on the simple side, so this post is going to be on the i.s.s or the international space station.

The i.s.s is a satalitte a man made one to be precise, and it is habitable by humans for periods of time, it is in lower earth orbit, which is high- but in atronomical terms doesent even scratch the surface of space.The iss orbits the earth 15.50 times a day at a hight of 205miles. Its first component was launced in 1988 and is now the largest artificial body in orbit and can be seen clearly from even light polluted areas clearly, if you wish to see it for yourself i would recommend taking a look on the heavens above website which will give you a list of times to see it from your location. The space station has been in orbit for close to 13 years and after much disscution it has been decided that unfortunatly it is to be de orbited and sunk into the pacific oceon in ten years time where it will become the most expense diving reef ever!

The main purpose of the i.s.s was to reasearch several experiments that could only be done in zero gravity and after all this time some people still believe that it was a waste of money! Claiming it has done nothing and that we could of been to mars three times over if it had not been for this body of metal orbiting us.... but what do you think... the iss a waste of space? or an awesome development? anymore questions just tweet me or reply in a comment will speak soon guys!

The universe...How will it all end???

Now i warn anyone who is sitting at home, or at work, or even on a park bench somewhere eating a doughnut that if you do not want to here a rather depressing set of facts on how the universe will end (which may i add so far there are no 'happy endings') that you go back to the main page of this blog and read another post, that may be better suited to the more lightheaded audiences who just wish to hear about pretty stars and pictures, however if this is not you well that's great lets get started....

(But don't complain to me when you have nightmare tonight)

Now to put it in simple terms there are 5 ways in which the universe could end (that we have found so far). One of these theory's is that the universe will not end and that there will be no complete end to the universe and this is know as a multiverse theory, there are several well know theory's to do with multiverses however as this blog post is about the end of the universe and not how it may keep on going and going i will skip over the multiverses. Ha i bet you thought there might be a happy ending!

The first of the four theory's that we are going to look at is know as the heat death or the big freeze now basically to put it as simple as i can, as the universe keeps on expanding and expanding the temperatures will drop till they reach near absolute zero eventually the universe runs out of gas and stars go out one by one and no more stars are born which will eventually lead to a universe dominated by black holes and even they themselves will eventually disappear... are you worried yet?- This theory by the way is also the current most accept theory of how the universe could end.

The second of the four theory's is know as the big rip, in this scenario basically dark energy, which is like anti gravity wins and beats gravity, once doing so it just keeps getting stronger and stronger thus the universe expands faster and faster, and eventually it will get to a point where dark energy is so much more powerful than gravity, gravity itself will no longer have the force to hold planets, or stars or, even the electrons that make up the atoms in you, so what we get in effect is everything gets ripped apart...what do you mean you want your mummy?

Now the final two theory's coincide with each other and they are known as the big crunch and the big bounce so starting off with the big crunch, the big crunch is the theory that eventually the expansion of the universe will slow down and is much like the opposite of the big rip rather than dark energy winning gravity wins and starts to pull everything back together, until you reach the point upon where everything is bag where it started the same size as the universe a fraction of a millisecond after the big bang, now this is where the theory of something called an oscillating universe comes from, the big bounce is the theory that once the big crunch is complete it will then blow everything back off into another big bang which then eventually goes back into a big crunch and so on and so forth etc. etc. so that is the theory's of the big crunch and the big bounce...so sleep well tonight.

And that is the 4 different current theory's on how the universe will end its life, and just remember that these events that we are talking about here are not due for a very long time trillions of years so no need to worry our own star will have gone out by then, that's all for now folks if you have any questions about this post or would like to correct something which you believe to be wrong just contact me through G+ and get subscribing guys i also have twitter too, mattyc1796 speak soon thanks.

Introduction

Heya guys, if your reading this the chances are that either i have unwillingly forced you to view this blog or that you generally do have an interest in space, the universe and stars. There is also the possibility that you are reading this because one night when you were walking the dog you saw a UFO, now the chances of that last one is fairly slim because if there is any other life out there (which i can tell you from evidence we have gathered, the chances are very high that there is) the chances of them stopping here are very unlikely, i mean they would probably take one look at what we as a species have done to our little speck of dust, they would then commence to put their foot down and keep on driving down the interstellar highway, either that or take out their very large ray gun and eliminate us before we manage to destroy the whole universe by fighting over who has shares in which planetary system, and who gets to take taxes from the public to spend on lavish party's (politicians I'm talking about you here), this blog is for anyone no matter what your age, ethnicity, religious beliefs or in my case my shoe size, and before anyone asks yes i do know what I'm talking about, I'm a volunteer for kielder observatory and am commencing my A-level studies in a few weeks, in which of course i am taking physics, which in case you were wondering i also took at gcse level. Any questions that you may wish for me to talk about would be greatly appreciated, if you do have any ideas just get in touch, thanks guys speak soon.