The Unknown Universe

Is the Universe Exploding?

Read Professor Hammond's theory that explains the unknown expansion

CAREFUL---This link is for physicists :) http://arxiv.org/abs/0806.1277

Cover Winning awards from NASA for his research and teaching, and international acclaim for his research on gravity, Richard Hammond, Ph.D., turns our view of the cosmos upside down in his new title, The Unknown Universe: The Origin of the Universe, Quantum Gravity, Wormholes, and Other Things Science Still Can't Explain.

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"Ask the author" at

TheUnknownUniverse@yahoo.com

Listen to the author... ON RADIO

All selected questions will be posted and answered by the author!

Claimer

I learned enough HTML to make this page, but nothing works like I think, and things "float" around with "padding" and "style" as if they have a mind of their own. There I am on the right, but don't ask me how I got there!

... and the critics raved

In his new book "The Unknown Universe" Dr. Richard Hammond lays down on the table some of the biggest mysteries of the final frontier and poses some of the biggest questions which demonstrate the gaps in our knowledge of the cosmos..."The Unknown Universe" will likely appeal to anyone who has ever gazed up at the stars and wondered just how it all came to be... From Unexplained Mysteries.com http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/column.php?id=127979

The Unknown Universe helped me to understand many questions I had about the origin of the universe. I really liked how it was written, using interesting questions for the reader to answer at the beginning of the chapters. Also, the style of writing was fun to read, not like many science books which are (to this reader) usually very technical and difficult to understand. Professor Hammond helped to make the topics that he wrote about understandable in a fun and interesting way that anyone could understand. I had trouble putting it down once I got started! ....Janet Ryan

This book is a novel approach to awakening interest in science in the general reader. I recommend it to the senior High School or Freshman college reader in search of stimulus in the selection of a career path.

Professor Bob Guenther, Duke University.

Professor Hammond guides us on a personal tour of the unsolved mysteries of physics at the forefront of current research. His sense of humor and writing style make this book an exciting read. He discusses unsolved mysteries from the Higgs particle all the way to dark energy. I really enjoyed this book.

Professor Terry Pilling, North Dakota State University.


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Nature often gives us clues, revealing her inner working and exposing her true beauty, but as physicists we must unearth their significance. The Unknown Universe also contains clues to a hidden meaning. Crack the cypher, send the author the hidden message at TheUnknownUniverse@yahoo.com and win a free copy of The Unknown Universe


Name that tune....

This sounds like I was in Andromeda when I recorded it. The microphone I used is no bigger than a gnat, which explains (I think) the static and extra whistles.

Over on the right is my artistic coup d'essai via mathematics


Read Excerpts

from The Unknown Universe

Also check out From Quarks to Black Holes Cover This book, already translated into Arabic, is now being translated into Japanese.

Read about this book!

This book is a series of delightful interviews in which natural objects such as an electron, a black hole, a galaxy, and even the vacuum itself, reveal their innermost secrets - not only what they are but also how they feel. A hydrogen atom tells us about quantum mechanics and why we live in a non-deterministic world; a black hole explains curved space and naked singularities; and a uranium atom talks of its life on a meteor, its tremendous collision with Earth, and properties of radioactivity - all while grappling with its own mortality. A neutron star gives a personal account of its creation and goes on to discuss quasars and other extraordinary astronomical objects, while an iron atom describes its birth in a remote supernova explosion and its series of adventures on Earth, from its early use in wrought iron processes to its time in a human body, and then to its latest misadventures.

Ask The Author...

Questions (in blue)

&emsp With answers (in black) I was fortunate to have two very talented Editors at Career Press,

Kara Reynolds and Kirsten Dalley

. They made the book better and more readable-- Thank you both. Now I find I am editing some questions, but I do not have their skill. I apologize for the rough blade I use,


Dear Dr. Hammond: I listened to your program on Coast to Coast A.M. and The Richard Syrett show. I was very intrigued by your theories, thanks to keeping your descriptions to terms I can understand. With this in mind, I now have an opportunity to throw at you some of my theories ( which may come across amateurish to your way of thinking). First of all, with the appearance of an accelerating expansion of the universe, could the cause be created when the planets have crossed the threshhold of gravitational pull? When the big bang took place the force sent particles out into space and through time all the wonderful galaxies and planets were created. While this creation occured, all matter was still within a strong gravitational pull on each other, thus keeping the speed of expantion regulated. The force of the expansion is still on the matter as of today, but with one difference, the gravitational pull on all matter has now started to deteriorate due to the distances between matter. This I call the threshhold. Sincerely, Terry Rondeau

&emsp Hi Terry, Yes, this is a possibility. The problem is, your theory would require a modification to the theory of gravity. No one has developed such a generally accepted theory, but check the link at top of this page to read my paper about this.

"If we observe that a more distant object is moving away from us faster than closer objects in Space, wouldn't it be because the light of the more distant objects takes longer to get here and is therefore much older than the light coming from closer objects and carries with it much older information; suggesting that the Universe used to be expanding faster than it is currently, but is no longer doing so, as is measured from "newer" light that carries more recent information? Might this be a possible explanation of the information we are receiving rather than suggesting that the Universe Expansion is speeding up ?" Best regards, James

&emsp Hi James, We take that into account. Let me give you an example. Consider a galaxy named El Mundo Unknown, 75 Mpc *away which is traveling 75km/s (kilometers per second). Suppose we have a linear relation between the distance of the galaxies and their speed. This means that a galaxy twice as far as El Mundo Unknown would travel twice as fast, in this case that galaxy, let’s call it Mundo del Destino, would be traveling 150 km/s. It turns out that in this linear case, the expansion rate is constant; the expansion rate is neither speeding up nor slowing down. Are you with me so far? Now suppose instead that Mundo del Destino is traveling 160 km/s (El Mundo Unknown is always going 75 km/s). When we measure Mundo del Destino, we are observing the universe in the past, as you point out, in fact, when we observe Mundo del Destino, we are looking about 450 million years into the past. If it is traveling at 160 km/s, then the rate of expansion back then was bigger than it is now, because it is bigger than 150 km/s—the linear case. Or, in other words, the expansion rate is smaller now than it was. In fact, this is what we used to think, and an expansion rate that is slowing down is consistent with the idea that all of the galaxies are tugging on each other, tending to slow them down. BUT, if Mundo del Destino is measured to be moving at 140 km/s, this means that the acceleration rate was smaller back then, because it is less than the linear rate. Or, in other words, in this case the universe is expanding faster now than it was. The measurements I document in The Unknown Universe are essentially these. This is why we now believe the universe expanding faster than ever before.
*One megaparsec = one million parsecs = 31 million light years, about.

Hi--I so appreciated your interview on Coast2Coast, as well as your respectful responses to all manners of questions. I'm looking forward to reading your new book & wish you all the best!! Rosanna D'Agnillo, Visit http://www.rosannad.com

&emsp THANKS... And you have a beautiful voice!!


Gravity bothers me, as do most current theories of what it is. So I've looked backwards to an earlier time where different theories were put forward. The 1920's and 30's, Ernest Rutherford had just discovered the atom and two of the particles of which it is made, the positive proton and the negative electron. The British Chemist James Chadwick had identified the electrically neutral neutron. By the mid-1930s scientists were still baffled (as they are today) by two fundamental questions; Why do protons in the nucleus of the atom simply not spring apart, given that positive charges repel? And, secondly, why did the orbiting negative electrons simply not get sucked into the positive nucleus, given that positive attracts negative, and in so doing annihilate the atom? This assumes that current theories on the unidentified tiny particles which are said to hold them together, don't really exist. jtcapa

&emsp Gravity bothers a number of people, physicists included. But you really answered your own question in your last sentence. The "unidentified tiny particles which are said to hold them together" are the gluons, which holds the quarks together, which hold the protons and neutrons together, so that they do not "spring apart." I explain all this in The Unknown Universe (this is a part we know, we think).

Dr., If we go along with the theory that the Universe is akin to a balloon that is being "blown up", i.e. expanding rapidly, this infers there is a finite "edge" or end to the Universe. If we were traveling in a spacecraft and arrived at the end of the Universe - what would it look like? Would we hit a cosmological wall? Or would we cross back to the beginning/other side of the Universe? Regards, Daniel Sekerak, Oregon City, OR

&emsp Hi Daniel, The human brain (at least not mine) cannot envision curved three dimensional space. This does not mean such a thing cannot exist, it means we must rely on mathematics—an entity that can reach far beyond the severe limitations of our thoughts. We can, however, imagine a curved two dimensional space, so let’s utilize this fact. I want you to imagine a two dimensional world, such as the surface of a table or the rubber part of a balloon. Imagine further that there are 2 dimensional intelligent beings in this 2D world. They can look in any direction, but not a direction that is perpendicular to the surface. They have no inkling of such a thing, it does exist to them. They can take measurements, and they can even determine if their space is flat (table) or curved (balloon). They can do this without ever leaving their 2 dimensions. Now I want you to imagine that the 2D beings draw an equator on their balloon. One of them, say Joe, starts to walk along the equator. I ask you, what happens? Does Joe hit a wall? No, eventually he will come back to his starting point. We call a space such as this a finite, unbounded space. Now that you know what an unbounded space is, you can accept the fact that we live in an unbounded space. I discuss this in more detail in The Unknown Universe.

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Dr Hammond's radio schedule...


Interview ---JUNE 7--- Virato Live!
Interview on the Hilly Rose Show
Interview with Lights on with Nancy Lee June 23
More to be announced................
PAST:
X-zone Radio......................May 29, 11-11:30 (EST)
Coast to Coast with George Noory.....May 27 2-5 am (EST)
New Realities with Alan Steinfeld

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