Wonders of the Universe - Falling

Episode Aired: 20th March 21:00

In the third episode of this series Brian talks about Gravity, the force that works on the largest scales influencing Stars, Planets, Galaxies and the fate of the Universe.

Brian Cox explains why one side of our Moon is always facing the Earth, what will happen when the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way collide, and how a neutron star is formed when a massive star explodes as a supernova.

In order to experience what gravity is like on other planets larger than the Earth, Brian takes a spin in a centrifuge and expeiences a max G-force of 5G, which you could see that he found it quite unpleasent. He also takes a trip on the famous 'Vomit Comet', an airplane which simulates weightlessness... it was quite funny watching him attempt to explain the concepts of gravity whilst being jostled about inside the plane!

The nature of gravity known as the Einstein's General Theory of Relativity was explained. Spacetime is the fabric of Space and the Universe. Matter bends space and the greater the mass of an object the greater the curve of the spacetime surrounding the object. Spacetime is full of peaks and valleys... in fact everything in the Universe is falling through spacetime.

Finally we are taken to the centre of our galaxy where a massive black hole is thought to reside. The ultimate curvature of spacetime is a black hole. The analogy of a fast river flow was used to explain what it could be like very close to and inside a black hole.

 

Various Locations includes a canyon in New Mexico, a river delta and Brian standing alone on top of a  mountain.

Once again a fascinating insight into the workings of the Universe.

By the light of the Supermoon!

Very recently there has been a lot of talk in the news about a special Lunar event that is taking place this weekend. It's called a Supermoon and was first coined by Astrologer Richard Nolle over thirty years ago.

So what is a Supermoon? The Moon's orbit around the Earth is not perfectly circular and so at certain times in its orbit it is at it's closest to the Earth (perigee - 354,000 km [220,000 mi]) and at other times furthest away (called apogee - 410,000 km [254,000 mi]). So a Supermoon is when the Moon is within 90% of it closest ever approach in its orbit and coincides with a full Moon, this is called perigee-syzygy. However due to the nature of the orbit we dont get a Supermoon every month but it does happen quite often.
 
The notion of a Supermoon is steeped in superstition and conspiracy; all sorts of natural disasters, earthquakes, erupting volcanoes etc... have been attributed to this natural occurence. Apart from unusually high and low tides there has been no empirical evidence to prove that any natural disaster has been caused by a Supermoon, past or present. In fact the tragic Japan Earthquake occured a week before the Moon's closest approach.I find that people believe what they want to believe so it sometimes doesn't matter what the scientists say to alleviate concerns only that the media makes it good reading! In any case it fires the public imagination and an increased number of people observed the full Moon last night more than normal.

The next occurence will be November 14, 2016.