{"id":1778,"date":"2017-10-20T02:48:06","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T02:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=1778"},"modified":"2021-01-07T18:12:13","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T18:12:13","slug":"ligovirgo-another-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/ligovirgo-another-first\/","title":{"rendered":"LIGO\/Virgo: Another First"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/ligovirgo-another-first\/#gw170817\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20171019ff\/20171019-_98347444_1-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>Another gravitational wave observation gave scientists the best evidence yet about one aspect of merging stars.<\/p>\n<p>On August 17, 2017, folks with the LIGO\/Virgo collaboration observed three clusters of gravitational waves.<\/p>\n<p>This time astronomers found an infrared, visible, and X-ray event near the gravitational wave source.<\/p>\n<p>The August gravitational wave observation, GW170817, is the first one where astronomers found electromagnetic waves coming from the same spot. It&#8217;s a very big deal.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Me, the universe, and perspective\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/ligovirgo-another-first\/#something\">Something Different<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/ligovirgo-another-first\/#magnetars\">Magnetars and Sirach<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In the news\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/ligovirgo-another-first\/#gw170817\">GW170817: Strong Evidence<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Making sense\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/ligovirgo-another-first\/#faith\">Faith and Norse Mythology<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<h4><a name=\"something\"><\/a>Something Different<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/making-a-universe-why-bother\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20160719ff\/20170127-NGC_3372a-full-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>Usually I&#8217;d have a great deal to say about what happened. This week&#8217;s &#8216;science news&#8217; post will be different.<\/p>\n<p>I had something on another topic ready to go. Then I somehow managed to wipe out about four dozen hours of work.<\/p>\n<p>An unsatisfying half-hour later, I&#8217;d salvaged my notes, been extremely frustrated, and asked my son for help. Not necessarily in that order. He&#8217;s the family &#8216;tech guy,&#8217; and told me what I figured I&#8217;d hear. There wasn&#8217;t a trace of the post left. Not even in system memory.<\/p>\n<p>This was about two hours before I like to have the &#8216;Friday&#8217; post ready. With nothing ready. Not. A. Thing.<\/p>\n<p>On reflection, &#8220;extremely frustrated&#8221; is just part of my emotional response. Maybe I&#8217;ll find a reason to write about that. Or maybe not.<\/p>\n<p>On the &#8216;up&#8217; side, I had a nice supper with family, relaxed \u2014 slightly \u2014 and decided I&#8217;d talk a little about GW170817, neutron stars, and Norse mythology.<\/p>\n<p>That seemed more reasonable than fretting about what I lost.<\/p>\n<p>Besides, although I think what I wrote might have been interesting and maybe entertaining \u2014 it was hardly the most important thing in the universe.<\/p>\n<p>Stepping back a little more, the universe itself is &#8220;like a grain from a balance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Indeed, before you the whole universe is like a grain from a balance, or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.<br \/>\n&#8220;But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook sins for the sake of repentance.&#8221;<br \/>\n(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/wisdom\/11#27011022\">Wisdom 11:22<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/wisdom\/11#27011023\">23<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;m okay with that.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"magnetars\"><\/a>Magnetars and Sirach<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/labor-day-seti\/#interesting\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20170821ff\/20170905-600px-Magnetar-SGR1745-2900-20150515-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>That image doesn&#8217;t show GW170817.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s magnetar SGR 1745-2900, near our galaxy&#8217;s center.<\/p>\n<p>Magnetars are neutron stars with very powerful magnetic fields.<\/p>\n<p>Neutron stars are what&#8217;s left after a star with about 10 to 29 times the mass of ours begins running out of hydrogen. We&#8217;re pretty sure we know how they form.<\/p>\n<p>GW170817 is a set of gravitational waves scientists detected in August. They&#8217;re almost certainly from a pair of neutron stars which merged.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;All of the above&#8217; are things we didn&#8217;t know existed a few centuries back. We&#8217;re still answering questions we had about them, quite often finding new questions in the process.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/ligovirgo-another-first\/#1\">1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t mind living in a world where much of the science I learned in high school has been replaced by more detailed, exact data. And, quite often, with new understandings of how reality works.<\/p>\n<p>I like it, but some folks apparently don&#8217;t. I&#8217;ve talked about that before.<\/p>\n<p>I think Sirach puts the natural beauty and wonders surrounding us and the big picture in perspective.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Behold the rainbow! Then bless its Maker, for majestic indeed is its splendor;<br \/>\n&#8220;It spans the heavens with its glory, this bow bent by the mighty hand of God.&#8221;<br \/>\n(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/sirach\/43#28043011\">Sirach 42:11<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/sirach\/43#28043012\">12<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<hr>\n<h4><a name=\"gw170817\"><\/a>GW170817: Strong Evidence<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/science-environment-41650745\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20171019ff\/20171019-_98347444_1-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\"><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">(From NASA\/ESA\/N.Tanvir(U.Leicester) et al, via BBC Newss, used w\/o permission.)<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/science-environment-41650745\">Gravitational waves: So many new toys to unwrap<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nJonathan Amos, BBC News (October 17, 2017)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>Whenever there&#8217;s a big science discovery, it&#8217;s always nice to get a historical perspective. And so here goes with the remarkable observation of gravitational waves emanating from the merger of two dead stars, or neutron stars, some 130 million light-years from Earth.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s 50 years since the existence of these stellar remnants was confirmed (July 1967) by the mighty Northern Irish astronomer <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/science\/space\/universe\/sights\/neutron_stars#p009s58j\">Jocelyn Bell Burnell<\/a>. It&#8217;s more than 40 years since we realised neutron stars might occur in pairs, or binaries, as we call them&#8230;.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/GW170817\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20171019ff\/20171019-418px-GW170817_spectrograms-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>I talked about gravitational waves two weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p>Also gravitational-wave astronomy, an international science network, a Nobel Prize in Physics, Empedocles, and Michelson interferometers, and the Alcubierre metric. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/einsteins-waves-new-views\/\">October 6, 2017<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Almost immediately after the LIGO\/Virgo folks reported GW170817, Science published eight GW170817-related letters. Nature published six and a special issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters had 23.<\/p>\n<p>GW170817 is a very big deal.<\/p>\n<p>It gives scientists the strongest evidence they found so far that merging stars and short gamma-ray bursts are connected.<\/p>\n<p>It also sets a limit on the difference between the speed of light and that of gravity.<\/p>\n<p>Normally I&#8217;d say more about GW170817. This isn&#8217;t a normal &#8216;Friday&#8217; post, and it&#8217;s already a few hours after I&#8217;d planned on having one ready. I&#8217;ll probably come back to the topic, eventually. Meanwhile, I put links to a few related Wikipedia pages below.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/ligovirgo-another-first\/#2\">2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<hr>\n<h4><a name=\"faith\"><\/a>Faith and Norse Mythology<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/B%C3%BAri\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20130220ff\/20150128-469px-Treated_NKS_audhumla-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>If I felt that my faith depends on firmly believing something like the story of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Au%C3%B0umbla\">Au\u00f0umbla<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/B%C3%BAri\">Buri<\/a> was literally true \u2014 I wouldn&#8217;t understand my faith.<\/p>\n<p>As a Catholic, I see the Bible as the Word of God. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s1c2a3.htm#101\">101<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s1c2a3.htm#133\">133<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>I also realize that Sacred Scriptures weren&#8217;t written contemporary Euro-Americans.<\/p>\n<p>Trying to understand them from a hardwired-literal Western viewpoint is an exercise in futility.<\/p>\n<p>Happily, I&#8217;m Catholic. I have the Bible \u2014 <strong>plus<\/strong> Tradition and the Magisterium. (Catechism, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s1c2a2.htm#74\">74<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s1c2a2.htm#95\">95<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Tradition with a capital &#8220;T&#8221; isn&#8217;t trying to live as if 1967 never happened.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s certainly not imagining that much of what we&#8217;ve learned about the universe since Ptolemy&#8217;s day is a lie. Or that Mesopotamian scholars knew everything worth knowing about our world. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/adam-and-the-animals\/#zeal\">July 23, 2017<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/kic-8462852-and-strange-stars\/#psalms\">December 2, 2016<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s getting late, I&#8217;ve got tasks left to finish before sleep, so I&#8217;ll end with the usual allegedly-related posts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/einsteins-waves-new-views\/\">Einstein&#8217;s Waves: New Views<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(October 6, 2017)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/repeatable-results-that-arent\/\">Repeatable Results That Aren&#8217;t<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(April 28, 2017)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/knowledge-opening-the-gift\/\">Knowledge: Opening the Gift<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(March 26, 2017 )<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/baryons-gravity-waves\/\">Baryons, Gravity Waves<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(March 24, 2017)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/making-a-universe-why-bother\/\">Making a Universe: Why Bother?<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(January 29, 2017)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p><sup><a name=\"1\"><\/a>1<\/sup> Gravitational wave detection and astronomy:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wikipedia\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gravitational_wave\">Gravitational wave<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gravitational-wave_astronomy\">Gravitational-wave astronomy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Magnetar\">Magnetar<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Neutron_star\">Neutron star<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Supernova\">Supernova<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><sup><a name=\"2\"><\/a>2<\/sup> A big deal:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wikipedia\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/GW170817\">GW170817<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/GW170817#Scientific_importance\">Scientific importance<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kilonova\">Kilonova<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Multi-messenger_astronomy\">Multi-messenger astronomy<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another gravitational wave observation gave scientists the best evidence yet about one aspect of merging stars. On August 17, 2017, folks with the LIGO\/Virgo collaboration observed three clusters of gravitational waves. This time astronomers found an infrared, visible, and X-ray &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/ligovirgo-another-first\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[213,4],"tags":[38,60,124,114,22],"class_list":["post-1778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-being-a-writer","category-science-news","tag-astronomy","tag-bible","tag-folklore-and-myth","tag-physics","tag-science"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Dwtw-sG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1778"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3351,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions\/3351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}