Michael Kieth Adams

I think what you have basically said is that by measuring an object we change it. Point of view. Maybe mass is just variable. Ask schrodinger’s cat.

This is so much fun. Actually this discussion has cleared up a few lingering questions from articles in Scientific American. Got to remember the region I live in has some math issues, pie are not square, pie are round, cornbread are square! Einstein’s equations seem to indicate that mass varies according to velocity if it does then variation does occur with point of view.

If I’m understanding this it appears as if you are saying that the speed of light is not actually a speed but a constant with some of the qualities of a velocity. Interesting . Difficult to wrap your head around but makes sense sort of. Matter does become energy sometimes either the exceeding of the speed of light is part of it, or there is another avenue that we don’t know. I’m still not clear on how the expansion of the universe does not produce velocities between point A and point B. If it does produce velocities then my question about point of view might have some validity. Particles leaving the sun have velocities when they leave the sun. Those velocities change depending on where you are. Speed is relative which means if I’ve got it right means that the mass of those particles changes based on where they are measured from.

I’ve read that some of the furthest objects we can see are moving away from us at near relativistic speeds. Doesn’t that change their mass and ours? Think about particles that our sun spits out at most of the speed of light, how are they not moving faster than light from the point of view of objects farthest away from us? Does point of view determine what we experience?

I’m just a retired science teacher who is interested in science. On the international space station, someone noticed that fine powders clumped in zero gravity. First we must assume that they checked for electrical charges, if they did then if you can’t see what is causing an effect, maybe the cause is invisible as in dark matter or energy. Just a thought.

This has been a lot of fun. I will say this, our universe is a very large place, I don’t think it’s needed to require a universal designer. We are close to shifting asteroids around. We haven’t done it yet but when we do we will have taken the first steps towards designing solar systems ourselves though considering how long it takes we might opt for shorter term projects. Different beings experience time differently. When I was a child a year was forever, now they zip by so very fast. To beings with lifespans of thirty billion years or so, creating second generation planets might be a form of gardening or something. We are near very exciting times. I would bet a quarter that we will begin to understand dark matter and energy within the next twenty five years. The basic laws of physics may look very different then. Everything changes, how wonderful! I can’t wait to see what planet nine is like, or if there is life in the dwarf planets or mars.

Wow, what did I start? Again I will state that just because we can’t imagine how to do it does not mean it can’t be done. We do not know everything and it may well be that the current solar system could have been produced from a range of origins rather than a small specific set. I don’t think we can assume that we are the desired outcome, but a second generation planet supporting life may have been. The end result may not have been X but Q through Z. There is so much we don’t know take planet number nine, we know about where it must be, and how big it must be but that’s about it. We thought we had Pluto figured out but we were wrong about almost everything. What we think we know is pretty amazing until you realize we are missing about 90% of the universe. It’s like planet 9, we know it’s there and about how much of it there should be, but what it is we still don’t know. Current cosmographers are able to make pretty good models of how the solar system formed with the computers we have now. If I got it right we have new systems about to come on line that will make current super computers look like toys. I would be very careful about using words like impossible. Liquid water on Pluto was impossible not long ago. I still think you are overthinking it. Our planetary system is anomalous. We have found none like it. Why? They should be there. I think that one possible answer might be that our solar system is an artifact. Big problems for us yep, but maybe there are others for whom it might not be. I also think you may be looking at this as a problem that must always come out exactly right,but maybe the same thing was tried in a hundred and fifty systems, and we were the lucky ones. Maybe Mars was the desired result and we are just the leftovers from a failed experiment. .4

Wow, what did I start? Again I will state that just because we can’t imagine how to do it does not mean it can’t be done. We do not know everything and it may well be that the current solar system could have been produced from a range of origins rather than a small specific set. I don’t think we can assume that we are the desired outcome, but a second generation planet supporting life may have been. The end result may not have been X but Q through Z. There is so much we don’t know take planet number nine, we know about where it must be, and how big it must be but that’s about it. We thought we had Pluto figured out but we were wrong about almost everything. What we think we know is pretty amazing until you realize we are missing about 90% of the universe. It’s like planet 9, we know it’s there and about how much of it there should be, but what it is we still don’t know. I think you are overthinking this. Constructing a solar system might be as simple as moving a few planetesimals where they need to be and then watch the dominos fall for half a dozen billion years. Moving Jupiter sounds impossible but moving something much smaller might produce a move . Think cheap.

I agree that it would not be practical for us to design the solar system but that is not to say that someone else could or could not. If we were to open a discussion about quantum mechanics with Greeks several thousand years ago at some point they would want to know when we sacrificed the goat. I am not talking about religion though there may be no difference between an alien who could design and build a solar system and God.

Just a thought, Our solar system seems to be something quite out of the ordinary. Planets are everywhere,but systems like ours seem to be rare. Could our solar system be the product of some form of construction, or intelligent direction? I’m not a creationist nut case, the creationist museum outside of dinosaur park in Texas is hilarious. Just because we can’t imagine how something was done doesn’t mean it wasn’t. I have trouble trying to think of some way to test this. I haven’t come up with anything. Maybe by studying other systems we can discover how rare we are or if we are rare. I’m a disabled high school science teacher, with a lot of time on my hands. I’m in the process of learning to walk again, not so easy in your late sixties but I’ll make it. I just wanted to pass this on.