

  (Source: Sprouting Sprouts)


Conditions have likely not been seen in the last 13.7 billion years













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By KillerInTheRye on 2/16/2010 4:39:02 PM , Rating: 2
So the heat is self contained in a magnetic field and cannot heat up anything around it through thermal transfer? How? And again, how do you measure it? My thermometer doesn't go up that high. Maybe it just interfered with their instruments and they trusted its readings, I'm just sayin'.

By geddarkstorm on 2/16/2010 4:47:25 PM , Rating: 2
Because the heat is lost as photons :P. No convection, no conduction, just radiation. They measured the energy of the photons being radiated away as the "soup" cooled back down.

By KillerInTheRye on 2/16/2010 4:54:19 PM , Rating: 2
Again, what tool can measure an amount that has never been seen or produced? How do you callibrate it? I can callibrate a scale for accuracy up to 1 pound, it doesn't mean that it is accurate up to 10 tons. I just do not understand these sort of declarations, I'm too simple minded I guess.

By geddarkstorm on 2/16/2010 5:00:09 PM , Rating: 5
It isn't quite as esoteric as it sounds.

We can measure the energy of one photon by measuring its wavelength. Now, the energy (wavelength) of a photon radiated out from some material is going to relate in proportion to the heat energy content of that material -- since we are dealing with a kinetic collision and not a electromagnetic event. Calibration is as simple as just measuring known wavelengths such as visible light, through some spectral spread to get a sense of consistency.

Think of an electric stove top. As it heats up, to the point it's hot to the touch, its radiating a large amount of infrared photons. Now, as it gets even hotter, into the hundreds of degrees F, it starts to visibly glow. That is, there's so much energy, it's shifted the photon wavelengths to the visible spectrum. You don't want to touch the stove top now! As you get EVEN hotter, the visible colors head to yellow, and eventually you'll pass to UV and beyond. Supernovas are so hot, the give off gamma rays.

So, all they had to do was measure wavelength to get a sense of the heat content of the material. I'm sure that's not all they did either.

Still, these are good questions to ask; gotta learn somehow, and it's good to fact check with logic.

By KillerInTheRye on 2/16/2010 5:16:24 PM , Rating: 2
Thanks. I did not know that. Learn something new I guess.

