NOVA: Runaway Universe
by Alan Ritsko, Tom Lucas
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DVD details
Actor: Liev SchreiberDirector: Alan Ritsko, Tom Lucas
Brand: Wgbh Wholesale
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 56 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-09-12
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS
DVD Reviews of NOVA: Runaway Universe
DVD Review: Runaway Universe (2000)-Makes you wonder how much we really understand!
Summary: 4 Stars
Runaway Universe (2000) was a was very interesting four star DVD. It discussed the reasons astronomers are trying to determine just what dark matter and dark energy really are. After watching this DVD I was fairly certain these may as well be called virtual matter and virtual energy because we can't directly see either one and have only coined these terms as an "ad-hoc" way of explaining the observed motions of everything visible in the universe.
Excuse me for being a little disappointed (not in the DVD, but in the state of our understanding), but the search for dark matter sounds to me like the outdated search for "the ether", a prior "virtual medium" believed to occupy all space and through which light waves were believed to travel just as sound travels through the air. To quote my old physics professor, "ether there is, or there isn't". Observations and Einstein have proven the ether to be a fiction. There is no ether, no ether drag, and I am not certain there is dark matter or energy as well.
Still, we search for the presence of dark matter and the even more mysterious dark energy. Dark matter is currently used to explain the vast majority of the gravitating matter that we can't see (invisible!), which in turn is used to rationalize the observed motion of galaxies (and the like) which Newton's laws (with modification for Einstein's laws) require to work. There are other effects like gravitational lensing which have been assumed to be due to dark matter. Still, we have yet to directly observe dark matter. See Wikipedia for better explinations of dark matter and energy.
More mysterious, dark energy (or vacuum energy) permeating all of space would be used to explain the currently observed accelerating expansion of the universe. Now I love Einstein as much as the next guy, but everyone quotes Einstein's cosmological constant as being "correct", or at least on the correct track. As physicists admit, the cosmological constant was a fudge factor computed to result in a static universe, and not an expanding one. It provided an anti-gravity type force which was mathematically assumed to permeate all space and provide the necessary repulsive force to produce (Einstein's assumed) static universe against the attracting force of gravity. Einstein was the first to admit that he had no idea what the cosmological constant was.
Einstein was correct to say this was his "biggest blunder" when Hubble observed the red shift and an actually expanding universe. Nothing succeeds like success, and astronomers now say Einstein's blunder was actually one of his biggest successes. True, it provided a repulsive force assumed to occupy all space, and simply not large enough in magnitude to produce the measured acceleration of the universe. But we have just replaced one unknown with another. All that really seems to exist are our steadily improving measurements, and our growing comprehension of how much we don't fully understand. There are competing theories but we need more Hubble observations, experiments with particle accelerators and much more basic research. There is still the Pioneer X anomaly to be reckoned with and many other space based observations and anomalies (just as soon as the recession is over).
The latest findings on dark matter and energy should be available on the web.
Description of NOVA: Runaway Universe
Runaway Universe - presents the dramatic quest to unlock the secrets of the stars as two rival astronomy teams search for exploding stars, map gigantic cosmic patterns of galaxies, and grapple with the ultimate question: what is the fate of the universe? With the use of stunning three-dimensional cosmic simulations captured with revolutionary high-definition technology, NOVA presents the first attempt to explore the riddle of "dark energy"- the mysterious repulsive force that some scientists believe counteracts gravity. How big is the universe? What does a supernova look like? Was Einstein?s greatest blunder actually correct? Explore these questions and other fascinating mysteries of the universe with this thrilling intergalactic adventure.Bestsellers in DVD
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