A (not so) brief history of CosmicDust

[CosmicDust]

14 billion years ago, for some unknown reason, some bubble of stuff started expanding. For a very short while, as the strong and electro-weak forces decoupled, it expanded so fast as to make any curvature in the Universe practically invisible and to separate regions once in thermal contact so much that they would never exchange light again. Then things cooled down, and nuclei formed. After 300,000 years or so, atoms formed. A while later, these atoms collapsed together to form stars, and from these stars came the elements that would later become life, and more stars. Regions of stuff containing stars and the "light" matter that made them, as well as dark matter, fell together to form galaxies, including one fairly big Sbc spiral with a smallish supermassive black hole. Within this spiral, a medium-sized star formed some 5 billion years ago, around the time that Dark Energy started to overtake Dark Matter as the dominant component of the Universe. Formed along with this star were some planets made from cosmic dust grains, the ashes of stars past. On one of these dust bunnies, some crazy complex carbon chemistry started to occur, and these super-molecular objects - "life forms" - became ever more complex as they processed the energy of the brightening Sun (and in some cases the decaying radioactive elements inside the Earth). About 24 years ago (I will be officially 24 in 6 days after writing this), the "living" space-dust-bunny that created this post came out after 9 months growing big (over 9 1/2 pounds!) in my mother's womb.

I am a female astronomy grad student going into my third year, and an internet forum junkie for over a year now. I've always liked science since I started learning about it. I come from a family of mostly Feelers and/or Sensors, and I've been dubbed "Spock's daughter" and compared to various classic nerd images. I'm at least as much interested in inner space these days as in outer space, hence my hanging around psych forums. I'm an INTP, didn't bother to finish the ANSIR test because so little of it seemed to apply to me (I don't work in groups very much these days, so I really didn't know what to say on these), Leo/Pisces moon/Sag rising (but I'm not convinced astrology "works"), Chinese water, and after hanging around the Enneagram Institute Discussion Board for a while had settled on 5w6 soc/sp/sx until I started seriously considering the arguments of those who questioned it (I sometimes come off as a 6) and launched into rapid-cycling doubt as I continued to analyze the matter to the point that the system broke down.

I joined the old INTP forum back in March, so I've been here for a little while. I'm kind of an oldbie/midbie, I guess.

[Division56]

great intro.

[CosmicDust]

Thanks. I decided to do a more geeky, entertaining intro than I did on the old forum. Personal expression.

[flan2dave]

The one part of your pre-cosmicdust existence history that was less than familiar was the emerging dominance of dark energy over dark matter. At first I thought you said dark matter took over light matter, though a closer look showed an unexpected entity called dark energy competing with dark matter. I wasn't aware of this.

[Utopmk]

You really know how to form an introduction.
I had no idea you were female. :D

[CosmicDust]

Dark Energy is the stuff thought to make the Universe flat (since Dark Matter and Light Matter combined only make up about 27% of the critical mass density) and make its expansion accelerate. Its existence has been inferred from distant supernova studies showing that they were dimmer than we'd expect them to be for even a constant expansion rate (and therefore the Universe must be accelerating in its expansion), and Cosmic Background Radiation studies showing that the geometry of the Universe is indeed "flat." The turn-around point where the Universe stopped decelerating is estimated to have occured at a redshift of about 0.4, or about 5 billion years ago.

So now you know. (And mike, now you know I'm a woman!)

[Monolithic Construct]

I have a question, have you seen the graphic for the postulated Mars mission?

It says it's based on a 1999 study & it's an average looking computer animated
non-narrated "film" shown on local cable by NASA.

The reason I asked is that it appears to be a conventional rocket powered flight
with a swinging artificial gravity "boom" with one version being conventionally
powered, the 2nd illustration shows a glowing midsection which might indicate a radioactive main power source, I do recall a nuclear rocket tested in the early
80's still holds the record for longest burn duration at around 54 minutes.

My ultimate question that I'd like your opinion is this: I've heard other opinions that state that a mission to mars is a one way only mission, but the graphic seems to indicate the ability to send 3 separate vehicles to Mars, the
1st being supplies, the second being living quarters, the first 2 vehicles leave
earth orbit simultaneously & arrive at Mars, decelerate, land & pre-deploy several remote controlled rovers, the 3rd vehicle is assembled in orbit,(this is the crew transport vessel) due to the size & length necessary for a swinging boom necessary for artificial gravity, I assume the artificial gravity helps prevent muscle and circulatory
atrophy, but there are several variables that I've yet to hear anyone address;
namely, proximity to the asteroid belt, micrometerites, no magnetosphere necessary to shield humans from the solar wind, no substantial atmosphere necessary to prevent overexpossure, (aside from protection of craft/spacesuit) to solar/cosmic radiation bursts?

These are just a few questions, I realize that these represent technological
hurdles, not impossible obstacles, I figured you might have a bit more insight into these problems since you've studied astronomy in depth.

I'm new here, I'm an INTP who used to live 5 miles away from Vandenberg AFB so for the last 2 or so years I occasionally got to see a few satellites blasted into space as well as an ICBM test or two & I lived far enough down wind that I don't recall ever being affected by rocket exhaust fumes.

Do you have aspirations to work for NASA someday or perhaps do graduate work at an observatory & move on from there?

Monolithic Construct

[CosmicDust]

I don't follow the Mars (or other Solar System) stuff, and I don't really intend to make a career of that stuff in NASA or whatever. I'm more interested in the distant galaxies we'll never get to. I really don't know much about the logistics of Solar System travel at all. I'm a damn lazy grad student, and am probably not half as obsessive about my field as one might expect. I waste my time on these psych forums instead of figuring out how to build rockets and stuff.

Have you started an intro thread yet? That's the way NGene intended for us to do introductions.

[Monolithic Construct]

I don't follow the Mars (or other Solar System) stuff, and I don't really intend to make a career of that stuff in NASA or whatever. I'm more interested in the distant galaxies we'll never get to. I really don't know much about the logistics of Solar System travel at all. I'm a damn lazy grad student, and am probably not half as obsessive about my field as one might expect. I waste my time on these psych forums instead of figuring out how to build rockets and stuff.

Have you started an intro thread yet? That's the way NGene intended for us to do introductions.I might want to clarify my type since it's been over 20 years since I last took the test, it turns out that I'm actually an INTJ, I always get it mixed up in my memory because I had a long conversation one night with a girl who was probably an INTP type, we had a lot of thinking patterns in common, but she believed in religious dogma & I don't.

If the moderator would rather have only INTP's in this forum, I'll understand, thanks for the info, I think I'm too lazy to actually do a little search engine work to find more info, perhaps I should just look deeper at the NASA site.

How come you're doing graduate work for a field you don't intend to work in?
Looking for husband material in this field I assume?



I'll give an into if you don't mind having an INTJ in your forum, but I think my middle son is definitely
a strong prospect for becoming an INTP because even though he's mildly autistic, he's very obsessed with math & numbers, he can multiply large numbers inside his head like it was nothing, but getting him to actually do it more than once is a real challenge.

NGene, let me know if you want a full blown intro if you don't mind the Consonant difference?

INTJ

[Vagabond]

You are not the only non-INTP in here, don't worry... besides some of us INTPs are more like INTx (myself included)... I wouldn't worry if I were you.

(I'd like some INTJs in here, it seems like there are no active INTJ boards)...

I am not NGene though, I just wanted to say welcome. :)

[CosmicDust]

I didn't say I don't intend to work in astronomy - I would, in fact, like to work as an astronomer or a science writer, and as an astronomer I'd like to study the origins of galaxies and such. And no, I'm not looking for husband material. I don't know if I want a romantic relationship in my life at all. It's just that astronomy doesn't have the power to perpetually excite me and I therefore am not especially focused and fervent about my work at the moment, but then, nothing does have the power to perpetually excite me. I do still think that the origins and dynamic natures of the Universe and certain aspects thereof are cool stuff to think about, so astronomy would probably be as interesting a career as any and more interesting than a lot of options.

[Johnny]

...she believed in religious dogma & I don't.

Welcome to the INTP party Monolithic Construct, though you may not easily find all other constructs in this forum to be monolithic in nature.

[Tlalocone]

I had to be hearing this-what you said-from Dusk(sorry dust) till dawn.:) :-) .)