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It's been quite here for a while so here's my question; how do globular clusters hold themselves together? And is there any evidence of stars colliding or 'merging' in them (or anywhere else)?
beninfl how can you say you know so much about the universe? You (ie physicists, cosmologists, etc) don't know what 95+% of the universe consists of.
A list of unknowns: quantum enigma, uncertainty principle, size and shape of universe, holographic universe, origins of the universe, nature of gravity, entanglement, dark matter, dark energy, multiverse. What am I leaving out? Given all these unknowns I think it's safe to say you know virtually nothing about the fundamental nature of the universe(s) or the true nature of reality.
It's been quite here for a while so here's my question; how do globular clusters hold themselves together? And is there any evidence of stars colliding or 'merging' in them (or anywhere else)?
Gravity! And sure, stars collide and merge all the time. The big ones gobble up the little ones.
beninfl how can you say you know so much about the universe? You (ie physicists, cosmologists, etc) don't know what 95+% of the universe consists of.
A list of unknowns: quantum enigma, uncertainty principle, size and shape of universe, holographic universe, origins of the universe, nature of gravity, entanglement, dark matter, dark energy, multiverse. What am I leaving out? Given all these unknowns I think it's safe to say you know virtually nothing about the fundamental nature of the universe(s) or the true nature of reality.
Sure, ~5% of the Universe is normal matter. The other 95% is dark matter and dark energy.
Does that mean we only possess 5% of the knowledge? No! We are only missing two pieces to the puzzle. In a decade, we'll have it figured out.
If your looking at a pie charge divided by the total amount of "stuff" in the Universe, then sure, 95% unknown would be a valid construction. But if your 95% unknown amounts to "things we dont fully understand", then you are completely off base.
All your doing is counting "stuff" and deducting atomic matter from that "stuff" and saying that knowledge is directly related to the total number of "stuff". In fact, it's completely misleading.
So, may I ask what the point of your post was? Trolling? Genuine curiosity? I do hear your argument a lot, but it's usually in YouTube comments from theists trying to defend William Lane Craig, not in real actual life. Any general understanding of any math at a high school level usually precludes arguments like this taking place.
PS -- As extra credit, you mentioned a bunch of things in your list of unknowns. And you asked how we dont know much about the Universe. But how many of those are not part of the actual Universe you asked about?
Sure, ~5% of the Universe is normal matter. The other 95% is dark matter and dark energy.
Does that mean we only possess 5% of the knowledge? No! We are only missing two pieces to the puzzle. In a decade, we'll have it figured out.
If your looking at a pie charge divided by the total amount of "stuff" in the Universe, then sure, 95% unknown would be a valid construction. But if your 95% unknown amounts to "things we dont fully understand", then you are completely off base.
All your doing is counting "stuff" and deducting atomic matter from that "stuff" and saying that knowledge is directly related to the total number of "stuff". In fact, it's completely misleading.
So, may I ask what the point of your post was? Trolling? Genuine curiosity? I do hear your argument a lot, but it's usually in YouTube comments from theists trying to defend William Lane Craig, not in real actual life. Any general understanding of any math at a high school level usually precludes arguments like this taking place.
PS -- As extra credit, you mentioned a bunch of things in your list of unknowns. And you asked how we dont know much about the Universe. But how many of those are not part of the actual Universe you asked about?
Trolling??? I list facts and you call it trolling? Everything on the list has to do with things you don't understand and can't explain about the nature of the universe. That's a fact; no need to take it personally. Add this to the list: time.
Thiests don't know either but they lie about it and call it "God". I thought scientists were at least honest about what they don't know but sadly we all exist in the realm of human ego and there's really no such thing as objective science. Admitting flaws and shortcomings is not easy.
Trolling??? I list facts and you call it trolling? Everything on the list has to do with things you don't understand and can't explain about the nature of the universe. That's a fact; no need to take it personally. Add this to the list: time.
Thiests don't know either but they lie about it and call it "God". I thought scientists were at least honest about what they don't know but sadly we all exist in the realm of human ego and there's really no such thing as objective science. Admitting flaws and shortcomings is not easy.
Gravity! And sure, stars collide and merge all the time. The big ones gobble up the little ones.
Thanks. I do realize gravity is holding the cluster together but it's a globular cluster so how do the stars (or any matter) behave? How is it that matter in clusters does not have an orbital plane and what is the nature of the motion to maintain equilibrium? On the stars colliding and merging, do we have pictures of the process? Do we get such occurrences in a galaxy too?
Gravity! And sure, stars collide and merge all the time. The big ones gobble up the little ones.
It's very comforting to know a physicist who professes to know everything chose to answer easy questions. May be the title should be changed to "Ask me anything easy about the Universe".
Thanks. I do realize gravity is holding the cluster together but it's a globular cluster so how do the stars (or any matter) behave? How is it that matter in clusters does not have an orbital plane and what is the nature of the motion to maintain equilibrium? On the stars colliding and merging, do we have pictures of the process? Do we get such occurrences in a galaxy too?
If you look at M22 through a telescope, that's the first globular we ever found. We still dont have a good picture of all of them in the Milky Way.
We dont know how globulars form right now, that's still an unknown. With regards to the orbital plane, most of the globulars that we see are within the halo of the galaxy. Some are not, but most are.
We do have pictures of what stars would look like during a merge, we can see some actual examples out there too, of course it takes a very long time for the entire process to complete.
(Courtesy of SLAC)
Once we can understand globulars more, then a lot of the unknowns will iron themselves out.
It's very comforting to know a physicist who professes to know everything chose to answer easy questions. May be the title should be changed to "Ask me anything easy about the Universe".
Thank you for posting an easy statement to comment on. I admit, I was worried that with your recent-joining of City-Data that I might not be able to help you with your wealth of experience and seasoning! You might read through the other 575 posts in this thread for some great questions, and some great answers by myself and other folks here that are also fantastic at science, all of which I believe have been answered.
Enjoy your stay here, it might be short, though!
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Any general understanding of any math at a high school level usually precludes arguments like this taking place. 
