Sister blog of Physicists of the Caribbean. Shorter, more focused posts specialising in astronomy and data visualisation.

Saturday, 3 January 2015

Please no more of this

I finally lost patience with the "Space Mirror Mystery" dude. An email posted to the astronomy staff of Cardiff University reads as follows :

"Dear Sir,
I have no doubt about your intelligence.
As an advocate, I plead on behalf of entire world that nothing is real beyond 150 million kilometers except mere reflections. I strongly plead that as the inhabitant of earth and within sun light, we are able to see the real space objects within the radius of 150 million kilometers only. Since we get ourselves as zero at the distance of 150 million kilometers, space mirrors appear us on two points, viz, on the point of earth’s shadow and point of sun.
On above rules, the theory of “SPACE MIRROR MYSTERY” is formed and we claim:
Item No-1 Sun is the only star of the solar system as well as the universe and it can be proved.
Item No-2 The space objects what we have observed within 300 million Kilometers from the sun are real space object and ahead of 300 million Kilometers are mere images of the space objects situated within 225million Kilometers to 300 million Kilometers from the sun. From calculation it appears that the real Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune & Pluto are 253, 264, 277, 288 & 292 million Kilometers respectively from sun.
Item No-3 In mass, the real Jupiter is two times bigger than earth but we observe the image Jupiter as twelve times bigger than earth and same real Saturn, Uranus & Neptune are smaller than earth.
Item No- 4 Sun has no spot. Cause of space mirror sun spots appear on sun
Above was strongly objected by Rhys Taylor, Astrophysicist, Astronomical Institute, Prague. I believe he is convinced at zero concepts after a long debate. Please read that debate between me and Rhys in the following link
http://astrorhysy.blogspot.in/2013/02/i-wanna-be-pseudoscientist.html
Please read the debate carefully and change the geography of space science truthfully. You may also read the link
http://astrorhysy.blogspot.cz/2014/08/seven-million-years-bad-luck.html
Thanks.
Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra"

Like hell I'm "convinced" of this garbage. In both of those links I completely refute the absurd notion of a giant space mirror; do not expect me to remain civil if you're going to use this to claim the exact frinkin' opposite. Final comment in the "debate" (first link) reads :

"Since you have sent an email to the staff at Cardiff University saying that you think I am convinced of the space mirror, let me state things more bluntly. You are wrong. Your idea is utter nonsense, pure and simple. You have completely ignored my previous response, repeatedly evaded many of my questions, and despite the fact I have shown the fundamental basis of your ridiculous idea to be the gibberish that is is, have failed to change your mind. Go away. I absolutely reject your idea and want nothing further to do with it. Goodbye."

Giants in the deep

Here's a fun little paper  about hunting the gassiest galaxies in the Universe. I have to admit that FAST is delivering some very impres...