Theory Hub: Post Your Space Theories!

[ProtoJeb21]

Do you have a theory that you just want to let the world know about? Do you have ideas about the latest discoveries in astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology? There aren't really many places to do this stuff on the forums, so here's a thread that includes it all. Users are free to post their theories (try to make them short), comment on others', and express their ideas/concerns about recent science news. Theories about the Kerbol system and planets from mods are also allowed, because what's a KSP Forum Thread without KSP?

To give you guys some ideas of what theories are allowed, here's a list of topics:

• Atomic and subatomic physics.
• Evolution of solar systems.
• Early moments of the Universe.
• Exoplanets and exomoons.
• Dark matter and energy.
• Any theory about the stock KSP planets and moons.
• Realism of Kerbal Space Program.
• The four fundamental forces: Gravity, Electromagnetism, Strong Nuclear, and Weak Nuclear.
• Cosmic structures and clusters (open clusters, galaxies, nebulae, etc.).
• Our home galaxy!
• Dwarf planets and the Kuiper Belt.
• Planet 9/X/"Fatty"
• The evolution of the Universe.
• Alternate realities.
• Some other stuff.

Go ahead an post your best theories! I probably will post some here, too, and edit the list of topics. 

[Bill Phil]

Theory probably isn't the right word here. Hypothesis is better.

[Spaceception]

What if there's floating lifeforms of hydrogen 'powered' jellyfish type life in the upper atmosphere of Venus? It's reliant on CO2, and Sulfuric Acid, like we are to water and Oxygen and uses hydrogen from water vapor (Which is supposed to be in the upper atmosphere of Venus) to float/propel itself.

Btw, by 'Upper atmosphere' I mean 40-60 km high.

[Findthepin1]

7 hours ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

Do you have a theory that you just want to let the world know about? Do you have ideas about the latest discoveries in astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology? There aren't really many places to do this stuff on the forums, so here's a thread that includes it all. Users are free to post their theories (try to make them short), comment on others', and express their ideas/concerns about recent science news. Theories about the Kerbol system and planets from mods are also allowed, because what's a KSP Forum Thread without KSP?

To give you guys some ideas of what theories are allowed, here's a list of topics:

• Atomic and subatomic physics.
• Evolution of solar systems.
• Early moments of the Universe.
• Exoplanets and exomoons.
• Dark matter and energy.
• Any theory about the stock KSP planets and moons.
• Realism of Kerbal Space Program.
• The four fundamental forces: Gravity, Electromagnetism, Strong Nuclear, and Weak Nuclear.
• Cosmic structures and clusters (open clusters, galaxies, nebulae, etc.).
• Our home galaxy!
• Dwarf planets and the Kuiper Belt.
• Planet 9/X/"Fatty"
• The evolution of the Universe.
• Alternate realities.
• Some other stuff.

Go ahead an post your best theories! I probably will post some here, too, and edit the list of topics. 

I have an idea for KSP's planets and moons I may or may not post later.

29 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

What if there's floating lifeforms of hydrogen 'powered' jellyfish type life in the upper atmosphere of Venus? It's reliant on CO2, and Sulfuric Acid, like we are to water and Oxygen and uses hydrogen from water vapor (Which is supposed to be in the upper atmosphere of Venus) to float/propel itself.

Btw, by 'Upper atmosphere' I mean 40-60 km high.

I find it very likely that Venus' upper atmosphere has some form of life. It is, hands down, the most Earthlike environment in the solar system besides Earth itself. But I think it'd be water-based like Earth's life because it's simpler for life to only have arisen once, then been transported to the other place. So, water-based life on both.

[fredinno]

4 hours ago, Spaceception said:

What if there's floating lifeforms of hydrogen 'powered' jellyfish type life in the upper atmosphere of Venus? It's reliant on CO2, and Sulfuric Acid, like we are to water and Oxygen and uses hydrogen from water vapor (Which is supposed to be in the upper atmosphere of Venus) to float/propel itself.

Btw, by 'Upper atmosphere' I mean 40-60 km high.

The biggest possible life on Venus is bacteria- otherwise (like Mars) we'd already have detected it, which is also light enough to float in clouds for a LONG time, before reproducing and dying.

My hypothesis:

The galactic core's supermassive black hole is actually a giant Kirby, and all black holes are actually Kirby. When Kirby opens his mouth, he activates his inner black hole- he is a form of intelligent black hole life.

 

Also, galaxies are actually playing a epic game of Agar.io, with Globular clusters as the pellets, and Galaxies as the players.

[ProtoJeb21]

14 hours ago, fredinno said:

The galactic core's supermassive black hole is actually a giant Kirby, and all black holes are actually Kirby.

Wait, if Kirby is a black hole, then what are the stars that make the black holes? I hope it's not Kirby's mom...

[ouion]

Well I have two hypothesis:

"Alien" Lifeforms on Earth: Could a alternate life form that is not related to LUCA(Last Universal Common Ancestor) evolve parallel to our linage? I think if those life do exist, then increased evolutionary competition probably drive them out and some went extinct. If these lifeforms do exist, then they would exist in hidden corners of the world. This could also be the explanation for biological dark matter. The "Alien" lifeforms could come from panspermia in Earth's early age.

Subatomic Editing: This is a concept of editing a the quarks inside protons and neutrons to create new materials and elements and even subatomic particles. This by changing the inertial mass of the quarks, then it will create different properties.

[_Augustus_]

I believe that Planet 9 exists and that once it's confirmed Congress will let NASA launch a probe to it on the SLS.

[Planetace]

my theories:

dark matter Light Blockage: this theory, created by me, states that dark mater, isnt truly invisible, at all it could be capable of blocking light at distances. however this effect is only noticeable after BILLIONS of light years. this could explain why the night sky isnt extremely bright if the universe is infinite. (as the night sky would be one gigantic bathe light, that would blind everyone)

We are one of the first...: this theory is that we are one of the first civilizations to develop interstellar travel (*cough* *cough* voyager 1 *cough*) and global communication. there are millions of civilizations across the galaxy but they are at either at stone-age tech or industrial age tech.

Infinite sized universes among many: this theory states that infinite sized universes CAN exist in multiverses, as both objects are infinite sized, only that multiverses have a size larger than infinity. and thus infinite infinite sized universes exist in a ultra-infinite multiverse!

 

[Steel]

14 minutes ago, Galacticvoyager said:

dark matter Light Blockage: this theory, created by me, states that dark mater, isnt truly invisible, at all it could be capable of blocking light at distances. however this effect is only noticeable after BILLIONS of light years. this could explain why the night sky isnt extremely bright if the universe is infinite. (as the night sky would be one gigantic bathe light, that would blind everyone)

What you describe here is called Olber's paradox. The universe can be infinite in size and still be dark so long as it's finite in age. This way, light from the most distant stars simple hasn't had long enough to reach us to light up our night sky, hence the darkness.

Your theory would imply that we might see some of this blockage when observing the most distant galaxies we know about, however (to my knowledge) there has been nothing 'blocking' the light we observe to suggest that this might be the case.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Steel

[fredinno]

8 hours ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

Wait, if Kirby is a black hole, then what are the stars that make the black holes? I hope it's not Kirby's mom...

Stars- then they implode into Kirbies.

[sevenperforce]

Ooh, this is a fun one. 

Let's see here. 

Black holes. Stellar collapse causes an exponential density gradient once neutron degeneracy pressure is exceeded. As a result, all black holes start at about 3/4 of the Planck mass and exist as a gravitationally bound photon pair orbiting at 3/2 of the Planck length. They tunnel out and collapse on the order of the Planck time, but return to a bound state as soon as they encounter another photon. Black holes are thus a gravitationally-bound photon gas cloud with a radius just greater than their own Schwarzschild radius, and all their behavior (Hawking radiation, etc) can be characterized using this quantization metric.

Dark matter. Black hole quanta have a very low but nonzero probability of escaping intact rather than decaying. Those which escape intact are metastable and persist in empty space as dark matter; their spin axis causes preferential sorting and a thin disk halo within galaxies. This thin disk destabilizes the Oort Cloud whenever we pass through the galactic plane, resulting in a higher incidence of cometary impacts and periodic extinction events.

Venus. There is no life on Venus anymore. The microbial life that used to exist on Venus created a runaway greenhouse effect and suffocated itself. 

Moon landing. The United States was dead-set on faking the moon landing until they realized it would be easier to actually land on the moon than it would be to successfully fake it. 

 

[fredinno]

54 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Ooh, this is a fun one. 

Let's see here. 

Black holes. Stellar collapse causes an exponential density gradient once neutron degeneracy pressure is exceeded. As a result, all black holes start at about 3/4 of the Planck mass and exist as a gravitationally bound photon pair orbiting at 3/2 of the Planck length. They tunnel out and collapse on the order of the Planck time, but return to a bound state as soon as they encounter another photon. Black holes are thus a gravitationally-bound photon gas cloud with a radius just greater than their own Schwarzschild radius, and all their behavior (Hawking radiation, etc) can be characterized using this quantization metric.

Dark matter. Black hole quanta have a very low but nonzero probability of escaping intact rather than decaying. Those which escape intact are metastable and persist in empty space as dark matter; their spin axis causes preferential sorting and a thin disk halo within galaxies. This thin disk destabilizes the Oort Cloud whenever we pass through the galactic plane, resulting in a higher incidence of cometary impacts and periodic extinction events.

Venus. There is no life on Venus anymore. The microbial life that used to exist on Venus created a runaway greenhouse effect and suffocated itself. 

Moon landing. The United States was dead-set on faking the moon landing until they realized it would be easier to actually land on the moon than it would be to successfully fake it. 

 

Actually, Venus would have had a runaway greenhouse effect due to its water, not its life.

[sevenperforce]

1 minute ago, fredinno said:

Actually, Venus would have had a runaway greenhouse effect due to its water, not its life.

Hush, you're ruining my pet theory with science 

[YNM]

My theory : Universe is not infinite, it's just a 3-sphere.

Also, cats are aliens. They're intelligent enough to steal food behind, open things not supposed to be open (including boxes, doors) while playing nice in front of you !

 

Edited February 16, 2016 by YNM

[Spaceception]

7 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

 Moon landing. The United States was dead-set on faking the moon landing until they realized it would be easier to actually land on the moon than it would be to successfully fake it.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, nice theory.

[p1t1o]

There is, according to some interpretations, an event horizon encapsulating the known universe. Not that we're in a black hole, but that the boundary shares some properties with the imaginary membrane which we term an event horizon.

My favorite [crazy] hypothesis - if you "zoom out" of a view of the universe, so that you are "outside" ("outside"?) this bubble, the event horizon appears to be the surface ("surface"?) of a proton/quark/whatever. Keep zooming out and you see it is an elementary particle in a higher-order universe. Wow. Multiple Matryoshka-Doll-Style layers are optional.

 

Dark Matter - Biro pen lids, odd socks, and that one bit of Lego that you really needed, like a hinge-piece or something.

Life in Solar System - I dunno, Europa seems nice.

Moon Landings - The US needed some really realistic footage for their fake moon landing so they sent a camera crew to the moon to get some.

 

All these are moot of course because the Universe is only slightly larger than the Earth and everything up there is just really good projection. And Astronauts are all in on it. Its a good way to sell so-called "space" merchandise.

Edited February 16, 2016 by p1t1o

[sevenperforce]

Obligatory....

[ProtoJeb21]

The Mohole could actually be a natural phenomenon, not a terrain glitch. Moho has seen at least three impacts with bodies larger than Gilly (over a radius of 15 km). These impacts are often found in the Northern Hemisphere and are filled with lava. My theory is that the giant impacts depleted lava and rocks from the northern hemisphere. This allowed more of Moho's magnetic field to be released, pulling in magnetically attractive rocks near the north pole. Erupting volcanoes and the broiling craters emptied out huge caverns 4 kilometers below Moho's northern crust. Eventually, the magnetic rocks at the north pole broke out of the crust, and the rest of the surface gave in. The result: a 4-km deep sinkhole, the MOHOLE.

[RA3236]

After seeing many topics about advanced alien civilisations, here's my thought: We are quite possibly the most advanced in the galaxy. Reason: four billion years ago, when the sun was born, most stars were too big to have a habitable zone. And plus, if life evolved to the extent of intelligence within two bya, it's a low chance they have floating spacecraft.

[Apexazimuth]

If we don't discover life on Europa first.  I think we'll find exotic biochemistry on Titan.  I think it's just as possible that we could discover exotic aerial lifeforms on (in?) any of the gas giants.  It would be far more difficult to identify exotic micro organisms in the atmosphere of gas giants due to the technical/engineering challenges of deploying a floating probe that can do useful science, but not impossible.  We may even find that life is actually common in the universe among the atmospheres of gas giants, and that terrestrial life is what should be termed "Exotic".  Maybe we've been looking in all the wrong places all along.

We know so little about the compositions of our gas giant overlords, so It's really hard for me to rule out the likelihood of exotic life within them.  Jupiter is a great example of how difficult a planet can be to explore because of its incredible gravity and radiation belt.

[StrandedonEarth]

The HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy postulates that the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42, but they don't know what the actual question is. I posit that the Question is: "If everyone is created equal, then what are they equal to?" In other words, if you sum up the value of every trait and characteristic of someone, it will add up to 42. 

On a more serious note, my pet hypothesis has to do with the death of supermassive stars. I'm in sort of a hurry while posting this, so this is the nutshell version:

When a star of over 10 solar masses fuses its way up the periodic table, it will eventually build up a core of iron. When iron fuses, it absorbs energy instead of releasing it. Without energy being released in the core, gravity will cause the star to start to collapse, which generates more heat, which fuses more iron, which absorbs more energy and the collapse continues. Eventually the star rebounds in a supernova. That is the standard stellar evolution theory. My idea is that the energy absorbed by fusing heavy elements during the collapse is stored as radioactive heavy elements, the subsequent fission of which helps power the supernova. Of course, it is also powered by elements fusing on the surface of the iron core during the collapse/rebound.

[Findthepin1]

I got one about creating objects to be very, very high speeds. I don't know yet if I can get it close to the speed of light, but I think it is possible.

You can convert matter into energy, correct? I assume you can also convert energy into matter. Take a whole lot of photons (which have no rest mass and travel at c) and make them into matter with a whole lot of precision. Done. I think if you do this right, you can have a proton or an electron or something that is traveling at some fraction of c. I also think I might be wrong because I'd have heard about this if I were right. Let me know

Edited February 18, 2016 by Findthepin1

[Apexazimuth]

38 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

The HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy postulates that the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42, but they don't know what the actual question is. I posit that the Question is: "If everyone is created equal, then what are they equal to?" In other words, if you sum up the value of every trait and characteristic of someone, it will add up to 42. 

On a more serious note, my pet hypothesis has to do with the death of supermassive stars. I'm in sort of a hurry while posting this, so this is the nutshell version:

When a star of over 10 solar masses fuses its way up the periodic table, it will eventually build up a core of iron. When iron fuses, it absorbs energy instead of releasing it. Without energy being released in the core, gravity will cause the star to start to collapse, which generates more heat, which fuses more iron, which absorbs more energy and the collapse continues. Eventually the star rebounds in a supernova. That is the standard stellar evolution theory. My idea is that the energy absorbed by fusing heavy elements during the collapse is stored as radioactive heavy elements, the subsequent fission of which helps power the supernova. Of course, it is also powered by elements fusing on the surface of the iron core during the collapse/rebound.

Interesting hypothesis. However I think the energy requirement for the nucleosynthesis of heavy radioactive elements is many orders of magnitude greater than a ~10 solar mass collapse can produce, so for sure any fusion of those elements would occur during the supernova itself, and the energy absorbed from that nucleosynthesis would hugely outweigh the output of the fission of those elements into less massive atoms. 

I'm just making a guess though, I'm no physicist. 

[Findthepin1]

Okay I got another one that is unrelated to the last one I said. This one: If there is life on Titan that is capable of sight, it will be able to see in infrared. That way, it could see the celestial bodies in the sky. Useful to navigation if you can see the stars or the Sun or Saturn. Those that could see in IR would probably live longer (they can migrate) and be more successful leading to natural selection.