THE BIG RIP
The Big Rip theory is not accepted by a majority of scientists.
Scientist Robert Caldwell has developed a precise countdown to the utter destruction of the universe. The universe is predicted to end in 20 billion years.
In 19 billion years all galaxies will have moved so far apart so quickly that we will no longer be able to see them.
When the Milky Way begins to fly apart, there will be 60 million years left.
Planets in the solar system will fall away from the sun three months before the end of time. When Earth explodes, there are about thirty minutes of the universe's existence until atoms break apart. It seems that time itself will end.
Caldwell's theory was born when he and his colleagues were studying how a sphere of matter collapses under its own weight to form a galaxy. They worked with the concept using computer models, and they experimented by altering the factor of dark energy. If they altered it enough, the sphere would be prevented from collapsong. If they increased the power of dark energy to the extreme, the sphere exploded.
There are many unknown factors. The dark energy that is apparently driving expansion may or may not be a force currently known to physics. Dark energy may be nothing but a different manifestation of gravity over great distances. The acceleration of the universe could be a response to dark matter, which is believed to make up 23 percent of the universe. Caldwell notes that dark matter has unknown properties and may be related to dark matter.

THE SHREDDING OF THE UNIVERSE
Scientists have been theorizing about the death of the universe since they imagined the existence of the universe. A new theory put forth by Robert Caldwell of Dartmouth University predicts that a "phantom energy" will rip apart the universe down to its very atomic structure and time itself. The theory was put forth in accordance with astronomical observations made in the late 90's: That the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing acceleration, and that some force is acting as a vacuum so that everything moves outward.
Caldwell bases his theory on one mahor question: What would happen if the rate of acceleration increased? The proposed answer is that the eventual rate would overcome the force of gravity right down to the nuclear forces of the subatomic world.
Caldwell states, "The expansion becomes so fast that it literally rips apart all bound objects. It rips apart clusters of galaxies. It rips apart stars. It rips apart planets and solar systems. And it eventually rips atpart all matter." Caldwell calls this phenomenon "The Big Rip."
The known acceleration of the universe is driven by dark energy, a new concept that is thought by scientists to be "anti-gravity working over large distances." A majority of scientists believe that the acceleration is growing and will perpetually continue to grow at a constant rate. This is comparable to a car moving 5mph faster with each mile traveled. At the projected rate, all things in space will eventually recede from one another at the speed of light. Within 100 billion years, each galaxy would be alone in an empty universe.
The Big Rip theory proposes that dark energy becomes even more forcefull as a repelling agent over time. Rather than a car accelerating 10mph every mile, the car would begin to accelerate every half mile, then every yard, then every inch.
All of the information I have described was gleaned from an article by Robert Roy Britt, a writer for the website of SPACE.

BLACK HOLES IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND THE FIFTH DIMENSION
Scientists have announced that in accordance with a new theory of the dimensions of the universe and its properties, there may be tiny black holes throughout our solar system. The scientists have also announced that there is a telescope to be launched in 2007 that will be sensitive enough to detect these tiny black holes. This telescope will be able to test the theory that the universe has five dimensions. It is called the Gamma-ray Large Space Telescope (GLAST).
The Randall-Sundrum braneworld model asserts that the visible universe is "a membrane embedded within a larger universe, like a strand of seaweed floating in the ocean." Unlike Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, which has three dimensions of space and one of time, the theory of the braneworld universe contains another dimension of space- a fifth dimension.
Also unlike general relativity is the braneworld prediction that there are many tiny black holes throughout the universe, including in our solar system, and that these are remnants of the Big Bang. The Theory of General Relativity predicts that these black holes would have evaporated long ago. These black holes are imagined to be extremely small-about the size of an atomic nucleus-but they would have masses comparable to a tiny asteroid.
Amazingly, the Braneworld theory is testable. The mini-black holes are different from other black holes, such as stellar-mass and supermassive black holes, because they would warp the fabric of space-time differently. This is due to their sharing properties with the fifth dimension. Gamma-rays of light should be distorted differently when they encounter a mini-black hole when compared with a conventional black hole. The Gamma-ray Large Space Telescope is predicted to be sensitive enough to detect the distortions.
All the information described here was gleaned from an article writtin by Kerr Than, a staff writer for the website of SPACE. I find it very exciting that such a theory is testable so soon. I can't wait to find out whether this theory is true. If it is true and scientists can prove that there is a fifth dimension, our concept of science and our own existence would be dramatically affected. Humans may have reached a shore no less discovered and unknown than the European discovery of America. We will have reached a new frontier.

LEONID METEOR SHOWER TONIGHT
The annual Leonid Meteor Shower will be a spectacle for sky-watchers tonight around 11PM until 1AM Eastern Standard Time in North America and Western Europe. During this peak in activity, those of us in North America and Europe could see up to 150 shooting stars per hour, or more than two per minute. I learned more about this exciting spectacle from an article at the Yahoo! homepage.
According to Yahoo!, ""We expect an outburst of more than 100 Leonids per hour," said Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. Cooke notes that the shooting stars during this peak period are likely to be faint, however, created by very small meteoroid grains.
Elsewhere people will see the typically enjoyable Leonid display of a few meteors each hour, weather permitting and assuming dark skies away from city lights."
Ancient debris
The shooting stars are known as Leonids. They are debris left behind by a comet called Temple-Tuttle that passes periodically through the solar system. Every November the path of Earth goes through trails of debris that have been shifted over several millennia. Leonids become bright fireball as they pass through the atmosphere. This fireball effect could occur at any time.
Leonids are named after the constellation Leo because they appear to arise directly from this constellation. The Leonids are actually underway already, ramping up gradually to the peak. The meteor shower continues for several days after tonight's peak.
If you plan on watching the meteor shower you should plan to head out thirty minutes early to allow your eyes to adjust to the dark. Telescopes and binoculars are not useful. All you need is a chair or sleeping bag and warm clothes. Look towards the east, but try to scan the entire sky as you never know where a Leonid is going to be.

THE ASSUMPTIONS OF SETI
According to an article at Wikipedia on SETI, or The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, SETI is the organized efforts by humans to detect alien intelligance. Projects described as being with "SETI" include projects funded by the United States Government. These projects often involve surveying the sky to detect some sort of transmissions from a civilization on a distant planet. SETI projects make assumptions to narrow the search, and thus no exhaustive search has been conducted yet.
A majority of scientists do not view the goals of SETI to be trivial. Our galaxy alone is 100,000 light years across and contains about 100 billion stars. It is incredible to consider the pursuit of searching the entire sky for alien signals. SETI is only possible because its pursuit is based on certain assumptions.
A main assumption of SETI is that humans are not particularly exceptional in our intelligence and that as an averagely intelligent race, there should be other species in space both more and less advanced, and that furthermore the other species would have some interest in contacting us. If this assumption is correct then communication seems imminent.
Another assumption is that we are most likely to locate life near sun-like stars. Larger stars have short lifespans and small stars provide limited heat and their planets are tidally locked, meaning that one side of the planet is forever in light and heat and the other side is forever in cold and darkness.
Around one in ten stars in our galaxy are similar to our sun in size. This is somewhere to start looking, but as we do not know what conditions would be conducive to life, all of space must be searched.
A third assumption of SETI is that intelligent life is able to exist on its planet without destroying it. Also, there is no telling how long the species has been in existence; our species has only been in existence for a very, very brief period of time, comparable to a blink of an eye in a munite's time. If our species is around in a hundred thousand years and is constantly sending signals, the possibility of our communicating with an alien species becomes more likely. If our civilization destroys itself or if other civilizations have self-destructive tendancies, then the likelihood of our communicating with another civilization becomes incredibly small.
Another assumption of SETI is that life may be where there is water. However water is hard to detect at such huge distances.
I learned all the previously described information from an article at the website of Wikipedia, at the URL previously specified.

I learned this equation from the website of The Search For Extraterrestrial life, or SETI.
This equation seeks to answer the question of the likelihood of our recieving messages from extraterrestrial life.

The Drake Equation
N = R * f p n e f l f i f c L

Where,N = The number of civilizations in The Milky Way Galaxy whose radio emissions are detectable.

R* = The rate of formation of stars suitable for the development of intelligent life.

f p = The fraction of those stars with planetary systems.

n e = The number of planets, per solar system, with an environment suitable for life.

fl = The fraction of suitable planets on which life actually appears.

f i = The fraction of life bearing planets on which intelligent life emerges.

f c = The fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space.

L = The length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.

JUPITER'S LITTLE RED SPOT
Many of us have heard of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. But what is it? And what about the Little Red Spot? Both are storms, constantly raging. I learned the following information from an article at the website of Spaceflight Now.
Jupiter's Little Red Spot is getting stronger. The wind speeds of this enormous storm have grown stronger and are now equal to the wind speeds of the Great Red Spot, the largest storm on Jupiter. NASA's Hubble telescope have observed this phenomenon. The highest wind speeds in Jupiter's Little Red Spot have increased and are now equal to those in its older and larger sibling, the Great Red Spot, according to observations with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. We have observed the Great Red Spot for the past 400 years. The Little Red Spot's winds speeds are approximately 400 miles per hour. The increased intensity of the storm is probably why it changed color from white to red in late 2005.
The website of Spaceflight Now describes the following accounts of scientists: '"No one has ever seen a storm on Jupiter grow stronger and turn red before," said Amy Simon-Miller of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., lead author of a paper describing the new observations appearing in the journal Icarus. "We hope continued observations of the Little Red Spot will shed light on the many mysteries of the Great Red Spot, including the composition of its clouds and the chemistry that gives it its red color."'
The storms may seem small when compared to the huge size of Jupiter. But the Little Red Spot is actually about the size of Earth, and the Great Red Spot is around three Earth diameters across. Both storms are in Jupiter's southern hemisphere. They are powered by warm air rising in their centers. Scientists don't know why the Little Red Spot is getting stronger. One possibility is a change in size. The winds of this storm spin around their central core of rising air. If the storm were to become smaller, its spiraling winds would increase. It is believed that the Little Red Spot has changed color because as its winds grow stronger it reaches materials embedded deeper in the surface, and that these materials could turn red when exposed to ultraviolet light.