Ahad's Sphere

Ahad's Sphere of Solar Illuminance
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* First defined: July 2004 by Abdul Ahad
* Radius: 11,500 AUs (based on Ahad's flux constant of -6.5 and Sun's absolute magnitude of +4.8)
* Volume: 6.4 x 10^12 Cubic AUs
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Description:
Ahad's Sphere is a 2004 space science discovery, credited to astronomer and science fiction writer Abdul Ahad. It demarcates a bright region of space around the Sun reaching out to a radius of just over one trillion miles (~11,500 astronomical units), within which the Sun's rays remain the most supreme source of all light and heat to an interstellar traveller. If one ventures beyond this Sphere, then the Sun no longer remains the most supreme source of all light and heat, because the universe itself as a whole will throw more light onto you.
Original Definition:
On any interstellar journey going outward from our Solar System, one eventually reaches a point where the total amount of light received from our Sun is exactly matched by the total amount of flux coming from all cosmic sources external to our Solar System. The heliocentric distance of that boundary is dubbed the "Ahad radius", and exists at the edge of "Ahad's sphere of solar illuminance", some 11,500 astronomical units (roughly a trillion [10^12] miles) from Earth.
When he defined the extent of the Sun's light dominion for the very first time, Abdul Ahad skipped shouting "Eureka!" :D Nope, as history would have it, he just calmly wrote:-
"Beyond the outer edges of this theoretical sphere, the feeble currents of light coming from its core [i.e. our own distant Sun] will cease to make any noticeable ripples in the calm waters of the surrounding cosmic ocean..." - July, 2004.
Ahad's Sphere in the Interstellar Context
On the outward journey from our Solar System the Kuiper Belt, Termination Shock of the Solar Wind, edge of the Sun's Heliosphere (the so-called 'Heliopause') are all reached before one crosses the Ahad Radius. Then we have the Oort Cloud - a vast expanse of comets, interstellar gas, dust and charged particles orbiting the Sun in a spherical shell extending out to some 100,000 astronomical units (about a third of the way to Alpha Centauri).
Ahad's Sphere reaches as far out as the Solar Oort cloud
In the context of space exploration, no man-made spacecraft has yet ventured beyond "Ahad's Sphere"; NASA spacecraft Voyager 1 is leading the charge and, at its current speed of 3.6 astronomical units per year, will reach the Ahad Radius in just over 3,000 years from now. Voyager 2, Pioneers 10 and 11 will all follow after that.
Abdul Ahad's noted credits in relation to this discovery are:
1. The first to research a valid set of flux equations that enable an analytical solution to be derived for the total luminosity of the firmament
2. The first to then deduce an estimate of that total luminosity (Ahad's Constant) at c. 1/300th of a Full Moon's worth of light
3. The first to define the idea of a Light Dominion Sphere, centered on our home star of Sol
4. The first to then postulate that there might be some distance 'X' beyond our Solar System where the Sun's apparent light output would match Ahad's Constant
5. The first to then give an estimated value of that distance (the 'Ahad Radius') at c. 11,500 AUs or 0.18 of a light-year.
[This info was sourced from Wikipedia - July 2007]
The total amount of electromagnetic radiation (of all wavelengths) received from the Sun at the Earth's surface (the Solar Constant) is 1366 Watts/Meter^2. This corresponds to a visual apparent magnitude of the Sun of -26.8. Hence, going out to the edge of Ahad's Sphere of radius 11,500 astronomical units, applying the inverse square law of radiation, the total solar flux will have diminished to a microscopic 1.0329 x 10^-5 Watt/Meter^2, corresponding to a visual apparent magnitude of -6.5 (Ahad's Constant).
For more commentary, search the internet for Ahad Radius and Ahad's Constant or read the blogs up top. If you wanna be even more adventurous, get A. Ahad's sci-fi novel series 'First Ark to Alpha Centauri' on Amazon.com (but don't ask for yer money back if you don't like his style of writing!)
Ahad caught on video (August 2008)!!!
ABOVE IS A CASE IN POINT: The distant Sun (upper right) is seen here from the vicinity of a planetoid orbiting past the Ahad Radius. Although this tiny worldlet is gravitationally bound to the Sun, at such a great distance the feeble rays of light coming from its parent star would make less of an impression on its surface compared to the starry glow of the surrounding cosmic night sky. That is indeed the principle of "Ahad's Sphere"; bodies orbiting outside its boundaries receive more radiation energy from the surrounding cosmos than they do from our own Sun.
THAT MEANS ANY COSMIC VAMPIRES WHICH MAY BE ROAMING OUT THERE WILL NOT GET AS READILY BURNT BY THE RAYS OF THE SUN... AS THEY WOULD HERE ON EARTH! (screams out laughing :D)
ON A SERIOUS NOTE -, the theorem of Ahad's Sphere, in its scientific context, can be extended to have the same meaning for celestial bodies orbiting around other stars within the measurable domain of the Sun's neighborhood. Within a volume of space of 20 light-years going outward from Earth in all directions, the star Sirius (A+B) will have the Ahad's Sphere of greatest radius/volume, by virtue of its pre-eminent 26 Sun-power absolute luminosity. The value of Ahad's constant in the vicinity of the Sirius system will not be significantly different to what it is here in the neighborhood of Sol (-6.5 magnitudes).
The Philosophical Significance of Ahad’s Sphere
We are inextricably connected to the fabric of space-time and the underlying pulse of the cosmos in far deeper ways than we can possibly hope to understand.
The Sun’s majestic light, its power and energy are at the root of our very existence here on Earth. The rays of the Sun warm our planet, drive its weather patterns and sustain all living things. Four billion years ago, they had brought life on Earth. That is all scientific speak, of course. Religion would say something a little different. Perhaps: “In the beginning of Creation, there was nothing but Dark. Then God said, “Let there be Light!”. And with the birth of the Sun, there was.”
That flaring up of the Sun, from primordial fires burning at 15 million degrees celsius within its core, brought forth a Dominion of Light. This Dominion we now know to have conquered as much as a trillion miles out into the surrounding darkness of space in all directions (i.e. the extent of Ahad's Sphere).
In its mathematical formulation, the geometry of Ahad’s Sphere challenges the scientifically accepted boundaries of our observable universe. Its dimensions are pivotal upon a reasonably accurate estimate of Ahad's Constant. Is the number of discrete sources of light scattered across the vast cosmos a finite quantity? If we were to painstakingly add up the tiny pin pricks of light from every single star in the whole night sky, would we eventually get to a net figure of 1/300th of a Full Moon?
If so, then why does the Sphere have such an unfocussed and blurry edge to it? It appears that, ultimately, there is no easy mathematical model with which to definitively calculate Ahad’s Constant. Therefore, one is driven to such fuzzy logic of skilful tinkering, of cosmological assumptions and intelligent speculation to reach an acceptable solution of circa 1/300th of a Full Moon's worth of light. In the end, most astrophysicists will accept that the edge of Ahad’s Sphere is no more sharp a definition than the diffuse twilight that distinguishes night from day on our own planet.
Metaphysical logic might dictate that Ahad’s Sphere stands as some sort of a governing candle of Light, an imperious beacon of Good guarding Humanity from the vast underworld of the celestial Dark and of otherworldly Evil. It demarcates Mankind's greatest hopes from its darkest fears. To interstellar travellers of the far distant future returning back to Earth, first contact with the edge of Ahad’s Sphere might be viewed as a region of comfort and of hope, after enduring the immensity of a never ending cosmic night for aeons on end. If that were to be true, then with such fuzzy boundaries to the Sphere, think of how many false dawns the dwellers of such slow-travelling celestial ships might experience before their return back to the inner Solar System - and planet Earth. The nightmares of countless generations, perhaps spanning many tens of millennia, would finally begin to ebb when such a ship was solaced within the bright dominion of the Sun once more. Perhaps the inhabitants of such world ships might ceremoniously welcome the Solar glory, much as the cultures of past civilizations that had built Sun temples here on Earth and then basked in the glory of the Sun’s first rays the next morning, had done.
The book First Ark to Alpha Centauri
In his science fiction novelisation of the first human voyage beyond the light dominion of the Sun, Ahad conjures up a spiritual encounter with strange flying demons, otherworldly creatures dimensionally invisible to us in our physical plane of existence. The semi-transparent beasts are found to roam between solar systems, and to draw their powers from dark energies of the surrounding cosmic medium. They terrorise the isolated and lonely small-town community, mainly in their sleep. Such starship dwellers, caught in the immensity of a fifty millennia-long voyage between Sol and Alpha Centauri, can do little more than to resort to spiritual guidance in their darkest hour - and maybe use a little human ingenuity along the way too!
Importantly, A. Ahad’s First Ark to Alpha Centauri fictional saga is founded upon a very moving pillar of thought that questions (and appears to answer) the fundamental reason for existence of the human species as a whole. It goes something like this:
The basic reason why us humans should evolve to attain a position of such supremacy and spacefaring capability ON THIS PLANET, in THIS Solar System, AT THIS MOMENT in our history, is this. We are opportunistically ready to take the first leap to cross the interstellar gulf to another Earth waiting for us at Alpha Centauri, BY VIRTUE OF A DIVINE COSMIC DESIGN! It doesn’t actually sound half as silly an idea when you think that the relative motions between the Sun and its neighbouring star of Alpha Centauri dictate that we have a window of opportunity of some 50,000 odd years NOW to start out on making such a great leap. Had our species been ready for this voyage 50,000 years ago, or if we were yet to become ready in 50,000 years hence, we would surely miss the boat. This is the reason why: the two systems will have drifted farther apart, be out of range of the starships that we could conceivably build and the journey times that we would need to achieve in order to pass safely through the intervening Oort clouds:
And if humanity were to miss this boat, and forfeit this opportunistic window to embark on a voyage toward this overwhelmingly favorable star system now, then the other systems that come anywhere near as close to us look hopelessly ridiculous in their luminosities.
The following three stars will all approach Sol to similar distances to where Alpha Centauri is today within the next 100,000 year time frame: Barnard's Star (of a microscopic 4/10,000ths the Sun's radiative power) in 10,000 years; Ross 248 (just 11/100,000ths of the Sun's radiative power) in 40,000 years; Gliese 445 (12/10,000ths of Sun's radiative power) in 50,000 years. Looking even further out, astronomers have estimated that the star Gliese 710 will pass as near as within 1.1 light-years to our Solar System in about 1.4 million years from today.
The sad part of all these forthcoming encounters is that none of them are at all anything like the Sun. Alpha Centauri, on the other hand, has two Sun-like stars that (according to A. Ahad’s scientific vision) would contain at least one life-bearing "New Earth".
He confidently prophecised in his interstellar spaceflight blueprint (as if he already knows God's future propagation route for Mankind :D)
“A future generation of Earth will face a challenging choice of either taking this window of opportunity to cross a "virtual" bridge to Alpha Centauri [now] or declining the offer in anticipation of another star passing by the Sun. But that [day] is gonna be a long, long time coming... ” - Abdul Ahad, September 2004.
Bangla TV presenter with Ahad's first book
First Ark to Alpha Centauri
Egyptian Sun God Ra and the Sun
For the ancient Egyptians, the Sun mostly represented light, warmth, and, therefore, growth. This made Ra very important to Egyptians, and it is probably therefore no coincidence that he came to be seen as the ruler of all. The Sun was either seen as the body or eye of Ra.
Had the Egyptians of antiquity been as astronomically inclined, they would have realised that Ra's dominion of power and rule extended no further than the Ahad radius of the Sun.
The Sun was thought to travel in a boat, to protect its fires from the primordial waters of the underworld it passed through during the night. Ra traveled in the sunboat with various deities, including Ma'at who guided the boat's course and Set and Mehen who defended against monsters in the underworld. These monsters included Apep, the serpent who tried to stop the sunboat's journey every day by consuming it. So, the Egyptians saw the sunrise as the rebirth of the Sun through Nut, the sky, and thus attributed the concept of rebirth and renewal to Ra, strengthening his role as a creator god.
Greek Sun God Apollo
Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun 119 Tauri (aka CE Tauri) nicknamed the Ruby star by a british astronomer (Abdul Ahad) who first reported its true colour intensity in April of 2004. . [More to follow............]