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Physics and astronomy thread (8 Viewers)

Saw this the other day.

It would take an airplane 1100 years to circle the largest star in our galaxy, VY Canis Majoris, one time.

 
Not sure if this is true or not, but I heard someone say that every planet in our solar system could fit between the Earth and the Moon. If that's true, that's a pretty cool fact.

 
joffer said:
jamny said:
joffer said:
jamny said:
Are there serious doubts about the discovery of the Higgs boson? It sounds like there are already people putting what was found into a sub-category. Was the range it was found in not concise enough? Did they jump to a conclusion too soon?

eta: Can you jump to a conclusion too late? lol
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I don't think there's any doubt that they found a particle at the mass-energy point that was predicted. Just a question of whether it means what they thought it would mean.
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Exactly. That's kinda important. Did they rush this announcement?
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i don't think so. The hypothesis made a prediction, and it was confirmed. How it's reported is a whole other issue.
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Having just watch Particle Fever on Netflix I believe I am an authority to speak on this matter. J/K

From what my pedestrian mind to gather from the movie is that there was a predicted mass-energy point of 1.15, which would validate a lot of the physics movement and a universe system. If the mass-energy point was 1.40 or above it would mean that there was a multi-verse system, and a lot of physics was wrong and there were elements that could never be discovered.

The data measure the mass-energy point at 1.25, which the physics world is now trying to understand. Is that close?

 
matttyl said:
CBusAlex said:
TheIronSheik said:
Not sure if this is true or not, but I heard someone say that every planet in our solar system could fit between the Earth and the Moon. If that's true, that's a pretty cool fact.
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Seems reasonable. Everything in space is really, really small compared to the distances between them.

A Tediously Accurate Scale Model of the Solar System
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By the looks of it, it's close but I think they wouldn't quite fit.
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Yeah, it was hard to tell. But it's definitely close. And I wouldn't have thought it would have been close. Just felt like the moon was a lot closer than it actually is for some reason.

 
jamny said:
Andy Dufresne said:
Okay...so here's what we know so far. (The Status Of The Universe)
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:goodposting: I found this picture to be really interesting. I had never heard of The Great Attractor before. I thought that through expansion, most galaxies were moving further and further apart. Seems like even our local cluster is being drawn into something else.

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Actually we have known there variations within uniform expansion for a while. The Milky Way is being drawn toward an even more massive cluster in the Shapely Supercluster which lies beyond the GA.

 
TheIronSheik said:
matttyl said:
CBusAlex said:
TheIronSheik said:
Not sure if this is true or not, but I heard someone say that every planet in our solar system could fit between the Earth and the Moon. If that's true, that's a pretty cool fact.
Click to expand...
Seems reasonable. Everything in space is really, really small compared to the distances between them.

A Tediously Accurate Scale Model of the Solar System
Click to expand...
By the looks of it, it's close but I think they wouldn't quite fit.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it was hard to tell. But it's definitely close. And I wouldn't have thought it would have been close. Just felt like the moon was a lot closer than it actually is for some reason.
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You can fit 110 moons in that space, if my math is right. I would have guessed that Jupiter's diameter alone would be more than 110x that of our moon.

 
TheIronSheik said:
matttyl said:
CBusAlex said:
TheIronSheik said:
Not sure if this is true or not, but I heard someone say that every planet in our solar system could fit between the Earth and the Moon. If that's true, that's a pretty cool fact.
Click to expand...
Seems reasonable. Everything in space is really, really small compared to the distances between them.

A Tediously Accurate Scale Model of the Solar System
Click to expand...
By the looks of it, it's close but I think they wouldn't quite fit.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it was hard to tell. But it's definitely close. And I wouldn't have thought it would have been close. Just felt like the moon was a lot closer than it actually is for some reason.
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According to wikipedia, the total diameter of all the other planets is about 380,000 km, and the orbital distance of the moon varies between 362,600 km and 405,400 km. So they would all fit, but only sometimes.

 
Complex organic molecules have been detected in the protoplanetary disk surrounding a young star MWC 480.

http://www.iflscience.com/chemistry/building-blocks-life-seen-around-another-star

For the first time, scientists have confirmed what they have long suspected: Complex organic molecules exist in the disks from which planets form. While it is a big step from these observed molecules to living things, the discovery demonstrates that at least some planets form with the essential elements of life already present.

The observation of the star MWC 480, reported in Nature, was made using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Barely a million years old, MWC 480 is surrounded by a disk from which planets are expected to be born.
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Country Boys said:
Complex organic molecules have been detected in the protoplanetary disk surrounding a young star MWC 480.

http://www.iflscience.com/chemistry/building-blocks-life-seen-around-another-star

For the first time, scientists have confirmed what they have long suspected: Complex organic molecules exist in the disks from which planets form. While it is a big step from these observed molecules to living things, the discovery demonstrates that at least some planets form with the essential elements of life already present.

The observation of the star MWC 480, reported in Nature, was made using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Barely a million years old, MWC 480 is surrounded by a disk from which planets are expected to be born.
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That's a pretty big discovery.

 
NCCommish said:
Country Boys said:
Complex organic molecules have been detected in the protoplanetary disk surrounding a young star MWC 480.

http://www.iflscience.com/chemistry/building-blocks-life-seen-around-another-star

For the first time, scientists have confirmed what they have long suspected: Complex organic molecules exist in the disks from which planets form. While it is a big step from these observed molecules to living things, the discovery demonstrates that at least some planets form with the essential elements of life already present.

The observation of the star MWC 480, reported in Nature, was made using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Barely a million years old, MWC 480 is surrounded by a disk from which planets are expected to be born.
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That's a pretty big discovery.
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Don't you mean "small"? :lol:

:mellow:

I'll let myself out.

 
Was hoping to watch the attempt to land the SpaceX rocket. Every site I see says "Watch the attempt live here!" But each live feed cut out after the separation. Anyone watching a feed? I assume it's just about to come down.

 
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/curiosity-rover-finds-evidence-of-liquid-water-on-mars/

Where there is water, there is life. This is a statement that has been reaffirmed over and over again. Whether it is in the acidic waters surrounding volcanoes or in the dark and frozen wastes of the icy Antarctic, wherever we find liquid water, we find life. That’s what makes the most recent find by NASA’s Curiosity rover so amazing—Evidence of liquid water on Mars.

In 2002, we discovered that there was ice on the Red Planet. More recently (in fact, it was just lat week), we found that Mars has more than just a little ice. It has glaciers. Ultimately, this frozen ice contains enough water to cover the entire planet in a meter of water. But liquid water is an entirely different ball game

The major question that is now being asked is, how can a planet with an average temperature of -55°C (-67°F) have liquid water?

In work that was recently published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the scientists behind the discovery detail their ideas about the Martian water cycle. The team, led by planetary scientist Javier Martín-Torres, who hails from the Luleå University of Technology in Sweden, asserts that salt is likely responsible for the pockets of water. Much like life is able to subsist in the near-frozen water of the Antarctic because of salt, the scientists state that salt could be present at such quantities that it alters the freezing point of the water, lowering the temperature at which the water freezes so that, in order to solidify, the water has to get a lot colder than it does on Earth.

Previously, we have detected evidence of salts on Mars, and it is this previous evidence that forms the basis of the team’s conclusion.

Ultimately, it is believed that the water cycle starts when vapor from the thin Martian atmosphere cools and gets absorbed by salt on the surface of the planet. Then, during the evening, when temperatures go well below zero, the salts become so saturated by water vapor that they form “liquid brines in the uppermost 5 cm [2 inches] of the subsurface”. These small liquid pools stick around until the daytime temperatures turn the pools back into vapor. As the day progresses, and things start to cool, the liquid water again appears.

Sadly, Curiosity hasn’t been able to capture any images of liquid water on Mars because, well, the technology hasn’t been invented yet. Yes, of course we do have cameras on Mars (as our many pictures attest); however, the cameras don’t work in the subzero temperatures where the liquid water exists on the Red Planet.

So on to the main event: Do these pools contain life? Well, we don’t know for sure. However, we do know a few things that allow us to make guesstimates. First, since the temperatures are so low, we know that life as we know it cannot exist. Second, since the pools appear to dry during the day, it is unlikely that any life at all could survive. But despite the fact that it is rather unlikely, it is certainly not impossible. And, well, that’s something.

 
jamny said:
They don't make cameras that can work in sub-zero temps? Even in some type of enclosure?
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They are scientists, not gypsy fortune tellers. Who could have possibly foreseen it would be helpful to have cameras that operate at sub-zero temperatures on a probe being sent to a planet with an average temperature of -55°C?

 
2 articles I just read and enjoyed. Like all good articles about astronomy, space and time, they are both awe-inspiring and dread-inducing at the same time:

The Fermi Paradox - Where is Everybody?

http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

Putting Time in Perspective (excellent visual way to try to put a human's view of time in context with, like, the universe, man)

http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/08/putting-time-in-perspective.html

Never been to that Wait but Why site until now. A little heavy on the web browser but the guys conversational writing style make these heavy topics easier to digest IMO.

 
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joey said:
2 articles I just read and enjoyed. Like all good articles about astronomy, space and time, they are both awe-inspiring and dread-inducing at the same time:

The Fermi Paradox - Where is Everybody?

http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

Putting Time in Perspective (excellent visual way to try to put a human's view of time in context with, like, the universe, man)

http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/08/putting-time-in-perspective.html

Never been to that Wait but Why site until now. A little heavy on the web browser but the guys conversational writing style make these heavy topics easier to digest IMO.
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Wow, I just traveled down the rabbit hole with those 2 articles. Good stuff.
 
joey said:
2 articles I just read and enjoyed. Like all good articles about astronomy, space and time, they are both awe-inspiring and dread-inducing at the same time:

The Fermi Paradox - Where is Everybody?http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

Putting Time in Perspective (excellent visual way to try to put a human's view of time in context with, like, the universe, man)http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/08/putting-time-in-perspective.html

Never been to that Wait but Why site until now. A little heavy on the web browser but the guys conversational writing style make these heavy topics easier to digest IMO.
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cool stuff. Love that blog.
 
joey said:
The Fermi Paradox - Where is Everybody?

http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html
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Summary for those who didn't read. ;)

Explanation Group 2: Type II and III intelligent civilizations are out there—and there are logical reasons why we might not have heard from them.

Possibility 1) Super-intelligent life could very well have already visited Earth, but before we were here.

Stargate (goa'uld)

Possibility 2) The galaxy has been colonized, but we just live in some desolate rural area of the galaxy.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Possibility 3) The entire concept of physical colonization is a hilariously backward concept to a more advanced species.

Stargate (The Ancients)

Possibility 4) There are scary predator civilizations out there, and most intelligent life knows better than to broadcast any outgoing signals and advertise their location.

V

Possibility 5) There’s only one instance of higher-intelligent life—a “superpredator” civilization (like humans are here on Earth)—who is far more advanced than everyone else and keeps it that way by exterminating any intelligent civilization once they get past a certain level.

Mass Effect

Possibility 6) There’s plenty of activity and noise out there, but our technology is too primitive and we’re listening for the wrong things.

Babylon 5 (hyperspace communications)

Possibility 7) We are receiving contact from other intelligent life, but the government is hiding it.

X-Files

8) Higher civilizations are aware of us and observing us

Star Trek

9) Higher civilizations are here, all around us. But we’re too primitive to perceive them.

Stargate again (The Ancients)

10) We’re completely wrong about our reality.

The Matrix
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Good reads, thanks for posting.

Though I always exercise caution with something purporting to give me a perspective of my place in the universe. At the first sign of fairy cake, I'm out of there.

 
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I'm partial to the argument that between asteroid/comet impacts, supernova, gamma-ray bursts, black holes, etc., that we've been pretty lucky so far.

 
joffer said:
I'm partial to the argument that between dickish asteroid/comet impacts, supernova, gamma-ray bursts, black holes, etc., that we've been pretty lucky so far.
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Fixed that for you (from that great Putting Time in Perspective article. Made me laugh when I read it)

 
joffer said:
I'm partial to the argument that between asteroid/comet impacts, supernova, gamma-ray bursts, black holes, etc., that we've been pretty lucky so far.
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We as in humans, yes. We as in Earthlings, not so much. Space is a huge place. To have had all life on the planet pretty much wiped clean a few times over, one of which somewhat recently in the large scheme of things.....not really lucky.

 
Scientists Observe Two Supermassive Black Holes Merging

It is speculated that most galaxies in the universe have a black hole at their center; including our home, the Milky Way. Occasionally, two galaxies will get a little too close for comfort and merge together. Astronomers at the University of Maryland have seen one of these galaxy mergers and believe that, as a result, they have observed one of the few examples of two supermassive black holes locked in orbit around each other.

...

The binary black hole pair are gravitationally bound to each other, which may lead to exciting observations in the future. In particular, the researchers hope to finally shed some light on something called The Final Parsec Problem.' The final stages of a black hole collision are currently unknown; theoretical models have trouble predicting what this cosmic event would look like.

Gezari speculated further on the future of this merger: This pair of black holes may be so close together that they are emitting gravitational waves, which were predicted by Einsteins theory of general relativity. We have yet to discover gravitational wavesripples in space-time that distort the path of light traveling through the universe, like the light emitted from quasar PSO J334.2028+01.4075. The observations of this epic galaxy merger could provide valuable data to further this research.
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A Million H-Bombs per Second Heat the Suns Corona

The Suns atmosphere - its corona - is far, far hotter than its surface, and this has been a long-standing mystery, baffling astronomers for decades. This week, astronomers announced they have found the smoking gun. Almost literally.

The Sun has a complex magnetic field, caused by its internal motion, which can generate huge, towering loops above the photosphere. These store unbelievable amounts of energy and when they twist up and tangle, they can snap, releasing that energy as solar flares. These are storms of ridiculous power; a single flare can explode with as much power as 10 billion one megaton H-bombs.

These arent the source of coronal heating - flares dont happen very often - but what if big ones are only (so to speak) the tip of the iceberg? What if there are little ones, lots of them, too small to see?

...
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The Mercury MESSENGER spacecraft is scheduled to crash into Mercury today sometime around 3 ET. They are going to live stream it, although I'm not exactly sure what we'll see. Here's the link.

 
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