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Physics and astronomy thread (1 Viewer)

msommer said:
And gravity
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The comet is "about 4km across".  Earth is over 12000 km across.  Even if it were remarkably dense, there's not much in the way of gravity.  And it's apparently freezing and thawing and shedding weight over time.  It's just hard for me to grasp that loose rocks are sitting there on the surface of something hurling through space and rotating and going through this (from Wikipedia) 

Surface changesEdit

During Rosetta's lifetime, many changes were observed on the comet's surface, particularly when the comet was close to perihelion.[37][38][39] These changes included evolving patterns of circular shapes in smooth terrains that at some point grew in size by a few meters per day.[40][41] A fracture in the neck region was also observed to grow in size; boulders tens of meters wide were displaced, sometimes travelling more than 100 meters; and patches of the ground were removed to expose new features. A number of collapsing cliffs have also been observed. One notable example in December 2010 was capture by Rosetta's NAVCAM as a bright patch of light shining from the comet. Rosettascientists determined that a large cliff had collapsed, making it the first landslide on a comet known to be associated with an outburst of activity.[42][43]

 
bostonfred said:
The comet is "about 4km across".  Earth is over 12000 km across.  Even if it were remarkably dense, there's not much in the way of gravity.  And it's apparently freezing and thawing and shedding weight over time.  It's just hard for me to grasp that loose rocks are sitting there on the surface of something hurling through space and rotating and going through this (from Wikipedia) 

Surface changesEdit

During Rosetta's lifetime, many changes were observed on the comet's surface, particularly when the comet was close to perihelion.[37][38][39] These changes included evolving patterns of circular shapes in smooth terrains that at some point grew in size by a few meters per day.[40][41] A fracture in the neck region was also observed to grow in size; boulders tens of meters wide were displaced, sometimes travelling more than 100 meters; and patches of the ground were removed to expose new features. A number of collapsing cliffs have also been observed. One notable example in December 2010 was capture by Rosetta's NAVCAM as a bright patch of light shining from the comet. Rosettascientists determined that a large cliff had collapsed, making it the first landslide on a comet known to be associated with an outburst of activity.[42][43]
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With out trying to be snarky (I may not succeed) the key phrases there are "not much in the way of" and "hard for me to grasp" :P  

The landslide is actually an argument in favor of gravity

 
msommer said:
With out trying to be snarky (I may not succeed) the key phrases there are "not much in the way of" and "hard for me to grasp" :P  

The landslide is actually an argument in favor of gravity
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another part of it... unless something comes along and exerts an outside force, what's making those rocks change their current shared path with the comet?... newton and what not.

 
Authors claim men are better than women at physics because men pee standing up giving them an advantage.  No, this isn't The Onion.

We’ve found that not only do girls underperform on these tests, but that the difference in performance arises primarily from specific question types. In particular, the largest gaps in performance between girls and boys arise in questions that involve projectile motion 

...

Like many parents of small (and not-so-small) boys, two of us (KW and DL) have observed the great delight young males take in urination, a process by which they produce and direct a visible projectile arc.

The fact that boys (and men) play with their ability to projectile pee is hardly contentious. Boys are trained to pee into toilet bowls with floating targets, a huge variety of which can be bought on Amazon; Amsterdam Airport Schiphol famously cleaned up its urinals by encouraging men to hit flies etched next to the drain; and Peeball is now a worldwide phenomenon.

Meanwhile, YouTube videos explain how to write your name in the snow with your pee; and the post-match celebration peeing antics of sportsmen are widely reported in the media. Indeed, the very notion of a pissing contest – furthest, highest, most precisely aimed – is a deeply embedded part of some cultures.
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lakerstan said:
On Joe Rogan’s Podcast, Sean Carroll spoke pretty openly about gender bias in scientific academia.

Podcast
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Got a time reference?  I have listened to over a half-hour thus far and nothing.  Interesting conversation even without the gender bias stuff.  For the record, I do not deny gender bias.  I clearly see a huge gender gap that exists in Physics, in particular, compared to other sciences.  However, I am rather skeptical of the claims that the manner in which we pee is a significant cause of the existing gender gap in physics.

 
Galileo said:
Got a time reference?  I have listened to over a half-hour thus far and nothing.  Interesting conversation even without the gender bias stuff.  For the record, I do not deny gender bias.  I clearly see a huge gender gap that exists in Physics, in particular, compared to other sciences.  However, I am rather skeptical of the claims that the manner in which we pee is a significant cause of the existing gender gap in physics.
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While our peeing technique likely has little to do with it, men have been known to be better with spacial ability, which is a key skill for solving physics problems.

 
but seriously... was just talking to a neighborhood dad about their school- they split the girls and boys up for STEM to give the girls an environment where the more active, in the face of the teacher boys aren't there (not my theory). of course, at some point they have to come back to the real world where boys exist... but I guess here they want to plant the seed and allow the girls to flourish without boys mucking it up.  

the spatial awareness thing... dunno. purely anecdotally, I know a lot of brilliant women architects... was always 50/50 through school and has gotten a lot better in the workplace keeping that ratio (historically a male dominated field). those women are pretty good with spatial awareness. at a stereotypical level, men are usually more task/solution driven (at least in relationships) while women are more about general understanding and empathy... maybe that dime-store breakdown also pushes towards more gender defined proclivity in the fields. I don't know if splitting the kids up by gender will help get girls more interested and capable with STEM stuff, but anything that does I'm all for.

*I barely slept last night and am sure I'm talking gibberish here.

 
Jayrod said:
While our peeing technique likely has little to do with it, men have been known to be better with spacial ability, which is a key skill for solving physics problems.
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and I think part of their argument would be along the lines of boys have that greater spatial ability because they have been spraying their piss all over various spaces for years

 
I was just watching an episode of The Planets and the description of how a highly compressed solid carbon (possibly diamond) planet came to be orbiting a pulsar is pretty insane.

 
Galileo said:
Got a time reference?  I have listened to over a half-hour thus far and nothing.  Interesting conversation even without the gender bias stuff.  For the record, I do not deny gender bias.  I clearly see a huge gender gap that exists in Physics, in particular, compared to other sciences.  However, I am rather skeptical of the claims that the manner in which we pee is a significant cause of the existing gender gap in physics.
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Starts at 1:53:50 and goes to about 1:58:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1444s&v=hHMSvSqCDKc&app=desktop

 
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pretty cool announcement today on the discovery of a gravitational wave in conjunction with a gamma-ray burst from the merger of two neutron stars 130 million years ago.

 
Uranus is visible to the naked eye.   (Insert joke here)    It will be as bright as it possibly can be tonight.  

Uranus reaches opposition October 19. It then lies directly opposite the Sun in our sky, so it remains visible all night. It also lies closest to Earth at opposition, rendering it as bright as possible. But the appearance of an outer planet changes slowly, and Uranus maintains its magnitude 5.7 peak throughout October.

The ice giant lies among the background stars of Pisces. It starts the month 1.3° northwest of magnitude 4.3 Omicron (ο) Piscium and ends the month 2.2° due west of this star. Once you locate Uranus through binoculars, set them aside and try to spot the planet with your naked eye. You should be able to from under a dark sky. A telescope reveals Uranus’ 3.7"-diameter disk and impressive blue-green color.

The telescopic view should be especially good this month because Uranus appears so high. From mid-northern latitudes on the night of opposition, the planet lies 60° above the southern horizon at its peak around 1 a.m. local daylight time. This is the highest it has appeared at opposition since February 1963.
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Galileo said:
Uranus is visible to the naked eye.   (Insert joke here)    It will be as bright as it possibly can be tonight.  

     Quote

Uranus reaches opposition October 19. It then lies directly opposite the Sun in our sky, so it remains visible all night. It also lies closest to Earth at opposition, rendering it as bright as possible. But the appearance of an outer planet changes slowly, and Uranus maintains its magnitude 5.7 peak throughout October.

The ice giant lies among the background stars of Pisces. It starts the month 1.3° northwest of magnitude 4.3 Omicron (ο) Piscium and ends the month 2.2° due west of this star. Once you locate Uranus through binoculars, set them aside and try to spot the planet with your naked eye. You should be able to from under a dark sky. A telescope reveals Uranus’ 3.7"-diameter disk and impressive blue-green color.

The telescopic view should be especially good this month because Uranus appears so high. From mid-northern latitudes on the night of opposition, the planet lies 60° above the southern horizon at its peak around 1 a.m. local daylight time. This is the highest it has appeared at opposition since February 1963.
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...not the first time I've heard this...

 
The path is unique as it appears to be perpendicular to the plane of our solar system.

"Scientists think its headed towards Pegasus".

 
Back to the mystery object, A/2017 U1, for a second.

So the Sun tried to tug it into orbit, which failed, which caused it to change directions and head back out to interstellar space?  Do I have that right?

 
Bobcat10 said:
Back to the mystery object, A/2017 U1, for a second.

So the Sun tried to tug it into orbit, which failed, which caused it to change directions and head back out to interstellar space?  Do I have that right?
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The closer it got to the Sun the greater the gravitational tug.  Move twice as close and gravity's tug increases 4x.  That didn't cause it to head back out to interstellar space (it's own momentum it already had did that).  But passing this near to the Sun changed what direction it was going, yes.  If the tug had been strong enough (or it's velocity less) then it could have pulled it into orbit.

 
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Happy Birthday Carl Sagan

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
 

 
Nearby planet is 'excellent' target in search for life

Astronomers have found a cool, Earth-sized planet that's relatively close to our Solar System.

The properties of this newly discovered planet - called Ross 128 b - make it a prime target in the search for life elsewhere in the cosmos.

At just 11 light-years away, it's the second closest exoplanet of its kind to Earth.

But the closest one, known as Proxima b, looks to be less hospitable for life.

Found in 2016, it orbits the star Proxima Centauri, which is known to be a rather active "red dwarf" star. This means that powerful eruptions periodically batter Proxima b with harmful radiation.

The new planet, Ross 128 b, orbits a star that's not dissimilar to Proxima Centauri (it's also a red dwarf), but is significantly less active.

Co-discoverer Nicola Astudillo-Defru from the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland told BBC News: "Just because Proxima Centauri blasts its planet with strong flares and high energy radiation, yes, I think Ross 128 is much more comfortable for the development of life.

"But we still need to know what the atmosphere of Ross 128 b is like. Depending on its composition and the reflectivity of its clouds, the exoplanet may be life friendly with liquid water as the Earth, or sterile like Venus."

 
Science fact: The equator is so long it can circle the Earth once.

 
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El Floppo said:
Anybody else look at that when it hit the news and think- yeah, sure... "asteroid". That thing is going to turn on its own soon, arrive here shortly after, and start acting like an ####### and stink up the sidewalks outside strip clubs
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Rama, anyone?

 
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