Physics and astronomy thread (1 Viewer)

[beer 30]

I listen to this podcast every once in a while to break up the usual war mongering stuff I listen to. Landed on this one today, pretty interesting. Figured you nerds would enjoy it

https://www.stufftheydontwantyoutoknow.com/podcasts/messages-from-the-deep-the-mystery-of-fast-radio-bursts.htm

For years, fast radio bursts have mystified astronomers across the planet. These millisecond-long blips of intense, unexplained radio signals pop up all over the sky, temporarily outshining radio pulsars despite being perhaps a million times farther away. Before 2013, many astrophysicists doubted that they even existed. Now their existence is undeniable — but what exactly are they?

 

[Galileo]

Get your ticket to Mars right here

 

[BobbyLayne]

How far away is the nearest star?

 

[dkp993]

How far away is the nearest star?

That is just so nuts.  Great video.  Thanks

 

[joey]

That is just so nuts.  Great video.  Thanks

Put another way, without a long time lapse video to watch, if you take two golf balls, place one at the very north end of California, and the other at the very southern end, that’s the distance between our Sun and the next closest star. Mind boggling. 

 

[FBG26]

Put another way, without a long time lapse video to watch, if you take two golf balls, place one at the very north end of California, and the other at the very southern end, that’s the distance between our Sun and the next closest star. Mind boggling. 

California is only 770 miles north to south. I thought the next closest star was a couple of light years. Turns out you can drive there in a day. Cool! 

 

[TripItUp]

California is only 770 miles north to south. I thought the next closest star was a couple of light years. Turns out you can drive there in a day. Cool! 

I think you missed the Golf ball part of the analogy. 

 

[FBG26]

California is only 770 miles north to south. I thought the next closest star was a couple of light years. Turns out you can drive there in a day. Cool! 

I think you missed the Golf ball part of the analogy. 

So you're saying I can't drive there? Nuts. 

 

[El Floppo]

Pretty sure he can fit a golf ball in his car

 

[Galileo]

Pretty sure he can fit a golf ball in his car

Not this one

 

[joey]

I think you missed the Golf ball part of the analogy. 

AND, the earth would be a grain of sand about 100 yards from the (golf ball sized) sun. 

Or just watch the video I guess. I was trying to give the cliff notes version. 

 

[Mister CIA]

How many times have I fought insomnia with arithmetic?!  Accurate numbers elude me at the moment, but I think our solar system scales as such:  If the Sun were the size of a basketball, Pluto would be a poppy seed six miles away.

I'll leave to others to verify my calculations.

 

[Galileo]

How many times have I fought insomnia with arithmetic?!  Accurate numbers elude me at the moment, but I think our solar system scales as such:  If the Sun were the size of a basketball, Pluto would be a poppy seed six miles away.

I'll leave to others to verify my calculations.

I think your distances are off, but you are probably in the ballpark with the poppy seed size.

Diameter of Sun is about 1.4 million km; Diameter of a basketball is about 9.5 inches.  In rough numbers, that is a ratio of about 150000:1

Pluto's orbit takes it from about 4.4 billion km to 7.4 billion km away from the sun.  Adjusting by the same ratio puts its distance in the range of 0.46 (29,333 in) to 0.78 (49,333 in) miles away from the basketball sized sun.  Pluto's diameter is about 2376 km.  Reducing it by the same factor makes it about 0.016 inches or 0.4 mm, which is somewhat close to a poppy seed (Wiki describes the poppy seed as "less than a millimeter in length").

 

[Man of Constant Sorrow]

Not this one

Red Giant? 

 

[TheIronSheik]

So you're saying I can't drive there? Nuts. 

Don't ever let someone tell you that you can't do something, GB.

 

[Man of Constant Sorrow]

Don't ever let someone tell you that you can't do something, GB.

Are you tell'n me that I can't let someone tell me I can't?

 

[El Floppo]

lot of moon/mars mission chatter lately in the news... talk of 2024 for the moon, and saw pics of wheels going on the new mars rover (iirc, going next year).

 

[El Floppo]

lot of moon/mars mission chatter lately in the news... talk of 2024 for the moon, and saw pics of wheels going on the new mars rover (iirc, going next year).

India sending a rover to the moon on July 15...would be their 1st off-world landing and the fourth country to land on the moon (not counting israel). Will measure temps, quakes, soil.

 

[TheIronSheik]

India sending a rover to the moon on July 15...would be their 1st off-world landing and the fourth country to land on the moon (not counting israel). Will measure temps, quakes, soil.

Wait.  Why are we not counting Israel?  

 

[Galileo]

Wait.  Why are we not counting Israel?  

Well, technically they got there, but it crashed to the surface.

 

[TheIronSheik]

Well, technically they got there, but it crashed to the surface.

Ahh.  But a crash landing is still a landing.  Sure, not ideal, but still impressive to get there.  

But I see what you're saying.  I had forgot about them crashing.  The statement makes sense to me now, so I'll allow it.  

 

[Mjolnirs]

Dragonfly

A Proposal to Explore Titan, Saturn's Largest Moon, via Quadcopter

My buddy that works at Goddard will be on this project.  This project was selected last month.

 

[Sand]

Dragonfly

A Proposal to Explore Titan, Saturn's Largest Moon, via Quadcopter

My buddy that works at Goddard will be on this project.  This project was selected last month.

Well, at least they're staying away from Europa like they're supposed to.

 

[El Floppo]

Wait.  Why are we not counting Israel?  

because I'm an antischtickite

 

[Bobcat10]

The NOVA - Back to the Moon episode that I watched tonight was pretty cool. 

 

[Phil Elliott]

India sending a rover to the moon on July 15...would be their 1st off-world landing and the fourth country to land on the moon (not counting israel). Will measure temps, quakes, soil.

Firefly Aerospace, located in Cedar Park, a suburb of Austin, will now be making the Israel lunar landers.

 

[El Floppo]

Firefly Aerospace, located in Cedar Park, a suburb of Austin, will now be making the Israel lunar landers.

I read that Israel was abandoning going back to the moon and looking elsewhere...?

 

[TheIronSheik]

I read that Israel was abandoning going back to the moon and looking elsewhere...?

I heard that the Palestinians were looking to land a rocket on Israel.    HAAA-YOOOO!!!!

I'll see myself out. 

 

[joffer]

Firefly Aerospace, located in Cedar Park, a suburb of Austin, will now be making the Israel lunar landers.

always looking for job openings there

 

[El Floppo]

the japanese asteroid robot/ship ...

landed again in the spot it had previously blasted to loosen up material. I can't explain how much I geek out that they have pictures of this.

not looking forward to the alien lifeform they'll be inadvertantly transporting home next year. i've seen the walking dead... vans will be flipping, bottle rockets shooting, life-saving dumpsters diving.

 

[Galileo]

India sending a rover to the moon on July 15...would be their 1st off-world landing and the fourth country to land on the moon (not counting israel). Will measure temps, quakes, soil.

Aborted

 

[msommer]

Per Floppo's request, cross post

To the moon and beyond

 

[El Floppo]

India sending a rover to the moon on July 15...would be their 1st off-world landing and the fourth country to land on the moon (not counting israel). Will measure temps, quakes, soil.

Aborted

launched! the full linked article has interesting charts and graphs outlining the trip

India has successfully launched its second lunar mission a week after it halted the scheduled blast-off due to a technical snag.

Chandrayaan-2 was launched at 14:43 local time (09:13 GMT) from the Sriharikota space station.

India's space chief said his agency had "bounced back with flying colours" after the aborted first attempt.

India hopes the $145m (£116m) mission will be the first to land on the Moon's south pole.

The spacecraft has entered the Earth's orbit, where it will stay for 23 days before it begins a series of manoeuvres that will take it into lunar orbit.

If successful, India will become the fourth country to make a soft landing on the Moon's surface. Only the former Soviet Union, the US and China have been able to do so.

 

[msommer]

launched! the full linked article has interesting charts and graphs outlining the trip

Just read an article with commentary from a Danish scientist working with the Danish space programme. He says that the Indian launchers are pretty weak so the run to the moon takes a lot longer than the Apollos did. But that the ride is supposedly a lot smoother that either the ESA, NASA or Russia can provide, which is a big advantage for sattelites. If I interpreted his words properly the "maneuvers" Chandrayaan-2 will make will be a gravity assist from Earth

 

[El Floppo]

Just read an article with commentary from a Danish scientist working with the Danish space programme. He says that the Indian launchers are pretty weak so the run to the moon takes a lot longer than the Apollos did. But that the ride is supposedly a lot smoother that either the ESA, NASA or Russia can provide, which is a big advantage for sattelites. If I interpreted his words properly the "maneuvers" Chandrayaan-2 will make will be a gravity assist from Earth

link?

 

[The Man With No Name]

This Newfound Alien Planet Has 3 Suns

 

[The Man With No Name]

Could There Be Life? This Newfound 'Super-Earth' May Be Habitable

We will never get there until we can travel at warp speed or the speed of light and that won't happen in our lifetimes, if ever.

 

[Sand]

This Newfound Alien Planet Has 3 Suns

One up on the Three Body Problem?  

 

[El Floppo]

One up on the Three Body Problem?  

Like two girls one cup?

 

[Sand]

Like two girls one cup?

Dude.

 

[El Floppo]

Dude.

I've never seen it. It's that bad? Didn't know I was going too far.

 

[Sand]

I've never seen it. It's that bad? Didn't know I was going too far.

I was kind of playing off of this book.  Spectacular book, BTW.

Your reference was a bit of a... non-sequitur. 

 

[joffer]

Could There Be Life? This Newfound 'Super-Earth' May Be Habitable

We will never get there until we can travel at warp speed or the speed of light and that won't happen in our lifetimes, if ever.

we can get there without traveling at warp speed

 

[msommer]

The Milky Way is a warped a d twisted place

 

[El Floppo]

Could There Be Life? This Newfound 'Super-Earth' May Be Habitable

We will never get there until we can travel at warp speed or the speed of light and that won't happen in our lifetimes, if ever.

we can get there without traveling at warp speed

I'll meet you there for lunch on Aug 2, 622,019 ad 

 

[joffer]

I'll meet you there for lunch on Aug 2, 622,019 ad 

Outlook won’t book out that far

 

[El Floppo]

Outlook won’t book out that far

Aug 1?

 

[RC94]

I'll meet you there for lunch on Aug 2, 622,019 ad 

We can get there before then.  Have you heard of Bistromathics?  It's a great method for travelling vast interstellar distances.  Its run on a concept called Bistromathics, which is a new way of understanding the behavior of numbers.  Just as Einstein observed that space was not an absolute but depended on the observer’s movement in space, and that time was not an absolute but depended on the observer’s movement in time, so numbers are also not absolute but depend on the observer’s movement in restaurants.  There are 3 non-absolute numerical concepts that go into this but what it essentially comes down to is that numbers written on restaurant checks within the confines of restaurants do not follow the same mathematical laws as numbers written on any other pieces of paper in any other parts of the universe.

 

[Phil Elliott]

First time galaxies (39) discovered from first two billion years of the 13.7 billion year life of the universe.  Story is in independent.co.uk.

"But from Earth, the 39 galaxies are so difficult to see because they are so faint. Though they are the largest of their kind to be found, the light that reaches Earth is reduced and has been stretched because it has taken so long to travel to us."

"The light from these galaxies is very faint with long wavelengths invisible to our eyes and undetectable by Hubble," said Kotaro Koh, who worked on the new study published in Nature.

"So we turned to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), which is ideal for viewing these kinds of things.

 

[The Man With No Name]

'Mad' Flat-Earther to Launch Himself 5,000 Feet Up on a Homemade Steam Rocket Sunday