Astronomy & Space Exploration

Buster15 said:
Do you have a scientific background.
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I do have a professional background in engineering/IT, but this stuff always interested me so I was also quite active as part of the team of a German space enthusiast website/forum. I still have some contacts in that area and get some news earlier and under embargo than most people on here due to that "science news/press background".

BTW I agree on the string theory, I believe it doesn't solve any issues and just distracts lot of physicians from solving real problems in their field.
 
Raoul said:
You should check out SEA's epic video on the beginnings of life on earth.

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Excellent. And thank you Raoul for posting this which I found fascinating.

The only thing it tended to skip over was the transition from simple single cell bacteria to the formation of more complex multicellular organisms. Because without this step change, more intelligent species might not have developed.

But nonetheless, a very interesting video.
 
stefan92 said:
I do have a professional background in engineering/IT, but this stuff always interested me so I was also quite active as part of the team of a German space enthusiast website/forum. I still have some contacts in that area and get some news earlier and under embargo than most people on here due to that "science news/press background".

BTW I agree on the string theory, I believe it doesn't solve any issues and just distracts lot of physicians from solving real problems in their field.
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String theory I believe has almost completed fallen out of favour. Decades of promising groundbreaking insights “in the next few years” have eroded everyone’s patience.

For my part I’m a computer scientist by education but have spent the entirety of my career in the space industry.
 
stefan92 said:
I do have a professional background in engineering/IT, but this stuff always interested me so I was also quite active as part of the team of a German space enthusiast website/forum. I still have some contacts in that area and get some news earlier and under embargo than most people on here due to that "science news/press background".

BTW I agree on the string theory, I believe it doesn't solve any issues and just distracts lot of physicians from solving real problems in their field.
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Well done my friend.
I too come from an engineering background. That of Gas Turbine engineering.
And if there is one thing that excites me as much as Cosmology, it is Gas Turbines/Jet Engines technology.
I have been privileged to have worked on a wide range of programmes from the extremely powerful Olympus 593 powering Concorde, to highly advanced military jets like the brilliant RB199 powering Tornado, EJ200 powering Typhoon, Helicopter and Naval Marine Gas Turbines.

And the continental striving for higher and higher levels of mechanical and thermal efficiency.

Anyway, I am digressing from the purpose of this thread.
 
Strange blobs in Earth’s mantle are relics of a massive collision

For decades, scientists have been baffled by two large, mysterious blobs in Earth’s mantle. These rock formations are thousands of kilometres long and slightly denser than their surroundings, hinting that they are made of different material than the rest of the mantle.

New computer modelling supports a dramatic origin story for these strange blobs: they are artefacts of a gargantuan collision 4.5 billion years ago between early Earth and another young planet — the same collision thought to have formed the Moon1. The modelling suggests that this violent encounter caused material from the impacting world, called Theia, to embed itself in the lower half of Earth’s mantle. The collision also caused some of Theia’s remnants to be flung into orbit; these eventually coalesced into the Moon.
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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03385-9
 
Last year there were reports that a white dwarf would pass through the outskirts of the solar system in 29,000 years. On further inspection we now know this won't happen: https://www.eso.org/public/blog/rogue-star/?lang

What's actually going on is that the original estimate of the white dwarf's movement was based on its spectrum, but that is heavily shifted due to it's massive magnetic field. Nice little story about how unexpected effects can give a completely wrong idea about what is going on in space.
 
SpaceX attempting their second launch of Starship today (sans delays, less than 30 minutes till lift off):

 
Ekkie Thump said:
SpaceX attempting their second launch of Starship today (sans delays, less than 30 minutes till lift off):

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Pretty successful. All engines fired, achieved separation, reached space. Still several failures. Booster blew up after separation, second stage automatic self destruct triggered late in its burn. Still, though looks like everything went very well for a lot longer than their first attempt. Utterly spectacular to watch too.
 
nimic said:
One of mine:

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Very interesting. Black Hole Bombs seem to be the way to go for all your energy needs. And theoretically, they should be a lot easier to build than a Dyson Sphere/Swarm. If we ever make it to the stage where we need that much energy. Just the small issue of the nearest black hole to us being over 1,500 light years away!
 
FireballXL5 said:
Interesting stuff...

‘What the heck is going on?’ Extremely high-energy particle detected falling to Earth

Origins of Amaterasu particle, one of the highest-energy cosmic rays ever detected, are unknown

https://www.theguardian.com/science...igh-energy-particle-detected-falling-to-earth
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I'm confused by this sentence in the article:

"Some charged particles in the air shower travel faster than the speed of light, producing a type of electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by specialised instruments."

Is that because the photons are slowed by the air and the particles are faster than that, not actually the speed of light in a vacuum?
 
Three (long) documentaries, wonderfully made and narrated, about the origins of the universe,




The origins of life on our planet





The elusive planets of our solar system


 
Balljy said:
I'm confused by this sentence in the article:

"Some charged particles in the air shower travel faster than the speed of light, producing a type of electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by specialised instruments."

Is that because the photons are slowed by the air and the particles are faster than that, not actually the speed of light in a vacuum?
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Exactly, speed of light in the air is slower than in vacuum, but particles can move faster and that causes radiation (Cherenkov radiation as it's called). Effectively it's like a sonic boom, just with light and not with sound.
 
stefan92 said:
Exactly, speed of light in the air is slower than in vacuum, but particles can move faster and that causes radiation (Cherenkov radiation as it's called). Effectively it's like a sonic boom, just with light and not with sound.
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Cheers, I think the article worded it badly as it initially suggested something that shouldn't be possible!
 
I'm on a bit of a binge of reading and watching videos on ESA missions for the last 2 weeks. Some really fantastic stuff was and is done by Europe that makes me think how bad we/ Europe is at PR compared to the US. ESA deserves so much more love.
 
golden_blunder said:
Any believers in multidimensional portals?
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Maybe that's where Tyrell Malacia has been.

Are you referencing it due to the events from the US & the house oversight committee? That whole thing is just nuts to me. It all sounds so mad, yet serious people are spending taxpayers money looking into these things & seem to be saying somehow what has been claimed is being backed up by what they are hearing in confidential hearings. One of them even claimed that it was better to be specific on interdimensional than extra terrestrial. I take the point that serious people and US politicians might be a stretch (certainly wouldn't make that claim about UK ones) & I'm sure the whole thing is going to come down to money being siphoned off somehow, but the fact it's being even discussed semi seriously is wild.
 
bstb3 said:
Maybe that's where Tyrell Malacia has been.

Are you referencing it due to the events from the US & the house oversight committee? That whole thing is just nuts to me. It all sounds so mad, yet serious people are spending taxpayers money looking into these things & seem to be saying somehow what has been claimed is being backed up by what they are hearing in confidential hearings. One of them even claimed that it was better to be specific on interdimensional than extra terrestrial. I take the point that serious people and US politicians might be a stretch (certainly wouldn't make that claim about UK ones) & I'm sure the whole thing is going to come down to money being siphoned off somehow, but the fact it's being even discussed semi seriously is wild.
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Yes that’s what I was referencing. It’s nuts but seems some people in high circles believe it.
 
I had never read about this before, but an astronaut basically held NASA to ransom and said he "wasn't coming back" unless they let him fix the experiment he was working on.

 
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