Ongoing important Science news thread

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by T@T

I wish I was born 40 years earlier, The next 50 years is going to be exciting.

I don't understand this quote - you want to be your age + 40 more years to witness the next 50 years of scientific progress?

[drewboy12]

fyp

Originally Posted by troutman

The radiation on Mercury must be extreme.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_%28planet%29

It orbits the Sun once in about 88 Earth days, completing three rotations about its axis for every two orbits.

Due to its near lack of an atmosphere to retain heat, Mercury's surface experiences the steepest temperature gradient of all the planets, ranging from a very cold 100 K at night to a very hot 700 K during the day.

The surface temperature of Mercury ranges from 100 K to 700 K[45] due to the absence of an atmosphere and a steep temperature gradient between the equator and the poles. The subsolar point reaches about 700 K during perihelion then drops to 550 K at aphelion.[46] On the dark side of the planet, temperatures average 110 K.[47] The intensity of sunlight on Mercury’s surface ranges between 4.59 and 10.61 times the solar constant (1,370 W·m−2).[48]

Although the daylight temperature at the surface of Mercury is generally extremely high, observations strongly suggested that ice (frozen water) existed on Mercury. The floors of deep craters at the poles are never exposed to direct sunlight, and temperatures there remain below 102 K; far lower than the global average.[49] Water ice strongly reflects radar, and observations by the 70 m Goldstone telescope and the VLA in the early 1990s revealed that there are patches of very high radar reflection near the poles.[50] While ice is not the only possible cause of these reflective regions, astronomers believe it is the most likely.[51]

The icy regions are believed to contain about 10^14–10^15 kg of ice,[52] and may be covered by a layer of regolith that inhibits sublimation.[53] By comparison, the Antarctic ice sheet on Earth has a mass of about 4×10^18 kg, and Mars' south polar cap contains about 10^16 kg of water.[52] The origin of the ice on Mercury is not yet known, but the two most likely sources are from outgassing of water from the planet’s interior or deposition by impacts of comets.[52]

[T@T]

Voyager finds solar system is bigger than thought

NASA officials have been saying for months that Voyager 1 is almost there when it comes to interstellar space as it continues the longest road trip in the history of mankind.

On Monday, project officials said new information sent back from the ship yielded a surprising result.
"If we would have only looked at particle data alone, we would have said we're out of the solar system," said Tom Krimigis, a scientist from Johns Hopkins University who examines data on low-energy charged particles. "But nature is very imaginative, and Lucy pulled up the football again."
The Voyager team believes this region is where lines of magnetic particles from the solar system are meeting particles from interstellar space.
Because the direction of the magnetic lines is unchanged, the project members count this as part of the solar system. When the direction changes, Voyager 1 will finally be in interstellar space.

Voyager 1 is now about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/03/us/spa...html?hpt=hp_c2

[Hemi-Cuda]

i find the fact that not only is Voyager 1 still functioning after 35 years, but still sending back data as well to be far more impressive than the fact that it's at the edge of our solar system

[T@T]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

i find the fact that not only is Voyager 1 still functioning after 35 years, but still sending back data as well to be far more impressive than the fact that it's at the edge of our solar system

It must have a reliable pilot!

[Delthefunky]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

i find the fact that not only is Voyager 1 still functioning after 35 years, but still sending back data as well to be far more impressive than the fact that it's at the edge of our solar system

I'm not a scientist, so that sounds pretty impressive to me too. What kind of signal is Voyager sending for us to be able to read 11 billion miles away?

[drhu22]

I thought this was pretty cool...
(advance in solar energy technology)

http://earthsky.org/science-wire/tin...to-solar-power

[The Fonz]

I wish Voyager could tell us what the temperature is 11 billion miles away from the sun.

If Voyager had nipples, I bet they would have fallen off by now.

[Flash Walken]

Cassini has spotted a river valley, which scientists believe is filled with liquid, on Saturn’s moon Titan that stretches more than 400 km.

The international Cassini mission has spotted what appears to be a miniature extraterrestrial version of the Nile River: a river valley on Saturn’s moon Titan that stretches more than 400 km from its ‘headwaters’ to a large sea.

It is the first time images have revealed a river system this vast and in such high resolution anywhere beyond Earth.

Scientists deduce that the river is filled with liquid because it appears dark along its entire extent in the high-resolution radar image, indicating a smooth surface.

“Though there are some short, local meanders, the relative straightness of the river valley suggests it follows the trace of at least one fault, similar to other large rivers running into the southern margin of this same Titan sea,” says Jani Radebaugh, a Cassini radar team associate at Brigham Young University, USA.

“Such faults – fractures in Titan’s bedrock – may not imply plate tectonics, like on Earth, but still lead to the opening of basins and perhaps to the formation of the giant seas themselves.”

Titan is the only other world we know of that has stable liquid on its surface. While Earth’s hydrologic cycle relies on water, Titan’s equivalent cycle involves hydrocarbons such as ethane and methane.

http://scitechdaily.com/cassini-spot...lley-on-titan/

[worth]

I remember when Cassini was launched. Good job Cassini!

[Thor]

Anyone have a physics question for astro physicist who writes the blog starts with a bang?

Hes picking his favorite questions and answering them in his blog, if you have any post em, but do it soon.

[T@T]

Originally Posted by Thor

Anyone have a physics question for astro physicist who writes the blog starts with a bang?

Hes picking his favorite questions and answering them in his blog, if you have any post em, but do it soon.

Yeah, ask him how confident he is in the age of the universe at 13.75 billion? 100%,99%....

[T@T]

Originally Posted by The Fonz

I wish Voyager could tell us what the temperature is 11 billion miles away from the sun.

If Voyager had nipples, I bet they would have fallen off by now.

I thought it did sent back temperatures? after it went past Neptune I remember something around -250c. I think the coldest it can get is about -270c

[Thor]

Damn didnt get that one answered, sorry dude.

But lots of cool ones did get asked, check out his blog.

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithab...our-questions/

[ripTDR]

Originally Posted by Thor

Anyone have a physics question for astro physicist who writes the blog starts with a bang?

Hes picking his favorite questions and answering them in his blog, if you have any post em, but do it soon.

Just recently finished a book about black holes and was struck by something odd. If, according to general relativity, matter is sucked into a black hole and is crushed to a singularity, then why do you have black holes of different masses? Wouldn't they all be the same? With the same event horizon? Or would it be the
information of whatever that was sucked in determining the mass?

This might seem amatureish and if it does I apologise. I am in the process of re reading the book as it is a lot to take in.

[ripTDR]

^^^ whoops too late!

[Thor]

Oooh thats a good one too!

[photon]

The mass of what's sucked in would determine the mass of the black hole (well mass and energy), the singularity describes the geometry of the black hole but the mass could still be anything, and the event horizon is going to be determined by (among other things) the mass.

Ethan kind of eludes to a related point in his QAs too when he talks about black holes and the higgs field. A singularity is a theoretical thing; more just an indication that our physics understanding breaks down. So when a solution to an equation says "zero size infinite density" it means we need a better equation to describe reality and it's probably not describing an actual physical thing.

[ripTDR]

Thanks, that does sorta clear it up!

[Gozer]

If our sun collapsed into a black hole (it wouldn't, not enough mass) then the orbit of Earth would not be affected.