Other Than Mars Thread

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December 10th, 2015 at 4:40:42 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
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Seems like there is more science news these days, I'm keeping up with it more anyway for some reason. I don't want to keep posting things in the Mars thread, so I think we need a new thread.

If this thread is successful I'd like to post some trivia try-to-guess-it questions. We'll see.

News now is that the mysterious spots on Ceres have probably been figured out.

Quote: link
In a latest study ... scientists claim that Ceres’ bright spots are made of a salt like material. The material... looks similar to a type of magnesium sulfate called hexahydrite. It is closely related to the Epson salt...


http://www.i4u.com/2015/12/100716/ceres-mysterious-bright-spots-likely-made-salt-study-reveals
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December 11th, 2015 at 3:32:11 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
Let's try a trivia can-you-guess question.

In current theory, a Supernova results from a star running out of fuel. Stars use fusion to burn, and in the late stages those that are going to go Supernova are fusing heavy elements into heavier elements, the hydrogen to helium fusion availability long gone. Ultimately Iron is produced. This iron unfortunately is an element that cannot be fused to produce energy, and the energy from fusion is the only thing keeping the star from collapsing. At some point after iron is being produced the star will begin to collapse, and explosion is imminent.

two questions,

once iron is being produced, how long does this go on till collapse initiates?

*approximately a month
*approximately a week
*approximately a day
*approximately an hour

once the collapse phase initiates, how long will it be till the star explodes?

*less than a day
*less than an hour
*less than a minute
*less than a second

if you look it up to find the answers, use spoiler cover. I'll provide the answers with sources in a day or so.
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December 13th, 2015 at 7:01:13 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
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well, I didn't think no one would guess.

I thought this was interesting since stars commonly last for many billions of years. But when a star gets close to blowing up Supernova style, the time frame changes to relatively 'nothing'

per the graph we can see that iron production lasts about a day [answer to part I].



the answer to part II is 'less than a second'

Quote:
with no energy to support it against gravity, the star begins to collapse in on itself. The star has less than 1 second of life remaining.


http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/c/core-collapse
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December 15th, 2015 at 6:11:30 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
In another blow for the status of us guys, turns out that Wimps are whipping the Machos these days pretty bad out there in the Cosmos. What is this universe coming to?

As far as dark matter theory goes anyway. The name Wimp comes from 'weakly interactive massive particle', while Macho comes from 'massive compact halo object'.

In case you are wondering, I do not in fact find it easy to understand these things any deeper than, yeah, I get it, astronomers/physicists are having fun with the names!

Quote: link
WIMPs are considered one of the main candidates for cold dark matter, the others being massive compact halo objects (MACHOs) and axions. (These names were deliberately chosen for contrast, with MACHOs named later than WIMPs


Quote: second link
...MACHOs are not likely to account for the large amounts of dark matter now thought to be present in the universe


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weakly_interacting_massive_particles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_compact_halo_object#Theoretical_considerations
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January 28th, 2016 at 12:26:43 PM permalink
rxwine
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 188
Posts: 18630
Quote:
Clay tablets reveal Babylonians discovered astronomical geometry 1,400 years before Europeans


Quote:
For a number of years he has puzzled over four particular Babylonian tablets housed in the British Museum in London.

“I couldn’t understand what they were about. I couldn't understand anything about them, neither did anyone else. I could only see that they dealt with geometrical stuff," he said this week in a phone interview from Germany.

Then one day in late 2014, a retired archaeologist gave him some black-and-white photographs of tablets stored at the museum. Ossendrijver took notice of one of them, just two inches across and two inches high. This rounded object, which he scrutinized in person in September 2015, proved to be a kind of Rosetta Stone.

Officially named BH40054 by the museum, and dubbed Text A by Ossendrijver, the little tablet had markings that served as a kind of abbreviation of a longer calculation that looked familiar to him. By comparing Text A to the four previously mysterious tablets, he was able to decode what was going on: This was all about Jupiter. The five tablets computed the predictable motion of Jupiter relative to the other planets and the distant stars.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/01/28/clay-tablets-reveal-babylonians-invented-astronomical-geometry-1400-years-before-europeans/
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January 28th, 2016 at 8:40:59 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: rxwine
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/01/28/clay-tablets-reveal-babylonians-invented-astronomical-geometry-1400-years-before-europeans/


It is absolutely fascinating to me how some of the ancients discovered these innovations. The Metonic cycle was discovered by the Greek astronomer Meton of Athens (in the fifth century BC). The difference between the two periods (of 19 years and 235 synodic months) is only a few hours, depending on the definition of the year.

But just think how hard it would be to understand any cycle when a lifetime would probably not exceed three cycles. Plus you would need precise ways to calculate the length of a lunar month and a solar year.

Plato's dialogues are incredibly fascinating.
January 29th, 2016 at 3:18:52 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
Quote: Pacomartin
It is absolutely fascinating to me how some of the ancients discovered these innovations. The Metonic cycle was discovered by the Greek astronomer Meton of Athens (in the fifth century BC). The difference between the two periods (of 19 years and 235 synodic months) is only a few hours, depending on the definition of the year.

But just think how hard it would be to understand any cycle when a lifetime would probably not exceed three cycles. Plus you would need precise ways to calculate the length of a lunar month and a solar year.

Plato's dialogues are incredibly fascinating.


Yep, ya made me look that one up. Added some words to my vocabulary and am ready for the question on Jeopardy, now that this has made the news. The way that Jeopardy bit usually goes is [while hitting pause button on remote] "umm, ah, umm, I think I knew this one at one time"
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January 29th, 2016 at 3:05:21 PM permalink
Ayecarumba
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 89
Posts: 1744
As we have very little information on how the observations were actually collected, I think we move too quickly to give credit to an individual. It is possible that observations were collected by a number of "scientists", over the course of several generations. The clay tablet could be the Babylonian equivalent of an encyclopedia or textbook that was part of an advanced higher education system.
January 29th, 2016 at 3:37:02 PM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
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Moderns don't give the ancients enough credit. Several ancient civilizations were very competent in math, geometry and astronomy, not to mention engineering. Aristarchus measured the circumference of the Earth, to a very fair degree of accuracy. Or simply look at the pyramids of Giza. Not only are they impressive monuments, they've stood for over 5,000 years. Did you know there are bridges in use here and there in Europe which were built by the Romans?
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January 29th, 2016 at 6:06:48 PM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
All the ancients sure studied the sky to understand the seasons. It was key to understanding when to plant etc. I suppose everyone knows now there were stonehenge things all over the place. I don't mean the big blocks necessarily, just that there were things built to indicate the periodic nature of the solstices, equinoxes, and such. Naturally, observations had the potential to be advanced beyond that.
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