The lonely science post thread

[T & P]

The point is what happens when you cut the engine.

The gravitational pull does decrease with distance, so if you travel far enough, your 2000kph will be the escape velocity from that distance and you won't fall back.

How far would you have to travel? I make it about 2.5 million km (several times the distance to the Moon), which would take about 50 days at that speed.

(using back of fag packet, Escape Velocity and Earth)

ve = sqrt(2GM/d)
so distance = 2GM/v^2

2 * 6.67*10^-11 * 5.972*10^24 / (2000 * 1000 / 3600)^2
2581193952.00000000000005164452 (distance in meters)
last / (2000 * 1000 * 24)
53.77487400000000000000 (time to travel that distance in days)

Ah, that suddenly makes a lot of sense, in particular when considering your first sentence. Cheers!

 

[8ball]

If an unpowered object with no friction (and ignoring other objects) is travelling at escape velocity it should trace a parabola I would think.

Maybe it should, but I think it wouldn’t.

 

[HAL9000]

 

[WouldBe]

An interesting looking beast

Discovered in the deep: the incredible fish with a transparent head

The rare barreleye fish tracks its prey with extremely light-sensitive rotating eyes encased in a see-through canopy

www.theguardian.com

Fish with 2 brains.

 

[gosub]

Remarkably Detailed Solar Telescope Images of the Sun Mark 'New Era of Solar Physics'

The Inouye Solar Telescope celebrates its inauguration with some eye-searing views of the sun.

www.cnet.com

 

[farmerbarleymow]

The orbital paths of Saturn's moons

 

[gosub]

Earth to be dealt double blow as giant hole forms in sun's atmosphere

A coronal mass ejection looks set to graze the planet, adding to a geomagnetic storm forecast for October 1.

www.newsweek.com

 

[HAL9000]

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, The Electron

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the atomic particle that's proved a gateway to modernity.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[gosub]

Japan's Hayabusa2 probe discovers dust grains older than Solar System | BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Dust grains brought back to Earth from asteroid Ryugu existed before Earth and our planetary neighbours formed.

www.skyatnightmagazine.com

 

[HAL9000]

The recent noble prize for physics was related to hidden variables I believe, video explaining spooky action at a distance and hidden variables

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Will be interesting if this becomes a reality - satellites beaming energy down to Earth through big space lasers.

Beam me down: can solar power from space help solve our energy needs?

The latest developments in solar tech offer potential solutions to the energy security crisis – including satellites that would convert sunlight into power for Earth

www.theguardian.com

 

[WouldBe]

Will be interesting if this becomes a reality - satellites beaming energy down to Earth through big space lasers.

Beam me down: can solar power from space help solve our energy needs?

The latest developments in solar tech offer potential solutions to the energy security crisis – including satellites that would convert sunlight into power for Earth

www.theguardian.com

Just don't get in the way of the beam.

 

[Storm Fox]

A Gamma Ray Burst from 2.4 million light years away, causes electrical currents in the earth that were picked up by an amateur.

Spaceweather.com Time Machine

Klekociuk's unusual "ham rig" uses Earth itself as a giant antenna. In his back garden there are two metal spikes stuck into the ground 75 meters apart. They are connected to a receiver via buried wires. In recent years amateur radio operators have been experimenting with this weird kind of antenna to detect VLF radio signals circling our planet in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide. Earth's crust forms one of the waveguide's walls, allowing Earth Probe Antennas to detect distant transmitters.

Pretty impressive.

 

[two sheds]

Fish with 2 brains.

Finally something to rival MP David "two brains" Willetts.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

As I always suspected, some people are magnets for bitey insects

Chemical attraction: some people really are ‘mosquito magnets’, study finds

Researchers discover some humans produce certain chemicals tied to smell that mosquitoes find attractive

www.theguardian.com

 

[two sheds]

Scientific paper (Prodigious Amounts of Hydrogen Oxides Generated by Corona Discharges on Tree Leaves) with a 'Plain language summary'. Haven't seen this before and is an excellent idea. Good exercise for the paper's authors, too.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2022JD036761

The reddit title is even better: Electric Discharge From Plants May Be Changing Air Quality in Ways We Didn't Expect

 

[2hats]

Partial solar eclipse today, visible from the UK, but only around 10-20% or so in extent. Maximum in about 10 minutes (roughly noon). Will be over by 2pm.

​

​

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Partial solar eclipse today, visible from the UK, but only around 10-20% or so in extent. Maximum in about 10 minutes (roughly noon). Will be over by 2pm.

View attachment 348781​

​

Damn missed it.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Bees count from left to right

Bees ‘count’ from left to right, study finds

Latest finding adds to theory that animals, including humans, naturally arrange things in a certain order, even without being able to count

www.theguardian.com

 

[Reno]

Science finds that cats are nice: Cats Are Actually Nice, Scientists Find

 

[HAL9000]

 

[2hats]

"Blue aurora" seen from Sweden last Wednesday (early evening).

​

​

Most likely this 'cloud' is actually the remnants of the exhaust from a Russian SLBM (RSM-56 Bulava) test launch that day, from the Barents to the Kura test range:

Атомная подводная лодка «Генералиссимус Суворов» выполнила стрельбу баллистической ракетой «Булава» : Министерство обороны Российской Федерации

По подтвержденным данным объективного контроля боевые блоки ракеты успешно прибыли в заданный район боевого поля Кура.

function.mil.ru

 

[2hats]

New SI unit prefixes agreed - ronna/ronto and quetta/quecto (1e±27/30). Chosen for uniqueness and avoidance of confusion ie clarity in the SI family of units (R/r/Q/q). One Earth mass is now ~6 Rg, or order of one ronnagram.

How many yottabytes in a quettabyte? Extreme numbers get new names

Prolific generation of data drove the need for prefixes that denote 1027 and 1030.

www.nature.com

 

[HAL9000]

 

[farmerbarleymow]

One way to heat your swimming pool

 

[T & P]

Planet spotters, be aware

All planets in the solar system visible in night sky at same time on Wednesday

In the northern hemisphere five planets can be seen by the naked eye, and Uranus and Neptune with a telescope or binoculars

www.theguardian.com

 

[danny la rouge]

Planet spotters, be aware

All planets in the solar system visible in night sky at same time on Wednesday

In the northern hemisphere five planets can be seen by the naked eye, and Uranus and Neptune with a telescope or binoculars

www.theguardian.com

I knew this (I have an app that alerts me to such phenomena), but we have low cloud cover. I have hopes for tomorrow evening at 9pm.

 

[danny la rouge]

We have an informal toilet roll system in our house for when a roll is close to running out. The next roll is left in readiness on top of the adjacent radiator. Our elder daughter has given us a row. Having done a fire safety course at work, she says all that’s needed for a conflagration is heat, oxygen and fuel. She believes the requirements are fulfilled by this habit.

Back me up: I have left a box of matches on the radiator to troll her. This is scientifically fine.

 

[iona]

We have an informal toilet roll system in our house for when a roll is close to running out. The next roll is left in readiness on top of the adjacent radiator. Our elder daughter has given us a row. Having done a fire safety course at work, she says all that’s needed for a conflagration is heat, oxygen and fuel. She believes the requirements are fulfilled by this habit.

Back me up: I have left a box of matches on the radiator to troll her. This is scientifically fine.

Paging dessiato

 

[8ball]

We have an informal toilet roll system in our house for when a roll is close to running out. The next roll is left in readiness on top of the adjacent radiator. Our elder daughter has given us a row. Having done a fire safety course at work, she says all that’s needed for a conflagration is heat, oxygen and fuel. She believes the requirements are fulfilled by this habit.

Back me up: I have left a box of matches on the radiator to troll her. This is scientifically fine.

“Heat” is ill-defined and represents both a suitable temperature and an ignition source.

You have all the potential bits required once you’ve added the matches.