After eight years of kicking Science in the balls, this is what President-elect Obama said when he named his Science advisors:
Whether it’s the science to slow global warming; the technology to protect our troops and confront bioterror and weapons of mass destruction; the research to find life-saving cures; or the innovations to remake our industries and create twenty-first century jobs—today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation.
…
Because the truth is that promoting science isn’t just about providing resources—it’s about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient—especially when it’s inconvenient. Because the highest purpose of science is the search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us. That will be my goal as President of the United States—and I could not have a better team to guide me in this work.
This is perfect. I could kiss him.
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WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
edited January 2009
FYI Voyager 1 should hit the heliopause sometime in 2015.
Weaver on
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#pipeCocky Stride, Musky odoursPope of Chili TownRegistered Userregular
edited January 2009
weaver was that "Helium Flash" part of the video on the last page a real series of images cause god damn
WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
edited January 2009
I don't know
Weaver on
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WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
edited January 2009
An H II region is a cloud of glowing gas and plasma, sometimes several hundred light-years across, in which star formation is taking place. Young, hot, blue stars which have formed from the gas emit copious amounts of ultraviolet light, ionising the nebula surrounding them.
H II regions may give birth to thousands of stars over a period of several million years. In the end, supernova explosions and strong stellar winds from the most massive stars in the resulting star cluster will disperse the gases of the H II region, leaving behind a cluster such as the Pleiades.
H II regions are named for the large amount of ionised atomic hydrogen they contain, referred to as H II by astronomers (H I region being neutral atomic hydrogen, and H2 being molecular hydrogen). H II regions can be seen out to considerable distances in the universe, and the study of extragalactic H II regions is important in determining the distance and chemical composition of other galaxies.
FYI Voyager 1 should hit the heliopause sometime in 2015.
Theoretically. We are pretty sure that there is one. Then we get to see if there's a bow shock.
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WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
edited January 2009
Too bad voyager's stellar wind detector died in 1990 or we'd have a better idea
Weaver on
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Clint EastwoodMy baby's in there someplaceShe crawled right inRegistered Userregular
edited January 2009
For like the last three days I've been idly watching a particular star that's been shining really brightly near the moon. Actually it's probably not a star, but I don't have a telescope to figure it out. I kind of suspect it might be Venus, although I'm probably wrong
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WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
edited January 2009
When I was a kid I had a small telescope that I would watch the moon with and I was lucky enough to see one of the occasional jets of gas that vent out from crater floors.
For like the last three days I've been idly watching a particular star that's been shining really brightly near the moon. Actually it's probably not a star, but I don't have a telescope to figure it out. I kind of suspect it might be Venus, although I'm probably wrong
No, you're correct.
Venus is currently chilling out right near the moon.
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#pipeCocky Stride, Musky odoursPope of Chili TownRegistered Userregular
For like the last three days I've been idly watching a particular star that's been shining really brightly near the moon. Actually it's probably not a star, but I don't have a telescope to figure it out. I kind of suspect it might be Venus, although I'm probably wrong
WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
edited January 2009
Somebody translate this for me
The ISM is usually far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Collisions establish a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of velocities, and the 'temperature' normally used to describe interstellar gas is the 'kinetic temperature', which describes the temperature at which the particles would have the observed Maxwell-Boltzman velocity distribution in thermodynamic equilibrium. However, the interstellar radiation field is typically much weaker than a medium in thermodynamic equilibrium; it is most often roughly that of an A star (surface temperature of ~10,000 K) highly diluted. Therefore, bound levels within an atom or molecule in the ISM are rarely populated according to the Boltzmann formula (Spitzer 1978, § 2.4).
Depending on the temperature, density, and ionization state of a portion of the ISM, different heating and cooling mechanisms determine the temperature of the gas.
Weaver on
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Clint EastwoodMy baby's in there someplaceShe crawled right inRegistered Userregular
edited January 2009
The one thing I'm most excited about for this new year in terms of Astronomy is that moon of Saturn, Enceladus. Place is weird as fuck, and hopefully we'll be able to learn more about it. We've already gotten some stunning images of it already though
The ISM is usually far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Collisions establish a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of velocities, and the 'temperature' normally used to describe interstellar gas is the 'kinetic temperature', which describes the temperature at which the particles would have the observed Maxwell-Boltzman velocity distribution in thermodynamic equilibrium. However, the interstellar radiation field is typically much weaker than a medium in thermodynamic equilibrium; it is most often roughly that of an A star (surface temperature of ~10,000 K) highly diluted. Therefore, bound levels within an atom or molecule in the ISM are rarely populated according to the Boltzmann formula (Spitzer 1978, § 2.4).
Depending on the temperature, density, and ionization state of a portion of the ISM, different heating and cooling mechanisms determine the temperature of the gas.
Different bits of space in the interstellar medium are different temperatures.
Also, the damage to Apollo 13's service module:
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WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
edited January 2009
Everything about Saturn is weird as fuck. Saturn has a storm on it's northern pole in the shape of a hexagon for crying out loud.
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Clint EastwoodMy baby's in there someplaceShe crawled right inRegistered Userregular
Everything about Saturn is weird as fuck. Saturn has a storm on it's northern pole in the shape of a hexagon for crying out loud.
I recently went through a bunch of that Astronomy Pic of the Day site's backlog and was really interested in Saturn's color changes. What a strange ball of gas.
The one thing I'm most excited about for this new year in terms of Astronomy is that moon of Saturn, Enceladus. Place is weird as fuck, and hopefully we'll be able to learn more about it. We've already gotten some stunning images of it already though
You can see the tiger stripes in that image.
One amazing bit about that planet is like on Earth, the ice is shifting almost constantly. That moon is alive, and that's why you barely see any craters. It's constantly resurfacing itself.
There was or possibly still is a theory that Enceladus has a global ocean underneath, and that ocean is just completely covered in thick ice.
In Oct. last year (2008) NASA launched a satellite that is going to map out the heliopause/sheath/termination shock of the solar system.
i have no idea what you are talking, but it sounds awesome.
Basically, the interstellar medium is all the gas that makes up most of the space between stars. The stars, like our Sun, our pouring out particles, essentially charged plasma, called the Solar Wind. The solar wind pushes the gas outward, creating a bubble around the Sun.
Eventually, the pushing back of this interstellar gas slows the solar wind down below the speed of sound. This point is called the termination shock. Since it's lost so much energy by then, the interstellar medium has more of an effect past the termination shock, causing some cool shit to occur. This is called the Heliosheath. It's like an outer shell of our solar system.
Eventually, the ISM slows down the solar wind so much that it stops moving outward. This is the heliopause and is generally considered the edge of our solar system.
Of course, none of this takes into account the fact that our solar system is moving around our galaxy. The movement of the heliosphere around the ISM is causing a bow shock, like the wake of a boat moving through the water, essentially.
Most of this is theory only, because Voyager I and II are the first man made craft to get our there, and their sensors are really crap and almost dead.
This new probe will be able to map this stuff out and confirm our theories and give us more info about the edge of our solar system.
NaS I mean does that say that pockets of gas are actually 10K Kelvin or just some sort of relativistic temperature?
I was being vague because I don't actually know. It seems to be suggesting that the predicted velocities of particles in the ISM would represent certain temperatures in a fixed system, like in the solar system where the ambient radiation is somewhat fixed.
However apparently out there the ambient radiation is weaker and much more prone to fluctuation and so the quantum energy levels don't really meet up with those predictions.
I think what that really means is that shit's all over the place out there and they have no way of predicting what temperature anything would be from one place to the next.
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WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
edited January 2009
Yeah it may turn out that interstellar travel is limited not because of lack of FTL but because anything we send out there will be obliterated unless it can do something like generate a magnetic field powerful enough to deflect the interstellar medium much as the Earth's field does with the solar wind.
Yeah it may turn out that interstellar travel is limited not because of lack of FTL but because anything we send out there will be obliterated unless it can do something like generate a magnetic field powerful enough to deflect the interstellar medium much as the Earth's field does with the solar wind.
This is basically the whole point of the deflector dish in star trek. Can you imagine getting pelted by interstellar dust going at relativistic speeds?
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WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
Yeah it may turn out that interstellar travel is limited not because of lack of FTL but because anything we send out there will be obliterated unless it can do something like generate a magnetic field powerful enough to deflect the interstellar medium much as the Earth's field does with the solar wind.
This is basically the whole point of the deflector dish in star trek. Can you imagine getting pelted by interstellar dust going at relativistic speeds?
also sometimes you have to remodulate the deflector shield so that geordi has something to do.
In Oct. last year (2008) NASA launched a satellite that is going to map out the heliopause/sheath/termination shock of the solar system.
i have no idea what you are talking, but it sounds awesome.
Basically, the interstellar medium is all the gas that makes up most of the space between stars. The stars, like our Sun, our pouring out particles, essentially charged plasma, called the Solar Wind. The solar wind pushes the gas outward, creating a bubble around the Sun.
Eventually, the pushing back of this interstellar gas slows the solar wind down below the speed of sound. This point is called the termination shock. Since it's lost so much energy by then, the interstellar medium has more of an effect past the termination shock, causing some cool shit to occur. This is called the Heliosheath. It's like an outer shell of our solar system.
Eventually, the ISM slows down the solar wind so much that it stops moving outward. This is the heliopause and is generally considered the edge of our solar system.
Of course, none of this takes into account the fact that our solar system is moving around our galaxy. The movement of the heliosphere around the ISM is causing a bow shock, like the wake of a boat moving through the water, essentially.
Most of this is theory only, because Voyager I and II are the first man made craft to get our there, and their sensors are really crap and almost dead.
This new probe will be able to map this stuff out and confirm our theories and give us more info about the edge of our solar system.
I can't tell you how awesome this is. It's so awesome.
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World as Mytha breezy way to annoy serious peopleRegistered Userregular
edited January 2009
bpg this gets my nomination for thread of the year
I am all over that podcast
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WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
Posts
This is perfect. I could kiss him.
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
Theoretically. We are pretty sure that there is one. Then we get to see if there's a bow shock.
No, you're correct.
Venus is currently chilling out right near the moon.
no, you're right.
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
I thought it might be Mars for a little while but it was pretty yellow last night so that theory went out the window.
one night they looked just like this : )
the next they looked just like this ) :
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
When you first see it you're like hey this looks pretty neat then suddenly : )
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
Different bits of space in the interstellar medium are different temperatures.
Also, the damage to Apollo 13's service module:
You can see the tiger stripes in that image.
One amazing bit about that planet is like on Earth, the ice is shifting almost constantly. That moon is alive, and that's why you barely see any craters. It's constantly resurfacing itself.
There was or possibly still is a theory that Enceladus has a global ocean underneath, and that ocean is just completely covered in thick ice.
EDIT: CURSES! BEATEN!
Also, accidental alliteration.
i have no idea what you are talking, but it sounds awesome.
these would all make good nicknames for a condom
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
Basically, the interstellar medium is all the gas that makes up most of the space between stars. The stars, like our Sun, our pouring out particles, essentially charged plasma, called the Solar Wind. The solar wind pushes the gas outward, creating a bubble around the Sun.
Eventually, the pushing back of this interstellar gas slows the solar wind down below the speed of sound. This point is called the termination shock. Since it's lost so much energy by then, the interstellar medium has more of an effect past the termination shock, causing some cool shit to occur. This is called the Heliosheath. It's like an outer shell of our solar system.
Eventually, the ISM slows down the solar wind so much that it stops moving outward. This is the heliopause and is generally considered the edge of our solar system.
Of course, none of this takes into account the fact that our solar system is moving around our galaxy. The movement of the heliosphere around the ISM is causing a bow shock, like the wake of a boat moving through the water, essentially.
Most of this is theory only, because Voyager I and II are the first man made craft to get our there, and their sensors are really crap and almost dead.
This new probe will be able to map this stuff out and confirm our theories and give us more info about the edge of our solar system.
I was being vague because I don't actually know. It seems to be suggesting that the predicted velocities of particles in the ISM would represent certain temperatures in a fixed system, like in the solar system where the ambient radiation is somewhat fixed.
However apparently out there the ambient radiation is weaker and much more prone to fluctuation and so the quantum energy levels don't really meet up with those predictions.
I think what that really means is that shit's all over the place out there and they have no way of predicting what temperature anything would be from one place to the next.
This is basically the whole point of the deflector dish in star trek. Can you imagine getting pelted by interstellar dust going at relativistic speeds?
Also-
yeah, that was awesome. (I live in PA, USA) I can never remember how many people are 'murrickans here
We are in such a tiny arm of the galaxy.
I can't tell you how awesome this is. It's so awesome.
I am all over that podcast