The Science Thread

[Thrasher]

Found: Three Earth-sized planets orbiting a dim, red sun. 'This is only the beginning'

 

[GothicGothicness]

Found: Three Earth-sized planets orbiting a dim, red sun. 'This is only the beginning'

Too bad they are still so "far" away….

 

[Thrasher]

40 light years is right next door on a galactic scale. Need to solve the light speed problem to be able to visit any stellar neighbors with a single lifetime.

 

[pibbur who]

...Need to solve the light speed problem to be able to visit any stellar neighbors with a single lifetime.

I'm working on it. After finishing the cure for cancer.

pibbur who wishes that what he just said was true, at least half of it. Most likely he'll need other excuses to visit Stockholm.

 

[Thrasher]

Actually Alpha Centauri (closest known star) is only 4.37 light years away. We should be able to get to it without breaking the speed of light maybe even within a generation.

Using spectroscopy the mean radial velocity has been determined to be around 20 km/s towards the Solar System.
…
By about 29,700 AD, in the present-day constellation of Hydra, Alpha Centauri will be 1.00 pc or 3.26 ly away.[61] Then it will reach the stationary radial velocity (RVel) of 0.0 km/s…

 

[pibbur who]

I just recently ran into this site: https://curiositystream.com, a site with a lot of good quality science stuff. Available at a fairly cheap price, from 29.95 USD pr year and upwards depending on quality (SD, HD and 4K). First month free. Lots of very interesting stuff, highly recommended.

Just saw a programme about little Betelgeuse, a red giant in Orion. At around 10 solar masses it isn't exactly small, but it's only around 10 million years old (quite young compared to the (fat old) sun who these days celebrates its 4.6 billionth birhtday). And since giants burn their fuel extremely fast, it's already dying, likely to enter the iron age, going supernova anytime soon within the next 100 000 years (a short time compared to our (black hole) sun which has yet another 4 billion years to go)

pibbur who has three wishes for Betelgeuse: That it went supernova between 620 and 640 years ago, so he'll be able to see it. That there are no inhabited planets in the neighbourhood. That it will release no gamma ray burst in the earth's general direction (it's close enough to cause our 6th major mass effec.. sorry … extinction event, but fortunately it's rotation axis deviates by 22 degrees)

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

I often think that Betelgeuse was the original name of Beeteljuice, the evil ghost. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetlejuice

 

[pibbur who]

I often think that Betelgeuse was the original name of Beeteljuice, the evil ghost. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetlejuice

Actually, his name is Betelgeuse. But it's pronounced Beetlejuice.

From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetlejuice):"Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse (pronounced Beetlejuice), cast list"

pibbur who is pronounced pibbur

 

[Thrasher]

NASA's Kepler Mission Announces Largest Collection of Planets Ever Discovered

NASA's Kepler mission has verified 1,284 new planets – the single largest finding of planets to date.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs : http://www.mesoweb.com/resources/handbook/index.html
There is a PDF file for download. It's actually a book consisting of 165 pages - this makes up 20 MB.
It's there in French and in Spanish language as well.

 

[Ripper]

Dr. Heimlich, at 96, uses his manoeuvre to save fellow resident in his retirement home.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...rms-heimlich-manoeuvre-for-first-time-aged-96

 

[Thrasher]

LIGO Bags Another Binary Black Hole Burst

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astr...cts_its_second_merging_black_hole_binary.html

 

[Arhu]

LIGO Bags Another Binary Black Hole Burst

Read about it. Good stuff. I'm quite anxious for LISA, which will place a huge free fall triangle in Earth's wake at the Lagrange points. There's been a recent successful test with LISA Pathfinder mission that worked much better than anticipated and had scientists whoop with joy:

LISA Pathfinder success bolsters plan for gravitational wave observatory

 

[pibbur who]

Interesting.
And interesting.
...

Pibbur who is interested.

 

[Thrasher]

How interesting.

 

[Nyx]

Scientists use magnetic field to make chocolate tastier and less fatty, nomnomnom!

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-chocolate-electric-beam-20160620-snap-story.html

 

[pibbur who]

Scientists use magnetic field to make chocolate tastier and less fatty, nomnomnom!

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-chocolate-electric-beam-20160620-snap-story.html

Interresting. And tasty.

pibbur who now is tempted.

 

[Thrasher]

Removing cocoa butter from chocolate already sadly being done by Hershey and replaced by PGPR. Ruins it for me.

 

[azarhal]

Removing cocoa butter from chocolate already sadly being done by Hershey and replaced by PGPR. Ruins it for me.

You might have found what cause cheap chocolate to give me acne (good quality ones don't do that).

 

[Thrasher]

The smell is what bothers me. Castor Bean oil. Yuck. Isn't ricin poison in castor beans?

I've had to stop buying Hershey, Cadbury, and Mars products. Godiva, Ghirardelli, Lindt, didn't use PGPR the last time I bought them.