The Astrophysical Hotseat

[Pablo]

Originally posted by Borodog:

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Is it OK for a capricorn and a leo to get married?

No. They're child would be the Antichrist.

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Uh-oh.

[pikachamp]

*still doesn't understand mathematical determinism*

[Lepton]

[Samadhi]

Yeah, acceleration.

[pikachamp]

can black holes really create entire new universes?

[Jack Crazyquilt]

Most of this astrophsycal stuff is way over my head, but I've always been fasinated with it anyway. My question: what exactly is a Quasar (sp?) Is it just a really bright star or galaxy or what?

[Lucky Wizard]

pika: Lepton is basically just asking if it's possible to create a set of mathematical equations to predict your behavior.

Jack: Welcome to the GL! This page goes into some detail: http://www.phys.vt.edu/~jhs/faq/quasars.html

Which brings me to yet another question for Boro. What exactly is a BL Lacertae object? Why do astronomers make a distinction between a quasar and a BL Lacertae object?

[This message has been edited by Lucky Wizard (edited 11-28-2002 01:30 AM).]

[Lucky Wizard]

Did I kill this conversation?

[Samadhi]

Patience.

[rOver]

Ok. this thread made me post on GL after some time

Borodog: Do you think tax money should be spent on astrophysical reaserch? If yes why? If not what are the alternatives of financing?
What are the most important discoveries of the last 10 years (in Astrophysics)? Is dark energy among them or am I completly off?

[johnny]

(If not already mentioned) What are your thoughts on the multi-verse theory, and what shape is this multiverse?

[Chuck]

[firemeboy]

What do you think of this?

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/12/08/mars.odyssey.ap/index.html

Will this provide a good source of fuel? Will Mars become a nice stopping point on the way to the outer reaches of the galaxy?

[Ferris]

Before then, it would probably be used to provide fuel for return trips to Earth from Mars, and water for astronauts stationed on Mars.

Producing the fuel in situ cuts down considerably on costs and in this case, would possibly eliminate the need to transport 'feeder' H₂ to Mars. (Using H₂ with the CO₂ found in Mars' atmosphere in a 'Water Gas Reaction' would produce carbon monoxide and water - the first step in a series of reactions to form pure oxygen.)

If it's possible to use the water that's already there, then ultimately, Mars is an even better bet as a long-term manned research location than previously thought.

Sorry Borodog, I know it's not my hotseat - but I'll try to redeem myself by asking, "Do you support the idea of 'Mars Direct'?

[firemeboy]

I bet there will be people who claim we shouldn't mess with the atmosphere of mars. They'll take the 'we've ruined this planet, let's not ruin more' approach. I don't see a problem with it at all, especially given the fact there is no known life on mars....

[Lepton]

...we shouldn't mess with the atmosphere of mars...

I couldn't stand to see this go to page 2 so soon

[One Skunk Todd]

How can black holes evaporate?

What is the heat-death of the universe?

What will happen to the remaining matter after the heat death of the universe?

[Lepton]

As described by Stephen Hawking, Black Holes 'leak' because of quantum fluctuations near the event horizon. Everywhere, Virtual particle/antiparticle pairs are being created and annilihated shortly thereafter. They sort of borrow energy from the vacuum, which makes sense if you know lots of quantum mechanics. Sometimes, one of these Virtual particles falls into a black hole and the other one escapes off into space before they annilihate. Since the vacuum must remain massless and energyless, it is as if the lack hole was leaking a particle.

[/hijack]

[One Skunk Todd]

I was with you until here:

[Will]

why is shapeshifting impossible?

[Irma]

Who says it is? *howls at the moon*

[Lucky Wizard]

All right, since Borodog hasn't posted, I'll answer Will's question. bump

Will: Basically, any change that takes place requires some form of energy to start the change, be it a physical or chemical change. And shape-shifting is a mega-change, since energy is needed to do all these things:

- break many bonds between atoms in the body, so these atoms may recombine in a way that creates something new.
- change some atoms of certain elements into atoms of other elements, so these atoms may have the correct proportions for whatever you want to change to.
- move all the atoms around to where they have to be (admittedly not much energy, but I'm including this anyway).
- annihilate some atoms into energy or procure new atoms out of energy - or else put atoms in the air or get them from the air. (Yes, energy is needed to start the process of annihilating atoms into energy.)

This requires mega-amounts of energy. The amount of energy required is so huge that I would go out on a limb and say that it could not possibly be procured. Also, it would require extremely immense amounts of special equipment.

And as for quantum effects... I suppose it could happen, but only by chance -- and that's extremely unlikely: odds are probably on the order of a googolplex to one against -- and I would think it is impossible to control.

[This message has been edited by Lucky Wizard (edited 12-27-2002 07:40 PM).]

[pikachamp]

what do you mean by quantum effect?

[Borodog]

This is why I stopped posting to this thread . . .


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[casinopete]

hey, hey

i have a not-astrophysics question that is still somewhat topical.

does anyone know where i can find a "fairly good" 3D-animation (any format) of a sun?
(you know, surface blazing and popping and all)
preferably one in which you can move the camera in/out/around?

i'm only asking here because i think Boro (if anyone) would be likely to have run across one.

[One Skunk Todd]

Why is the moon receding from the earth? Is there an energy loss/gain in the system somewhere?

[Borodog]

Yes, tidal drag by the moon is slowing the rotation of the Earth and causing the moon to recede at the same time.


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[One Skunk Todd]

So at some point the earth will stop rotating with respect to the moon and they will both constantly present the same side to each other? And the moon will stop receding at that point?

[Borodog]

Yes, but the moon will probably have been kicked loose by gravitational perturbations from Jupiter by then, or the whole lot will have been swallowed by the sun.


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[casinopete]

A friend and I are writing a comic book in which the bad guy gets ahold of a device that lets him increase Planck's Constant.

Since we want the machine to be engaged at some point, but without the world ending instantly, we assume it won't be really destructive. ie. we assume all atoms won't disassociate themselves into ions.

What we are looking for a bunch of semi-pseudo-scientific effects that would be fun to put in our story. We have two so far:

1) As instants of time become more discrete from one another, complex probabilities simplify, and someone with a very powerful computer poised to take advantage of this will be able to dominate "random" things like the stock market or casino gambling (this is the core of our Bad Guy's Master Plan).

2) The discrete bundles of energy required to free electrons would get bigger, causing fewer perceptable colors (and changing what's there) - so, as our hero and villain's goon are struggling at the device, we can change colors around in each panel.

Ideally, these effects will be humorous or visually appealing, and not too difficult to explain in notes at the end.

so. . . any suggestions?

[Ferris]

Borodog,

A serious question for you. I've been re-reading "Theories of Everything" by John D. Barrow and came across a fascinating chapter which dealt with physical constants and, amongst other things, how carbon comes to be so abundant in the universe due to the property of resonance in the nuclear reaction which forms it.

[Pablo]

Here's a hint: Boyle & Charles

[Borodog]

I'll have to look it up, but that's part of the point of the fine structure constant, it is sort of "magic." Why does it equal 1/137? We don't know.


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[Werebear]

Just for fun... http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/

Werebear

[VinnyQ]

Some one ought to move this thread to Educator Idea. We keep losing it to the obscurity of page 2 in OT.

[Borodog]

Sure.


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[Mikko]

How does gravity reach a body? I mean e.g. how does the moon, or the particles that it consists of, "know" where the earth and sun are and what mass they have?

[pikachamp]

it's all in einsteins general theory of relativity
the earth warps space, and the warp in space pulls you in

[extropalopakettle]

The earth is here, and the space that it warps is over there. So how does it do it?

[pikachamp]

if i have a stretched out piece of stretchy stuff, and a ball on one end, i can use my finger to push down on the other end of the stretchy stuff and it'll roll to my finger!