Weird Science

[tdhoosier]

On 5/19/2022 at 9:36 AM, tdhoosier said:

Asteroids, Brah: 

Jupiter has been called the vacuum cleaner of the solar system because its gravity sucks in asteroids and comets, protecting us from those objects. But it's not all good: Jupiter's gravity can also nudge an object onto an orbital collision course with Earth.

The good news is that the earlier we detect them, the easier it is to devise a plan to nudge them off course. And we don't want to use the 'Armagedon' method of blowing up an Asteroid because it will create a shower of smaller rocks, that will do just as much damage. The trick is nudging. 

 

A good time to revisit this because NASA attempted the 'nudge' last month and it was successful! Just amazing that NASA can even hit an asteroid 7 million miles away.

https://www.science.org/content/article/nasa-test-mission-successfully-deflects-asteroid

Quote

The impact of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft nudged the moon closer to its partner, Didymos, shortening its nearly 12-hour orbital period by 32 minutes.

The degree of deflection was far greater than anticipated; NASA said before impact that an orbital reduction of at least 73 seconds would be considered a success, most astronomers predicted a shortening closer to 10 minutes. 

 

[mrflynn03]

Guess I'll have to write or call NASA and tell them they are interfering with my giant magnet that attracts asteroids toward earth. 

[tdhoosier]

4 minutes ago, mrflynn03 said:

Guess I'll have to write or call NASA and tell them they are interfering with my giant magnet that attracts asteroids toward earth. 

*mrflynn just got put on homeland security's 'watch list'.* 😆

I think of a cartoon when I imagine all the planets metal objects converging on central Indiana when you flip that switch to 'magnetize'.

[mrflynn03]

2 minutes ago, tdhoosier said:

*mrflynn just got put on homeland security's 'watch list'.* 😆

I think of a cartoon when I imagine all the planets metal objects converging on central Indiana when you flip that switch to 'magnetize'.

I've already had my sharks with laser beams on their heads confiscated by the local sheriff. I shouldn't have kept them in the city swimming pool I guess. 

[tdhoosier]

2 minutes ago, tdhoosier said:

*mrflynn just got put on homeland security's 'watch list'.* 😆

I think of a cartoon when I imagine all the planets metal objects converging on central Indiana when you flip that switch to 'magnetize'.

Speaking of magnetism, the Earth's magnetic field does switch polarity. These reversals are random with no apparent periodicity to their occurrence. They can happen as often as every 10 thousand years or so and as infrequently as every 50 million years or more. The last reversal was about 780,000 years ago.

The ocean floor near the deepest trenches also serve as a record of when/often the switches happen. 

https://divediscover.whoi.edu/mid-ocean-ridges/magnetics-polarity/

Quote

When lava gets erupted at the mid-ocean ridge axis it cools and turns into hard rock. As it cools it becomes permanently magnetized in the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field. Magnetometers, towed near the sea surface behind research ships or mounted on submarines like Alvin, measure the magnetic anomalies or “wiggles” that record the changes in magnetization of the volcanic sea floor.

Less than 60 years ago, scientists discovered that the Earth’s magnetic field has reversed its polarity (direction) hundreds of times during the past several hundred million years. A polarity reversal means that the magnetic North flips to where we know the South Pole is. At the mid-ocean ridge spreading axis, these flips in the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field are recorded in the magnetization of the lava. This creates a symmetrical pattern of magnetic stripes of opposite polarity on either side of mid-ocean ridges.

These patterns of stripes provide the history of seafloor spreading. Geophysicists can read these patterns from the magnetic anomalies they measure with a magnetometer. Where the magnetic wiggles, or anomalies, are broader, the spreading rate has been faster. At slow spreading ridges, the anomalies are squeezed tighter together, but the basic patterns are quite similar so scientists can correlate or relate the magnetic wiggles to different parts of the global mid-ocean ridge.

 

[tdhoosier]

10 minutes ago, mrflynn03 said:

I've already had my sharks with laser beams on their heads confiscated by the local sheriff. I shouldn't have kept them in the city swimming pool I guess. 

 

[mrflynn03]

I had an idea over the weekend at work. 

We should figure out a way to generate nuclear energy in space. That would negate safety and waste material issues.  Could transfer energy like we do with solar either for direct power supply or use it as fuel to operate power generators.

Could avoid the issue with cloud cover by using strategically placed energy collection sites or substations/generating stations and use global positioning to maneuver the nuclear satellite stations. 

Create or assign a unit to space force to operate the nuclear stations. 

[Drroogh]

13 minutes ago, mrflynn03 said:

I had an idea over the weekend at work. 

We should figure out a way to generate nuclear energy in space. That would negate safety and waste material issues.  Could transfer energy like we do with solar either for direct power supply or use it as fuel to operate power generators.

Could avoid the issue with cloud cover by using strategically placed energy collection sites or substations/generating stations and use global positioning to maneuver the nuclear satellite stations. 

Create or assign a unit to space force to operate the nuclear stations. 

I think thats been covered in several science fiction stories. My dad and I had a discussion several decades ago and he being the Electrical Power Transmission Engineer said the energy could be sent back to earth with microwaves. Can you imagine the global deniers having a field day with that?

[rico]

Wormholes:

Wormholes May Already Have Been Detected, Physicists Say : ScienceAlert

[mrflynn03]

The Carrington Event. Never heard of this until today.

https://www.space.com/the-carrington-event

[rico]

28 minutes ago, mrflynn03 said:

The Carrington Event. Never heard of this until today.

https://www.space.com/the-carrington-event

[IUFLA]

33 minutes ago, mrflynn03 said:

The Carrington Event. Never heard of this until today.

https://www.space.com/the-carrington-event

I thought it was a "Dynasty" event 😁

[mrflynn03]

I just thought it was cool but...

[tdhoosier]

Great news.

Quote

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility have made history by successfully producing a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain, a breakthrough hailed by US officials as a “landmark achievement” and a “milestone for the future of clean energy.”

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/us/common-questions-nuclear-fusion-climate/index.html