Science Stuff

KambahOne

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Science Stuff.

As a science enthusiast I’m fascinated in what we discover and what we are yet to learn. As such I’m going to dump interesting science stories in this thread on an ongoing basis.

I’m going to provide links where I can and explanations when I think I know, but I want peeps to correct me if I get something wrong about a story or article. Yes I want to be peer reviewed!! And if there is a science topic that peaks your interest, put it in here and I’ll grab some info on it to discuss. So load up your pocket protectors and straighten your bow ties, it’s time to get all Sciencey.

To start off with we’ll look at something close by and familiar to each of us, our Sun.

Fun Sun Facts:

We use our Sun as a unit of measure = 1 AU (Astronomical Unit) is the distance from the Sun to Earth. Saturn is an average of 9.6 AU from the Sun. Old Pluto’s average distance from the sun is 39.5 AU.

Our Sun sings and breathes - https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/sounds-of-the-sun

Our Sun Farts - https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/2288/the-solar-wind-across-our-solar-system/

Our Sun is currently converting 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium every second - https://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2007/locations/ttt_solarenergy.php

Now that sounds like a lot, but when you think our Sun is only halfway through its lifecycle and has approximately 4 billion years of fuel left to burn, than you start to understand how big it is. If you want a visual of how big compared to Earth, check out the pic below.

upload_2020-1-14_13-40-41.png


The material of the Sun is so compressed and so dense, it takes a particle of light 3 million years to get from the core where it’s created to the surface of the Sun itself and then only 8 mins to reach Earth.

And yes our Sun does have a name, Sol. This name originates from the ancient Roman’s god of the Sun, Sol. This alternate name is where we get the term “solar system,” which literally means system of the Sun.

Inevitably our Sun will die and use up all its hydrogen fuel. When that happens it will grow into a Red Giant and consume Mercury, Venus and Earth as its outer layers expand to the reach and melt Mars. That will be the end of all the inner rocky planets of our Solar System and the outer gas giants will be stripped of their upper clouds and reduced to roughly 10-30% of their current size due to the increase in the power of the solar winds (farts). And when that expansion part of our Sun’s lifecycle is compete and it shrinks back to become a White Dwarf Star, our Solar System will be unrecognisable. Our Sun will then spend the rest of its 100billion year existence faintly flickering as part of the ocean of White Dwarfs that currently inhabit our Galaxy.
 

Nexus

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Lol science is a bit of a taboo topic on here. I think we have some mebers who still treat their medical ailments with leeches.
Dont be that guy.

Just because some people dont agree with man made climate change doesnt mean they shun all science.
 

Flanagun

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Dont be that guy.

Just because some people dont agree with man made climate change doesnt mean they shun all science.
Just 'avin' a laff mate. Not trying to start World War III. I'll leave that to Trump.... :P

Ok, ok.....I'll stop trying to trigger people. I'm actually just joking and not in the mood for a scrap today.
 

KambahOne

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Here's something I find very interesting for many reasons, the discovery of life on another planet or moon.

The Europa Mission - https://europa.nasa.gov/

https://www.news.com.au/technology/...e/news-story/5f1c8c9822b872fb7c9a091d31c29fbc

In just a few short years, we may know if we’re not alone.

Two probes are being sent to a mysterious moon bursting with the ingredients of life. And expectations are high we’ll find it.

Once it was thought life could not exist without the sun’s warming rays.

We were wrong.

The equation for life (as we know it) is surprisingly simple: soluble water, an energy source, and organic compounds.

Jupiter’s moon Europa appears to have all three.

That’s why we’re going there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Clipper

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/europa/in-depth/

Europa (moon of Jupiter) and Enceladus (moon of Saturn) have shown signs of possibly harboring life with both in the sights of NASA for missions to each. I'll be live watching the creation of those two probes as I did when NASA put together Curiosity for their latest Mars mission. I remember taking the day off to live stream that landing, was very nervous and so wanted that to be successful.

These two missions have the potential to change life on Earth, or at least our outlook and hopefully our inlook.
 

KambahOne

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https://www.abc.net.au/news/science...tardust-found-in-murchison-meteorite/11863486

Material older than our solar system found in meteorite that landed in Vic in 1969.

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/01/07/1904573117

A 7-billion-year-old grain of stardust — older than our solar system — has been discovered inside a meteorite by an international team of scientists.

Key points
  • The oldest material found on Earth has been discovered in the Murchison meteorite
  • The age of these grains of stardust reveal more about how our galaxy evolved
  • They suggest there was a star-making baby boom about 7 billion years ago
This makes it the oldest solid material found on Earth the researchers said. It's even older than our Earth and the Sun, which are 4.5 and 4.6 billion years old, respectively.

And this stardust has an Australian connection.

It was extracted from the Murchison meteorite, which fell to Earth in the Victorian country town of Murchison in 1969.

"This meteorite is really a treasure trove for science," said cosmochemist Philipp Heck, of the Field Museum in Chicago, who was the lead author of the paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
 

Hacky McAxe

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Here's something I find very interesting for many reasons, the discovery of life on another planet or moon.

The Europa Mission - https://europa.nasa.gov/

https://www.news.com.au/technology/...e/news-story/5f1c8c9822b872fb7c9a091d31c29fbc

In just a few short years, we may know if we’re not alone.

Two probes are being sent to a mysterious moon bursting with the ingredients of life. And expectations are high we’ll find it.

Once it was thought life could not exist without the sun’s warming rays.

We were wrong.

The equation for life (as we know it) is surprisingly simple: soluble water, an energy source, and organic compounds.

Jupiter’s moon Europa appears to have all three.

That’s why we’re going there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Clipper

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/europa/in-depth/

Europa (moon of Jupiter) and Enceladus (moon of Saturn) have shown signs of possibly harboring life with both in the sights of NASA for missions to each. I'll be live watching the creation of those two probes as I did when NASA put together Curiosity for their latest Mars mission. I remember taking the day off to live stream that landing, was very nervous and so wanted that to be successful.

These two missions have the potential to change life on Earth, or at least our outlook and hopefully our inlook.
These missions have me very interested too. Last I recall the Clipper is set to launch in 2025 but the other mission won't launch until much later. Interestingly the Clipper has been planned for a long time but keeps getting pushed back due to US politics.

The Clipper actually just skims the surface of the planet and collects samples. And considering that Europa is covered in a tick layer of ice, it makes it difficult to get real samples. But Europa has an extra interesting fact. It also spews spouts of water occasionally and these spouts of water are samples of what lies underneath the ice. So there's a chance we'll get fresh samples.

I remember hearing about Europa when I was young and I imagined one day we would send a probe into the ocean and sea gigantic sea creatures. Now that I know more about ecology I'm guessing we'll find microbes at best. But there's always a chance there's some kind of teaming life under there.

Its exciting stuff though.
 

south of heaven

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Here's something I find very interesting for many reasons, the discovery of life on another planet or moon.

The Europa Mission - https://europa.nasa.gov/

https://www.news.com.au/technology/...e/news-story/5f1c8c9822b872fb7c9a091d31c29fbc

In just a few short years, we may know if we’re not alone.

Two probes are being sent to a mysterious moon bursting with the ingredients of life. And expectations are high we’ll find it.

Once it was thought life could not exist without the sun’s warming rays.

We were wrong.

The equation for life (as we know it) is surprisingly simple: soluble water, an energy source, and organic compounds.

Jupiter’s moon Europa appears to have all three.

That’s why we’re going there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Clipper

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/europa/in-depth/

Europa (moon of Jupiter) and Enceladus (moon of Saturn) have shown signs of possibly harboring life with both in the sights of NASA for missions to each. I'll be live watching the creation of those two probes as I did when NASA put together Curiosity for their latest Mars mission. I remember taking the day off to live stream that landing, was very nervous and so wanted that to be successful.

These two missions have the potential to change life on Earth, or at least our outlook and hopefully our inlook.
I'd be heaps happy if the find an edible alien cow that has the tenderest tastiest meat ,and when milked it produces beer
 

Wahesh

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Science Stuff.

As a science enthusiast I’m fascinated in what we discover and what we are yet to learn. As such I’m going to dump interesting science stories in this thread on an ongoing basis.

I’m going to provide links where I can and explanations when I think I know, but I want peeps to correct me if I get something wrong about a story or article. Yes I want to be peer reviewed!! And if there is a science topic that peaks your interest, put it in here and I’ll grab some info on it to discuss. So load up your pocket protectors and straighten your bow ties, it’s time to get all Sciencey.

To start off with we’ll look at something close by and familiar to each of us, our Sun.

Fun Sun Facts:

We use our Sun as a unit of measure = 1 AU (Astronomical Unit) is the distance from the Sun to Earth. Saturn is an average of 9.6 AU from the Sun. Old Pluto’s average distance from the sun is 39.5 AU.

Our Sun sings and breathes - https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/sounds-of-the-sun

Our Sun Farts - https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/2288/the-solar-wind-across-our-solar-system/

Our Sun is currently converting 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium every second - https://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2007/locations/ttt_solarenergy.php

Now that sounds like a lot, but when you think our Sun is only halfway through its lifecycle and has approximately 4 billion years of fuel left to burn, than you start to understand how big it is. If you want a visual of how big compared to Earth, check out the pic below.

View attachment 12609

The material of the Sun is so compressed and so dense, it takes a particle of light 3 million years to get from the core where it’s created to the surface of the Sun itself and then only 8 mins to reach Earth.

And yes our Sun does have a name, Sol. This name originates from the ancient Roman’s god of the Sun, Sol. This alternate name is where we get the term “solar system,” which literally means system of the Sun.

Inevitably our Sun will die and use up all its hydrogen fuel. When that happens it will grow into a Red Giant and consume Mercury, Venus and Earth as its outer layers expand to the reach and melt Mars. That will be the end of all the inner rocky planets of our Solar System and the outer gas giants will be stripped of their upper clouds and reduced to roughly 10-30% of their current size due to the increase in the power of the solar winds (farts). And when that expansion part of our Sun’s lifecycle is compete and it shrinks back to become a White Dwarf Star, our Solar System will be unrecognisable. Our Sun will then spend the rest of its 100billion year existence faintly flickering as part of the ocean of White Dwarfs that currently inhabit our Galaxy.
If you're fascinated with the sun/stars, then you'll LOVE this!

 

Hacky McAxe

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Another interesting fact based around the sun. Helium was originally discovered on the sun. Or to be more apt, it was discovered by observing the sun during a solar eclipse back in the 1860s (an early spectral analysis method that we evolved to now use to study what distant stars and planets are made of)

At the time it was given the name "Helium" based on Helios, the Greek God of the sun. It wasn't until much later that we discovered it on Earth underground in a vein. At the time they thought they struck gold by finding a natural gas vein (which often means they'll also find oil). Later discovering it to be Helium.

There are only a few veins of Helium around the world and Helium is required for many modern things. But it's in short supply.

The problem with Helium is that it's lighter than air so it's not affected by gravity. So when Helium leaves an underground vein, if it's not captured then it leaves earth's atmosphere forever.
 

CrittaMagic69

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Another interesting fact about science. I topped the year 9 science exams and got to go on a special science excursion to some convention with all the special kids. I cheated.
 

Wahesh

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Another interesting fact about science. I topped the year 9 science exams and got to go on a special science excursion to some convention with all the special kids. I cheated.
So you were a special kid?
 

Hacky McAxe

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One thing in the world of science I find most interesting is relativity. When I first learned about relativity as a kid my mind was blown. Relativity (General and Special) is too complex to go into detail for but here's some of the aspects of relativity that I find most interesting.

In special relativity, time is relative. I have seen many confusing explanations of what that means but the simplest way I have found to explain it is by saying, "Time is only relative to you based on where you are". A simple way to explain this is to imagine two trains driving along. If a train is driving at 60km/h and you're standing on a platform then the train passes you at 60km/h. If you're on another train driving alongside it and you're doing 40km/h then the train you're looking at is doing 20km/h.

That explanation may seem a bit stupid because you're still moving at 40km/h and the other train is still moving at 60km/h relative to the earth. But think of it another way...

Earth spins at different speeds depending where you stand. If you stand at the equator then you're spinning at the speed of 1,670km/h. If the train is travelling in the direction of the spin of the earth, then the train that's doing 60km/h is actually doing 1730km/h. But that's not the only speed. The Earth travels around the sun at around 107,000km/h. So your train is actually doing about 109,430km/h (Average. You're occasionlly going faster and occasionally going slower depending on the spin of the earth and your point on the earth at the time)

So speed is relative to where you are. That's the utter basics of special relativity.

But it's all affected by gravity too. When you look at a black hole, its gravity is so strong that light slows down. When it approaches the even horizon light slows down so much that it's barely moving. But light in the universe is constant so it's still moving at the same speed as everywhere else. What is actually slowing down is time.

Time is affected by two factors (both of which are actually related but that's a lot more complex). Gravity and speed. Under extreme gravity, time slows down. We have tested this. Using atomic clocks we put one on a plane and one on the ground. The one on the ground runs slightly behind the one on the plane. So every time you take a flight somewhere, you age slightly less than everyone else. Only a tiny bit.

The other factor is speed. No object can ever travel at the speed of light (based on our current undertstanding), but we believe we can get close to it. But the faster you travel the slower time goes. Again, this is that special relativity. Two trains travelling side by side. One at 60km/h, one at 40km/h. For passangers on the 60km/h train time is actually slowed ever so slightly. And we have been able to record this difference in time. It's inconceivably small though. But if we could travel fast enough then it becomes different.

The closest star is around 4.5 light years away. It would take us around 10,000 years to get there with current technology. But if we could develop technology to travel faster then we could get there quicker. If we could travel at close to the speed of light then we could get there is around 10 years. But travelling at that speed affects time. So we fly there and back and 20 years have passed. But when we get back to earth, 50,000 years have passed.

This gets even more interesting when you bring in concepts like Worm Holes. Based on Einstein's theories and work by Professor Kip Thorne, if you had an infinite amount of energy and a way to do it, you could use a wormhole to create a time machine effectively. Open a wormhole, grab one end and put it on a starship, send that starship at 90% speed of light to a distance star then step back through the wormhole and you're travelling back in time. It's probably the most useless time travel though as due to relativity, you couldn't go back past events that you already know about because your observation isn't going to travel faster than you can travel.
 

Hacky McAxe

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Another interesting fact about science. I topped the year 9 science exams and got to go on a special science excursion to some convention with all the special kids. I cheated.
I half assed my Network Engineering studies. When it came time for one of the tests, I had to write a bunch of networking scripts. Simple enough, but I had to write them using only their methods which I hadn't bothered studying. So I hacked into one of the other students machine's during the test and stole his stuff, then passed the test. Personally I blame them for not having any real security on their network.
 

Wahesh

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I was actually in the stupid maths class at the time, so yh I was special.
I hated maths, but my maths teacher was actually one of the most respected teachers in the school, and THE teacher who I most respected across all level of education I've ever had. As a result, maths was the highest score I got on both my SC and HSC.
 

CrittaMagic69

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I half assed my Network Engineering studies. When it came time for one of the tests, I had to write a bunch of networking scripts. Simple enough, but I had to write them using only their methods which I hadn't bothered studying. So I hacked into one of the other students machine's during the test and stole his stuff, then passed the test. Personally I blame them for not having any real security on their network.
I was in school when they first started bringing in the Macs and phasing everything towards technology. The teachers at the time used to spy on us with screen sharing but in the end that completely backfired on them when a few of us got admin permissions and just started using it to cheat off others groups work and just play games or Skype our mates in other classes most the day.

Looking back I can now tell that those years were really where I started going down hill, bloody useless teachers not actually teaching and not knowing how to use technology. Or maybe the issue was dropping out and not trying to cheat my way through the final year lol.
 
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