General science thread

Since Jupiter is basically a big ball of gas, why doesn't the solar wind blow it apart? Does it leave a tube or trail of "atmosphere" as it circles the Sun, like a snail making its way around a flower pot?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Since Jupiter is basically a big ball of gas, why doesn't the solar wind blow it apart?

Gravity.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Since Jupiter is basically a big ball of gas, why doesn't the solar wind blow it apart? Does it leave a tube or trail of "atmosphere" as it circles the Sun, like a snail making its way around a flower pot?

I believe that Jupiter is protected from solar wind by an enormous magnetic field.

Quote: Nareed

NASA announced yesterday the discovery of a system with seven "Earth-like" rocky planets, some of which are in the star's "goldilocks zone," where liquid water can exist and temperatures are compatible with life as we know it.

This is all very nice, but don't get too excited. The star is a red dwarf (need I say more?) Sure it makes sense to set some SETI assets to listen, but temper your expectations.

What's really nice was Google's doodle today for celebrating the new. It's a short animation showing Earth looking through a telescope while the Moon peers over its shoulder. It's the cutest thing you'll see all day.

Well, I'm glad there will be places for Trumpers when we fill Baffin Island to capacity :)

The nice thing about a red dwarf is that a planet can be quite close to one and still be habitable. It's an interesting question whether such planets would be very seismically active due to such proximity, like Io is due its closeness to Jupiter. Assuming a colony could learn to survive things like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, such seismically active planets would be resource-rich (as ours is, for the same reasons).

Were the telescopes strong enough to see if there was already a Starbucks on any of those worlds?

Welcome back, Pluto.... you are about to become a planet again.

Quote: Fleastiff

Welcome back, Pluto.... you are about to become a planet again.

It was an illegal immigrant to our solar system, and now you're saying we should give it citizenship papers? I think not! We already deported it once.

NASA is planning a probe to the Sun:

http://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2017/02/27/coming_soon_nasas_first_mission_to_fly_to_the_sun_110202.html

Cool! (well, not literally).

I suppose Golden Boy Trump will object and demand a landing. It can be done safely, after all, if the probe arrives at night.

As the ongoing search for dark matter continues to hit a wall, alternatives are creeping into the popular science press. Yesterday there was an article on Real Clear Science about Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND to its friends and detractors), and today there was one about emergent gravity.

The latter is interesting because it would be quite revolutionary to prove gravity isn't a fundamental force, but an emergent property of something else. Also, the article today suggests one big difference between emergent gravity and general relativity, meaning it can be tested.

I wonder, too, if gravity is an emergent property, does that account for the persistent failure to unify it with all other forces? If so, and even perhaps if not, the SF dreams of anti-gravity drives will be crushed forever....

There are wars going on we aren't even aware of.

Bots roaming the Internet can interact in unintended ways.

Quote:

A study published last month in the research journal Plos One, analysing the use of bots on Wikipedia over a decade, found that even those designed for wholly benign purposes could spend years duelling with each other. In one such battle, Xqbot and Darknessbot disputed 3,629 entries, undoing and correcting the other’s edits on subjects ranging from Alexander the Great to Aston Villa football club.

https://www.ft.com/content/f2e62ee6-0014-11e7-8d8e-a5e3738f9ae4

FT Paywall.