Group items tagged

This paper introduces a novel deflection approach based on nuclear explosions: the nuclear cycler. The idea is to combine the effectiveness of nuclear explosions with the controllability and redundancy offered by slow push methods within an incremental deflection strategy. The paper will present an extended model for single nuclear stand-off explosions in the proximity of elongated ellipsoidal asteroids, and a family of natural formation orbits that allows the spacecraft to deploy multiple bombs while being shielded by the asteroid during the detonation.

"In a recent paper published in Physical Review Letters (PRL) Jérôme Duplat and Emmanuel Villermaux developed a method to generate centimeter-sized vacuum bubbles in water with miniature laser-driven explosions, and observed the flash of light produced as the bubble collapsed a not-fully-understood phenomenon known as sonoluminescence." Amazingly they concluded that the temperatrue inside the bubble as it collapses is about 26000 K. At this temperatures some (not me) argue for nuclear fusion... Intriguing stuff!!! Check the videos! Yet another test for the 'Experimental Physics Stagiare' :-)?

For sure no fusion, that starts appr. from about 20keV, not 20kK. Between both there is still a factor of 11500. What I would rather expect is that the conditions are not appropriate to work with Maxwellian distribution functions. If certain fusion products should be measurable, than this would rather confirm (but not proof) the hypothesis that they do not have Maxwellians but something close to monoenergetic. But most probably they will not measure fusion products, hence no fusion, hence no confusion.

"One of the leading theories describing how the most energetic cosmic rays are produced may need a rethink in light of a new study by physicists at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. The team had set out to detect the extremely energetic neutrinos that are expected to be produced alongside high-energy cosmic rays in the violent explosions that mark the deaths of massive stars - but after looking at hundreds of these explosions, no such neutrinos have been found. "

An amazing video.. while science is still puzzled what actually happened

There's one very simple explanation I can think of...

Andrés and Ian - you might like this particularly ....

looks like an application of laser filamentation ...

ESA Science & Technology: A leap forward in probing magnetic reconnection in space: Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental physical process in the Universe, playing a major role in various phenomena such as star formation or solar explosions, but also preventing plasma confinement in fusion reactors on Earth. However, a lack of precise measurements at the heart of this physical process prevents a full understanding of this phenomenon.

One more reason why we should be much more open about all these EO data we have .... The two citizen scientists, Kian Jek and Robert Gagliano, are listed as authors on the scientific paper recently published. I love this: the digital nature of these data make it far, far easier to analyze the science than it was in the past, and also easier to get the data out to people. Because of this, we have an explosive growth in these kinds of projects. Planet Hunters is great, but then so is Galaxy Zoo, Moon Mappers, Ice Hunters, and so many others. You can find several of these collected at the CosmoQuest website.

Wiktor is also collecting these science games in the ACT-wiki. You should have a look at: http://sophia.estec.esa.int/actwiki/index.php/On-line_Games_4_Science

Jul 13, Nanotechnology/Nanomaterials Researchers have shown that clusters of 40 boron atoms form a molecular cage similar to the carbon buckyball. This is the first experimental evidence that such a boron cage structure exists. Credit: Wang lab / Brown UniversityThe discovery 30 years ago of soccer-ball-shaped carbon molecules called buckyballs helped to spur an explosion of nanotechnology research.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 explosion was caused by a failed strut that allowed a helium bottle to burst free inside the rocket's liquid oxygen tank, CEO Elon Musk said Monday. "One of those struts broke free during flight," Musk told reporters on a conference call to discuss the June 28 blast on what was supposed to be a routine cargo mission to the International Space Station.

I guess this is how it starts as they mentioned they will inspect struts individually before each flight. Also for the space shuttle they believed a rapid inspection between launches would be feasible, but in the end there was a need for individual assessment almost. And we haven't even considered human spaceflight yet.

as predicted, first failure, first inquiry board, first new safety procedures ... and certainly many more will follow and all will make sense but with the risk of loosing the competitive edge

essentially they made an experiment that does not prove or disprove anything -big deal-... what is the scientific value of "strongly disfavour"??? I also like the sentence "most models do not have exact predictions for the energy scale associated with this violation of Lorentz invariance" ... but if this is true WHAT IS THE POINT OF THE EXPERIMENT!!!! God, physics is in trouble ....

hum, null result experiments are not useless !!! there is always the hope of finding "something wrong", which would lead to a great discovery. For the state of theoretical physics (the "no exact predictions" quote), i totally agree that physics is in trouble... That's what happen when physicists don't care anymore about experiments...! All you can do now is drawing "nice"graph with upper bounds on some parameters of an all tunable weird theory !

No comments

Short GRBS are formed when neutron stars (in a binary system) slam into one another. On the other hand, long GRBs are a result of massive stars going supernova. Stars end their lives in violent explosions, typically leaving behind remnants like neutron stars.

This concept for a "soft-robotic rover with electrodynamic power scavenging" comes from Cornell University, and NASA has awarded it a grant under the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program to hoist itself up from TRL 1 to TRL 2.