New Scientific Discoveries, Part Vier

[rjshae]

A Stellar Flyby Jumbled Up the Outer Solar System (Universe Today)

Quote

An ancient passerby may have visited the Sun and inadvertently helped shape the Solar System into what it is today. It happened billions of years ago when a stellar drifter came to within 110 astronomical units (AU) of our Sun. The effects were long-lasting and we can see evidence of the visitor’s fleeting encounter throughout the Solar System.

It does explain a lot. I wonder if it does better than the 9th planet hypothesis that was raised a few years ago to explain the orbits of TNOs?

Here's the original paper:

Trajectory of the stellar flyby that shaped the outer Solar System (Nature)

If they could find a captured object from the other star, that would be solid evidence.

[Zoraptor]

That explanation has been around a while as an alternative to PlanetX (as was, definitely not dead) or Nemesis (red/ brown dwarf solar companion; would also explain apparent mass extinction periodicity) hypotheses. Those both work theoretically, but neither has been found and for Nemesis at least that's getting to be a real problem. The attraction of something extra solar doing it is that you wouldn't expect to find anything, just its effects.

[rjshae]

20 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

That explanation has been around a while as an alternative to PlanetX (as was, definitely not dead) or Nemesis (red/ brown dwarf solar companion; would also explain apparent mass extinction periodicity) hypotheses. Those both work theoretically, but neither has been found and for Nemesis at least that's getting to be a real problem. The attraction of something extra solar doing it is that you wouldn't expect to find anything, just its effects.

I suppose the difference this time is the application of numerous computer simulations that are used to reproduce essentially all of the observed properties of TNOs. A K-type star is a significant interloper that would have been even more severely disrupted by the more massive Sun, possibly losing members to the Solar System. I wonder if this happened while the Sun was still part of its origin stellar association?

[Zoraptor]

IIRC the expectation is that less massive stars have planets orbiting proportionately closer, eg a lot of red dwarfs have detected planets with years of only a few Earth days and are closer to their sun than Mercury is to ours, so the disruption for a smaller intruder is not as disproportionate as might be expected. Unless the difference is really large and the passage very close. I'd suspect it being part of the same stellar association is unlikely* solely on principle, but that's about as far from a solid conclusion as it's possible to get.

It'd certainly be tempting to think that the spate of big planetary scale collisions that happened ~4bn years ago were caused by an intruder. That's whatever knocked Uranus over onto its side, Theia's putative collision with Earth and some people are pretty confident Venus had a large collision as well to explain why its rotation is odd- and its greenhouse effect/ weird volcanism; with it at one point even having a roughly Lunar equivalent moon. They may well have all been 'natural', though the explanations are not incompatible with an intruder, ie something perturbed Theia but it doesn't have to be Venus/ Jupiter doing it and if it were them they may have themselves been perturbed first. It's all complicated too by planetary orbits changing 'naturally' over astronomical timescales...

*kind of by definition stars in stellar associations tend to drift apart rather than together over astronomical timespans.

[rjshae]

3 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

IIRC the expectation is that less massive stars have planets orbiting proportionately closer, eg a lot of red dwarfs have detected planets with years of only a few Earth days and are closer to their sun than Mercury is to ours, so the disruption for a smaller intruder is not as disproportionate as might be expected. Unless the difference is really large and the passage very close. I'd suspect it being part of the same stellar association is unlikely* solely on principle, but that's about as far from a solid conclusion as it's possible to get.

That is perhaps true for M-dwarfs (or a selection bias effect?), but this hypothesized star has 80% of a solar mass. A comparable star is Epsilon Eridani, which has a jovian planet and an rich asteroid system extending out to 75 AU. There may be other planets around Epsilon Eridani, but the star is active so radial velocity signals get drowned out. Planets in wider orbits may not show up because of the duration of the orbit and/or stellar activity. We need better technology.

Edited September 19 by rjshae

[Gfted1]

US scientists teleport energy, store it using quantum computers (interestingengineering.com)

[Gfted1]

What time is SpaceX's Starship Flight 5 launch test on Oct. 13 (and how to watch online)? | Space

[Gfted1]

I cant believe those crazy sonsabiatches pulled it off! What a time to be alive.

[kanisatha]

32 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

I cant believe those crazy sonsabiatches pulled it off! What a time to be alive.

Agree 1000%!

What an incredible feat of engineering!

[rjshae]

The landing capture is super cool!

[Gorth]

Somewhere between "things you didn't need to know" and "people with too much time on their hands"

Of course, the latter could also explain cricket

 

 

[Gfted1]

SpaceX Announces Sixth Starship Test Flight on Nov. 18 | Extremetech

[rjshae]

Timber! Japan launches world’s first wooden satellite into space

Quote

 

Researchers in Japan have launched the world’s first wooden satellite to test the feasibility of using timber in space. Dubbed LignoSat2, the small “cubesat” was developed by Kyoto University and the logging firm Sumitomo Forestry. It was launched on 4 November to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Given the lack of water and oxygen in space, wood is potentially more durable in orbit than it is on Earth where it can rot or burn. This makes it an attractive and sustainable alternative to metals such as aluminium that can create aluminium oxide particles during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

 

 

[Gfted1]

What to expect during SpaceX's 6th Starship test flight on Nov. 18 | Space

[Lexx]

Few years ago this felt impossible. Now it seems actually very feasible. Shame they didn't catch the booster again, but hey, maybe next time.

[ComradeYellow]

https://www.earth.com/news/ai-helps-humans-have-20-minute-conversation-with-humpback-whale-named-twain/

Whales!  Whales are cool once you get to know them (now possible).

Did you know

Whales (and all cetaceans) were once artiodactyls land mammals, 50 million years ago.  They slowly evolved back in sea as their descents spent more and more time in the ocean eating fish.  I consider the Blue Whale an evolutionary masterpiece, considering the 50 million year successful journey.

Save the whales!

https://youtu.be/igqav-i99hw?si=J4El8SI6QIOMaZoQ

 

[Chilloutman]

5 hours ago, ComradeYellow said:

https://www.earth.com/news/ai-helps-humans-have-20-minute-conversation-with-humpback-whale-named-twain/

Whales!  Whales are cool once you get to know them (now possible).

Did you know

Whales (and all cetaceans) were once artiodactyls land mammals, 50 million years ago.  They slowly evolved back in sea as their descents spent more and more time in the ocean eating fish.  I consider the Blue Whale an evolutionary masterpiece, considering the 50 million year successful journey.

Save the whales!

https://youtu.be/igqav-i99hw?si=J4El8SI6QIOMaZoQ

 

There are species which are around longer than whales, Crocs and Sharks are here almost unchanged from times first dinos showed up

[ComradeYellow]

Yes, I am aware of that, but whales win the popularity contest and are cooler than sharks and crocodiles, and have a more intriguing story.  Longevity is awesome and noteworthy but awesomeness always win out in the end.  I could have said that the bowhead whale is the best because they have longer lifespans and some nifty mechanics but Blue Whales are just more awesome. 

[kanisatha]

On 11/19/2024 at 5:35 PM, Lexx said:

Few years ago this felt impossible. Now it seems actually very feasible. Shame they didn't catch the booster again, but hey, maybe next time.

Apparently because they lost comms with the booster's computer, and decided to play it safe. But only one more water recovery for the ship, after which even the ship is to be caught by the launch tower.

[Gorth]

Those Australian universities are at it again!

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c748kmvwyv9o

 

"Two Australian mathematicians have called into question an old adage, that if given an infinite amount of time, a monkey pressing keys on a typewriter would eventually write the complete works of William Shakespeare."

...

"The results indicated that even if every chimp in the world was enlisted and able to type at a pace of one key per second until the end of the universe, they wouldn't even come close to typing out the Bard's works.

There would be a 5% chance that a single chimp would successfully type the word "bananas" in its own lifetime. And the probability of one chimp constructing a random sentence - such as "I chimp, therefore I am" - comes in at one in 10 million billion billion, the research indicates."

 

There you go, very little chance of a chimp infringing on Shakespeare's intellectual property!