Weird & Interesting science, take 2

[robkelk]

Previous thread is previous

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Apparently, "giant sun dogs" doesn't refer to a D&D monster type. The photos are still interesting, though, and there's enough description as to why it happens to elevate the article to at least pop-sci level.

Giant sun dogs light up the sky as temperatures drop in Prince George

[Bob Schroeck]

Want to lob rocks at people you don't like and see what happens? Try the Asteroid Launcher.

[robkelk]

Snakes have clitorises, and scientists finally found them

It might have taken this long because in the past it was male scientists who were looking for them...

[Bob Schroeck]

<rimshot>

[Norgarth]

Scientific American - Archeologists have discovered a mystery at the bottom of Lake Huron (from 2021)

[classicdrogn]

RC car endurance test


link

FOR SCIENCE!

[classicdrogn]

Throttleable solid rocket fuel


non-embedded

Also covers a liquid monopropellant developed by the same company, since apparently even the usually extremely stable HIPEP (the first stuff) won't stop burning at SRB scale. The energy density and lack of sloshing around makes it good for smaller applications like satellite stationkeeping motors though, and apparently also practical effects for movies.

[robkelk]

Ring system discovered around dwarf planet Quaoar leaves astronomers puzzled

The Roche limit states that ring systems can only form within a distance where the tidal forces from a larger body are more powerful than a smaller object's own gravitational forces. In short, debris captured inside a planet's Roche limit will be ripped apart and compressed into a ring system. Any material outside this distance, however, will more likely stick together under gravity and form a moon instead.

Quaoar, however, breaks this rule. Its ring system is intact at orbits at a distance over seven times the dwarf planet's radius. Saturn's ring system is located at a distance only three times its radius, for comparison. Now astronomers are puzzled over how such a ring system can survive so far from its parent body.

[RMH999]

Gorilla sized penguins existed 60 million years ago 

These are estimated to have weighed 340 lbs (previous record holder is 260 lbs).  Not enough remains to determine the height yet.

The Mountains of Madness aren't in Antarctica, they're in New Zealand.  Teliki-li! Teliki-li!

[RMH999]

New Theory says Black Holes are the source of Dark Energy

[Dartz]

It's all about Black Holes and Gravity warping space time and causing space to expand around them or some shit.

Do Physics points work like Mythos points?

[robkelk]

New Theory says Black Holes are the source of Dark Energy

Somebody better tell Sailor Moon...

[RMH999]

Epidural Stimulators give benefits for stroke victims

Small pilot study (2 people) using epidural stimulators (implanted electrical stimulators in spine normally used for pain control) regain hand and arm movement years after stroke.

The stimulators have shown a lot of potential in SCI patients (works in the basic science side of a department doing a lot of work with the stimulators)

[robkelk]

NASA spots first evidence of an active volcano on Venus – in three-decade-old data

[hazard]

Goes to show that old data can still be good.

[Norgarth]

Anton Petrov - Wow, Sun just produced a Carrington like event, but we got super lucky

[Bob Schroeck]

[Norgarth]

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/202...l-of-stars
a 'glitch' in an old Hubble photo turns out to be a supermassive black hole streaking through intergalatic space and leaving a trail of stars behind it that stretches 200,000 lightyears

[hazard]

Moving fast enough to go from Earth to the Moon in 14 minutes, too. A quick and dirty calculation tells me it's moving at about 0.16% the speed of light. And the trail is 200 000 light years long, so it was shot out 125 millions years or so ago.

Oh, and apparently there is a binary black hole system shot out the other side of the galaxy, with no evidence of a black hole in the center of the galaxy they came from.

[robkelk]

e=mc² demonstrated experimentally.

For the first time scientists observe the creation of matter from light

[classicdrogn]

From that same site, an article about radio signals plausibly possible to have been generated by intelligent life, from a goldilocks zone earthlike planet about 130ly away

https://www.physics-astronomy.com/astron...tists-say/

I remain skeptical, and even if true it's unlikely to have any practical impact within our lifetimes. Well, unless the Dark Forest hypothesis is right and we manage to decode them into reports of the invasion there before the Boogies get around to us...

[Inquisitive Raven]

Just remember that pulsars were once speculated to be produced by intelligent beings before we figured out what was really going on.

[Dartz]

It's going to be a researcher's microwave again.

Someone's reheating pan-fried mackerel in garlic un the staff canteen.

[Norgarth]

Anton Petrov - Important Findings About the Milky Way Shape and Magnetic Lines

[robkelk]

Black holes are messy eaters