Science Tidbits #5

[RJDiogenes]

Oh, yeah, I remember when South Weymouth NAS was open when I was a kid. We had a lot of rumbling. And shrieking.

[Lupine]

It was worse here before George Air Force Base was closed. Back then the valley was covered by radar so the F-4s would dive in for some hot-dogging. There was even a cargo plane that dipped so low that it clipped the tops of our neighbor's trees.

[RJDiogenes]

Whoa. Good thing nobody had a treehouse.

[scottydog]

Wow, an unmapped fault. That's interesting and scary. What did it sound like?

Kind of a low rumbling.

It is kind of amazing how many times an earthquake reveals an unknown fault.

My experience with hundreds of quakes is that they're like snowflakes -- no two shakings are alike.

[huggle]

that's a good comparism. But the infrasound bang that we feel before we hear anything or before the ground starts to shake appears to be something they all have in common, like all snowflakes being hexagonal.

[scottydog]

that's a good comparism. But the infrasound bang that we feel before we hear anything or before the ground starts to shake appears to be something they all have in common, like all snowflakes being hexagonal.

Wow, you really know your snowflakes, huggle! What was your major in college?

[huggle]

I had two: Biology and English. And as German rules require 2 further minor subjects I added Social Sciences and Latin.

But physics, and particularly the area where biology and physics overlap, has always fascinated me. Hence the faible for snowflakes. It's such a good example for nature always trying out every single possibility and variation one basic model or principle offers. In case of snowflakes it's the angle between the Hydrogen and the two Oxigens that forces them to be hexagonal. But nevertheless everyone is unique. Just like people.

[Lupine]

And we have another planet being billed as Earth 2.
Just a few years ago this would have been a major headline. Now it barely makes a blip. That's how mundane these type of discoveries are becoming. But if life really is common throughout the universe, we're now looking at worlds that have life on them.

[RJDiogenes]

The artist of the artist's conception seems a little pessimistic.

I can't wait till the next generation of telescopes gets up there to do some follow up research. I want to see some spectroscopy!

[RJDiogenes]

A date has been set for the first manned SpaceX mission to the ISS: May 27th.

This also happens to be the date of the 7th season premiere of SHIELD. Coincidence? I think SO!

[Lupine]

^

[Orpheus]

"Reality" shows are cheaper to produce than scripted drama. I guess that was the compromise that got them one final season.

[Lupine]

Looks like a lot of super-Earth's might be water worlds.
However as the article points out, these worlds wouldn't be quite like one would imagine them to be. They'd be rather like little wet Jupiters.

[RJDiogenes]

So we may be what we are not because we're so wet, but because we're so dry. Half the mass of a super-Earth is a lot of water-- a mini-Neptune would definitely be a better term, because, y'know, Neptune. I'm trying to imagine what a gas giant with water instead of gas would be like. The physics and the appearance. That would be pretty wild.

I wonder what the percentage of planets with masses of 1.5 and below are.

"Reality" shows are cheaper to produce than scripted drama. I guess that was the compromise that got them one final season.

Wait, are we still talking about SHIELD?

[Lupine]

I wonder what the percentage of planets with masses of 1.5 and below are.

This is the most recent graph I could find.