Science Tidbits #5

[Lupine]

That's pretty amazing, like a CGI animation program filling in the movements between key frames. He could probably create a similar program that repairs damaged or faded film, if enough information exists collectively in all the frames.

Yeah, there's a lot of degraded movies out there that could be helped by this.

[Orpheus]

They're safely in space! Whew!

You know things are bad on Earth when you hear this ALL THE TIME

[RJDiogenes]

Not to mention, "I wish I was up there with them."

[Orpheus]

Decoding NASA press releases:

"Crew Dragon Demonstration Mission 2 extended from a few days to 4-6 months" = Behnken and Hurley are not willing to come back just yet

"In an unexpected decision, NASA authorized SpaceX to reuse Crew Dragons on future NASA/ISS missions" = Guys, you HAVE to come back. We need the spacecraft!

[RJDiogenes]

Stand by for the first Repo Spaceman.

[Lupine]

Images of planets orbiting a sun-like star have been taken.
Both appear to be super-Jupiters and orbit so far from their primary that even their moons wouldn't have anything like Earth-like climates. But we're getting closer to the point we'll have pics of Earth-like planets.

[RJDiogenes]

That's pretty sweet. Those are pretty far away from the star, though. Even the closest one is several times the distance of Pluto, which makes me wonder if they're even stable. Although there are the planetary formation theories that say gas giants form far away and then migrate in.

I wonder if they'll be able to tease any other information out of those images, like the presence of water or surface temperature. The larger one probably gives off a decent amount of heat, although it probably wouldn't be enough to do its moons any good.

[Lupine]

^Though perhaps it's not as rare as they suppose for planets to be out that far. After all binary stars can have separations that far or farther. Why not planets?

[RJDiogenes]

That's true. Although the binary companion would have greater mass, which probably means greater stability.

[Lupine]

Both of these are pretty big planets.

[RJDiogenes]

True enough.

Thinking about this makes me wonder about what the Lagrange Points are like for systems like this. I've speculated before that Superjupiters could have Lagrange Points that can hold planets, since Jupiter itself has asteroid clouds in its leading and trailing zones, but imagine how big and stable they would be for a binary star system.

[Lupine]

^And close in super-Jupiters could have those worlds inside the Goldilocks zone.

Meanwhile in other planet news, a new study suggests that some mini-Neptunes may actually be large water-worlds.
If memory serves this sounds like the "steam worlds" that had been discussed before. It doesn't help when it comes to habitability though. While I'm sure various kinds of bacteria could survive on these worlds, the atmospheric pressure would make it a poor place to vacation.

[RJDiogenes]

^And close in super-Jupiters could have those worlds inside the Goldilocks zone.

Exactly what I was thinking. I'm always trying to find new ways for planets to be habitable.

Meanwhile in other planet news, a new study suggests that some mini-Neptunes may actually be large water-worlds.
If memory serves this sounds like the "steam worlds" that had been discussed before. It doesn't help when it comes to habitability though. While I'm sure various kinds of bacteria could survive on these worlds, the atmospheric pressure would make it a poor place to vacation.

There could be more than bacteria, too, when you think about the variety of marine life we have in the lowest depths of the ocean. Even if the proximity to the star is turning some of these planets into steam baths, the depths are probably still pretty cool-- and getting a lot of circulation.

[RJDiogenes]

Endeavor is supposed to splash down (!) this weekend. I'm not sure exactly when.

[Lupine]

August 2 is the closest I can find- and that is in doubt due to the hurricane.