LGP Science Thread

[roland]

[youtube][/youtube]

guess you weren't aware that the US and USSR had a joint mission to Mars back in 1962.

[youtube][/youtube]

[Willie Kool]

A NASA spacecraft has spotted a big gully on Mars, a feature that appears to have formed only within the last three years.

http://www.space.com/25147-new-mars-gul ... photo.html

[Gaucho]

[Grunthy]

Canus major is even bigger. Fascinating stuff.

[columbia]

spent a good bit talking about this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

portrayed most of the church as evil, grimy, idiotic, terrible people. Now whether that's accurate or not doesn't really matter, it's still strange propaganda. It's a matter of recognizing that the church at the time was the authority on all things. Those that spoke out at the time were lunatics. We have the advantage of hindsight, and I think to portray all those that disagreed with Bruno (not just the church authority, but everyone) to be evil or idiotic is just disingenuous, especially considering the fact that Bruno really had no proof to back up his claims, he was just going off a vision he had.


Also spent the last 5-10 minutes of the program going on and on about Carl Sagan which was odd.

I quizzed my very Christian and very conservative and very scientific father about the program and specifically asked him whether he thought the show had an anti-religious bent.
His response was, "Only if you're one of those creationist nuts."

[count2infinity]

The newest episode of Cosmos is even better than the first two. The series is getting much better as the episodes go on, so if you watched the first and decided to abandon it, I encourage you to rethink that and watch the second and third episodes.

[bh]

I agree. I really liked the story of Halley, Newton, and old man Hooke. I never realized (if it was accurate) how much Halley had a hand in getting Newton's ideas out in the world.

[count2infinity]

Yeah. I'd be willing to bet that everyone has heard of Newton and know a little about his work, even if it's limited to just the apple falling from the tree, I doubt many know Halley beyond a comet name, and I really doubt many know Hooke beyond maybe remembering in biology class a long time ago that he was the guy that discovered the cell. These are the cool stories that I love about science history.

[tifosi77]

The newest episode of Cosmos is even better than the first two. The series is getting much better as the episodes go on, so if you watched the first and decided to abandon it, I encourage you to rethink that and watch the second and third episodes.

They are streaming full episodes on their website. Looks like they are keeping each episode up for 6 or 7 weeks following initial air date; 13-part show..... eff you, superstition!

[Letang Is The Truth]

A NASA spacecraft has spotted a big gully on Mars, a feature that appears to have formed only within the last three years.

http://www.space.com/25147-new-mars-gul ... photo.html

Optimus prime strikes again

[Gaucho]

Astronomers have discovered a second icy world orbiting in a slice of the solar system where, according to their best understanding, there should have been none.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/27/scien ... share&_r=0

[pittsoccer33]

is it pluto?

[count2infinity]

250 miles wide? That's about 1/6 the size of pluto.

[columbia]

That thing could cool a pretty big hi-ball.

[Gaucho]

Absolutely amazing.

http://www.facts.fm/hubble-gif/

[Ad@m]

Sun, Mars and Earth to align


http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/04/ ... -and-more/

[redwill]

Mars has been incredible lately. Brilliant.

I wish Uranus was that big.

[Gaucho]

twss

[count2infinity]

lol... wtf?

http://nationalreport.net/kansas-black- ... roversies/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[columbia]

lol... wtf?

http://nationalreport.net/kansas-black- ... roversies/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/cosmos.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[columbia]

Well, this is an interesting idea....who knows if anything will ever come of it:

[youtube][/youtube]

[tifosi77]

[PensFanInDC]

[columbia]

[youtube][/youtube]

[tifosi77]

I work with a guy who has a degree in astrophysics from CMU; think Sheldon from TBBT, but less socially adroit. (Why he's in trading card game R&D baffles me, the guy is legit brilliant.) He is not watching 'Cosmos', which saddens me somewhat. Not because I think he's missing out on an educational opportunity - I'm sure any material (aside, perhaps, from the historical stuff) they present on the show will be old hat to him. But I wish he was watching the show so every Monday we could have lunch and he could explain everything in better detail.

Just told him I watched the recent episode about light, and that prompted about 15 minutes of pretty active discussion where he elaborated on much of what the show presented. He was particularly interested in talking about how electrons jump levels.

I still don't really understand anything he was talking about, but it was fascinating.