Major astrophysics discovery to be unveiled on Monday.

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Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Jan 26, 2000
50,879
4,268
126
Assuming there is enough power to be had the best way to exit the solar system may be to leave perpendicular to the ecliptic. There may be less to run into.

What's really interesting is that r=2. Gravitational waves have been expected but that was not.
 

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
17,634
15,820
146
paratus what about the natilus iss test section? might it be possible that they might make it and put it with the iss?

Since I just had to go look this up, it's not anywhere close to being flown or we'd have started having meetings and developing ops products.

It's still possible they might, it's what the ISS was designed for, but money is tight all around NASA.
 

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Jan 26, 2000
50,879
4,268
126
Assuming there is enough power to be had the best way to exit the solar system may be to leave perpendicular to the ecliptic. There may be less to run into.

What's really interesting is that r=2. Gravitational waves have been expected but that was not.

Self quoting because of time warp
 
Jan 25, 2011
17,076
9,554
146
Decided to necro this thread since a new group today is saying they have detected gravitational waves.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/11/us/gravitational-waves-feat/index.html

The discovery, based on ripples in space-time detected by LIGO, supports a prediction made by Albert Einstein that's essential to his general theory of relativity. The ripples LIGO detected are based on the merging of two black holes, Reitze said.

"What's really exciting is what comes next," he said. "I think we're opening a window on the universe -- a window of gravitational wave astronomy."

LIGO is described in a statement as "two identical detectors carefully constructed to detect incredibly tiny vibrations from passing gravitational waves," one located in Louisiana, the other in Washington State. The project was created by scientists from Caltech and MIT and funded by the National Science Foundation.

Szabolcs Marka, a physics professor at Columbia University, told CNN that "we will be able to study not just Einstein's general relativity -- we'll be able to find objects we only imagined would exist. We should see a universe that has never been observed before."

See if this one holds up to confirmation.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,854
31,344
146
Interesting. I got an email in my inbox to go watch the press conference live at 10:30am. I have no idea wtf they are talking about so I passed. :D
 

GagHalfrunt

Lifer
Apr 19, 2001
25,284
1,998
126
I was hoping that they found intelligent life on Earth, then I saw the Triumph college kid video and knew that couldn't be possible.
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,920
2,161
126
To clarify on what a big deal this achievement is, it's going to change astronomy and astrophysics for the next 100 years. Gravitational waves are ripples in space/time caused by two massive objects colliding or rotating around each other. They measured the waves off of a black hole collision that occurred 1.3 billion years ago in today's example.

Now, here's the cool part: those waves actually carry information. From them, we can tell things like location, mass, composition, speed, and a lot of other things. This means we may finally be able to actually "see" the interior of a black hole. How cool is that!

In the future, we'll be able to use wave astronomy to study objects previously thought to be observable.
 

reallyscrued

Platinum Member
Jul 28, 2004
2,618
5
81
To clarify on what a big deal this achievement is, it's going to change astronomy and astrophysics for the next 100 years. Gravitational waves are ripples in space/time caused by two massive objects colliding or rotating around each other. They measured the waves off of a black hole collision that occurred 1.3 billion years ago in today's example.

Now, here's the cool part: those waves actually carry information. From them, we can tell things like location, mass, composition, speed, and a lot of other things. This means we may finally be able to actually "see" the interior of a black hole. How cool is that!

In the future, we'll be able to use wave astronomy to study objects previously thought to be observable.

Thanks for the summary, but I think you mean "unobservable".
 

BxgJ

Golden Member
Jul 27, 2015
1,054
123
106
Which ones do you read?

Some are -

http://backreaction.blogspot.com/

http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/

http://profmattstrassler.com/

http://physicsandphysicists.blogspot.com/ - this looks horrid in my web browser, but ok in my rss reader

http://phys.org/

https://www.physicsforums.com/ - pretty good science forum, mods keep it pretty much on topic. A number of profs on there.

http://motls.blogspot.com/ - the strictly physics posts are informative, but I avoid the political stuff he likes to post.

There's more but I don't want to post my whole rss list here.
 

DaTT

Garage Moderator
Moderator
Feb 13, 2003
13,295
121
106
Thought this was a new thread, saw the OP's name on the thread list, pooped a little.
 

TheVrolok

Lifer
Dec 11, 2000
24,254
4,092
136
Got the update from the NYT app earlier in the day. Had an idea it was gravitational waves. Yay LIGO! Exciting!