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  1. #121
    Who's driving? Oh my God Bear is driving! How can that be??
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    Quote Originally Posted by SathFenrir View Post
    So I'm on call this week at Chandra X-ray observatory which means I'm in charge of handling all the quick turnaround targets and interrupting the current schedule on the satellite. About 5 minutes ago I just got paged for request for time for an observation of Proxima Centuri to follow-up on the transit of the exoplanet posted above.

    P. Cool.
    That's pretty badass. How long was the observation for?

  2. #122
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    Quote Originally Posted by TummieGaruda View Post
    That's pretty badass. How long was the observation for?
    15 kiloseconds with 2 follow-up 15 kilosecond observations at different phases to get more area coverage. Waiting for approval from director though. I laid out a timeline starting september 5 that could fit 3-4 observations in before it goes into sunblock in november, but her response was evaluate over 1-2 weeks. P. much fucks my timelines so who knows what is gonna happen.

    idt it's high priority since we are x-ray telescope and it is mainly to get overlapping observation with non x-ray telescopes. X-ray scope prob not gonna see anything relevant to exoplanet transit.

  3. #123

    Not sure if anyone has posted but OSIRIS-REX is set to launch on the 8th, the patches are pretty badass, picked up some while at lunch (A T-Rex grabbing an asteroid with it's teeth lol). Need to make some contacts with people over on that mission so I can get look around at some point.

  4. #124
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meresgi View Post
    Not sure if anyone has posted but OSIRIS-REX is set to launch on the 8th, the patches are pretty badass, picked up some while at lunch (A T-Rex grabbing an asteroid with it's teeth lol). Need to make some contacts with people over on that mission so I can get look around at some point.
    Man I want one of those lol

  5. #125

    Quote Originally Posted by SathFenrir View Post
    Man I want one of those lol
    If you're in Maryland can totally hook you up, only $4 haha, might have them at the visitor's center at Goddard too

  6. #126
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meresgi View Post
    If you're in Maryland can totally hook you up, only $4 haha, might have them at the visitor's center at Goddard too
    I'll try to remember this when I visit my friend at Hopkins'

  7. #127
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    Sath, please explain the CNN home page saying the Russians found an interesting signal that indicates extraterrestrial life in 2015 and why I shouldn't start building a starship right now.

  8. #128
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    Quote Originally Posted by Buffy View Post
    Sath, please explain the CNN home page saying the Russians found an interesting signal that indicates extraterrestrial life in 2015 and why I shouldn't start building a starship right now.
    Because Russia

  9. #129
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    Also I haven't heard about what you're talking about which is pretty much all the explanation /I/ would need for knowing it is nothing. Anytime something important happens, if I don't already know about it, there are ~100 other physicists waiting to tell me about it,

  10. #130
    Who's driving? Oh my God Bear is driving! How can that be??
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    I believe the Russians failed protocol by not getting the signal verified so it got swept under the table and now the signal appeared again.

    Edit: Looks like it was sent for verification but the methods used to measure the signal made it look unimpressive (data showed signal wasn't persistant, signal was gone in re-observations, and various sources of interference were present) and they didn't look into it further. Because the media got a hold of this story it's most likely going to be checked again.

  11. #131
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  12. #132
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    By the way, it's pretty fucking cool we have scientist peeps with Astro-related backgrounds to explain this stuff. One of the real highlights of BG at the moment.

  13. #133
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zetanio View Post
    This is an aerospace engineering issue and I don't have time today to read it. We used to have a poster who went on to work at boeing for that field iirc. I'll drop this link to him on FB and see if he can come learn us something.

  14. #134
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zetanio View Post
    I'll try...

    Basically the EM drive is a theoretical reactionless engine that does not use propelleant to propell an object. From what I can recall, it was controversial because the idea defied Newtons 3rd law of motion (for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction). In normal engines, the ignition of the fuel source in which the exhaust flow pushes in one direction and the opposite and equal reaction is the rocket propelling forward. With the EM drive, it uses a magnetron to create microwaves which bounce around inside of a closed cone and the microwaves would push against the back end of the cone and propel a craft forward. Basically in the link the scientist are going to release information about the EM Drive and that they have achieved thrust in the form of 1.2 millinewtons per 1 kW of energy.

  15. #135
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    Awesome. That's a better explanation than I could find.

  16. #136
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    For anyone in the boston area who wanted more info on the exoplanet. This is open to the public.

  17. #137
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    Aw man work hours. I'm not close enough to go for lunch.

  18. #138
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    There is pre-print and technically I really shouldn't be doing this but I love you guys so... I'm not gonna mention author names, paper title, or copy the abstract exactly, but I'll give you a tl;dr. The exoplanet around ProxCen is not going to be a habitable candidate. Too bad, so sad.

    Some excerpts from the paper that is going to ApJ:

    For all the parameter space explored, the planet is subject to stellar wind pressures of more than 2000 times the one experience by Earth from the solar wind. During an orbit, Proxima b is also subject to pressure changes of 1 to 3 orders of magnitude on timescales of a day. Its magnetopause standoff distance consequently undergoes sudden and periodic changes by a factor of 2 to 5. Proxima b will traverse the interplanetary current sheet twice each orbit, and likely crosses into regions of subsonic wind quite frequently.

  19. #139
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    Quote Originally Posted by SathFenrir View Post
    There is pre-print and technically I really shouldn't be doing this but I love you guys so... I'm not gonna mention author names, paper title, or copy the abstract exactly, but I'll give you a tl;dr. The exoplanet around ProxCen is not going to be a habitable candidate. Too bad, so sad.

    Some excerpts from the paper that is going to ApJ:

    For all the parameter space explored, the planet is subject to stellar wind pressures of more than 2000 times the one experience by Earth from the solar wind. During an orbit, Proxima b is also subject to pressure changes of 1 to 3 orders of magnitude on timescales of a day. Its magnetopause standoff distance consequently undergoes sudden and periodic changes by a factor of 2 to 5. Proxima b will traverse the interplanetary current sheet twice each orbit, and likely crosses into regions of subsonic wind quite frequently.
    Jesus. Sounds like a real pressure cooker.

  20. #140
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    One with not much atmosphere as well if it's getting that much stellar wind.

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