Large Hardon Collider

**Psion** · 2010-11-18 17:37

Hey, he was the one who started the ad hominem attacks. Fair game, I say.

Like I said, the only one's who have attempted to even try are Ferion, and now Kaylia. Attack the data, not the person.

I only posted it cause it appeared on Popsci, which I thought was interesting, but I also agree the sample size isn't high enough. Unfortunately, the field isn't exactly well funded, so people demand higher sample sizes, then refuse to pay them to help get those sample sizes heh. A lot of these things are running with a budget that comes out of the researchers own pockets, and last I checked, most researchers don't have much in there.

Maybe if I find time this weekend besides the lolpolitical science exam, building my new computer, and procrastinating from my homework, I'll try finding some better articles. I'll admit I'm not a statistician though, so I'm not the best at finding such things. Doesn't help most of the good stuff is in the journal of parapsychology and the like, which means you gotta pay for subscription or however scientific journals work. <.<;

::edit:: Oh yeah, forgot to mention Kaylia, these researchers use actual RNGs to generate random data, not pseudorandom number generators such as those you use for your computer and gaming. That might alter your results a bit, though of course, it's still not that unlikely to get the numbers they got. But another article reviewing it said the odds were about 1 in 100, so I'm guessing either you or they did some wrong number crunching, or the sample size is higher than 1000.

**Eliseos** · 2010-11-18 18:29

Miz will especially appreciate this:

Planet from Another Galaxy Discovered: Galactic Cannibalism Brings an Exoplanet of Extragalactic Origin Within Astronomers' Reach

ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2010) — Over the last 15 years, astronomers have detected nearly 500 planets orbiting stars in our cosmic neighbourhood, but none outside our Milky Way has been confirmed [1]. Now, however, a planet with a minimum mass 1.25 times that of Jupiter [2] has been discovered orbiting a star of extragalactic origin, even though the star now finds itself within our own galaxy. It is part of the so-called Helmi stream -- a group of stars that originally belonged to a dwarf galaxy that was devoured by our galaxy, the Milky Way, in an act of galactic cannibalism about six to nine billion years ago.

The results are published in Science Express.
"This discovery is very exciting," says Rainer Klement of the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA), who was responsible for the selection of the target stars for this study. "For the first time, astronomers have detected a planetary system in a stellar stream of extragalactic origin. Because of the great distances involved, there are no confirmed detections of planets in other galaxies. But this cosmic merger has brought an extragalactic planet within our reach."

The star is known as HIP 13044, and it lies about 2000 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Fornax (the Furnace). The astronomers detected the planet, called HIP 13044 b, by looking for the tiny telltale wobbles of the star caused by the gravitational tug of an orbiting companion. For these precise observations, the team used the high-resolution spectrograph FEROS [3] attached to the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope [4] at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Adding to its claim to fame, HIP 13044 b is also one of the few exoplanets known to have survived the period when its host star expanded massively after exhausting the hydrogen fuel supply in its core -- the red giant phase of stellar evolution. The star has now contracted again and is burning helium in its core. Until now, these so-called horizontal branch stars have remained largely uncharted territory for planet-hunters.

"This discovery is part of a study where we are systematically searching for exoplanets that orbit stars nearing the end of their lives," says Johny Setiawan, also from MPIA, who led the research. "This discovery is particularly intriguing when we consider the distant future of our own planetary system, as the Sun is also expected to become a red giant in about five billion years."

HIP 13044 b is near to its host star. At the closest point in its elliptical orbit, it is less than one stellar diameter from the surface of the star (or 0.055 times the Sun-Earth distance). It completes an orbit in only 16.2 days. Setiawan and his colleagues hypothesise that the planet's orbit might initially have been much larger, but that it moved inwards during the red giant phase.

Any closer-in planets may not have been so lucky. "The star is rotating relatively quickly for an horizontal branch star," says Setiawan. "One explanation is that HIP 13044 swallowed its inner planets during the red giant phase, which would make the star spin more quickly."

Although HIP 13044 b has escaped the fate of these inner planets so far, the star will expand again in the next stage of its evolution. HIP 13044 b may therefore be about to be engulfed by the star, meaning that it is doomed after all. This could also foretell the demise of our outer planets -- such as Jupiter -- when the Sun approaches the end of its life.

The star also poses interesting questions about how giant planets form, as it appears to contain very few elements heavier than hydrogen and helium -- fewer than any other star known to host planets. "It is a puzzle for the widely accepted model of planet formation to explain how such a star, which contains hardly any heavy elements at all, could have formed a planet. Planets around stars like this must probably form in a different way," adds Setiawan.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1118141545.htm

**zoobernut** · 2010-11-18 19:37

Damn I am too slow. I just got done reading the article about the planet and the trapped antihydrogen atoms and was going to come here to post them. Very interesting reads both of them. I am really interested to see what kinds of experiments they can run once they fine tune the containment methods to keep the antimatter around longer.

**Cruzizzle** · 2010-11-19 12:53

Some images I thought you guys might enjoy. I'm still pretty new at this, but I'm getting better. If I wasn't so lazy I'd get out more and get more familiar with my equipment.

Spoiler: show

**Mizango** · 2010-11-19 13:02

Originally Posted by Eliseos

Miz will especially appreciate this:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1118141545.htm

Oh wow, first time seeing that. Let me see what else I can find regarding that, good looking out <3

Originally Posted by Cruzizzle

Some images I thought you guys might enjoy. I'm still pretty new at this, but I'm getting better. If I wasn't so lazy I'd get out more and get more familiar with my equipment.

Spoiler: show

Holy cow, those are absolutely gorgeous. If you ever do get a clear shot of Jupiter, marvel at its wonder, seriously. But those moon pics are spot on the money. Let me find a few that I can upload for you guys.

**Woozie** · 2010-11-19 16:36

CRUZIZZLE GOTCHU!

Edit: Did I ever even post the "Hubble Gotchu" video here?

**Eliseos** · 2010-11-19 16:53

Those Jupiter shots are awesome. It's crazy how perfect of a plane the moons are in.

**Max™** · 2010-11-19 16:59

I got to show that to my woman last month, we also got to see Uranus almost in the same shot with Jupiter.

She was fussing at me for getting her out to look through the telescope again because of the rather disappointing shots through the little cheapie one I had.

Then I found the TeleStar they had boxed up in the attic. Got a shot just like that one you posted, all the moons visible, Uranus a click over from it as a pale blue dot, she told me that was definitely worth the trouble, lol.

**Cruzizzle** · 2010-11-19 18:12

Yeah that is Uranus in the top left of that shot. Forgot about that actually until you mentioned it.

I can see how easy it is to get 'aperture fever' though. Those are the best shots I'll ever have of Jupiter with my current equipment. ; ;

Hopefully I can learn how to squeeze the most out of what I got though. I realize I'm jumping into the deep end quick, but the next clear night I get I'll be working on mastering drift alignment and hopefully within the next month or two I'll give Andromeda and Orion Nebula a try.

**Woozie** · 2010-11-21 13:46

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd102910s.gif

Edit:

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd092410s.gif

Edit:

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd081610s.gif

I laughed WAY harder at that than I should have.

**BerenTebogo** · 2010-11-22 13:10

lol'd hard at the first one.

**Kaylia** · 2010-11-22 13:43

@lol at the 2nd one.

My teacher was gone 2 months out of the three this semester, this one hit straigth at home

Originally Posted by Eliseos

Those Jupiter shots are awesome. It's crazy how perfect of a plane the moons are in.

I think it would be crazier if they werent on the same plane!

**Shiroikage** · 2010-11-22 14:18

Speaking of PhD Comics, how's the free food situation for other students?
I can't imagine getting even half as many free breakfasts and snacks without the constant product shows that we have at our building.

**Woozie** · 2010-11-22 14:41

My free food is almost always cookies and punch. Sometimes muffins. That's all we have at our seminars and stuff. Muffins are easier to fill up on so I hate when it's just cookies. Between the math department and the physics department there's usually at least 1 thing a week I can go to for free muffins/cookies.

Though I do get brownies and cookies from my students in the class I TA. In fact, my dinner Thursday night and breakfast Friday morning was brownies and cookies. Thursday night one of my students invited me over for tacos, though I didn't go. But she invited me over to study for our final (we have a class together) and she's making tacos again that night.

Edit: Oh yeah, our physics department throws pizza and/or Chinese food parties every few months too. Usually a few per semester.

**Shiroikage** · 2010-11-22 15:01

We get about a product show every week or two and that always comes with some sort of breakfast food and snack type things so you always can get a free breakfast and then take a bunch of stuff back for later in the day. Our seminars don't come with refreshments (which fucking blows) but if we have a visiting speaker, sometimes we get a free pizza lunch.

Sometimes there's a conference or something happening, and you can kind of piggyback in on it and go get a bunch of free food like that. There's also undergraduate/graduate wine and cheeses that I sometimes take advantage of, especially when they're outside of my department.

I envy the fact that you are getting free food that is essentially unrelated to university events. Free food is the one thing that can make or break a day.

**Waef** · 2010-11-22 18:52

Sorry to post more Calculus 3 questions, but this is due tomorrow and I want to make sure I have the correct answers. If anyone is willing to take the time to let me know if these problems are correct it would be MUCH appreciated.

The first one is:

Let R be the region in the first quadrant of the xy-plane bounded by the hyperbolas xy=1, xy=9, the lines y=x and y=3x. Use the transformation v=sqrt(y/x), u=sqrt(xy) with u>0 and v>0 to rewrite the integral below over an appropriate region G in the uv-plane. Then evaluate the uv-integral over G.

Double integral over G of: (sqrt(y/x)+sqrt(xy)) dxdy.

The answer I got was 52/3(ln(sqrt3)) + 8(sqrt(3) -1).

The second problem is:

Let D be the region bounded by the paraboloids z = 2 - x^2 - y^2 and z = 2x^2 + y^2. Find the volume of the region D using an iterated integral.

For this one, the answer I got was pi*sqrt(2/3)

Are these answers correct?

**BerenTebogo** · 2010-11-23 20:44

So my Calc 2 exam on all the types of series is tomorrow and I'm pretty sure I understand everything clearly except Taylor/Mac series. It's not a huge deal since like 95% of the exam will be on things that aren't the T/M series and I'm sure I understand it enough to get at least most of the problems focusing on them done, but really, it'd only be because I've memorized the process.

I'm having a hard time understanding the nature of the T/M series I guess. I watched a video on youtube that tried to explain really what it is for and etc, and that helped a bit, but I could really use an explanation in common sense terms I guess. It's hard to properly describe my confusion, but if anyone has any tricks they use to really grasp the underlying concept of T/M series I'd be really appreciative.

**Eliseos** · 2010-11-23 20:53

Taylor series are used for finding small perturbations about a minimum of a function (or at least that's what I've always used them for in my classes). Think of a skateboarder in a valley, he'll move back and forth at a small distance at the bottom. He won't ever really "stop" since he'll keep going a smaller and smaller distance up the hill (ignoring friction of course). You'd be taylor expanding the position here, so the terms would be x, d/dx, d^2/dx^2, etc. You would ignore all the other terms since velocity is near zero and the position you aren't really interested in, so you'd use the x^2 term in the Taylor series to approximate this motion as a spring, with the spring constant being the (x-a)^2 term.

I don't really know if that made any sense at all or if that answered what you were asking.

**BerenTebogo** · 2010-11-23 21:08

Lost me but I appreciate the effort, lol.

**Cruzizzle** · 2010-11-23 23:38

Yay more pictures! Took these just tonight. A couple with my new lens and one through my scope. I've shopped them some, especially pleiades, I couldn't get the picture before moonrise though so I didn't get enough of the nebulosity that I wanted. Still I'm pretty pleased.

Spoiler: show

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