Large Hardon Collider

[Neosutra]

As "awesome" as NASA is, I would never want to work there. I work on much cooler stuff in the private industry and when I was at Los Alamos. Not to mention NASA is almost perpetually broke.

Los Alamos was by far the coolest place Ive ever worked though, as the town itself is FILLED with brilliant people. Nothing like walking through the isles of the local minimart and seeing 3 noble prize winners buying cheerios.

[Akucaen]

I like the super nova answer. I find it funny that most people dont even know this is the 2nd iteration of our current star (i.e. the current solar system is a remnant of the original sun's supernova/collapse

What's this now? Astronomy has always tickled my fancy and while I'm no expert by ANY means, I've never heard of this either.

[Neosutra]

What's this now? Astronomy has always tickled my fancy and while I'm no expert by ANY means, I've never heard of this either.

Higher order elements only occur in our universe from the fusion process in stars. For a solar system to possess these higher elements, it means that there was a star here originaly that either supernova'd and sent these elements into the outer disk, or collasped and let off a large portion of its mass. Our current star system is the leftovers of that process.

[Kryssan]

And here I go, throwing wrenches into the works.



Just doing some routine browsing, and ran across this. I wasn't aware the Westinghouse AP1000 had received design certification. It's based off of the AP600 design that was one of the new age evolutionary advanced passive design cores; one of the types that was 'coming of age' when I was still in college that we studied over for reactor safeties principles.


Link for the curious.

[Khamsin]

Most people don't even know our star has names other than 'Sun', unless you specifically point it out. Even though it should be obvious. Granted, most of them mean 'sun' or 'star' in some form or another, but that's not the name...

As far as I know, there's no official name. It's just the sun, or foreign language equivalent, like "sol". It doesn't have an actual designation following IAU star naming conventions, does it? Like Rigil Anseris or Zeta Solarii, or something.

[Neosutra]

As far as I know, there's no official name. It's just the sun, or foreign language equivalent, like "sol". It doesn't have an actual designation following IAU star naming conventions, does it? Like Rigil Anseris or Zeta Solarii, or something.

It probably has a name and registration number on some other planet in our galaxy

[Mizango]

Hmmm wouldn't that be cataloged using the (HR) Hertzsprung-Russell space diagram?

[MrW]

Son of a bitch... I just got finished reading these 25 pages and the subsequent articles linked and now I'm pissed that I started my PHD in higher education. I remember taking an astronomy class during undergrad as a cheesy elective (as opposed to bowling and wheelchair basketball) and it unbelievably math intensive and fucking amazing. I'm going to have to ask you guys and gals for more reading sources.

[Mizango]

Son of a bitch... I just got finished reading these 25 pages and the subsequent articles linked and now I'm pissed that I started my PHD in higher education. I remember taking an astronomy class during undergrad as a cheesy elective (as opposed to bowling and wheelchair basketball) and it unbelievably math intensive and fucking amazing. I'm going to have to ask you guys and gals for more reading sources.

I got tons of reading sources man lol, just let me know what you need and BAM! Consider it done. Between all of us here we literally have every base you would ever need covered

[MrW]

I wouldn't even begin to know where a logical starting place would be. Reading that stuff is much more interesting than 4 years of Kantian and Utilitarian models Obviously my level of understanding would be inferior so you're gonna have to lay off some of the bigger words cause I'll have to take that as disrespect.

[Woozie]

Nasa server error is all I got for that link Q.Q.

Oh, what this is going to be the nerdiest question ever, but what is your favorite cosmic phenomenon everyone? Mine is most definitely the Quasar!

They are the most luminous, powerful, and energetic objects known in the universe. They inhabit the very centres of active young galaxies and can emit up to a thousand times the energy of our entire Milky Way.

Largest, baddest, meanest motherfuckers in the universe. God I want one.. to bad none are around anymore.

I'd have to say supernovas (and dying stars in general). Those fascinate me so much. I'm always reading about them and looking at artist or computer animated versions of those. I want to see a supernova and a star swelling into a red giant during my life time (up close, though I don't know how that would be possible. If I saw one of those up close, I'd be too dead to see the other).

Neutron stars also fascinate me because they're litterally huge clumps of degenerate matter, not the whole nucleus and huge gigantic empty space bull crap that normal mater configures itself into. It's litterally just a giant clump of a single type of particle. (Well not really a single particle because it's made of u and d quarks).

Honestly, I just want to see every phase of stellar evolution up close, but supernovas and red giants are the one's I'd want to see most.

Edit: Sorry I'm so incredibly late to the discussion. I have classes all morning on Wednesdays D:

[Woozie]

What's this now? Astronomy has always tickled my fancy and while I'm no expert by ANY means, I've never heard of this either.

The most fascinating thing about this is the fact that our bodies are litterally made of stardust. Every atom in our bodies used to be the inside of a star going through nuclear fusion at some point.

[Woozie]

Sorry for the possible triple post, but I have a question for Neo.

How hard is it to get a job with a Ph.D in physics? When I went to the APS meeting in march, every single person there discouraged me from going into theoretical physics. So if I do go into solid state/Condensed matter physics, how hard is it to get a job there as a professor, and how hard is it to get a job in the indurstry?

From the statistics I saw, the vast majority of people with particle/theoretical/astro physics degrees end up doing something completely unrelated because it's so incredibly difficult to find a job.

People who go into solid state/condensed matter physics seem to have a very easy time finding a job in the industry, it seems. And the median starting salary was like 120k per year based on the statistics the guy provided. As for being a professor, it's slightly harder to find a job there. How hard is it to get to be a full fledged professor? And how hard is it really to find a job in the industry?

Since you actually have experience there, I want to know what your opinion on the matter is.

[Mizango]

I found something cool I would like to share. Click the link and scroll down to the Spectral classes and you will see how close our Sun is to coming to it's end. Granted that is still a few billion years away, which is nothing when talking about space time.

Star Classification - Zoom Astronomy

Scroll down to the "G section", that is the stage our Sun is in right now. Once you reach M-Type level and reach Red star status its a done deal. It is the ultimate GAME OVA! Our Sun will inflate and get rid of all of its outer levels leaving behind a white dwarf. We will have our very own nebula!

Too bad we will be long gone and unable to see it lol.

[Mizango]

The most fascinating thing about this is the fact that our bodies are litterally made of stardust. Every atom in our bodies used to be the inside of a star going through nuclear fusion at some point.

Precisely! Neil deGrasse Tyson said it sooooo eloquently right here.

[Woozie]

Oh by the way, I hear that betelgeuse might explode in our life time, and may have already done so. It's "only" about 600 light years away, so it would be a very spectacular sight to see from Earth. And it's just barely far enough away to not destroy us all (we think).

Edit: Anyone have that .gif that compares star sizes? That would be perfect in this topic.

[Mizango]

That is from The Universe that shows on the History Channel on Tuesdays. You guys should get on yahoo or msn or something, Woozie and I sometimes chat when that show is on just bouncing ideas off of each other.

I must say that it is a lot of fun.

[Woozie]

You guys should get on yahoo or msn or something, Woozie and I sometimes chat when that show is on just bouncing ideas off of each other.

I must say that it is a lot of fun.

What we need to do is get everyone from this topic in the same YIM/MSN chatroom at the same time.

[Kryssan]

Oh by the way, I hear that betelgeuse might explode in our life time, and may have already done so. It's "only" about 600 light years away, so it would be a very spectacular sight to see from Earth. And it's just barely far enough away to not destroy us all (we think).

Edit: Anyone have that .gif that compares star sizes? That would be perfect in this topic.

Next 1000 years, ish. They say since it's rotational axis is not in our direction the gamma ray burst wouldn't damage Earth's ecosystem, but yeah, guesswork at best. If it did explode the resulting supernova would outshine the moon in the night sky. Definitely would be worth seeing. The star has shrunk like 12~19% between 1993 and 2009, which is why they think it could go soon. It's actually large enough to become a neutron star/black hole, unlike our star.

[Mizango]

Oh by the way, I hear that betelgeuse might explode in our life time, and may have already done so. It's "only" about 600 light years away, so it would be a very spectacular sight to see from Earth. And it's just barely far enough away to not destroy us all (we think).

Yes they were talking about Betelgeuse on The Universe last week when they were talking mass radiation discharges from stars. Dude I hope we get to see that in our lifetime.

Seeing a star both day and night that is brighter than our Sun would be so awesome.