Off Topic The "That's interesting"/geek thread

The man in the painting has a truly epic hat.

 

I think he may be an ancestor of Jacob Rees-Mogg although he looks more like Count Vlad.

 

With that hat, he's more likely an ancestor of Jamiroquai

 

oh how we laughed at prince charles
talk nicely to your plants

 

Asteroid struck by Nasa probe leaves 10,000km trail



A new image shows that an asteroid which was deliberately struck by Nasa's Dart probe has left a trail of debris stretching thousands of kilometres.

A telescope in Chile captured the remarkable picture of a comet-like plume spreading behind the giant rock.

The probe was crashed last week to test whether asteroids that might threaten Earth can be nudged out of the way.

Scientists are working to establish whether the test was a success, and the asteroid's trajectory altered.

The extraordinary image was taken two days after the collision by astronomers in Chile, who were able to capture the vast trail using the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (Soar).

It stretches for more than 10,000km (6,200 miles), and is expected to get even longer until it disperses completely, and looks like other space dust floating around.

"It is amazing how clearly we were able to capture the structure and extent of the aftermath in the days following the impact," said Teddy Kareta, an astronomer involved in the observation.

The trail of debris would be monitored over the coming weeks and months, Michael Knight of the US Naval Research Laboratory said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63140097

 

Wow! Impressive!

But did it deflect the trajectory of the comet, or just create lots of debris?

 

Still too early to tell I think. Just wondering what damage the space debris could do? Small enough and it would burn up in most planets' atmosphere, but if it's large enough it could have an effect somewhere (be it earth or elsewhere in the universe)

 

Definately interesting, and very geeky....but a good read too....

Why does time go forwards, not backwards?

The arrow of time began its journey at the Big Bang, and when the Universe eventually dies there will be no more future and no past. In the meantime, what is it that drives time ever onward?

When Isaac Newton published his famous Principia in 1687, his three elegant laws of motion solved a lot of problems. Without them, we couldn't have landed people on the Moon 282 years later. But these laws brought to physics a new problem, which wasn't fully appreciated until centuries after Newton and still nags at cosmologists today.

The issue is that Newton's laws work about twice as well as we might expect them to. They describe the world we move through every day – the world of people, the hands that move around a clock and even the apocryphal fall of certain apples – but they also account perfectly well for a world in which people walk backwards, clocks tick back afternoon to morning, and fruit soars up from the ground to its tree-branch.

continued....https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221003-why-does-time-go-forwards-not-backwards

 

@bobmid - the lucky people of Stranraer now have a booming 5G signal in the centre of town, activated today by yours truly!

 

sounds like mega city one in judge dredd

 

Dezeen Magazine
Drone footage reveals The Line megacity under construction in Saudi Arabia[/paste:font]
Tom Ravenscroft | 19 October 202255 comments

Footage released by aerial photography company Ot Sky shows work commencing on The Line megacity, which is being built as part of the Neom development in Saudi Arabia.

The drone footage shot by Ot Sky shows construction underway on the linear city, which is being built in the northwest of Saudi Arabia.

In the video, numerous excavators can be seen digging a wide linear trench in the desert. Within the trench, foundations for the city, which is planned to be 170 kilometres long, are expected to be built.

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Footage reveals The Line megacity under construction in Saudi Arabia
The works could also show preparation for an underground transport system that is planned to be built underneath the length of the city.

Unveiled earlier this year, The Line has been designed to house nine million people. It will be 500 metres tall and have a mirrored facade.

Read:
Sustainability and liveability claims of Saudi 170-kilometre city are "naive" say experts
Following its announcement, numerous people were unconvinced that the project would be realised, with one Dezeen commenter stating: "If this gets built I will eat everybody's hat".

However, the footage suggests that work on the city is now underway.

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The city will stretch for 170 kilometres
Speaking to Dezeen in an exclusive interview, Neom's executive director for urban planning Tarek Qaddumi said that The Line megacity will "revolutionise our current way of life" and will be net-zero over its lifetime.

However, experts refuted the project's sustainability and liveability claims.

The megacity is part of the controversial Neom project that will see 10 regions developed in the northwest of the country. Alongside The Line, which is being designed by US studio Morphosis, a ski resort designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, UNStudio, Aedas, LAVA and Bureau Proberts is planned.

Earlier this week human rights organisation ALQST reported that three men who had been forcibly evicted from the Neom site had been sentenced to death.

 

These races are still taken very seriously in some countries, France and Sweden especially.

The UK removed "Hook Ladders" about 30 years ago due to our use of PVC windows.

 

The UK's only solar eclipse of the year has taken place.

The partial solar eclipse began at 10:08 BST in London, with the maximum eclipse at 10:59. It could be seen across the UK until about midday.

Solar eclipses occur when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, casting a shadow.

One of the best views was in Lerwick in the Shetland Isles, with 28% of the Sun obscured at mid-eclipse.

The Royal Astronomical Society reminded people to never look directly at the Sun, even during an eclipse.

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The eclipse was visible over Cullercoats Watch House in North Shields

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Shetland witnessed one of the best views of the partial solar eclipse

Internationally, the partial eclipse was first visible in Iceland at 09:58 BST, before it passed over the northern hemisphere, said the IMCCE observatory in Paris. It was due to come to an end off the coast of India at 14:02 BST (18:32 local time).

Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society, said observers in western Siberia received the best view of the eclipse, with the Moon obscuring about 82% of the Sun.

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The rare phenomenon saw up to a quarter of the sun obscured by the moon

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The partial solar eclipse, as spotted over Bristol

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It was also captured by residents in Boxted, Essex

The Royal Observatory Greenwich said even though a portion of the Sun's light was blocked, it did not get noticeably darker in the UK.

"Can't believe the clouds held back," said Laura Ngo, who captured the partial solar eclipse in Witham, Essex, by putting a camera at the back of her telescope.

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Laura Ngo captured the partial solar eclipse in her back garden in Essex

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The partial solar eclipse as seen from Hyderabad, India

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A primary school teacher in Hyde, Greater Manchester, used a telescope to capture the partial eclipse on his hand

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This image of the eclipse was captured using a telescope fitted with a Herschel prism at Wymondham College in Norfolk

The next partial solar eclipse will be visible from the UK in March 2025, with a total eclipse not forecast over UK mainland until 2090.

But people in the UK will be able see a partial lunar eclipse - when the Earth blocks sunlight from reaching the Moon and creates a shadow across the lunar surface - next October.

A total eclipse of the Sun is expected to pass over North America in April 2024 and in Spain in 2026.

 

Breakthrough in nuclear fusion energy announced

Interior of the target chamber, where fusion takes place
IMAGE SOURCE,PHILIP SALTONSTALL
Image caption,
The interior of the target chamber at LLNL, where nuclear fusion takes place
By Esme Stallard
BBC News Climate and Science
A major breakthrough has been announced by US scientists in the race to recreate nuclear fusion.

Physicists have pursued the technology for decades as it promises a potential source of near-limitless clean energy.

On Tuesday researchers confirmed they have overcome a major barrier - producing more energy from a fusion experiment than was put in.

But experts say there is still some way to go before fusion powers homes.

How does nuclear fusion work?
The experiment took place at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California.

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LLNL director Dr Kim Budil said: "This is a historic achievement… over the past 60 years thousands of people have contributed to this endeavour and it took real vision to get us here."

Nuclear fusion is described as the "holy grail" of energy production. It is the process that powers the Sun and other stars.

It works by taking pairs of light atoms and forcing them together - this "fusion" releases a lot of energy.

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It is the opposite of nuclear fission, where heavy atoms are split apart. Fission is the technology currently used in nuclear power stations, but the process also produces a lot of waste that continues to give out radiation for a long time. It can be dangerous and must be stored safely.

Nuclear fusion produces far more energy, and only small amounts of short-lived radioactive waste. And importantly, the process produces no greenhouse gas emissions and therefore does not contribute to climate change.

But one of the challenges is that forcing and keeping the elements together in fusion requires very high temperatures and pressures. Until now, no experiment has managed to produce more energy than the amount put in to make it work.

Morelle byline
How close is a fusion-powered future?
The amount of energy they've generated in this experiment is tiny - just enough to boil a few kettles. But what it represents is huge.

The promise of a fusion-powered future is one step closer. But there's still a long way to go before this becomes a reality.
This experiment shows that the science works. Before scientists can even think about scaling it up, it needs to be repeated, perfected, and the amount of energy it generates will have to be significantly boosted.

This experiment has cost billions of dollars - fusion does not come cheap. But the promise of a source of clean energy will certainly be a big incentive for overcoming these challenges.

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The National Ignition Facility in California is a $3.5bn (£2.85bn) experiment.

It puts a tiny amount of hydrogen into a capsule the size of a peppercorn.

Then a powerful 192-beam laser is used to heat and compress the hydrogen fuel.


The laser is so strong it can heat the capsule to 100 million degrees Celsius - hotter than the centre of the Sun, and compress it to more than 100 billion times that of Earth's atmosphere.

Under these forces the capsule begins to implode on itself, forcing the hydrogen atoms to fuse and release energy.

On announcing the breakthrough Dr Marvin Adams, deputy administrator for defense programs at the US National Nuclear Security Administration, said that the laboratory's lasers had input 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of energy to the target, which had then produced 3.15 MJ of fusion energy output.

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Dr Melanie Windridge, CEO of Fusion Energy Insights, told the BBC: "Fusion has been exciting scientists since they first figured out what was causing the Sun to shine. These results today really put us on the path to the commercialisation of the technology."

Jeremy Chittenden, professor of plasma physics and co-director of the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial College London, called it "a true breakthrough moment".

"It proves that the long sought-after goal, the 'holy grail' of fusion, can indeed be achieved," he said.

This has been the sentiment echoed by physicists globally, who praised the work of the international science community.

Prof Gianluca Gregori, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, said: "Today's success rests upon the work done by many scientists in the US, UK and around the world. With ignition now achieved, not only fusion energy is unlocked, but also a door is opening to new science."

On the question of how long before we could see fusion being used in power stations, Dr Budil, the LLNL director, said there were still significant hurdles but that: "with concerted efforts and investment, a few decades of research on the underlying technologies could put us in a position to build a power plant".

This is progress from when scientists used to say 50-60 years in answer to that question.

One of the main hurdles is getting costs down and scaling up the energy output.

The experiment was only able to produce enough energy to boil about 15-20 kettles and required billions of dollars of investment. And although the experiment got more energy out than the laser put in, this did not include the energy needed to make the lasers work - which was far greater than the amount of energy the hydrogen produced.