New Mining Resources

_Credit: PlanetaryResources

• Asteroid Mining
  • The idea of exploiting the natural resources of asteroids dates back over 100 years.
  • California Institute of Technology in Pasadena completed an in-depth study of the feasibility of asteroid mining
  • The study showed that, for the first time in history, this was now feasible using technology available in this decade
  • It is reasonable to assume we could identify, and bring an entire asteroid that is roughly 23 feet [7 meters] wide [~500 tons] into a high lunar orbit
• Asteroid composition classifications
  • D class asteroids: They are also known as Trojan asteroids of Jupiter and are dark and carbonaceous in composition.
  • C class asteroids: They are found in the Earth’s outer belt and are darker and more carbonaceous than the ones found in the S class.
  • S class asteroids: They are found in the Earth’s inner belt, closer to Mars and are composed of mostly stone and iron.
  • V class asteroids: They are a far-out group of asteroids that follow a path between the orbits of Jupiter and Uranus, and are made of igneous, eruptive materials.
• Why is mining asteroids feasible now?
  • The ability to discover and characterize enough sufficiently small near-Earth asteroids for mining.
  • An evolving ability to equip powerful enough solar electric propulsion systems to enable transportation of the captured asteroid.
  • A proposed human presence around the moon in the 2020s both enables exploration and exploitation of the returned near-Earth asteroid.
• * Enter Planetary Resources, Inc.*
  • A new company Planetary Resources, Inc. is now making plans to be able to mine asteroids
  • The company, has been in existence for about three years, announced itself to the general public now because they are starting to aggressively search for the world’s best engineers, to help design and build a fleet of asteroid-mining robots [not Bruce Willis]
  • This company’s investors include Google execs Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, who are worth $16.7 billion and $6.2 billion
  • Their advisors include, filmmaker and adventurer James Cameron, former NASA astronaut Tom Jones and MIT planetary scientist Sara Seager
  • While it may be possible for this to happen, Planetary Resources is still years away from actually seizing an asteroid and staking a cosmic claim
  • Materials from such asteroids could be used for both the Earth and for planetary exploration, providing shielding galactic cosmic rays and propellant to transport a shielded
  • The initial focus will be developing Earth orbiting telescopes to scan for the best asteroids, and later, create extremely low-cost robotic spacecraft for surveying missions.
  • What we learn from such missions and a possible industry could someday help us deflect a much larger near-Earth object
• The Legal angle
• The legality of asteroid mining is in itself interesting
• The 1967 Outer Space Treaty says that “Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.”
• Whether or not that applies to individuals or companies is one question
• Anything launched into space remains the private property of its owner
• However NASA and other entities ‘own’ and sell rocks and dirt from the moon
• Even the sea-floor could be mined
  • Canada-based mining firm Nautilus Minerals said Tuesday it had signed China’s Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group as the first customer of its pioneering Papua New Guinean seafloor mine.
  • Currently it is slated to begin production in the fourth quarter of 2013 Nautilus claims the project to be the world’s first commercial seafloor mine
  • This area has deposits of rocks containing high grades of copper, gold, zinc and silver, what is known as “seafloor massive sulphides” from hydrothermal vents
  • Robots would be controlled remotely to drill for those sulphide deposits 5,250ft [1,600 m] below sea level
  • Then another machine would pump the material to a support vessel at the surface, which would then be dewatered for transport
  • These robots are currently under construction and are based on those used in deepwater oil and gas, terrestrial mining and marine dredging industries
• Multimedia
  • YouTube VIDEO : Asteroid Mining Mission Revealed by Planetary Resources, Inc.
    | PlanetaryResources
  • YouTube Playlist : Planetary Resources, Inc. Press Conference, April 24, 2012 Press Event
  • IMAGE GALLERY: Asteroid Mining Gallery: Planetary Resources to Mine Space Rocks | Space.com
  • Planetary Resources Technology
• Further Reading / In the News
  • Space Law: Is Asteroid Mining Legal?
  • Planetary Resources Website
  • Planetary Resources: The Video | UniverseToday.com
  • Asteroid Miners Wanted to Tap Space Rock Riches | space.com
  • Planetary Resources Group Wants to Mine Asteroids | UniverseToday.com
  • Is Asteroid Mining Possible? Study Says Yes, for $2.6 Billion | space.com
  • Interesting Facts About Asteroids | UniverseToday.com
  • World’s first sea-floor mine signs first customer | phys.org

— NEWS BYTE —

Recovery from Strokes

• The low down
  • Currently the drugs administered for a stroke are to break up clots that caused the stroke, and need to be given within 4.5 hours after a stroke
  • Neuroscientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine were looking for alternatives
• Significance
  • Brain-derived neurotrophic factor, BNNF, are powerful and long-studied nerve growth factor
  • BDNF is critical during the development of the nervous system and known to be involved in important brain functions including memory and learning.
  • A compound called LM22A–4, mimics this factor, is a small molecule that weighs less than one-seventieth that of BDNF
  • In a study the speed of recovery was improved rapidly, in fact those mice who had received the drug showed half as many stroked affected nerve cells as their counterparts without the drug
  • In fact the drug wasn’t even administered until a full three days after the strokes, showing that it does not limit a strokes damage but enhances recovery
  • These molecules stimulate the brain’s own stem cells to form new neurons
  • Stem-cell therapy is a somewhat invasive and expensive treatment for lost or damaged tissues, making a drug that could achieve the same results on the brain very promising and a welcome development
• Further Reading / In the News
  • Study points to potential treatment for stroke | medicalxpress.com
  • Stanford University Medical Center

The competitive nature of lefties

• The low down
  • Handedness, is partially genetic and partially environmental.
  • In the general population about 10% of people are left handed
  • A new mathematical model calculates that handedness might come from a need to balance cooperation and competition
  • The model also seems to work in the animal kingdom social species with limited combative interaction
  • There are other ideas about how the natural left handed brain processes things
  • The number of people who process language with both sides of the brain is 5% of right handed, and 14% of left handed people
  • Some link this increased amount of space dedicated to language to enhanced communication skills
• Percentages
  • Top hitter in the US major league – 58%
  • Baseball – 30%
  • American Presidents (* last 5, since 1981) – 2 Left; 2 Ambidextrous
  • American Presidents (* since 1929) – Left 35%; Ambidextrous 14%
  • American football quarterbacks – 6%
  • Top 120 male *golfers – 4%
  • Top 100 women *golfers – 0%
• Further Reading / In the News
  • Shedding light on southpaws: Sports data help confirm theory explaining left-handed minority in general population | phys.org
  • Lefties have element of surprise in sports arena: study | phys.org
  • A model balancing cooperation and competition can explain our right-handed world and the dominance of left-handed athletes | rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

Talking to yourself isn’t crazy

• The low down
  • When trying to find something a new study shows that saying the name of the object out loud actually helps you find the object quicker
• Adding the auditory component can temporarily increase your visual system, helping to find something quicker
• Further Reading / In the News
  • Self-directed speech affects visual search performance | The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

Liquid Solar cells

• Last time on SciByte
  • Solar Storms & Higgs Boson | SciByte 37 – Transparent Electrodes (March 13, 2012)
  • Habitable Planets & Plant Power | SciByte 32 – Solar panels you water? (February 7, 2012)
• The low down
  • Scientists at USC have developed a potential pathway to cheap, stable solar cells made from nanocrystals so small they can exist as a liquid ink and be painted or printed onto clear surfaces.
  • They are about four nanometers in size, you could fit more than 250,000,000,000 on the head of a pin
  • They can also float in a solution, meaning you could print them like you print a newspaper
• Further Reading / In the News
  • Researchers develop a path to liquid solar cells that can be printed onto surfaces | Phys.org

— THE NEWS IS CATCHING UP—

Nine Planet System

• Last time on SciByte
  • World Climate & Light Pollution | SciByte 42 – A busy planetary system (April 17, 2012)
• Nine Planet System
  • HD 10180 was first noted in 2010 and is about 130 light years away
  • Going back and studying old observations and using different statistical analysis techniques one astronomer found evidence that brought the number of planets in the system up to nine
• Further Reading / In the News
  • New look at HD 10180 shows it might have nine planets
  • World Climate & Light Pollution | SciByte 42 – A busy planetary system (April 17, 2012)

Planet in habitable zone

• Last time on SciByte
  • Habitable Planets & Plant Power | SciByte 32 (February 7, 2012) – Habitable planet?)
• The lowdown
  • Gliese 667Cc, found orbiting around a red dwarf star in the habitable zone
  • Planet found in the habitable zone of a star only 22 light years away combining data from three ground-based telescopes going back 10 years
  • Orbit a red dwarf every 28.15 day with a mass about 4.5 times that of Earth;
  • Receives 90% of light that Earth does, but mostly in the infrared making the overall energy absorbed from the sun about the same that is seen on Earth
• Further Reading / In the News
• New look at HD 10180 shows it might have nine planets + World Climate & Light Pollution | SciByte 42 – A busy planetary system (April 17, 2012)
• Social Media
  • Twitter Exoplanet App @ExoplanetApp
• Further Reading / In the News
  • New Study Shows How Trace Elements Affect Stars’ Habitable Zones
  • Newfound Alien Planet is Best Candidate Yet to Support Life, Scientists Say
  • New super-earth detected within the habitable zone of a nearby star
  • New super-Earth detected within the habitable zone of a nearby cool star
  • Potential ‘Goldilocks’ Planet Found
  • Super-Earth spotted in life-friendly zone
  • ScienceShot: Double-Star System Hosts Ancient World
  • New Planet Found: Could a Super-Earth plus Triple Stars Equal Life?
  • Cool sun could host habitable planet

— VIEWER FEEDBACK —

_{Credit: [Arizona State University]}

Spirals on Mars

• For making sure that we saw this, thanks to
• Jacob Roecker & other JupiterBroadcasting staff members
• The low down
• What started as research into nighttime infrared temperatures of the plates, came in interest in the terrain between the plates, leading to a Arizona State University graduate student noticing spiral patterns in the lava
• Here on Earth lava coils can be found on the Hawaiian islands(*seen in space.com article below) and near the Galapagos Rift on the Pacific Ocean floor
• When lava flows move past each other at different speeds, or directions, rubbery lava crust can peel away or coil up to create wrinkles in the crust that can then be twisted around
• In order to really make them out the images need to be zoomed and have their contrast tweaked a bit
• The largest Martian coil is however bigger than any seen on Earth; at 98 ft [30 m] when the ones on Earth are about a third of that
• Further Reading / In the News
• Researchers find new form of Mars lava flow | phys.org
• Ancient Mars Lava Spirals Reveal Volcanic Secrets of Red Planet | space.com

SPACECRAFT UPDATE

The Shuttle Shuffle Continues

_{YouTube channel : daujla2}

• Friday April 27, the space shuttle Enterprise was brought to New York City on top of the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, after the Discovery was delivered to the Smithsonian
• Multimedia / Further Reading
• YouTube : Enterprise Space Shuttle Last Landing from Tarmac @ JFK
  
• YouTube : Discovery’s Journey Playlist | NASA
• Final Voyage of Space Shuttle Enterprise (Photos) | Space.com
• Enterprise Arrives at the Big Apple | universetoday.com
• Millions Mesmerized by Shuttle Enterprise over Freedom’s Beacon in New York | universetoday.com

SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket

• SpaceX is preparing for a scheduled launch of May 7th headed to the International Space Station!
• Further Reading
• SpaceX

You may have seen

California Meteorite

_{CREDIT: Lisa Warren | Credit : P. Jenniskens (SETI Institute) and Eric James (NASA Ames)}

• Last time on SciByte
  • Meteorites & Lasers | SciByte 38(March 20, 2012) – The sky, well a meteorite, fell in Norway right into a cabin
• The low down
  • Sunday April 22 over California a large fireball was seen along with a sonic boom characteristic of large meteors entering the Earth atmosphere
  • Scientists have confirmed that this meteor was between 4 to 5 billion years old and probably about the size of a minivan, about 154,300 pounds [69,989 kg]
  • Meteorites don’t actually ‘burn-up’ the friction against the air during re-entry actually causes it to vaporize
  • The sonic boom heard from this meteor was because it entered the atmosphere faster than the speed of sound, between 22,000 mph and 44,000 mph [35,000kph – 70,000kph]
• Significance
  • The meteors reentry was seen from Sacramento, Calif., to Las Vegas and parts of northern Nevada.
  • The first pieces, discovered by Robert Ward, were neat where gold was first discovered in California in 1848
  • Ward has been hunting and collecting meteorites for more than 20 years and has found meteorites in every continent but Antarctica
  • Those two pieces were probably part of the same meteorite that broke apart on impact, each weighs about 10 grams, about the same as two nickels
  • Most nighttime meteors that you see are around the size of grain of sand or a tiny stone, and only last a few seconds
  • An meteor event of this size typically happens around the world once a year, and then most occur over ocean or uninhabited places
  • Although this event occurred just after the peak of the annual mid-April Lyrid meteor shower it is unlikely that it was a Lyrid meteor, although without more information about its trajectory it won’t be known for sure
• Of Note
  • “NASA and the SETI Institute are asking the public to submit any amateur photos or video footage of the meteor that illuminated the sky over the Sierra Nevada mountains and created sonic booms that were heard over a wide area at 7:51 a.m. PDT Sunday, April 22, 2012.”
  • Also any security footage should be checked to see if the fireball was visible, which could also be used in pinpointing the area for fragments
• Further Reading / In the News
  • Meteorites found in Calif. along path of fireball | phys.org
  • Rare Daytime Fireball Created by Minivan-Size Space Rock | space.com
  • Meteorite Hunters Find Fragments from the Recent ‘Daytime Fireball’ in California | universetoday.com

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

• May 08 1790 : 222 years ago : Metric System : Acting on a motion by a bishop, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand (1754–1838), the French National Assembly decided to create a simple, stable, decimal system of measurement units. The earliest metre unit chosen was the length of a pendulum with a half-period of a second. On 30 Mar 1791, after a proposal by the Académie des sciences (Borda, Lagrange, Laplace, Monge and Condorcet), the Assembly revised the definition of the metre to be 1/10 000 000 of the distance between the north pole and the equator. On 7 Apr 1795, the Convention decreed that the new “Republican Measures” were to be henceforth legal measures in France. The metric system adopted prefixes: greek for multiples and latin for decimal fractions.
• May 06 1937 : 75 years ago : Hindenburg : At 7:25 pm, the dirigible The Hindenburg burned while landing at the naval air station at Lakehurst, N.J. On board were 6l crew and 36 passengers. The landing approach seemed normal, when suddenly a tongue of flame appeared near the stern. Fire spread rapidly through the 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen that filled the balloon. Within a few seconds the Zeppelin exploded in a huge ball of fire. The ship fell tail first with flames shooting out the nose. It crashed into the ground 32 seconds after the flame was first spotted; 36 people died. Captain Ernst Lehmann survived the crash but died the next day. He muttered “I can’t understand it,” The cause remains the subject of debate even today.

Looking up this week

• Solar Activity

• Another CME will pass by the Curiosity rover around May 4th, Curiosity is actually equipped with instruments to sense and study solar storms

• Keep an eye out for …
  
  

• Thursday, May 3rd : Saturn and Spica are to the lower of the moon, Saturn being the farther from the Moon and to the left

• Friday, May 4th : The Moon will now sit below both Saturn and Spica

• Saturday, May 5th : The moon will be near the horizon below and to the left

• Saturday, May 5th is Full Moon, called a ‘super moon’ because it is the one full moon of the year when the Moon is in its closest part of its orbit, appearing 14% larger and 30% brigher

• Later this month there will be an Annular (ring) eclipse for the Western Americas, and a Partial eclipse for the rest.

• The southern hemisphere should, Keep an eye out for …

• Just remember to vertically flip all the things for the Northern hemisphere

• Saturn and Spica will sitting above the Moon

• Further Reading and Resources

• More on what’s in the sky this week

• Sky&Telescope

• SpaceWeather.com

• StarDate.org

• For the Southern hemisphere: SpaceInfo.com.au

• Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere : astronomyonline.org

• Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand : rasnz.org.nz

• AstronomyNow

• HeavensAbove

Do you really catch a cold by getting cold?

• No : The flu and the common cold are caused by viruses
• Origins : Both the cold and the flu tend to be seasonal, which is probably why cold weather took all the ‘heat’.
• When it is cold outside ..
  • People tend to stay inside and are more likely to spread germs to one another.
  • People are exposed to each other more in the winter than in the summer
  • School is in session, kids are around each other all day
• There is also evidence now that viruses spread more easily through dry air.
• Hypothermia, not just being cold, suppresses immunity
• There are conflicting results on weather or not simple cold air exposure compromises the immune system, some experiments even show that cold air exposure stimulates the immune system

The Common Cold …. resistance is futile

• There is still no known treatment that shortens the duration.
• It does spontaneously resolve in 7–10 days, although symptoms can last up to three weeks
• Average contraction rate is 2–4 times a year for an adult, and 6–12 for a child

InFLUenza

• Although it may produce nausea, the “stomach flu” is NOT acutally the flu virus, but gastroenteritis
• Typically transmitted through the air by coughs or sneezes that cause aerosols containing the virus, it can also be transmitted through direct contact with bird droppings, nasal secretions, or contaminated surfaces

Speaking of cold weather and protecting yourself …

Do you really lose most of your body heat from your uncovered head?

• Actually it depends on the circumstances.
• Origins : US army survival manual from 1970 which strongly recommended covering the head when it is cold, since “40 to 45 percent of body heat” is lost from the head.
  • At least as recent as 2008 the US Army Survival Guide has the same warning about head protection in cold weather.
  • How did they get that? : An interpretation of the data from an experiment by the US military in the 1950s that had volunteers dressed in Arctic survival suits and exposed to bitterly cold conditions. Because the only part of their bodies left uncovered was their heads, most of their heat was lost through there.
• It’s still a good idea to cover your head in cold weather, it does hold your brain!
  • Thermoregulation : The blood vessels in your limbs and extremities will react by constricting in the cold to preserve the heat to you ‘core’ systems. Since the brain is a core system, the blood vessels do not constrict and your body continues to try to keep your brain the same temperature.

Attention! Thermodynamics has entered the webshow

• The fundamental modes of heat transfer are:
• Conduction or diffusion : The transfer of energy between objects that are in physical contact
• Convection : The transfer of energy between an object and its environment, due to fluid motion ( in this case fluid also referees to gasses, like the air)
• Radiation : The transfer of energy to or from a body by means of the emission or absorption of electromagnetic radiation
• Mass transfer : The transfer of energy from one location to another as a side effect of physically moving an object containing that energy
• While you are standing in cold air the main mode of heat transfer is convection, although any physical contact you have with an object colder than you introduces conduction as well
• In convection the amount of heat you loose per unit time is determined by the objects heat transfer coefficient the difference in the temperature and the area exposed
  • dQ / dt = –h * A ΔT
• Conduction also relies upon material coefficients, difference in temperature and the size and shape of the object.
• In the case of the US military experiments above, the Arctic suits provided a barrier that slowed the rate of convection from the persons body to the air; however the head had no such barrier. Therefore the head was able to conduct the body’s heat unimpeded.

But if ALL the brain is where the science happens …

If we need ‘all’ portions of our brain … what about people who have had segments of there brain removed?

• Hemispherectomy—where half the brain is removed
  • Generally used to treat debilitating seizure disorders that do not respond to medication
  • Unbelievably, the surgery has no apparent effect on personality or memory
  • Disconnects communication between the two hemispheres, preventing the spread of seizures to the functional side of the brain.
• Only in cases where the benefits of removing the problems caused (electrical or otherwise) by an afflicted portion of the brain outweigh the benefits that remain in the afflicted side of the brain.

Not THAT kind of hemi …

• All hemispherectomy patients suffer at least partial hemiplegia on the side of the body opposite the removed or disabled portion, and may suffer problems with their vision as well.
• Hemiplegia : total paralysis of the arm, leg, and trunk on the same side of the body
• It is almost exclusively performed in children because their brains generally display more [neuroplasticity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity, allowing neurons from the remaining hemisphere to take over the tasks from the lost hemisphere
• Left Side of Brain and speech
  • It was thought at one time that if you took it after the age of two you would never talk again
  • It has been shown that while most people have problems with their speech, the younger the patient the less disability there is

Do you get cramps from swimming just after you eat?

• NOTE : Drowning is a leading cause of accidental deaths in infants and children
• However, the thought that a sandwich or any snack will cause you to sink like a stone is FALSE
• Possible Origins
  • The thought that eating caused high blood flow to the stomach would cause low blood flow to limbs
  • In the 50’s and 60’s there were fewer lifeguards to it is possible that parents simply wanted to be able to relax during lunch time without worrying.

Whoever Charley is … I hate him and his horse

• Muscle cramps are unpleasant sensations caused by muscle contractions or over shortening.
• They can be caused my a variety of things, including muscle fatigue, low sodium, and low potassium
• While none of the following have been conclusively proven to help, there is anecdotal evidence that most people under the grip of a cramp are willing to try.
• alternatively tensing and relaxing the afflicted muscle, stretching, massage, heat, water, electrolytes, banana, Vitamin B, orange juice

Food, glorious food!

• In the stomach hydrochloric acid both kills most contaminating microorganisms and begins the mechanical break down of foods
• While there may be an increase of blood flow to the stomach wile is is ‘churned’ in the stomach that has no direct correlation to muscle contractions in your limbs

So the kids aren’t going to drown just because they ate a PB&J, what determines boy vs girl

If your belly is round it’s a girl and oval like a football it’s a boy…

• There have been many theories throughout history about guessing the baby’s gender
• With so many body shapes really … chances are slightly higher for a boy
• The gender of your baby is determined by whether the fertilizing sperm has an X or a Y chromosome. An X chromosome will lead to a girl, a Y to a boy.

I’m tired after dealing with the kids at the pool, and I want to read before bed time …

Reading in dim light or sitting too close to the TV damages your eyes.

• WRONG
• Dim light might make it difficult for the eyes to focus, which can cause short-term eye fatigue.
• Challenging visual work, such as reading in insufficient light, can also lead to short-term drying of eyes because you blink less often.
• You can’t damage your eyes by using them, unless you stare into the sun.
• FYI : Getting too close to the set for your favorite shows won’t harm your eyes – “either from overfocusing or from radiation”

Ow! My eye!

• Asthenopia / eye strain : When concentrating on a visually intense task, the [ciliary muscle],(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciliary_muscle) tightens, it’s the eye muscle that helps you focus and controls blood flow to certain parts of your eye.
• Giving the eyes a chance to focus on a distant object at least once an hour usually alleviates the problem.
• A CRT computer monitor with a low refresh rate or a CRT television can cause similar problems because the image has a flicker. Aging CRTs also often go slightly out of focus, and this can cause eye strain. LCDs do not go out of focus and are less susceptible to visible flicker.

The post Old Wives Tales | SciByte 13 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/8966/time-scibyte-2/ Wed, 01 Jun 2011 03:00:15 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=8966 We investigate time, how we have measured it’s passage throughout history, philosophically, how it’s affected by gravity, and the very concept of time itself!

The post Time | SciByte 2 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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We spend some time looking at time, how we have measured it’s passage throughout history, philosophically, how it’s affected by gravity, and the very concept of time itself.

Plus find out why Einstein proposes that we travel through time at the speed of light, how Atomic clocks work, and is it possible gravitational fields warp time?

All that and more, on SciBye!

Direct Download Links: HD Video | Large Video | Mobile Video | MP3 Audio | YouTube

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Show Notes:

Concept:

• “Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.” – Ray Cummings, Sci-Fi Author

Measurement:

• Smallest units of time = Planck time [time it takes for light to travel the shortest distance current theories can handle]

Philosophy:

• Why do we always move forward?

Scientific:

• Is time eternal, or a side effect of “space”?

Philosophy on the Nature of Time:

• Immanuel Kant believes time is all in our heads, as a necessity to quantify sensory inputs of everyday existence. Also believes in predestination, and that Free Will can only exist outside of Time.
• Martin Heidegger believes similarly, and that humans should be capable of “stepping out of time” by a specific form of non-associative thinking. The past, present and future can become one within our minds, and experienced in random order. (uhm, excuse me?!?)
• Henri Bergson believed that Time could not be measured because it is infinite and malleable, and shapes itself to the perceptions of an individual.
• “Time is an illusion” is a common saying in Buddhist teachings.
• HG Wells: “There is no difference between time and any of the three dimensions of space except that our consciousness moves along it.” — The Time Machine
• C. S. Lewis “The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” (but do those min pass by at the same rate)

‘When’ was the Start of the Universe, T=0 point

• • Red Shift / Blue Shift – Doppler Effect light waves act similar to sound waves coming towards you or away from you.  Blue shift = Away; Red shift = Near
  • Type 1A Supernova – PIC – To judge distance and speed [red shift/blue shift]
  • Roughly 13.7 Billion Years ago

Measurement ‘devices’ through history

• • Mayan’s : Mayan Calender created during the Dark Ages in Europe

Calculated

• Earth orbit @ 365 days [Actual = 365.2422 days, 0.06%]
• Lunar Month @ 29.53086 days [Actual = 29.53059 days; 0.0009%]
• Mercury orbit @ 117 days [Actual = 116 days; 0.86%]
• Venus orbit @ 584 days [Actual = 583.92 days; 0.01%]
• Mars orbit @ 780 days [actual = 779.936 days; 0.008%]

• Antikythera mechanism – is an ancient mechanical computer designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was recovered in 1900–1901 from the Antikythera wreck. Its significance and complexity were not understood until decades later. Its time of construction is now estimated between 150 and 100 BC. The degree of mechanical sophistication is comparable to a 19th century Swiss clock. Technological artifacts of similar complexity and workmanship did not reappear until the 14th century, when mechanical astronomical clocks were built in Europe

A day – 24 hours?

• 2 Radio telescope set  on different points of Earth measure a radio wave from a quasar. They line up once a ‘day’ which is not always 24 hours [changes are in mili seconds]

Atomic Clocks

• • In certain elements [like Cesium] the Electrons will ‘jump’ between orbits and emit a flash of light at precise intervals [Cesium, 9 billion times a sec]  Video
  • Such a clock, if sent on a space shuttle, ticks at a different speed. Because it is further from Earth’s gravitational pull.

EINSTEIN:

• • Einstein proposes that we travel through Time at the speed of light.
  • Einstein: Spacetime is a single entity, not separate things. And because of the mixing of space & time, time ticks differently for separate entities, based on relative speeds.
  • The faster you travel through space, the slower you travel through time.
  • Proven by the Shapiro effect (blip in Mercury’s orbit, measured on opposite sides of the Sun)

Shapiro Effect

• Gravitational fields warp time
• blip in Mercury’s orbit, measured on opposite sides of the Sun – VIDEO

If time is flexible based on observation, then all of it always exists…

• • (Incorrect for quantum mechanics)
  • New theories suggest that “spacetime” is granular, and not fixed. On a large scale it looks like a single thing, but it actually flows as it is being created, in the future.

Black holes actually STOP time at their event horizon, to an outside observer.
But an observer falling in would see time speed up around them, the closer they got.

Time Travel?
High speed camera moments
Lighter

Busting Water Baloon

Additional Information
CPT – Charge, Parity, and Time Reversal (CPT) Symmetry

WIKI – Shapiro Delay

What Time Is It? (part 1 // part 2 // part 3 // part 4)

Download & Comment:

The post Time | SciByte 2 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/8723/gravity-scibyte-1/ Tue, 24 May 2011 23:24:32 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=8723 We look at the results from Gravity Probe B and how they relate to Einstein’s predictions on mass, space, time and how they all interact with one another.

The post Gravity | SciByte 1 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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This week on SciByte …
We look at the results from Gravity Probe B and how they relate to Einstein’s predictions on mass, space, time and how they all interact with one another. We’ll also open up the guts of that crazy contraption, and discuss some of the impressive tech that made the whole experiment possible to begin with.

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Show Notes:

Gravity?

-Sir Issac Newton [Mathematician]
-1687 – His predictions predicted the existence of Neptune based on the motions of Uranus
-Mercury’s Orbit hower can NOT be explained by Newtonian math alone, but was resolved with Einsteins general theory of relativity in 1915
-Newtonian Calculations however still are accurate enough for most applications
-General Relativity – Albert Einstein [1907-1915] The observed gravitational attraction between masses results from their warping of space and time.
→ Space-Time is not flat, but can be stretched and warped by matter
-What this means, boiled down: Time moves slower under gravity

Gyroscope

-A device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of conservation of angular momentum.
–Video : Gyroscope
–Video : Conservation of Angular Momentum : Spinning Skater

Gravity Probe A

-“A” confirmed the prediction that gravity slows the flow of time, and the observed effects matched the predicted effects to an accuracy of about 70 parts per million. [1976, and lasted <2hours]
-Used a hydrogen maser, a highly accurate frequency standard, to measure the rate change of a clock in lower gravity with high precision.

Gravity Probe B

-A star, a telescope, a spinning sphere [conceived in 1959, launched in 2004, decommissioned in Dec 2010]  [A Star, telescope, and space time]
–Gravity Probe B Cutaway
-Reference telescope sighted on IM Pegasi, a binary star in the constellation Pegasus
-Drag Free System
-Solar Radiation Pressure – Particles streaming away from Sun transferring momentum
-Atmospheric Drag [@624KM]
-Compensation done with helium boosters, full 6-degree motion (first ever)
-London moment gyroscopes
-A spinning superconductor generates a magnetic field whose axis lines up exactly with the spin axis of the gyroscopic rotor.
-Are housed in a dewar of superfluid helium @ a temperature of under 2 kelvins (−271 °C, −456 °F)
-A magnetometer determines the orientation of the generated field, which is interpolated to determine the axis of rotation.

** The pointer shifted by just 6,000 milliarcseconds — the width of a human hair as seen from 10 miles away
* At the time, the gyroscopes were the most nearly spherical objects ever made.

~ size of ping pong balls, they are perfectly round to within forty atoms
– Scaled to the size of the Earth, the elevation of the entire surface would vary by no more than 12 feet
* Measured changes in gyroscope the equivalent to an angular separation the width of a human hair viewed from 32 kilometers (20 miles) away over a one-year period. [0.5 milliarcseconds (1.4×10−7 degrees)]

Already Proven?

The Apollo astronauts left retro-reflector mirrors on the Moon, and laser ranging from Earth can now track their positions to millimeters. At that level of precision, the Moon’s motion in orbit has confirmed gravitomagnetism, the source of frame-dragging, to 0.15%, or 130 times better than GP-B.

Precision measurements of the Shapiro effect or gravitational time delay for light, most recently in 2002 by the Cassini space probe

Gravity – no uniform model for all scales

The laws of classical Newtonian physics remain accurate in predicting the behavior of the vast majority of large objects—of the order of the size of large molecules and bigger—at velocities much smaller than the velocity of light

Quantum mechanics

-By Newtonian Standards Atoms can’t exist
-Newtonian physics says that electrons would fall out of orbit into the nuclues
-Electron Orbits in actuality can only exist as very specific points
-Heisenburg Uncertainty principle – can’t know location AND speed

Black holes

-First conceptualized in 1783 by Henry Cavendish
-Infinite Density; Event Horizon [point of no return]

Dark Matter

-Matter that is inferred to exist from gravitational effects on visible matter and background radiation, but is undetectable by emitted or scattered electromagnetic radiation

Dark Energy

-Hypothetical form of energy that permeates all of space and tends to increase the rate of expansion of the universe
–Dark Matter/Dark Energy Estimates
-Some estimates state The Universe is made up of 23% Dark Matter; 72% Dark Energy; and Atoms a mere 4.6%

Additional Information :

SPACETIME: From the Greeks to Gravity Probe B
NASA : Gravity Probe B
Sky&Telescope : Gravity Probe B: Relatively Important?
PC Magazine : It Took More Than 50 Years, But NASA Proves That Einstein Was CorrectScientific American : Earth’s Mass and Motion Warps Spacetime as Einstein Said
engadget : NASA concludes Gravity Probe B space-time experiment
National Geographic : Einstein Theories Confirmed by NASA Gravity Probe
NASA Gravity Probe Confirms Two Einstein Theories
Wired : Floating Gyroscopes Vindicate Einstein
spaceRef : NASA’s Gravity Probe B Confirms Two Einstein Space-Time Theories
PCWorld:Experiment Confirms Space-Time Vortex Around Earth, Makes Our Heads Hurt
What’s 96 Percent of the Universe Made Of? Astronomers Don’t Know
YouTube | Lecture 1 | Modern Physics: Quantum Mechanics (Stanford)

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The post Gravity | SciByte 1 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/4752/aegis-vs-borg-stoked-67/ Tue, 25 Jan 2011 06:37:13 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=4752 Learn the advantages to the Aegis and Borg sets, and if combining parts from the set can give you that extra boost of fire power!

The post Aegis vs Borg | STOked 67 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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We load you up on the latest and greatest happening in STO, learn the advantages to the Aegis and Borg sets.. And if combining parts from the set can give you that extra boost of fire power!

PLUS – We look at the new remastered Stranded is Space mission, discuss the new Earth Space Dock upgrades.

Then – We wrap up our latest community feedback question, and share your suggestions for great STO online portals!

Direct Download Links HD Video | Large Video | iPod Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | YouTube

Our STOked App:

Grab the STOked iPhone/iPod App and download STOked plus bonus content on the go!

Show Notes:

NEWS

SS Azura – Remastered
REVIEW

Tribble Updates https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=198038
ESD Revamp
Balance changes that we mentioned last week
Aegis change to 2-piece Defense Bonus

Several Foundry Missions being manually moved to Holodeck
“The Longing”
“Tipping Point”
“Unholy Alliances (Part 1)”
“The Syndicate Extraction”

Sad news for shuttle “hot swap” idea: https://forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php?p=3296221&postcount=31

Holodeck patch coming Jan 27th:
Space rebalancing
ESD Interior
New font
Stranded in Space – Remastered
XP Boost Devices added to rare drop tables
Psi Velorum opened for KDF

MORE upcoming changes:
1-Year Anniversary Celebration begins on Feb 2nd
Tentative date for Foundry on Holodeck – Feb 24th
A C-Store Prometheus? Does this spell MVAM?
TOS Bundle Pack (Costume, Bridge Pack, SHIP INTERIOR pack) — March

Lifetime Sale in celebration of Champs F2P and 1-Year Anniversary

COMMUNITY FEEDBACK

www.foundrymissions.com

MATH

Borg Set Reference
Aegis Set Reference

Console:

There’s only one choice, and it’s worth it. The Borg Universal console can be obtained by running “Assimilated” in the Undine Front. This mission can be solo’d, but it requires some finesse to get the ground portion done.

The first ground map, known as “The Maze” consists of many different corridors lined with borg sitting passive in their alcoves. If any of these borg are attacked, they will retaliate. This is a VERY bad thing, as you’ll also be taking on patrols and a few stationary groups. Adding these passive borg to any combat situation is likely to get you killed.

So you have two choices: Avoid aggroing them, or kill EVERYTHING along the way. There are approximately 200 borg on this map though, so I recommend the first choice.

To avoid aggro’ing them, make sure you and all of your boffs are only using single-target weapons and abilities. Compression Pistols and Sniper Rifles. AOE abilities like grenades and geothermal vent don’t always aggro them, but it might be smart to avoid them anyway. Also do not bring turrets as they target enemies indiscriminately, but Support Drones are fine.

If you follow the corridors and click on the right teleporter you’ll be sent to a central room with a boss in the middle. I recommend clearing out the perimeter of the room before engaging him.

Deflector Dish:

There are 3 factors to consider:

• Skill Bonuses (Sensors vs. Deflectors)
• Power Bonuses (Shields vs. Aux)
• Set Bonus activation

This last point is actually the most important of the three. The set bonuses of either set are more powerful than skill considerations or power levels. Read further for calculations on the effectiveness of these set bonuses.

The Borg dish can be obtained by running the STF “The Cure”

For hints on defeating “The Cure” check out the following links:

• Steelthorn’s Tips
• f1restarter’s Noob Tips
• MoistGaming Video Walkthrus: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Engines:

Aegis a clear winner here, as it is faster and offers a substantial boost to the “Combat Maneuvers” skill which few captains max out on their own.

The only situation where the Borg engine exceeds the Aegis, is when traveling in Sector Space since it enables a higher top Warp Speed.

So… get BOTH engines, and use the Borg while traveling. Be sure to switch back to the Aegis engine when faced with space combat.

The Borg Engine can be obtained by running the STF “Infected”

For tips on defeating “Infected” check out the following links:

• STO-Wiki’s Walkthru
• Guide by Threather
• Tips by Kor_Dahar_Master
• Video of End Boss Room

Shields:

This is the biggest difference between the two sets, and comes down to Regenerative (with very nice regen/healing bonuses) and Covariant (with decent defensive boosts).

Now, if you recall from our “Master Your Shields” math segment, you’ll know that I’m very much in favor of Covariants. However, the bonuses of BOTH of these shields warrant examining the choice in further detail.

The most important factor here is Set Bonuses, as the Borg shield is only reliable if both it’s 2- and 3-piece set bonuses are intact. The 2-piece bonus supplies a nice hull heal, and the 3-piece bonus further amplifies the regenerative capacity of this shield. Without both of these bonuses, this shield does not perform well in a sustained firefight.

However, both of these set bonuses have been seen to activate multiple times in even short battles, causing most players to consider them RELIABLE as a further form of survivability.

But, because this is still a Regenerative Shield, it requires that you run your shield energy very high to benefit fully from its regeneration rate, AND maintain enough maneuverability to be able to spread out incoming damage to all four shield quadrants.

The Borg shield can be obtained by running the STF “Khitomer Accord”

For tips on completing “Khitomer Accord” check out the following links:

• JDiesel17’s Walthru and Strategy
• MoistGaming’s Video Walkthrus: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Set Bonuses:

The Borg Hull and Shield Heals are substantially more powerful than the Aegis set’s defensive boosts.

Firstly, the Aegis 2-piece bonus offers a reliable boost to your ship’s Defense skill. This skill is percentage-based, and is more effective at higher speeds (Escorts/Birds of Prey tend to fly faster). A high defense skill will cause enemies to MISS your ship, dealing zero damage.

All of the other set bonuses require that you sustain damage in order for them to have a chance to activate, meaning that this bonus actually INHIBITS others from activating. However, this is offset by the slight reduction in damage from all those missed shots. The actual effectiveness of this boost varies by ship, engine, and tactics, but due to some recent re-balancing, will generally effect all captains approximately the same amount.

As for the Aegis 3-piece bonus, you’re looking at a real letdown. The resistance boost seems substantial at 10%, especially since it can stack up to 10 times. However, each stack past the first suffers from standard diminishing returns on resistances resulting in much smaller of a benefit than is portrayed on the tooltip. Furthermore, this resistance bonus actually applies to HULL damage, not shield damage. And since the boost requires your shields to be UP in order for it to activate, chances are that you will be receiving very little benefit from this reduction in incoming hull damage.

Meanwhile, the Borg 2-piece bonus offers a 52% hull heal (approx. 20,000 hull points on a T5 Cruiser) and will tend to fire off at least once per battle. With such a substantial heal, the amount of bleedthrough damage trickling through your shields is likely to be a non-issue. And if your shields are down for any reason, you can potentially benefit even MORE from this sudden heal as it also includes a decent hull resistance boost.

The Borg 3-piece set has also been rated as reliable by many players, tending to go off 2-3 times per group of enemies. Each time regenerating a bit less than half of your overall shield strength (if using the Borg shield), and making you more resistant to incoming shield damage.

Mixed Sets:

The only reason to use the full 4-piece Borg set, is for the Tractor Beam ability. From all accounts I’ve read, it’s a fun toy but not nearly powerful enough to turn the tide of any battle. Meanwhile, the mixed bonuses you can receive from going with only 2- or 3- pieces of one set can be substantial.

If you choose to use the Borg Shield, I recommend the following mixed set:
Borg Shield, Borg Deflector, Borg Console, Aegis Engine

This keeps the Shield and Hull regen boosts intact, and gives you the better engine from either set.

If you choose to use the Aegis Shield, I recommend the following mixed set:
Aegis Shield, Aegis Engine, Borg Deflector, Borg Console

This set up gets you the better engine and tougher shield, while keeping two separate 2-piece bonuses intact (Borg Hull Regen, Aegis Defense Boost)

As a matter of personal taste, the Deflector and Engine could be swapped, leaving:
Aegis Shield, Borg Engine, Aegis Deflector, Borg Console

Which would net you +5 Engine and Shield power and change up some Science skill boosts, at the cost of a some speed and a boost to Combat Maneuvers, without sacrificing the two separate 2-piece set bonuses.

And finally, it’s also possible to use the following mixed set:
Aegis Shield, Borg Engine, Borg Deflector, Borg Console

This strange mix gives you all of the regenerative/healing abilities of the borg set, and the very tough outer shell of the Aegis shield. The sole downside to this is the lack of that nice boost to Combat Maneuvers. There’s an argument to be made that keeping the 3-piece Borg set bonus intact is worth that loss…. and I would agree.

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