Technology, Science and the Environment.

[Nalis]

19 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52881831

 

As if we needed more confirmation or bad news.

 

And spare yourself from reading the comments if you value your sanity.

BBC comment sections are the worst, particularly on BBC sport.

[leicsmac]

http://nautil.us/blog/-forget-earth_likewell-first-find-aliens-on-eyeball-planets

 

Interesting.

[Innovindil]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52973089

 

@leicsmac 

 

[Dahnsouff]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-52973849

[The Bear]

It's great that more and more countries are having successful space programs. The more data the better, and international relations become stronger as a result. 

[leicsmac]

2 hours ago, Innovindil said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52973089

 

@leicsmac 

 

Good. Hopefully that will keep getting better and will be an example for others to follow...once the US and Brazil among others get better leadership, that is.

 

1 hour ago, The Bear said:

It's great that more and more countries are having successful space programs. The more data the better, and international relations become stronger as a result. 

Absolutely agree, so long as it is done in the spirit of collaboration rather than excessive competition. We don't want The Expanse.

[SpacedX]

There is a possibility that solar axions, a very light, as-yet postulated particle, and a dark matter candidate may have been detected.

In statistical terms, the solar axion hypothesis has a significance of 3.5 sigma. This significance is fairly high, but is not large enough to conclude that axions exist - the accepted minimum threshold for discovery is Five Sigma. Contamination or statistical fluke are also consistent with the data. Further refinement of experimental design and equipment should confirm this either way. 

 

https://www.livescience.com/first-evidence-for-axions-xenon.html

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53102718

 

Beautiful. And perhaps, some much needed perspective regarding things here on our tiny little lump of rock.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53086024

 

If abandoning the BS practices of cheap bushmeat and at least some "traditional medicine" because it's the right thing to do isn't enough, how about self-preservation as a motivation instead?

[The Bear]

Great picture. Almost like an X-ray version of the CMB. 

Edited 20 June 2020 by The Bear

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200618-climate-change-who-is-to-blame-and-why-does-it-matter

 

Bloody good read.

[davieG]

Good news / bad news

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-53136212

 

Highland Council officials have recommended councillors give planning permission for a space port.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) wants to build the satellite launch site on peatland on the Moine Peninsula near Tongue.

Council officials have said launches should be limited to 12 per year.

Among the reasons for this is the amount of plastic and metal debris falling into the sea during rocket launches.

Twelve would see an estimated five tonnes of carbon fibre reinforced plastic and seven tonnes of metal alloy dropping into the sea each year, according to the officials' report.

Councillors on Highland Council's north planning applications committee will consider the proposals for Space Hub Sutherland on Friday.

Image copyrightNORR CONSULTANTS LTD

Image captionAn artist's impression of the entrance to Space Hub Sutherland

The local authority has received 457 objections to the plans and 118 representations in support of them.

Impact on the environment and risk to human health are among the reasons for the objections.

Local community councils have supported the project because it is expected to create new jobs.

HIE has said by the year 2024 the space port would support 177 jobs across Scotland - 139 in the Highlands with more than 40 of these posts in and around the launch site.

HIE has approved up to £17.3m in funding towards designing and building the space hub. HIE would contribute £9.8m, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority £5m and the UK Space Agency £2.5m.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is involved because of its work to help create new jobs to replace those lost from the eventual closure of the Dounreay nuclear power site near Thurso in Caithness.

Designed by Norr Architects, the facility would comprise a launch control centre, a single launch pad and associated infrastructure, including roadways, fuel storage, office premises and antennas.

[stripeyfox]

Couldn't see an astronomy thread ... but it looks like we might be lucky enought to see a reasonably bright comet during July

 

C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), or Comet NEOWISE, is a retrograde comet with a near-parabolic orbit discovered on March 27, 2020 by the NEOWISE space telescope.^[2] It passed closest to the Sun on July 3, 2020. As of 10 June 2020 it was apparent magnitude 7,^[3] and if it survives perihelion 0.29 AU (43 million km) from the Sun, it is expected to be visible to the naked eye in July.^[2] When the comet entered the field of view of SOHO LASCO C3 on 22 June 2020 the comet had brightened to magnitude 3.^[4] As of 1 July, Comet NEOWISE has brightened to magnitude +1,^[5] with light-curve observations suggesting it might reach magnitude 0 at perihelion, far exceeding the brightness attained by C/2020 F8 (SWAN), and reports indicate the comet developed a second tail. One tail is made of dust and the other tail is made of gas.

The comet will be less than 20 degrees from the Sun from 11 June 2020 until 9 July 2020. Closest approach to Earth will occur 23 July 2020 at a distance of 0.69 AU (103 million km). This perihelion passage will increase the comet's orbital period from about 4500 years to about 6800 years.^[1]

 

https://earthsky.org/space/how-to-see-comet-c2020-f3-neowise

 

Visible in the North East just before sunrise at the moment, but may continue to gradually brighten during dusk as well up to it's closest approach on 23 July

 

 

 

 

Bit more info from Sky At Night

See Comet NEOWISE in the sky this month

Get the next 6 issues of BBC Sky at Night Magazine for just £9.99

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE is visible in northern skies this month. Here's how you can see it.

 

 

 

By Stuart Atkinson

July 6, 2020 at 11:55 am

 

 

After a drought of many years, there is cautious optimism about Comet NEOWISE,  a naked eye comet that’s set to be visible the northern sky this month. It should be visible from the UK, if you don’t mind staying up very late or getting up very early to see it.

 

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, or Comet NEOWISE as it’s often referred to, was discovered on 27 March 2020 by the NEOWISE space telescope.

It reached perihelion – its closest point to the Sun – on 3 July  2020, and will make its closest approach to Earth almost 3 weeks later on 23 July 2020, when it will be passing us at a distance of 0.69 AU (103 million km).

 

That’s close in cometary flyby terms but is still more than 400 times further away than the Moon.

As it rounded the Sun we were hopeful that Comet NEOWISE would reach naked eye brightness but we weren’t sure, and we were still nursing bruises from earlier in the year, when a couple of comets that had looked like they might become bright enough to see without binoculars or telescopes fizzled out and broke apart.

So over this past weekend, news that Comet NEOWISE is bright enough to see with the naked eye came as a huge relief for comet observers in the northern hemisphere.

• Read our guide: 10 great comets of recent times

 

 

Track Comet NEOWISE across the night sky this month. This chart shows the night sky at 01:00 BST on 16 July 2020 from the UK. Credit: Pete Lawrence.

At the time of writing on the morning of 5 July, comet observing groups on Facebook and Twitter accounts are full of posts and photos reporting that NEOWISE F3 is now an “easy naked eye object”.

However, it’s not huge and it’s nowhere near being a “Great Comet” like Comet Hale Bopp was in 1997.

Although Comet NEOWISE’s magnitude has been estimated to be as high as -1.0, it isn’t “lighting up the sky” as tabloid reports are claiming.

Nevertheless, NEOWISE is a good naked eye comet and photographs taken through telescopes or long lenses clearly show it has a split tail perhaps a degree long.

When is Comet NEOWISE visible?

Comet NEOWISE is now visible both before sunrise and after sunset from mid-northern latitudes, but it is, and will remain, a challenging object.

It will never climb very high in the sky, and even if it does maintain its zero magnitude for a while, the brightness of the July sky will make it look fainter than a star of that magnitude because it is a diffuse object, like a galaxy or a nebula, rather than a point source.

But it’s there, it’s visible to the naked eye, reportedly a “beautiful sight” in binoculars and telescopes, so we encourage you to try and see it.

What happens next?

Best case scenario: in the next few days NEOWISE’s tail gets longer and brighter, making it stand out obviously in the twilight, but we can’t count on that.

Worst case scenario: it now fades quickly after perihelion and will soon become too faint to see without binoculars or a telescope, but looking at recent reports that seems unlikely.

The reality will probably lie somewhere between the two. We’ll have to wait and see!

 

 

Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) captured from Deir el Qamar Lebanon, overseeing Majdel El Meouch top, during nautical twilight, 5 July 2020. Taken by Maroun Habib. Equipment: Canon EOS 6D DSLR camera, TMB92SS telescope. Credit: Maroun Habib.

When and where should you look for Comet NEOWISE?

Whether you look for it before sunrise or after sunset, NEOWISE is now in the constellation of Auriga, moving slowly westwards.

At the moment it is shining beneath and to the lower left of the bright star Capella, but by mid-July the comet will have moved into Lynx, and will be visible all through the night, but always low in the north.

On 17 July the comet will move into Ursa Major, and from then until the end of the month it will pass beneath the stars of the Big Dipper.

As July ends, NEOWISE will move into Coma Berenices. How bright it will be by then is anyone’s guess, but it should still be visible in binoculars and small telescopes.

The best time to look for NEOWISE will be on and after 7 July, when it will be a morning and evening object, low in the north.

Most observers will see it in the evening sky, before and after midnight, because that takes less effort than getting up at 2am!

Be aware that the comet’s low altitude might mean it is hidden behind any trees, hills or tall buildings on your favourite observing site’s northern horizon, so you might need to go somewhere different to see it.

The Comet is here! It has already reached naked eye visibility, and might yet become strikingly bright, but might fade quickly: we just don’t know.

But we do know it is worth looking for, and photographing, too.

Edited 7 July 2020 by stripeyfox

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200707-how-we-can-prepare-for-disaster

 

Fascinating. Anyone know if they're hiring?

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53411506

 

A step in the right direction!

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53425238

 

...while the other side condemns the future for the sake of votes in the present.

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53409521

 

This is a societal minefield that will need to be navigated damn carefully. But, long term, the human population stabilising can't be anything other than good news.

[WigstonWanderer]

26 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53409521

 

This is a societal minefield that will need to be navigated damn carefully. But, long term, the human population stabilising can't be anything other than good news.

It seems to be being portrayed as a catastrophe, but at some stage population has to wind back, either voluntarily or as some sort of crash.

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, WigstonWanderer said:

It seems to be being portrayed as a catastrophe, but at some stage population has to wind back, either voluntarily or as some sort of crash.

Exactly.

 

What's being portrayed here, while unpleasant, is actually likely the least worst option.

[nnfox]

3 hours ago, WigstonWanderer said:

It seems to be being portrayed as a catastrophe, but at some stage population has to wind back, either voluntarily or as some sort of crash.

I'm not sure why its portrayed as bad news.  These figures have been around for a while, we are going through an era of massive population growth but by the end of the century it was expected to at least level off around the 9-11bn mark.  I guess the housing market might look a lot different and housing developers won't be able to make as much money?

 

In fact, I think it's good news.  Rising sea levels and food supply disrupted through climate change will likely mean there is less food and less land.  Less humans might ease the situation.

[WigstonWanderer]

1 hour ago, nnfox said:

I'm not sure why its portrayed as bad news.  These figures have been around for a while, we are going through an era of massive population growth but by the end of the century it was expected to at least level off around the 9-11bn mark.  I guess the housing market might look a lot different and housing developers won't be able to make as much money?

 

In fact, I think it's good news.  Rising sea levels and food supply disrupted through climate change will likely mean there is less food and less land.  Less humans might ease the situation.

The reason stated is that there will be too many old people to be supported by the reduced number of young people. A decent economic system that isn’t based on perpetual growth, supported by technological advance, recycling, and a new, denser energy source ought to be able to handle that though I’d have thought.

Edited 16 July 2020 by WigstonWanderer

[leicsmac]

2 hours ago, nnfox said:

I'm not sure why its portrayed as bad news.  These figures have been around for a while, we are going through an era of massive population growth but by the end of the century it was expected to at least level off around the 9-11bn mark.  I guess the housing market might look a lot different and housing developers won't be able to make as much money?

 

In fact, I think it's good news.  Rising sea levels and food supply disrupted through climate change will likely mean there is less food and less land.  Less humans might ease the situation.

 

21 minutes ago, WigstonWanderer said:

The reason stated is that there will be too many old people to be supported by the reduced number of young people. A decent economic system that isn’t based on perpetual growth, supported by technological advance, recycling, and a new, denser energy source ought to be able to handle that though I’d have thought.

I mean, having a society where there is at least an equal amount of older people to younger people is going to be a massive headache and under the present system may well present difficult, if not terminal, problems. It should be talked about.

 

That being said, there are quite a few solutions to it that aren't all that difficult to apply, it just needs a shift in how society operates - and in a democracy, for that to happen you need a shift in perception of the electorate, first.

[WigstonWanderer]

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

 

I mean, having a society where there is at least an equal amount of older people to younger people is going to be a massive headache and under the present system may well present difficult, if not terminal, problems. It should be talked about.

 

That being said, there are quite a few solutions to it that aren't all that difficult to apply, it just needs a shift in how society operates - and in a democracy, for that to happen you need a shift in perception of the electorate, first.

Well at least it won’t be us oldies being blamed. It’ll be all the current day millennials 

[Izzy]

I'm not really into science and all that shiz but these new pictures of the Sun are well good.

 

It's bloody big too innit?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53429054

 

Solar Orbiter: Closest ever pictures taken of the Sun

[The Bear]

Yeah it's pretty cool when sun spots are even bigger than the Earth. 

 

Fun fact - The Sun contains 99.8% of the solar system's total mass. And of the remainder, Jupiter and Saturn make up 92% of the total planetary mass. 

 

More reasons to realise we are nothing but insignificant bacteria on a tiny pebble. 

[leicsmac]

3 hours ago, The Bear said:

Yeah it's pretty cool when sun spots are even bigger than the Earth. 

 

Fun fact - The Sun contains 99.8% of the solar system's total mass. And of the remainder, Jupiter and Saturn make up 92% of the total planetary mass. 

 

More reasons to realise we are nothing but insignificant bacteria on a tiny pebble. 

...and the Sun itself, big as it seems to us, is just a perfectly ordinary yellow dwarf star on the Main Sequence compared to other ones that can be found.