Ask Ethan: Do signals degrade as they travel through space?
Light and gravitational waves redshift, sure, as they travel through the expanding Universe.
But do those signals degrade and deteriorate, and if so, what do we lose?
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #physics #astro
No, particle physics colliders cannot ever destroy the Universe
Every time we push the energy frontier in particle physics, laypersons fear that the world, or even the Universe, will be destroyed.
Here's why we're certain it's all safe... for now.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#physics #astro
Amazing the variety of conclusions one can reach choosing different assumptions in the absence of a single positive signal.
Hence the weak sauce nature of all of our constraints; we can only say "no more than this."
Can the Drake equation’s final term predict humanity’s demise?
Here in 2026, we still have not found the existence of any life beyond Earth.
What does that mean for the Drake equation, the longevity of intelligent civilizations, and humanity's future?
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro
If you haven't been aware, Physics Girl (Dianna Cowern), @thephysicsgirl.bsky.social here on BlueSky, has been sick with long COVID, and specifically COVID-induced ME/CFS, since 2022.
Here is her first science video in 3+ years.
Here's how solar neutrinos work!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3m3...
This is a good point: why put your energy into ragebait when there are actually things we want to do?
You must've missed his rage-inducing interview in NYTopinion about 8 months ago with Peter Thiel, where he normalized Thiel's advocating for the extinction of the human race and to have it replaced with a Borg-like transhumanist collective.
Did Hubble’s new “dark galaxy” kill modified gravity?
Hundreds of millions of light-years away, a collection of four globular clusters was found orbiting... nothing.
Is there a "dark galaxy" there, and if so, is modified gravity now dead?
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro #gravity
One of the things that bothered me very much about public school, and it was Mr. Massi (remember!) who taught us this, is that the job of public education is not to teach us what America is, but to instill the mythos of "America, and it's working" in us.
We get fed a lot of that by pundits, too.
A shifting Overton window will do that.
Eisenhower would practically be a socialist today.
And yet he and David Brooks and Bret Stephens continue to make careers out of saying the most Archie Bunker-esque things, but with a veneer of Christopher Rufo over it.
I can't even tell which of them is the worst tbh. Maybe you know?
It's hard because there is good journalism in there.
And there are quality opinions that are published there.
But it also fails the Voltaire paradox of intolerance real hard.
They aren't just tolerant of it; they seek the traffic that ragebait brings them. And there is so much that's enraging.
No. This was a condemnation of every one of those opinion columnists you asserted was superb.
As opinion columnists, none of them are or were superb in any way. All of them are, as I said earlier, choices that the editorial board made with every piece.
I'll stand by that one.
That's fine. I got excited and got hyperbolic here.
There are plenty of sane people saying sane things separate from, just alongside, the inhumane murder justifiers, grifters, and advocates of revoking human rights for some.
I don't buy this argument. You can't look at the best thing someone's ever done and have it absolve them of the horrors they inflicted on society with the worst of their advocacy.
But I have all sorts of issues with how journalism is practiced, and with all major newspaper editorial boards today.
I mean I even gave kudos to Kristof and I love nearly all of what Bouie writes, so yes, maybe I got a little hyperbolic.
Still, the point of "we platformed 5 good people and X Nazi sympathizers, and that's good editorial boarding" is not really acceptable to me when X is ever so much more than 0.
The problem with being around for so long is that so much of our knowledge is there, but it gets jumbled up and smooshed together.
Just a sign of experience!
Sounds like this is the best information we have at present.
(The answer is going to be interesting, sure, but the uncertainties, or a "cone of uncertainty" plus a "speed uncertainty" is almost more informative than the approximation.)
What are the limiting factors in making a more accurate trajectory projection?
That would be a fun project for .... someone, wouldn't it?
Maybe even REU students?
Too bad we don't have trajectories for them, then.
Already got dinged for this by @mmmmeier.bsky.social. Don't forget the NH weights if you're going to count those as separate, too!
bsky.app/profile/mmmm...
There are over 600 comments submitted on Reflect Orbital's filing at the FCC!! That's amazing, especially given how hard the FCC has made the submission process.
If you want to submit your own comment (on this or SpaceX's million sat filing), there's still a few more days to do that, and […]
Case in point:
Thomas Friedman, the reincarnation of Neville Chamberlain cowardice in his opinions, lauds himself as a centrist even though he's never met a right-wing opinion he won't normalize and serve as an apologist for.
Even Alan Colmes was never this spineless.
bsky.app/profile/walk...
I'd count them, but knowing me I'd probably count them as "parts of" the original spacecraft.
So I guess my answer is it depends on how you look at it, but that's correct; they're leaving too!
Sorry, are there kick stages from spacecraft that are on a trajectory out of the Solar System?
Only these six spacecraft will ever escape the Solar System
Tired: not wanting to live on this planet anymore.
Wired: already on a path to exit the Solar System.
Only these six spacecraft (yes, six) are living the dream.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro #physics #science
To me, and you might have a different experience, the op ed page is where the paper tells you what the editorial board wants you to be thinking about.
They don't platform anyone who values humanity, society, social justice, racial equality, or science and truth. Ever.
"Just be ok with the Nazis."
