With solar sails being so thin, how do they avoid being punctured by tiny space debris? | AskScience Blog

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Tuesday, July 18, 2017

With solar sails being so thin, how do they avoid being punctured by tiny space debris?

With solar sails being so thin, how do they avoid being punctured by tiny space debris?


With solar sails being so thin, how do they avoid being punctured by tiny space debris?

Posted: 18 Jul 2017 03:33 AM PDT

Has the growing % of the population avoiding meat consumption had any impact on meat production?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 09:03 AM PDT

Does nicotine addiction permanently change the brain?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 09:17 AM PDT

I'm three months into quitting smoking cold turkey, so all traces of nicotine should have gone from my body, and from what I've read it seems my nicotine receptors should have returned to the state of a non-smoker too (< as you might be able to tell, I'm not entirely sure what this means, just something I read).

I admit there was a day last week when I lost the will and had three cigarettes :( Since then, the cravings have become 24/7 and I'm tense all over. The withdrawal has been almost as bad as the first week. (I have learned my lesson...)

A non-smoker who had three cigarettes would not experience an intense withdrawal (I assume); so is my experience because:

a) I have the "brain" of a smoker and my chemical addiction persists (physical);

b) Having a cigarette just kinda reminded me of how nice smoking is or reignited an old habit, so now I want to do it all the time (psychological);

or

c) Something else.

Also, I'd like to know if any brain changes are permanent. Would a smoker who had a cigarette 30 years after their quit experience the same intensity of withdrawal? Would they get (re)hooked on cigarettes more quickly than someone who had never smoked? Or is there a point where your likelihood to become addicted to smoking falls to the same level as a never-smoker?

submitted by /u/reallybigleg
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What exactly is going on in your muscles between weightlifting sets?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 04:10 PM PDT

How is it that one can be idiomatically dying on the last rep of one set, and then after just a brief rest the first few reps of the next set come easily?

submitted by /u/LogicKnowsNoMercy
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Is there such a thing as negative water pressure? has it been studied?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 07:04 PM PDT

I got this question by pondering Luke Skywalker suspended in some kind of water tank while convalescing (http://i.imgur.com/pHKlbVS.gif).

You know when you're in the tub with a cup, and you completely submerge the cup, filling it with water (no air) and then turn it upside down and raise the bottom of the cup above water level? It would seem to me that there would be some kind of negative water pressure in the cup.

Imagine doing that on a massive scale, in a large swimming pool. When I dive down 10+ feet in a swimming pool, my ears start to hurt from the pressure. If, in such a pool, there were a similar inverted, giant glass - sealed at the top - filled with water (that is, the water is in the glass only because of vacuum, like the bathtub cup) that rose 10+ feet above the surface of the rest of the water, what would it feel like to swim up in it? Would my ears hurt just as much, except in the opposite direction?

Are there any possible therapies or treatments or scientific phenomenon that occur, or occur more readily, in such a vacuum like, negative water-pressure environment? Have there ever been studies or research conducted in this direction?

submitted by /u/baodad
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Canyons like Palo Duro and the Grand Canyon were formed by erosion via the rivers that flow through them. Why don't all dig into the earth and create canyons like this?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 11:14 PM PDT

Why do batteries dissipate energy even if not in use?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 05:47 PM PDT

If ants keep track of travel by the steps they take, how do flying ants keep track?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 10:29 PM PDT

How do fish keep dirt/dust out of their eyes?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 04:35 PM PDT

So the sibling question to this is "why don't shrimp have eyelids?" The answer I've always found is that the main purpose of land animal eyelids is to keep the eye moist and lubricated which fish don't need to do since they're in a liquid medium already. However doesn't blinking also help to remove dust and dirt from your eyes as well? I started thinking about this because I have an aquarium and raise dwarf shrimp and it's quite common to see shrimp engage in self grooming behavior which includes brushing off their eyes to keep them clean. I've also seen crabs, mantis shrimp, and land insects like damsel flies do the same thing in documentaries. So if land animals blink to clean gunk out of our eyes, and arthropods rub gunk off their eyes with their limbs, how does a fish, which has no eyelids or limbs keep its eyes free of detritus?

submitted by /u/AnimeIRL
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How does chewing tobacco (or more specifically the components of it) cause cancer?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 08:43 PM PDT

More specifically how does it cause gum or throat cancer and why does it deteriorate your gums? Basically I'm curious why it is so harmful overall.

submitted by /u/oldicklightning
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Can you trap a beam of light inside a box?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 07:44 PM PDT

If yes, can we assume that inside this closed box is not dark?

submitted by /u/Jatobaspix
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Can light (visible or invisible) move a small object?

Posted: 18 Jul 2017 04:12 AM PDT

For example, could I move a water droplet by hitting it with a laser or any other kind of light?

submitted by /u/Matrix789
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Why do we need water?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 05:17 PM PDT

This is an actual question, I know food provides protein, sugars, minerals and so much more, but what is the purpose of water? Like why do we need it , sure it has some minerals and what not, but nothing like food. Thanks guys!!

submitted by /u/rumbustiousrhino
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What other experiments besides photoelectric effect prove that light is a particle?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 05:44 PM PDT

I've always wondered why scientists classify light as both wave AND particle. I've always thought it was just a wave. Even when researching why it is considered a particle, I still don't understand it. Light being a wave just makes more sense to me as opposed to being a particle. Whenever researching wha experiments prove that light is a particle, all I can find is photoelectric effect. What other experiments or proven theories prove that light is a particle?

submitted by /u/therealmthfckr
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Does Helium and other light gases leave Earth's atmosphere, or does it form the uttermost layer of it?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 09:05 AM PDT

[Geology] How does an Oceanic Anoxic Event relate to the Cretaceous period? Specifically focusing on the Aptain-Albian age.

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 08:35 AM PDT

Where would the center of mass of the solar system be?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 02:19 PM PDT

Let's assume all the planets (Mercury thru Neptune) happen to line up in a straight line. Where would the center of mass of the Solar system (Sun thru Neptune) be? Within the Sun?

Where would it fall if we included the theoretical new 9th planet (assuming 10x Earth mass and, say, 600 AU)?

submitted by /u/BabySeals84
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Are there any body parts that can't get cancer?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 11:29 AM PDT

I recently learned that teeth can get cancer which got me to wondering, are there any body part that can't get cancer? Because it doesn't seem like it.

submitted by /u/irich
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Recent Photon Teleportation

Posted: 18 Jul 2017 04:49 AM PDT

So I get that scientists can now teleport information between entangled photons, but is this teleportation instantaneous, or at the speed of light? In other words, how is it different from how we've been transmitting information for decades? Also what implications does this have for quantum computing?

submitted by /u/niggadamus420
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What's the minimum distance that we can "see" dark matter?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 10:58 AM PDT

I know we can't actually see it, only observe it's gravitational interactions with matter, but how far does it have to be to observe its effects? Seems like a pretty substantial and important force in the universe, would we be able to detect it if it was, say, surrounding our planet? Floating in patches through our solar system? Can we see it in our own Milky Way, or only calculate it through its tug on distant galaxies?

submitted by /u/marinemac0808
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Those radio waves we receive from outer space every now and again, where do they emanate from and how? If it's not alien life then what is the cause of these waves?

Posted: 17 Jul 2017 09:02 PM PDT

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