AskScience AMA Series: We have discovered an Earth-mass exoplanet around the nearest star to our Solar System. AMA! |
- AskScience AMA Series: We have discovered an Earth-mass exoplanet around the nearest star to our Solar System. AMA!
- what is physically happening to Li when a Li-ion battery is charged under load (while on)?
- What is the fastest possible probe we could send to Proxima Centauri using today's technology or technology attainable within the next few years?
- How are electrons manipulated and maintained for experiments like in quantum entanglement?
- Why do women have lower alcohol tolerance (specifically alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH)) on average than men?
- Does light bounce of off the sun?
- A family has two children. Given that one of the children is a boy, and that he was born on a Tuesday, what is the probability that both children are boys?
- How does low gene diversity cause birth defects?
- Does an urban/unnatural area cause changes to the local climate?
- If the Earth is rotating around the Sun would it be easier to launch a rocket from the current 'rear-facing side' of Earth?
- Why will doctors induce labor if a woman is pregnant past her 'due date'? Wouldn't it be better to let labor start naturally?
- Human beings, other primates, and guinea pigs are the only animals that do not produce vitamin C internally. What is the evolutionary "advantage" of this? What would be the implications of having this ability?
- Why doesn't tree bark warp over time?
- How do the W bosons gain mass?
- Are there any animals (non-human) that can understand a separate species' body/spoken language?
- Greatest (and smallest) possible antipodal distances?
- Why does the skull cap break away so often in hominid fossils?
- Do radio signals get red shifted?
- Why is the length of a day on earth and mars so similar?
- How old is Cancer?
- Will the power output of an induction motor be independent of speed?
- Why does Edge has better coverage than 4G?
- Is the orbit speed of the ISS around Earth constant?
- Does DNA regulate its own susceptibility to mutation?
| Posted: 24 Aug 2016 10:00 AM PDT Guests: Pale Red Dot team, Julien Morin (Laboratoire Univers et Particules de Montpellier, Universite de Montpellier, CNRS, France), James Jenkins (Departamento de Astronomia, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile), Yiannis Tsapras (Zentrum fur Astronomie der Universitat Heidelberg (ZAH), Heidelberg, Germany). Summary: We are a team of astronomers running a campaign called the Pale Red Dot. We have found definitive evidence of a planet in orbit around the closest star to Earth, besides the Sun. The star is called Proxima Centauri and lies just over 4 light-years from us. The planet we've discovered is now called Proxima b and this makes it the closest exoplanet to us and therefore the main target should we ever develop the necessary technologies to travel to a planet outside the Solar System. Our results have just been published today in Nature, but our observing campaign lasted from mid January to April 2016. We have kept a blog about the entire process here: www.palereddot.org and have also communicated via Twitter @Pale_Red_Dot and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/palereddot/ We will be available starting 22:00 CEST (16 ET, 20 UT). Ask Us Anything! [link] [comments]  |
| what is physically happening to Li when a Li-ion battery is charged under load (while on)? Posted: 25 Aug 2016 05:32 AM PDT I understand that the battery does not charge and discharge simultaneously, but rather there's a net charge due to opposite polarization. But does this mean that Li is diffusing slower towards the cathode? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Aug 2016 03:32 PM PDT The news of a planet in the habitable zone of proxima centari got me thinking. If we wanted to send a probe there to do a flyby how long would it take? if we wanted it to stop, how long would that take? I assume an ion thruster or resonant cavity thruster would probably be the fastest. the fastest current probe out there is Juno, which is traveling at 25 miles per second. if juno were pointed in the right direction it would take a while: ((((2.4943e+13 / 25) / 60) / 60) /24)/365 = 31,000 years a ion thruster could accelerate for half the journey, or more then use additional thruster fuel to slow down. What is the fastest theoretical span of time we could get something there to send back some photos? https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1629/ [link] [comments]  |
| How are electrons manipulated and maintained for experiments like in quantum entanglement? Posted: 24 Aug 2016 08:30 PM PDT I'm trying to understand exactly how these experiments work when using electrons.
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| Posted: 24 Aug 2016 08:59 PM PDT Posted on ELI5 but got rejected because evolutionary topics "aren't ELI5 appropriate", so trying my luck here. Here is the original post I made in ELI5: Primary reasons I found online so far with some initial research[1][2] are:
*I am aware the above are ON AVERAGE, and obviously there are always exceptions. My burning question that I can't find an answer to (on reddit or elsewhere) is WHY for reasons #1 and #2. Everything just states that women have less ADH and different body composition, but I want to know why women have less ADH and different body composition. I want deeper answers, but maybe this is reaching the threshold of our current knowledge, and we can only speculate on potential evolutionary answers to ADH (and other bodily) differences among different human populations including sex, race, etc. The why for reason #3 is more intuitive I guess from a biology/human evolutionary perspective, but any additional insights are appreciated as well. I'm hoping someone with more expert biology/medical knowledge can save the day. [1] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/enzyme-lack-lowers-womens/ [2] http://www.askdoctork.com/why-cant-women-drink-as-much-as-men-201602198893 [link] [comments]  |
| Does light bounce of off the sun? Posted: 24 Aug 2016 08:13 PM PDT I was wondering what would happen if I shine a beam of light at the sun. Would it bounce back, would it pass through or would it be absorbed? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Aug 2016 06:35 PM PDT I expected the answer to be 1/3 as Tuesday is a totally arbitrary day and has no bearing on the results. However, the explanation given here (I've screenshot the relevant passage here) claims that the probability is 13/27 instead. While I follow the math, I don't understand how the additional information of the arbitrary day the boy was born on changes the probability at all, when we already know he was born on some arbitrary day. If we assume the other child was born on a Wednesday does this change the probability further? [link] [comments]  |
| How does low gene diversity cause birth defects? Posted: 25 Aug 2016 04:43 AM PDT |
| Does an urban/unnatural area cause changes to the local climate? Posted: 25 Aug 2016 04:35 AM PDT As per title, does a city landscape like London or another tightly packed city with pretty much lots of skyscrapers, buildings and streets cause the local climate to change? Like for example, if you were to erect a metropole in the tundra, could it's climate and that of the surrounding area shift to something that is not tundra anymore? If you were to wipe London of the map and let nature have it's way, would it be more or less rainy and/or get hotter/colder? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Aug 2016 07:44 PM PDT I attempted to draw a picture illustrating what I mean: http://i.imgur.com/VoELyly.png [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Aug 2016 08:54 PM PDT Other bodily processes, like growth spurts or menarche, we accept that they can and will occur at different times and rates for different individuals. I don't understand why we would not treat labor that way also? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Aug 2016 01:12 PM PDT Would our immune system be stronger since our bodies would produce vitamin C in sufficient amounts? I read that this is a mutation of a gene that causes this inability to produce vitamin C. I wonder if we can engineer these genes to mutate "back" and allows us to produce vitamin C (not sure if this sounds stupid, so excuse my ignorance). [link] [comments]  |
| Why doesn't tree bark warp over time? Posted: 24 Aug 2016 07:34 PM PDT |
| How do the W bosons gain mass? Posted: 25 Aug 2016 06:48 AM PDT I've read that the W bosons gained their mass by "eating" the three extra higgs bosons, but according to a diagram I saw on Wikipedia they have an entirely different weak hypercharge and isospin. if they were interacting with the higgs field it would be understandable, but then where does the spin go/come from, since the W isn't supposed to have a spineless stat on its own [link] [comments]  |
| Are there any animals (non-human) that can understand a separate species' body/spoken language? Posted: 25 Aug 2016 06:26 AM PDT A random thought entered my mind, are there effectively any bilingual animals? [link] [comments]  |
| Greatest (and smallest) possible antipodal distances? Posted: 25 Aug 2016 06:12 AM PDT I'm not sure if I have the terminology right, but since the Earth is an oblate spheroid with a bit of wrinkling on the surface (mountains, oceanic trenches) what are the longest (and shortest) possible straight lines through the planet? I would imagine that the longest might be mountains on the Equator, while the shortest might be bits of ocean floor near the poles. [link] [comments]  |
| Why does the skull cap break away so often in hominid fossils? Posted: 25 Aug 2016 05:33 AM PDT I just watched a documentary on human evolution and many of the fossils found were just the skull caps broken away from the rest. Is it just coincidence or is there a reason for that specific part being more easily fossilised? [link] [comments]  |
| Do radio signals get red shifted? Posted: 24 Aug 2016 10:00 PM PDT I'm kind of assuming they do, being light and all. But I was thinking; when we send spacecraft zooming away from earth at 40,000 mph, are the signals its sending back getting red shifted? Is that affecting the data at all? Do engineers compensate for this at all? [link] [comments]  |
| Why is the length of a day on earth and mars so similar? Posted: 25 Aug 2016 05:20 AM PDT Is there some sort of resonance effect? Or is it a probability thing (that is a common length of day we would expect)? Is it complete coincidence? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Aug 2016 02:15 PM PDT Whats the earliest evidence we have of Cancer existing? What do we know about how and when it evolved? Or has it always existed, as long as life on earth has existed? [link] [comments]  |
| Will the power output of an induction motor be independent of speed? Posted: 24 Aug 2016 05:41 PM PDT I'm studying mechanical engineering. I've always been a tinkerer and have a profound love for cars, among many other things with moving parts. Last year (when I was a freshman) when we were taking an introductory engineering course, we went over electric motors. One of the formulas that they gave us was: 1 horsepower = 550 lb-ft of torque. Where the equation I've always known is: horsepower = (shaft speed * TQ @ that shaft speed) / 5252 I didn't want to start any confusion, and the math was easy enough. I'm wondering why they gave us that equation though; the formula for mechanical horsepower (or torque) isn't any more difficult- it requires the same skill level when it comes to algebra. The units don't match up though; horsepower is a measurement of power (work per time) whereas torque is a measurement of torsional force. There is no proper 'speed' or 'time' component with the equation that I was given. I feel like they gave us that 'equation' just to make things simpler, but is it correct? Does it apply only to induction motors? How would it differ with a DC motor or a brushless? [link] [comments]  |
| Why does Edge has better coverage than 4G? Posted: 25 Aug 2016 01:10 AM PDT At least in my home country, Norway, the Edge network reaches further than the 4G coverage. Is this just because the Edge network has been around longer and has more transmitters? Or is it related to how the technology works? I think I heard somewhere that low frequency electromagnetic vawes can travel further than high frequency. But you will be able to transmitt more data with a higher frequency. Will that affect the coverage of 4G? [link] [comments]  |
| Is the orbit speed of the ISS around Earth constant? Posted: 25 Aug 2016 04:56 AM PDT would this be affected by the earths rotation around the sun? As it is falling wouldn't it get to a point where it has to speed up to get around and then slow down? [link] [comments]  |
| Does DNA regulate its own susceptibility to mutation? Posted: 24 Aug 2016 06:14 PM PDT Whenever I read about all the error-checking mechanisms and programmed cell death, I always think about whether a 0% error rate is even desirable. It's not difficult to think of situations wherein a small possibility of mutation a good thing. Or is the mutation rate always too high for the genes' own good? [link] [comments]  |
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