NASA's Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space
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Re: NASA's Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space
#2The title is a bit hyperbolic. The article shows how the Van Allen belts constitute a "nearly impenetrable" barrier preventing "ultra-fast electrons" from approaching the earth.
Re: NASA's Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space
#3It's amazing how much they look like electron orbitals. . . . Sometimes its seems like the reason we see nature reuse the same patterns is not from any physical mechanism but simply because math only has so many "shapes." I am perpetually in awe at this mysterious order to our universe.
Also: if these belts block high-energy electrons, can they teach us to build a force field that does the same? And can that solve the problem of fast-moving spacecraft being destroyed by the first spec of dust they encounter? Or of radiation killing the crew?
What if the only way to protect life against cosmic radiation is to build a planet-sized spacecraft?
Another question due to my weak grasp of modern physics: to a fast-moving spacecraft, are all electrons "high energy"?
Re: NASA's Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space
#4The title is a bit hyperbolic. The article shows how the Van Allen belts constitute a "nearly impenetrable" barrier preventing "ultra-fast electrons" from approaching the earth.
Yeah -- from the sound of the title, you'd think they'd discovered this thing:
Re: NASA's Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space
#5It's amazing how much they look like electron orbitals. . . . Sometimes its seems like the reason we see nature reuse the same patterns is not from any physical mechanism but simply because math only has so many "shapes." I am perpetually in awe at this mysterious order to our universe. Also: if these belts block high-energy electrons, can they teach us to build a force field that does the same? And can that solve th…
>build a planet-sized spacecraft //
We have one of those already, just need to work on the propulsion and life-support systems.
Re: NASA's Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space
#6It's amazing how much they look like electron orbitals. . . . Sometimes its seems like the reason we see nature reuse the same patterns is not from any physical mechanism but simply because math only has so many "shapes." I am perpetually in awe at this mysterious order to our universe. Also: if these belts block high-energy electrons, can they teach us to build a force field that does the same? And can that solve th…
You may already know this, but in your observation about "math having only so many shapes" has been explored in some depth. There is a wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterns_in_nature
but I first learned about it from the book, "Patterns in Nature", by Peter S. Stevens (http://www.amazon.com/Patterns-Nature-Peter-S-Stevens/dp/031...), which was recommended to me by a noted poet.
Re: NASA's Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space
#7It's amazing how much they look like electron orbitals. . . . Sometimes its seems like the reason we see nature reuse the same patterns is not from any physical mechanism but simply because math only has so many "shapes." I am perpetually in awe at this mysterious order to our universe. Also: if these belts block high-energy electrons, can they teach us to build a force field that does the same? And can that solve th…
> to a fast-moving spacecraft, are all electrons "high energy"?
Define fast. Electrons get to relativistic-ish speeds in the hundred of kilovolts-ish range. If you look at the specs for a x-ray tube thats a pretty intense / hard to shield x-ray source, not like those wimpy tens of kilovolt xrays from a CRT that don't even make it thru the glass.
So if you're going fast enough for relativity to be an issue, smacking a stationary electron is going to hurt and be a pain to shield, so yeah, all electrons are high energy. On the other hand what we puny humans currently think is a fast spacecraft, is going to be a rounding error compared to solar winds and just random stuff out there, so in a different way, all the electrons that matter are high energy compared to our actual deployed slow spacecraft, sorta.
Re: NASA's Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space
#8It's amazing how much they look like electron orbitals. . . . Sometimes its seems like the reason we see nature reuse the same patterns is not from any physical mechanism but simply because math only has so many "shapes." I am perpetually in awe at this mysterious order to our universe. Also: if these belts block high-energy electrons, can they teach us to build a force field that does the same? And can that solve th…
The observation of the similarity between electron orbitals and various astronomical phenomena is one that's made fairly frequently.
My first recollection was during a high-school session to a local university for a science and physics colloquium for high-school students, over a quarter century ago. We were seeing slides of steller objects, and one showed as I recall a galaxy with high-energy jets radiating from both poles. One of the bright kids in the group (ergo, not myself) noted the electron orbital similarity.
Perhaps it's the chagrin at not having noted that myself which has made me highly aware of the symmetry since. But yes, there's an economy of patterns in the Universe. At least at some levels.
Re: NASA's Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space
#9I find that the more we know about this planet that keeps us safe, a large moon to keep asteroids away and tectonics hot, a mass just enough to keep an atmosphere around us and a spinning iron core to provide "impenetrable barriers", the more I learn of this the less I think Fermi found a paradox and just that it's hard for life to stay alive in this universe.
Re: NASA's Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space
#10I find that the more we know about this planet that keeps us safe, a large moon to keep asteroids away and tectonics hot, a mass just enough to keep an atmosphere around us and a spinning iron core to provide "impenetrable barriers", the more I learn of this the less I think Fermi found a paradox and just that it's hard for life to stay alive in this universe.
Life finds a way.