Thursday Throughput: Invisible Universe Edition

Michael Siegel

Michael Siegel is an astronomer living in Pennsylvania. He blogs at his own site, and has written a novel.

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7 Responses

  1. [ThTh2]:

    “There’s a black hole 45 degrees to our left.”

    “I don’t see it.”

    “Exactly.”Report

  2. Michael Cain says:

    ThTh7: One of the scary things is that every time we get better sensor technology, particularly for monitoring at ground level, we soon discover that the oil and gas industry is leaking much more methane than they tell us. Generously, than they think they are leaking.

    Unsolicited SLS/Orion update: (1) Rolled to the pad on Nov 4 in anticipation of launching on Nov 14. (2) Eyeing what is forecast to become subtropical storm Nicole on Nov 6, NASA makes the decision to leave the SLS/Orion on the pad. (3) Subtropical storm Nicole forms on Nov 7. (4) Hurricane Nicole makes landfall early in the morning of Nov 10 on Florida’s east coast. Winds measured on the towers around the SLS/Orion are close to but still within the limits NASA says the rocket is designed to withstand. (5) Launch window is shifted from Nov 14 to Nov 16. NASA has started remote examination of the rocket for external damage. Weather forecast for the 16th is mostly sunny, with light winds. Consensus opinion in the Ars Technica comment section seems to be that absent discovery of some serious problem, NASA will attempt to launch on the 16th because the rocket is getting rather close to its “use by” date.Report

  3. Brandon Berg says:

    ThTh3: I’m a bit annoyed at the way the continents just melt into each other without forming mountain ranges.

    On a related note, everyone knows about Pangaea, but it’s believed that supercontinents have actually formed several times in Earth’s history. On a geological time scale, they seem to be a fairly regular occurrence.Report

  4. Brandon Berg says:

    ThTh6: I don’t know how much credit to give it, but there was a recent study finding that COVID-19 infection sets off an inflammatory cascade in the brain that could lead to clinically relevant neurodegeneration over a period of years. If you’ve had COVID-19, especially pre-vaccination, it might be worth taking some nrf2 activators (curcumin, broccoli sprouts, EGCG) and fisetin to try to reduce the inflammation and ward off any future problems. I don’t know that this will actually work, since clinical trials in humans are limited, but there’s a lot of preclinical research suggesting a plausible mechanism.Report