Green Baron

Good dog. Tell him to wake you up when Orion rises:-) It was cloudy here until the early morning hours. Clear sky above the low-mid cloud layer.

That doesn't sound too determined :-) There is a payload ? I thought expectations were low that it reaches orbit. Or was that a joke ?

This is funny. Since Elon Musk has started to utter his dream of dying on Mars we have been through the same arguments over and over again, maybe with slight variations of the theme. But i don't want to participate (yet). I'll do so if there is a rocket to get people there and, what's more important, a somewhat developed idea of how to make a living there. Question: what's the latest info on FH ? In early June Musk said he wanted to have boosters at the cape "in 2 to three months" and be ready for a launch "a month later". That'll be now. How are things, does anyone know ? Cheers :-)

Yes, "somebody" actually can.

Do you mean Theia by proto-moon ? It is not quite clear how much Theia and earth had already differentiated, but they probably had to a high degree. The moon's density is lower then the earth's because it's mostly formed of mantle material of the already differentiated bodies. While there are craters on the moon that have filled with basalt, the maria on moon themselves are no craters, but solidified outflow of basalts. They are volcanic rather than impact structures. They are older than the lighter surface structures from impacts that formed after the outflows and solidification of the crust.

Well, there existed a plan B for the TMT (here on La Palma), so from a mere science view the necessity wasn't all that great. But a billion funds is probably just too much to spend elsewhere and America already has a cooperation here with GTC. I can't judge from here how much actual sorrow for the loss of cultural heritage was involved or how much it was lawyers trying to squeeze out some benefit. The decision fell 5:2 and construction can go on. Hopefully they are more careful than NASA and don't drop anything vital and tell the politicians not to touch any optical surfaces ;-)

Yeah. This thread is old. Nevertheless the last development (from yesterday) worth a note here i think. The construction of the TMT on Hawaii has been approved (Yay !). http://www.tmt.org/news-center/hawaii-board-land-and-natural-resources-approves-conservation-district-use-permit-build- The other big popeye on the southern half, the E_ELT started construction earlier this year. Mirrors have been partly been cast already, instrumentation is under development. So, right now it looks like both telescopes could see first light like planned, somewhen 2025 or so.

To be precise (and link this to Palaeobiology), the first species of Mammuthus actually have afaik their origin in early Pleistocene Africa under a much warmer climate than late Pleistocene/early Holocene Siberia. They are among the species that roamed the open steppes, like wild horse(+), reindeer, ... The last island populations of the cold adaption Woolly Mammoth (M primigenius) retreated into Siberia, which didn't save them from becoming extinct :-).

It took 6 weeks since the order of a book via amazon to the delivery today. 6 bloody weeks for a simple book, worth 45,90 (euro). Customs is the culprit. The Canaries aren't Europe taxwise like the Spanish mainland and i, as a German "emigrant", am used to have an order on the desk after 3 days, and only if it's not pressing. They changed the import rules this year to let goods up to 150,- just pass but apparently the bureau-crazy Spaniards don't know yet. The parcel was x-rayed, an enterprise i never heard of asked for my personal data like tax identification number and things, via email. I told them to do things where the sun doesn't shine, am i loco to hand out such data via email ? One doesn't need to be too bright to realize that these nonsensical laws just cost the economy A LOT ... Ok. will go reading now.

Awww, guys, i watched the first three minutes and then decided to wait for a summary in the news. :-)

Mercury in rivers results most often from illegal / criminal discharge of industrial waste (e. g. from coal mining, coal burning, others ?) in rivers. People swim in it because they either don't know, don't care or have no choice. Mercury is extremely toxic and a severe health risk for wild life as well as humans. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs361/en/

Yep, i only meant that for Maria and Lee and i must add that i can't see into the future :-) If the two arrive in front of the Brit's doorstep with a shower then so be it (hehehe). You are right, the season isn't over and the ocean surface is very warm. We can still see some more before the "official" end of the season.

No objections against the guess :-) Maybe one should keep in mind that there are extreme temp. differences between day and night. Like 3-400K. That surely has grave consequences on density and thus barometric height. On earth there's a rule of thumb of 5500m for the troposphere, but that varies with latitude and even weather. Just one thing: the solar wind consist of ionized (charged) particles that'll blow away other particles if no magnetic field deflects it. I am not sure how much it actually contributes to heating. EM-radiation might do a better job heating an atmosphere, but this should be checked. Atmospheric heating (at least on earth) happens mostly on the surface on contact. The surface is heated by the sun's radiation and overlying air then heats up. Convection starts. Pure speculation here: since there will probably be no inversion layer on the moon (??) and as said the air can't go in the ground nor to side where other air is there is only the way up. How much solar radiation then contributes to ionization of air particles, further thinning and heating (accelerating particles) and how much the solar wind succeeds in taking away the thinner parts ... idk. I think that the loss will be much faster than you propose but i have nothing at hand to prove that.

This may be a dumb question. Because the Hill sphere lies inside of it ?

Nope, absolute pressure is the main-indicator but not a law, depends on situation. Surrounding pressure and coriolis forces play role. In the whole it is the gradient of pressure that defines mean windspeed. So, if the hurricane moves towards lower pressure and/or a flat gradient (large distance between isobares) it can dissipate despite of barometric pressure not correlating. As to predictions for Maria and Lee i can hold myself back but it seems like the danger is over, for the time being :-)

*Looks under desk* Its not here ... ? Unrelated to Nibiru, but a planet responsible for Mercury's wobbling was postulated in 19th century, was even "observed" by renowned astronomers of the time and dubbed ... Vulcan (Hi Leonard Nimoy ;-)) It "existed" until it fell victim to GR ... http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/151104-newton-einstein-gravity-vulcan-planets-mercury-astronomy-theory-of-relativity-ngbooktalk/ Was base for nice stories like a planet opposite in earths orbit, always hidden behind the sun, populated by dinos. Ignoring earth's orbit isn't circular and light is bend around the sun ;-)

But that's only thermal loss, right ? It doesn't include loss due to ionisation and transport away by solar wind, which might be considerably high since the moon's surface is much more exposed to radiation and it has only a very week magnetosphere.

You're right, but that's mean speed. At the far end of the curve quite a lot of molecules are too fast to hold on. And since the atmosphere can't go in the ground nor to the side it can only find its way into space. And ok, minutes is exaggeration. But even on earth a few thousand tons are lost each year (no worries, diverse cycles renew it) due to thermal loss or other causes (solar wind ...). Edit: i found an article that explains some causes of atmospheric loss. 'nother edit: now that i think of it i think there was a nasa experiment to explain the loss of the mars atmosphere ....

That question implies that someone somehow gets these gases there in a balloon and then opens it. Ignoring the impossibility of that task the gases are gone in minutes if the sun shines. Molecular movement even at low temperature is higher than escape velocity. The math has been done in some former thread here ....

Done, mate. So, the first test dummies will be crocodiles or wallabies ? ^^ Seriously, i didn't know Australia did not have such a thing. Collaboration might be good idea. Should that be Petajoules ?

Well, sometimes it is not that easy to exactly specify what you need because nobody knows about all the tools that exist. You want to hang up a ceiling lamp in a 500 year old house ? Do you know that there are sort of anchor or straddling dowels that fit through a small borehole and brace up when tightened so that you can fasten like 5kg at the hollow between a clay/wood ceiling and thin cover of gypsum ? Explain this to the poor guy in the hardware store ... :-)) That's why we have division of work (and a language or pen & paper). In this case it was quite obvious what the OP wanted because there aren't that many tools, but speaking of hammers, it can be easier abused than a screwdriver :-)

Exactly my reaction :-)

In principle the whole discussion is futile imo because a Mars colony isn't something that can or will be done in the foreseeable future. I explicitly don't want to side with anyone, but actually a lot of people do sit and eat popcorn while a lot of others starve ...

Trying hard but i just can't :-) Seriously, this is a very coarse simplification and does not allow any future predictions. We could as well be fighting over resources in a more and more unfriendly climate in a contaminated world after a nuclear war in Asia, that prediction is worth as much as "2040 there is a base on Mars". Any such predictions are pointless as long as there is no demonstrator of any of the discussed technologies, and there is none right now, not even a ready crew module for a lunar flight (yet).

So itsy as more of an intermediate state or possible technology tester or just to please Musks impatience :-) ?