I wonder if there are codes I can crack to get my squeaks back
Well, that's Percy-territory. Way above my paygrade.
But, you might ask him for his reasons. He really is a soft and cuddly sort and always has good reasons. Maybe not always to my liking but we can disagree. So can you. Maybe try, again. Could help get the rest of your voice back.
She doesn't get enough credit for the clear no-nonsense science she brings to everything. I'll help spread the word.
CAUTION: Not graphic but she spares no language.
Sensitive constitutions should keep a bible handy to protect them from the demons that will flood their minds as they watch. For the rest of us it's a same-old, same-old science video with an interesting topic.
Upshot? Doesn't help, doesn't hurt, unless taken to extremes where the side effects can be deadly.
The subject matter is a buzz, of course, but her treatment and presentation skills are quite a tickle. The backhanded slaps at the stupid were fewer then some of her other works but the science was deep and, in her hands, the presentation was a hoot. She had fun with this one.
Re: The McDonald’s Ice Cream Machine Hacking Saga Has a New Twist
Here I thought these MD's ice cream machine problems were overblown humorous vignettes of a quite standard machine MTF (mean time to failure) mode. Now we find out it is a world-wide conspiracy with hackers and pirates (all good stories involve pirates - Lance Geiger) and arch villain corporate monsters devouring what scant little remains of customer service by dialing in to break their machines before the ice cream begins to flow. Bastards!
Sheeple of MD's soft serve, you are being manipulated. With decreased supply your demand will grow stronger. The drug of soft serve has captured your soul and will toy with your emotions for the sheer joy of watching you whimper, defeated, as yet another ice cream machine is hacked low.
What would the Universe look like if we could figure out how to do neutrino astronomy?
We’re about to find out cuz we’re doing it now. IceCube has been operational for years and is part of the supernova alert program. There is a small handful of neutrino telescopes already online and another set of smaller neutrino observatories tucked here and there over the world.
Unfortunately, one capture in every 100 trillion (+- another 100 trillion) is poor pickins. These detectors need to be big because neutrinos aren't there. Takes a lot of detector to find a nothing, but we do it, we find 'em.
I’ve been following this for forever because neutrinos are just plain weird. They hardly exist at all, make up more of matter in the universe than do electrons by a gazillion orders of magnitude, and they change ID between three different types every split second or so while in flight. These things change shape (quantum energy levels) in flight. Say what!? How?
Recently the search for a 4th flavor of neutrino (sterile neutrinos) was called off on account of because no one can find one. That null result was both comforting and disappointing. The standard model is still intact. Damn it. But we know the standard model, regardless of how the thing just seemed to flow together so pretty, cannot be the whole of the story. We haven’t yet pushed the model hard enough to break it and neutrinos were supposed to do just that.
Neutrinos are not suppose to be just the latest category of particle to fall so neatly into the model on its own, they are supposed to break it. The shapeshifting is a great start but this three flavors stuff just falls in too neatly with the rest of the model.
Brookhaven, FermiLab and their DUNE project (minus any spicy worms) will be THE platform for the detailed study of everything a shapeshifting neutrino does in flight. How can it change quantum state in flight? That's not allowed. 'Cept now it is since we see it happening.
"Hey, neutrino, you can't do that. Quantum particles don't do that. No one does that. Stop it."
"Stuff it, Ape!"
"You piss me off, ghost puff. I'm gonna nail your flashy ass down to my table!"
This result from CERN gives us a new venue and set of detectors that appear to be more sensitive than 40,000 tons of liquid argon buried deep below South Dakota. But the big telescopes with huge pools do give us clear and immediate direction vectors to each event which is way cool for astronomy.
And the LHC's detectors are intended to help balance the energy math from its detected collisions in the main ring, not for space stuff.
As for your other questions on the dark things, we will find out soon. I wouldn't think our neutrino detectors could help with dark energy. The leading models aren't conducive to a connection. But dark matter is a definite issue that could very well be impacted by how neutrinos do their thing.
But then neutrinos disappointed me before by being only a trinity. Wouldn't surprise me if neutrinos took us right to the edge of understanding dark matter then said, "Fuck you. Go look elsewhere."
James Webb Space Telescope is in orbit after a flawless launch.
It separated from the Ariane 5 rocket, unfolded its solar panels and is now on internal power. Over the next four weeks the controllers will slowly unfold the telescope into its final configuration as it travels out to the L2 point about 1.5 million km from Earth. Then comes mirror tests and verification, aiming and target control and internal checks which are scheduled to last up to 6 months. That puts first light (first science observations) in the june/july timeframe.
The most dangerous part of the deployment is over, successfully. Now comes the really hairy engineering part. During the unfolding and tests there are over 340 single points of failure that still need to be passed.
I can’t hold my breath for 6 months solid so I’ll do it in stages while I nibble my fingernails to the quick.
but why couldn't they have designed-in ports so advanced robotic spacecraft in the future could service it, add fuel, etc.?
Oh I remember there was a lot of heated discussion on this point in the online discussions of JWST for years early on. But the telescope functional life from wear and tear was not deemed long enough to rely on future technology able to service the scope before it irreparably shot craps.
If the scope was launched in 2007 as planned it would be near 15 years into its 10 year lifespan and NASA was right, we do not have the technology to service the thing.
Still, I think that was short sighted especially given the decade of delay in getting the thing up there.
But NASA couldn't design a separate unique docking port for JWST but would have to use the universal docking port of international standards and that design caused a lot of problems with the origami structure and cost too much to add.
NASA said too much hassle.
So, like typical Americans, when the ashtray gets full we'll junk the car. OK, that is old timer talk but you get the jist.
Webb will be operated at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2), located approximately 1 million miles (1.5 million km) away from the Earth, and will therefore be beyond the reach of any manned vehicle currently being planned for the next decade.
Hubble is in low-Earth orbit, located approximately 375 miles (600 km) away from the Earth, and is therefore readily accessible for servicing. In the early days of the Webb project, studies were conducted to evaluate the benefits, practicality and cost of servicing Webb either by human space flight, by robotic missions, or by some combination such as retrieval to low-Earth orbit. Those studies concluded that the potential benefits of servicing do not offset the increases in mission complexity, mass and cost that would be required to make Webb serviceable, or to conduct the servicing mission itself. Hubble is an exception and not the rule. No other satellites but Hubble are serviceable currently.
JWST is about 950k km out in the 11th day of its 30 day travel to the L2 point.
Things are going exceedingly well, like these folks had planned this for 30 years or something.
The sunshade has been completely deployed and tensioned. That was a big nail biter that just seemed to easily unfurl and straighten itself out. Again, it was as if someone planned it that way.
Actually because of the Ariane 5 launch being so near perfect the controllers had extra time to go through all the release mechanisms again, like all 107 of them, to make sure everything was ready for unfolding. Then they took extra time to unfold and verify each step.
But this was all planned, right?
Of course, but no one really expected to be using the “best case scenario” checklist.
The blessings come from the performance of the ESA’s Ariane 5 rocket. The launch was as near perfect to the perfect launch window for JWST as to allow the initial rotation of the scope, deployment of the solar array and the switch from battery to internal power to happen much sooner that normally expected.
The Ariane 5 also put JWST on its orbital path so precisely that the required initial correction burns using the scope’s own thrusters were cut in duration, by more than half. That’s going to leave a lot more fuel in the tank. I haven’t seen NASA’s official numbers but the internet nerds are talking the 5-to-10 year thruster life of JWST has just been extended by at least another 5-10 years. A lot more science.
I want to be optimistic. Things are going exceptionally well. Kudos to the planners, the engineers, the ones that are doing this thing. I can be quite optimistic about the human components seeing as how things have progressed. With the hopes for this scope growing ever stronger as each hurdle is crossed I dread the other shoe. Is it going to drop?
[aside] Waiting for the other shoe to drop is an American idiom for waiting for disaster to strike.
I fear being ghosted by JWST. That and a thousand other billiards table, bullet range, blast a grain of sand through the heart of my optic processors, scenarios. I am a seething mass of existential dread.
It's done. The mirror is full open and is going through hours of tight lockdown procedures.
All the hard engineering points are done. Lots of tests/failure points remain on the mirror actuators, alignment, optics and what the internet nerds are calling a gentle nudge into the L2 gravity anomaly by the onboard thrusters. Then we get to go through more tests and more tests while we wait for the scope to cool down.
Thermal equilibrium, a major requirement for scope operation, will take many months to achieve. The goal is 40o Klevin (-230oC) over the entire scope. They need to squeeze every last drop of heat they can from the thing and, down that area of the scale, trying to getting lower is a long, long process as what little heat there is needs time to slowly leak, photon by photon, into space. It's going to be a while before it's ready.
Has the sunshield materials, construction, function, physics of layering, etc To me, the physics of the heat dissipation of the shield are fascinating. Pay attention to the spacing. Thermodynamics in all its glory.
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