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Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Fri August 15, 2014 7:11 pm
by Strat
Kaius wrote:It's basically a larger and much, much, much colder Earth.

Will there be sick pow there, brah?

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Fri August 15, 2014 7:12 pm
by nyquillyn
Doubtful RM will make the transition to Titan. Good riddance.

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Fri August 15, 2014 7:14 pm
by Kaius
Strat wrote:
Kaius wrote:It's basically a larger and much, much, much colder Earth.

Will there be sick pow there, brah?
I don't know, Strat

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Fri August 15, 2014 7:16 pm
by Kaius
turned2black wrote:Doubtful RM will make the transition to Titan. Good riddance.
How long you think before interstellar travel is made possible?

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Fri August 15, 2014 7:28 pm
by nyquillyn
No idea. Earth needs to hit the reset button again. I'm hoping Yellowstone or a superbug wipes us out kinda soon.

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Fri August 15, 2014 7:38 pm
by E.H. Ruddock
turned2black wrote:
E.H. Ruddock wrote:
turned2black wrote:Fuck Mars in its stupid red ass. Titan will likely be humanity's second home. Imagine what an awesome site it'll be to stare up and see Saturn filling up the sky.
Titan doesn't have life on it just like anything else in our solar system. So we'd still have to live in pods and wear suits to go outside. No thanks.
Some think Titan could very well be inhabitable after our sun becomes a red giant. The temps could become livable and its chemical make-up would change drastically.
So in ten million years?

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Fri August 15, 2014 7:38 pm
by Norah
E.H. Ruddock wrote:
turned2black wrote:
E.H. Ruddock wrote:
turned2black wrote:Fuck Mars in its stupid red ass. Titan will likely be humanity's second home. Imagine what an awesome site it'll be to stare up and see Saturn filling up the sky.
Titan doesn't have life on it just like anything else in our solar system. So we'd still have to live in pods and wear suits to go outside. No thanks.
Some think Titan could very well be inhabitable after our sun becomes a red giant. The temps could become livable and its chemical make-up would change drastically.
So in ten million years?
Also, there's probably going to be an intense transition period when neither is habitable.

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Fri August 15, 2014 8:01 pm
by nyquillyn
Not true. The sun's transition into a red giant will actually take several million years. We'd have plenty of time to leave Earth for Titan (or some other place).

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Fri August 15, 2014 8:03 pm
by Norah
turned2black wrote:Not true. The sun's transition into a red giant will actually take several million years. We'd have plenty of time to leave Earth for Titan (or some other place).
But at what point will Titan become habitable? Before Earth becomes uninhabitable?

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Fri August 15, 2014 8:23 pm
by nyquillyn
We'd establish enclosed stations on Titan, then leave them behind as it became more habitable. It's about the long game.

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Fri August 15, 2014 8:24 pm
by Kaius
We will probably develop some kind of bomb to speed up the process.

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Fri August 15, 2014 8:27 pm
by E.H. Ruddock
Hopefully that Matthew mconagey movie coming out this fall will answer all of our questions about the future of human beings.

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Thu August 28, 2014 1:50 pm
by nyquillyn
Mystery of Death Valley's 'Sailing' Stones Solved

As long ago as the 1940s, the mysterious moving rocks of Death Valley National Park's Racetrack Playa have stumped scientists. How stones as heavy as 35 pounds (16kg) can bulldoze their way across a completely level plain -- leaving tracks in their wake -- is a fascinating conundrum, one which has now been solved by a team of American researchers.

Using GPS tracking devices embedded in the rocks, time-lapse photography, weather stations and mountains of patience, a research group led by Richard Norris and his cousin James Norris have narrowed the miracle down to a perfect blend of frozen rainwater and light winds.

The team observed, over a period of years of time-lapse footage, that most rock movement events occurred during cold conditions. After installing weather stations to monitor conditions on the playa, they later concluded that large sheets of melting "windowpane" ice were being pushed by winds between 7 and 10 miles per hour, taking the rocks with them.

This had been posited before as a possible explanation for the sailing stones, along with dust devils, flooding and good old alien activity. But crucially, the rocks are rarely embedded in the ice sheets, merely pushed along with them once a bank of fractured ice builds up on the upstream side of the rock, adding enough mass to force the rock to slide along the wet ground beneath the melting sheet.

The lightbulb moment flickered languidly on between November 2013 and February 2014 when a large pond of rainwater formed in the playa basin, freezing and thawing for weeks and causing multiple movement events. After these events, the team tracked the trails of several large rocks finding them to take parallel paths despite being up to 60m apart, suggesting a single massive sheet of ice influencing their movement.

The conditions required for such events is very precise, giving them a Goldilocks (Goldirocks?) quality. Too much ice and the wind can't move the sheet. Too much wind and the ice fractures too easily on the rocks. Too much water and the rocks won't move at all.



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/201 ... ling-rocks

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Thu August 28, 2014 2:54 pm
by Alex
don't you wish you could be a sailing stone, t2b?

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Thu August 28, 2014 5:58 pm
by E.H. Ruddock
Why did it take decades to figure that out? When I saw a story on it I immediately thought to myself wind and rain or ice...

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Thu August 28, 2014 6:02 pm
by Kaius
Keep it up Ruddo, you're doing great

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Thu August 28, 2014 6:12 pm
by E.H. Ruddock
Kaius wrote:Keep it up Ruddo, you're doing great
This is the first time you've ever posted down on me, K. That's a real shame.

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Thu August 28, 2014 6:17 pm
by Kaius
E.H. Ruddock wrote:
Kaius wrote:Keep it up Ruddo, you're doing great
This is the first time you've ever posted down on me, K. That's a real shame.
No way bro. Nothing but love.

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Thu August 28, 2014 6:21 pm
by E.H. Ruddock
Kaius wrote:
E.H. Ruddock wrote:
Kaius wrote:Keep it up Ruddo, you're doing great
This is the first time you've ever posted down on me, K. That's a real shame.
No way bro. Nothing but love.
Meh. I know belittling sarcasm when I see it.

Re: Our universe is so rad!

Posted: Thu August 28, 2014 6:22 pm
by tommymtcom
E.H. Ruddock wrote:
Kaius wrote:
E.H. Ruddock wrote:
Kaius wrote:Keep it up Ruddo, you're doing great
This is the first time you've ever posted down on me, K. That's a real shame.
No way bro. Nothing but love.
Meh. I know belittling sarcasm when I see it.
Ruddock, you are loved. Never doubt that.