2010-12-23, 12:56 | Link #81 |
blinded by blood
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It causes a number of problems. A planet that's tidally locked will experience bizarre weather conditions, and of course, one whole side of the planet will never receive any light. This would preclude photosynthesis on the night side.
While the atmosphere will keep the night side relatively warm (assuming the planet is close enough to its star to have liquid water), the night side will constantly be swept with fierce winds, toward the solar pole. Additionally, the night side will experience perpetual torrential downpours at the solar pole. More importantly though, most of the energy released by red dwarf stars is in the infrared range. The "day side" wouldn't exactly be bright. Red dwarfs are also much more unstable in their energy output than our main sequence star is. It's absolutely possible that life could exist on a tidally-locked planet orbiting a red dwarf star, even carbon-based life. But it would be radically different than life on our own planet... for instance, all plant life on a planet with a red sun would be black to our eyes, in order to maximize absorption of infrared energy. Very alien indeed. And while humans could possibly live on these worlds, it would still be a very hostile environment (though less so than deep space or an atmosphere-less chunk of rock) and much technological measures would be required to maintain our bases and habitats. Now, if we step away from our arrogant presumption that all life must be carbon-based and must require water, the possibility of other planets supporting life increases substantially... just not our lives.
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2010-12-23, 13:07 | Link #82 | |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
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Age: 35
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For example : Let the points of the planet P and star S be indicated by x and y. At the start of the year, point x of P will face point x of S. y-P-x ===== x-S-y Half a year later, P makes half an orbit around the star, at the same time, turns half on its own axis so point y of P faces point y of S. x-P-y ===== y-S-x Mathematically, it has to be a 1:1 rate of rotation : revolution to make sure all points face the similar points at every part of the year, assuming the gravitational flux of either body remains unchanged.
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2010-12-23, 13:39 | Link #83 |
blinded by blood
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If it's a 1:1 lock, as the Moon is with the Earth, the same side will always have perpetual day and perpetual night. And by "side" I mean the solar pole, since oblate spheroids don't really have "sides."
Of course, the terminator zone will swap position during the orbit and rotation... that's what it appears you are saying.
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2010-12-23, 15:02 | Link #84 | |
あひる
Join Date: Feb 2007
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2010-12-23, 15:20 | Link #85 | |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
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Who the heck is Sheldon?
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2010-12-23, 15:52 | Link #86 |
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Age: 32
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If one were to drop a particle on a nuetron star from the height of one meter, it would reach the surface in 1 microsecond and be traveling 2000km/s.
A supernova occurring from a single star can outshine the entire galaxy it is in for more than a month. During this event, it would also release about the same energy our sun will release over its entire lifetime. Two quantum entangled particles, even when spatially separated, will interact with each other instantaneously, yes, faster than the speed of light; however, it is impossible to transmit information through them. This has been experimentally verified. Black holes evaporate, albeit slowly, which is a result of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. For more on this, read A Brief History of Time. |
2010-12-23, 17:06 | Link #87 |
ばかな王女様
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: hell
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The leaves of the Amazon water lily are so big(6ft across) and strong that they can support a child's weight without sinking.
The brain is 1/50th of the human body's weight, but uses up 1/5th of the body's total energy.
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2010-12-23, 17:41 | Link #88 | |
Where's the monoeye?
Join Date: Dec 2008
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Speaking of that, I maybe off by just a little, so bare with me. But the largest known star, VY Canis Majoris has a diameter so big, that if you were to fly around it in a 747, it would take 9,000 years to complete. |
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2010-12-23, 19:11 | Link #89 |
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Join Date: Dec 2005
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I was under the impression that it's not because of arrogance, but just how science works. Unless they have found evidence that not all life must be carbon-based and must require water, then that is the only practical presumption they can make.
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2010-12-23, 20:10 | Link #90 |
Balanced Diet
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: !ouY htiW
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I've been in complete Astronomy euphoria this thread. Thanks so much to everyone whose been sharing their vast Space knowledge! I'll be picking up "A Brieft History of Time" at my local book store when I am able as well~
I don't have an amazing knowledge tidbit, but I found it quite interesting: Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementry, my dear Watson." I had to flip through my collective works to see if it were so, but it's quite true~ |
2010-12-24, 00:37 | Link #92 | |
Okuyasu the Bird
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Coincidentally, both of them are native to Australia.~
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2010-12-24, 07:29 | Link #95 |
Manga Addict
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: England, UK
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Hey! We British blokes take BBQing seriously over here too! Just that sometimes you're outside on your own with an umbrella while everyone else is inside waiting....
__________ If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. |
2010-12-24, 13:58 | Link #96 | |
廉頗
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Massachusetts
Age: 34
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Speaking of the platypus, an interesting fact is what it uses that duck-bill for. It is actually a highly sensitive electro-sensor allowing it to pick up the the electric waves emitted by its prey underwater, since it usually scavenges in lakebeds where sight wouldn't help. It serves as a sixth sense. |
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2010-12-24, 14:12 | Link #97 | |
blinded by blood
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Check this article out: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...lien-life.html Pretty weird stuff. Even on Earth, there are forms of life that are extremely alien to our usual definition, such as viruses. Edit: Science doesn't say things are the only way when we only know one way. Science, unlike religion, is not afraid to say "I don't know." We only know of life that is carbon-based, but that doesn't mean there's other life out there that isn't carbon-based. For example, it was not until 1920 that we knew how stars produced energy (largely thanks to Einstein's famous mass-energy equivalence E = mc^2). Before that, we saw a great big ball of fire, and scientists did not assume it was an exothermic oxidation reaction. They merely said they did not know how the sun produced so much energy. Some postulated that radioactive decay fueled the sun. But it wasn't until 1920 that we discovered that it did so through nuclear fusion. But we never forced our star into a definition just because it was the only definition we had.
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2010-12-24, 17:05 | Link #98 | ||
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Let's take your example. So someone discovered the sun produces energy via nuclear fusion. And until we discover a star that produces energy via some other means (I assume we haven't), we'll continue to think that stars produce energy via nuclear fusion. I think that's the same way with the definition of life. The point is not about saying there is only one definition for life, but that until we have more evidence, we can only define life by what we can observe to be living beings. Even the known viruses are organic, I believe. |
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