Cool science stuff

You know, I knew I'd get more responses from the Star Trek post than the one about a potential alien habitat being discovered on one of the moons of Saturn.

Sigh.

 

Well, NASA has kind of generated that reaction with this faux-cliffhanger framing they've used for pretty much all of their announcements concerning exobiology in recent years: They always tease it by two or three days, they cloak the preview announcement in vague yet momentous phrasing, then the news itself turns out to be something that's been actively speculated about for years.

Since we started getting the first high-quality imagery from the first Pioneer and Voyager probes, it's been commonly theorized that several of the gas-giant moons probably had oceans of liquid water sealed below the ice. Given the distance to the gas giants and the "ambient" temperatures (-200/-300 F) any kind of liquid water anywhere would require some kind of local heat source, whether internal volcanism, radioactive decay, gravitational or tidal thermal stressing, one way or another that heat has to get out (i.e, thermal vents).

 

Very good post, Starman. Halfway through, I asked myself, who posted this? Scrolled back up and saw it was you. Surprised me.

 

James Grime is the best. My favorite episodes of Numberphile on YouTube are the ones where he's featured. Him along with Matt Parker are the most interesting to watch.

For anyone interested here's the original video of Grime breaking down the Red Shirt death probability. Also venture over to Numberphile and its related channels for physics, computer science, astronomy and more. Great stuff.

 

When Mike Rowe does an episode of Dirty Jobs at a brothel and one of the prostitutes sings a song about her vagina's voice, then his credibility will go into the gutter too.

 

Ancient Chinese secret!

 

I wonder where Calgon went.

 

From the Animal House "Oh, wow!" Dept.:

What If Every Electron Is the Same Electron?

 

That "Sounds of Earth" disc that went into interstellar space with Voyager is now available here on earth:

NASA’s Golden Records Coming Back to Life, 40 Years Later

 

If true of electron, would it also be true of proton and neutron?
Don't all three have the same mass within there own type?