Daily science stuff

[Elessar]

Isn't the same thing sometimes done with magnets?

It's the same concept, just a different force at work. This doesn't have to be electrostatically polar materials, it can just be anything.

[Entilzha]

Surprise! Saturn has small moon hidden in ring http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090303/ap_on_sc/sci_saturn_moon.

[Linda]

One third of a mile wide? Kind of small, smaller than some asteroids or meteorites. How big does a piece of rock have to be to be a moon? Or are there other features it has to have to be a moon? Come to think of it, I am not sure what you have to have to be an asteroid or a meteorite. Or even the correct spelling of same! Think I'll take myself over to Wikiapedia (if I can even spell that well enough to find it.)

[Elessar]

One third of a mile wide? Kind of small, smaller than some asteroids or meteorites. How big does a piece of rock have to be to be a moon? Or are there other features it has to have to be a moon? Come to think of it, I am not sure what you have to have to be an asteroid or a meteorite. Or even the correct spelling of same! Think I'll take myself over to Wikiapedia (if I can even spell that well enough to find it.)

You could say that it is an orbitting body that has be larger than a space station... but that would open one up to all sorts of space station humor as the thousand nations of Star Wars fans descend upon youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.

Or you could use the wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_satellite

[Alelou]

How come Elessar's last comment scrolls way past the window of my browser, but Linda's and the others above it fit themselves neatly into the space?

[Alelou]

Video of a "peculiar" galaxy. Or twin galaxies. It's cool.

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/200 ... -video/?hp

[justTripn]

This link that Elessar posted (below) gives me a headache, but it does illustrate a little-known fact about the moon: although it is tidally locked with Earth (it's heavier side always faces us) it wobbles quite a bit (this movement is called "libation".) If the moon didn't wobble, we would only be able to 50% of the moon from Earth, but because of the wobble we can actually see 60% of the moon from Earth. Watch:

http://ravestation.ytmnd.com/

[Asso]

"Cool" is a terme that doesn't do justice to this video. Better "Spectacular", for me.

[Linda]

Thanks JT for that video and telling us about the wobble and about the heavier side of the moon! Neat facts from our resident astronomer! More please. And I sympathize with the moon because I "wobble" a bit too, as I walk. But that could have something to do with aging?

[Entilzha]

British scientists to create 'synthetic' blood http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/british-scientists-to-create-synthetic-blood-1651715.html

[Entilzha]

Lazy Russian Astronauts take Myoton Into Space http://www.tigerprises.com/lazy-russian-astronauts-take-myoton-into-space-demo/. Yay another piece of Estonian made equipment in space. There was one I thing spectrometer on Mir and the cosmonauts used to eat food made in Estonia at the times of the USSR.

[Entilzha]

New Hope for Controversial 'Cold Fusion' Power Source http://www.livescience.com/technology/090323-cold-fusion.html
'Cold fusion' rebirth? New evidence for existence of controversial energy source http://www.physorg.com/news157046734.html

[Entilzha]

Super-sized Supernova: Scientists Observe Largest Exploding Star Yet Seen http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090323092717.htm

[Entilzha]

Is Beta Pic b the transiting planet of November 1981? http://arxiv.org/abs/0903.1101

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

How to Defend Earth Against an Asteroid Strike