Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...
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This is pretty cool:
Communications with submarines are apparently protecting us from space weather.
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And there I thought it was the Van Allen belt protecting us
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@boomzilla I'd love to see what the actual science paper said before the moron journalist turned it into "protective space bubble". It's probably even the size of a million football fields!
Fuck you plant math article.
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@blakeyrat said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
"protective space bubble"
It's a crappy term, but it's probably referring to pushing the magnetic field lines around the planet further out, which in turn reduces the number of charged particles in the solar wind that reach the atmosphere. Which isn't something that I'd have expected radio transmissions from the Earth to actually do.
The description is a bit overblown, but is actually meaningful.
(I used to work with people doing solar wind research. The magnetosphere really does have a profound affect on reducing the number of charged particles hitting the atmosphere, which in turn reduces both radiation levels at the surface and the loss of gas to space through ionisation effects.)
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@dkf Well ok but since the Earth was doing that on its own long before we built any submarines, it kind of becomes a big "so what?"
Like are we adding 0.00001% power to the existing protection? Or are our VHF radio waves making it 50 times more powerful? Does that even matter? Are we safer from solar flares than we were before? Etc.
There's a lot of questions here.
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@dkf said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
@blakeyrat said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
"protective space bubble"
It's a crappy term, but it's probably referring to pushing the magnetic field lines around the planet further out, which in turn reduces the number of charged particles in the solar wind that reach the atmosphere. Which isn't something that I'd have expected radio transmissions from the Earth to actually do.
The description is a bit overblown, but is actually meaningful.
(I used to work with people doing solar wind research. The magnetosphere really does have a profound affect on reducing the number of charged particles hitting the atmosphere, which in turn reduces both radiation levels at the surface and the loss of gas to space through ionisation effects.)
I for one am not surprised - after all, one of the solutions to terraform Mars would entail putting a strong magnet at the L1. The required strength according to NASA's calculations? One to two Tesla.
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@blakeyrat said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
Well ok but since the Earth was doing that on its own long before we built any submarines, it kind of becomes a big "so what?"
Yep.
Like are we adding 0.00001% power to the existing protection?
That's what I'd expect. If we're adding a lot more because of some weird coupling effect, that'd be surprising and worth getting excited about within that field of study. Everyone else doesn't need to wake up from their collective stupor over this.
And a weird coupling effect is definitely possible. The fundamental physics is all magnetohydrodynamics, and the maths behind that is astoundingly intractable, much worse than trivial things like basic general relativity or the simpler parts of quantum physics… (MHD is all about non-local meso-scale effects with moving charged particles, and is bloody vicious for the number of significant non-trivial high-order terms in the equations.)
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@Rhywden said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
I for one am not surprised - after all, one of the solutions to terraform Mars would entail putting a strong magnet at the L1. The required strength according to NASA's calculations? One to two Tesla.
If we had a magnetic monopole, I'd agree. But pink unicorns seem to be a lot easier to come by. None of this stuff is what you might call obvious…
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@blakeyrat said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
@dkf Well ok but since the Earth was doing that on its own long before we built any submarines, it kind of becomes a big "so what?"
I wonder if we can create an artificial magnetic field on mars based on this. I read somewhere that it's an important step for terraforming it.
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@wharrgarbl said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
@blakeyrat said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
@dkf Well ok but since the Earth was doing that on its own long before we built any submarines, it kind of becomes a big "so what?"
I wonder if we can create an artificial magnetic field on mars based on this. I read somewhere that it's an important step for terraforming it.
IIRC, it's important because it keeps the solar wind from sandblasting away any sort of atmosphere you might try to put in place.
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@e4tmyl33t and the atmosphere may help with water, I think. In this case you need to first build the submarines and their communication, then you get the water.
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@wharrgarbl said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
@blakeyrat said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
@dkf Well ok but since the Earth was doing that on its own long before we built any submarines, it kind of becomes a big "so what?"
I wonder if we can create an artificial magnetic field on mars based on this. I read somewhere that it's an important step for terraforming it.
Wouldn't it be faster to terraform Venus instead? As I head that merely involved seeding it with certain life forms and waiting a billion or so years.
Of course, you could be going for both.
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@PleegWat said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
Wouldn't it be faster to terraform Venus instead? As I head that merely involved seeding it with certain life forms and waiting a billion or so years.
Life that would get rid of a bunch of the atmosphere? It's a pretty terrible place. As daunting as it sounds, I'd imagine Mars would still be easier.
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@wharrgarbl said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
@e4tmyl33t and the atmosphere may help with water, I think. In this case you need to first build the submarines and their communication, then you get the water.
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@boomzilla said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
It's a pretty terrible place.
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@Polygeekery said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
@wharrgarbl said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
@e4tmyl33t and the atmosphere may help with water, I think. In this case you need to first build the submarines and their communication, then you get the water.
Simpsons Sugar Pile – 00:30
— Ratticis
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@dkf said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
that'd be surprising and worth getting excited about within that field of study. Everyone else doesn't need to wake up from their collective stupor over this.
That pretty much sums up 90% of science journalism.
"There's been yet another small discovery in another scientific field that will facilitate more small discoveries in that field in the future that will hopefully be used to achieve something practical one day!"
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@wharrgarbl said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
I wonder if we can create an artificial magnetic field on mars based on this.
How are we going to get the submarines there?
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@blakeyrat said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
@wharrgarbl said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
I wonder if we can create an artificial magnetic field on mars based on this.
How are we going to get the submarines there?
Via supermarines. Crewed, of course, with space marines.
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@dkf said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
loss of gas to space through ionisation effects.
Fuck, radio is to blame for global warming.
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@blakeyrat based on my kerbal investigations, we just need more boosters and struts
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@Dreikin said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
Via supermarines.
Battle of the Daleks – [00:58..01:52] 01:52
— bigshowbower
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@Jarry said in Bubbles, Giant Bubbles...:
@blakeyrat based on my kerbal investigations, we just need more boosters and struts
Don't forget the fairings. They help. A lot.