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Space exploration: Where do we go from here?

https://news.umich.edu/scientists-fi...o-dark-energy/

Searching through existing data spanning 9 billion years, a University of Michigan physicist and colleagues have uncovered the first evidence of “cosmological coupling”—a newly predicted phenomenon in Einstein’s theory of gravity, possible only when black holes are placed inside an evolving universe.

Gregory Tarle, U-M professor of physics, and researchers from the University of Hawaii and other institutions across nine countries, studied supermassive black holes at the heart of ancient and dormant galaxies to develop a description of them that agrees with observations from the past decade. Their findings are published in two journal articles, one in The Astrophysical Journal and the other in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The first study found that these black holes gain mass over billions of years in a way that can’t easily be explained by standard galaxy and black hole processes, such as mergers or accretion of gas. According to the second paper, the growth in mass of these black holes matches predictions for black holes that not only cosmologically couple, but also enclose vacuum energy—material that results from squeezing matter as much as possible without breaking Einstein’s equations, thus avoiding a singularity.

With singularities removed, the paper then shows that the combined vacuum energy of black holes produced in the deaths of the universe’s first stars agrees with the measured quantity of dark energy in our universe.
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Kevin Croker's explanation of cosmological coupling:

“Here’s a toy analogy. You can think of a coupled black hole like a rubber band, being stretched along with the universe as it expands,” said study co-author and University of Hawaii theoretical astrophysicist Kevin Croker. “As it stretches, its energy increases. Einstein’s E = mc2 tells you that mass and energy are proportional, so the black hole mass increases, too.”

How much the mass increases depends on the coupling strength, a variable the researchers call k.

“The stiffer the rubber band, the harder it is to stretch, so the more energy when stretched. In a nutshell, that’s k,” Croker said.
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Kepler said:
Direct imaging of a planet at 87 light years. It is a pretty cool time to be alive.
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jesus fuck

The two teams of astronomers revealed the exoplanet is about four to six times the size of Jupiter and is orbiting AF Leporis at about the same distance as Saturn orbits the sun.
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Edit: Ok, so they suck at writing articles. It's 4-6x the mass of Jupiter but "only" 1.3x the radius. WHich is still a big motherfucker. But Wiki reminds me that the universe is insane:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...est_exoplanets

Largest exoplanet in terms of radius is HD 100546 b @ about SEVEN times the radius of Jupiter. However, that likely includes an accretion disk. So the next on the list is at 3x the radius of Jupiter. Which is still insane.

In terms of mass, some of these are close enough to almost be considered brown dwarfs.


Edit 2:
THis is cool
https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/TblView/nph-tblView?app=ExoTbls&config=PS
 
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How it started: "The Heinlein-like privatization of space exploration will lead us into a revolutionary period of expansion and scientific advance driven forward by visionary entrepreneurs that will rival the Age of Discovery!"

How it's going.
 
Kepler said:
How it started: "The Heinlein-like privatization of space exploration will lead us into a revolutionary period of expansion and scientific advance driven forward by visionary entrepreneurs that will rival the Age of Discovery!"

How it's going.
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So, one failed. Big deal. The whole purpose of privatization is more opportunities, some of which will fail. But in the end, there will still be more opportunities.
 
Russell Jaslow said:
So, one failed. Big deal. The whole purpose of privatization is more opportunities, some of which will fail. But in the end, there will still be more opportunities.
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I'm with you. This is one of the most expensive "hobbies" to have. There are still a dozen more each filling a different gap. Virgin's was a dumb design that didn't serve any market except rich as__sholes. SpaceX, even with all its warts, is one of maybe two that are filling an actual large payload market and doing it well.

so what? We're entering a new era in space travel. The same as what happened in the 40s for air travel. (The difference is, we're not going to be flying to the sea of tranquility F4 regional in 60 years. The time horizons are significantly longer here.)
 
Russell Jaslow said:
So, one failed. Big deal. The whole purpose of privatization is more opportunities, some of which will fail. But in the end, there will still be more opportunities.
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I agree. However, it says volumes that one of the major players in the private arena would rather run a social media company.
 
A history of Starship tests. They are cleared for integration test Monday for the first time integrated with Super Heavy launch vehicle. Both components are reusable.
 
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So uh, was that supposed to just get off the ground? That went about as well as my first mechjeb-less flight

Edit: LMAO the broadcasters are super awkward. THis wasn't ideal. They are smiling with their mouths but not their faces. Yikes.
 
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