Member of the Month

KilaTsunami
October, 2024

Online

Welcome to the Newschoolers forums! You may read the forums as a guest, however you must be a registered member to post. Register to become a member today!

New star being created on earth

profile picture
shea.
Posts: 1606 - Karma: 193

After reading the Chernobyl Aftermath thread and the argument about nuclear energy being one of the most efficient energy sources available, i stumbled across this...

http://www.news.com.au/technology/worlds-largest-laser-fires-up-for-attempt-to-build-new-star-on-earth/story-e6frfro0-1225859764407

Its an article on a group of scientists using a laser to create a tiny star capable of mass amounts of energy. It sounds pretty interesting, Anyone heard anything other about this or have any thoughts? Its crazy whats science is doing these days, from creating conditions similar to the big bang and even creating tiny stars on earth.

Apr 28 2010 10:19PM
0 0
profile picture
JakeAssBeatClap
Posts: 6673 - Karma: 2,537
i havent heard about this but ive heard theyre trying to make a sustainable antimatter basically if you converted a penny into antimatter it could power new york for 3 months... but antimatter is sooo unstable if it touches matter it blows the fuck up... it has to be made in a 100% efficient vaccum and suspended
Apr 28 2010 10:27PM
0 0
profile picture
geteducated
Posts: 6410 - Karma: 86
got that doctor octopus vibe.

Click for larger image
Apr 28 2010 10:30PM
0 0
profile picture
gregorio
Posts: 2372 - Karma: 151
just like what doc oc was doing in spiderman 2!!! hopefully metal arms with artificial intelligence don't manipulate people and make them do criminal acts and stuff, we would be screwed!
Apr 28 2010 10:30PM
0 0
profile picture
OhMyBosh
Posts: 5056 - Karma: 171
lol no.

Even if we could get anything up to the speed of light, it would take 2.5 million years to get to Andromeda.
Apr 28 2010 10:47PM
0 0
profile picture
5teve.
Posts: 610 - Karma: 12
yea same here.
Apr 28 2010 11:02PM
0 0
profile picture
MADDECENT
Posts: 5579 - Karma: 951
Yeah while I am very confused it seems to have potential
Apr 28 2010 11:08PM
0 0
profile picture
TheHuggyBear
Posts: 1762 - Karma: 313
someone reads dan brown
Apr 28 2010 11:12PM
0 0
profile picture
ECB
Posts: 6991 - Karma: 622
my ex girlfriends uncle /claim
Apr 28 2010 11:16PM
0 0
profile picture
brockerton-
Posts: 151 - Karma: 16
looks like we are one step closer

Click for larger image
Apr 28 2010 11:18PM
0 0
profile picture
TheHuggyBear
Posts: 1762 - Karma: 313
NO WAY, did you meet him?? he my hero

the non sophisticated guy on mythbusters...best friends uncle. /claim (dudes evidently a dick to the fam though and never talks to them...even on his sisters wedding day)
Apr 28 2010 11:19PM
0 0
profile picture
cbeebzthasteeze
Posts: 1862 - Karma: 85
How does sound travel faster than light, even in short distances? Light is the fastest known thing in the universe. And you would have to define short, because the nearest startEarth is Proxima Cenauri, and that is still 4.2 lightyears away... Light travels at 670M (670,000,000) miles per hour, so if you were to go to Mars, traveling at light speed, you say it would take five days? Lets break it down. Going by Earth standards, light, in one day, travels 16,080,000,000 miles per day. Multiply that by five (your five days), that says that Mars is 80,400,000,000 miles away, or 80 billion, 400 million miles away. Mars at it's closest point in 59,619 years, was 34,646,418 miles away. I'm not positive on my math, but that says that you could go to Mars, come back to Earth, then go back to Mars approximately 464 times. Back to the original problem, you could actually go to Mars in three days, traveling at light speed. My math isn't perfect, I'm a 14 year old freshman, but I THINK I have it figured out.
Apr 28 2010 11:20PM
0 0
profile picture
ECB
Posts: 6991 - Karma: 622
Nope....the family rarely ever sees him, if i went with my ex to a family reunion he might have showed up is what i was told, good thing i didnt go, because he didnt, and 5 hour car ride each way......they do have books signed by him and pictures with him when they were little kids (before he was so famous)
Apr 28 2010 11:20PM
0 0
profile picture
Skwirl
Posts: 313 - Karma: 18
Don't correct people when you don't know what you are talking about. Time dilation... don't want to get into it.

To the op, good find. It's ridiculous that they expect that thing to produce so much energy, though they are basically just trying to create a fusion reaction, not anti-matter like someone said.
Apr 28 2010 11:21PM
0 0
profile picture
Bepo
Posts: 8195 - Karma: 17
If you go near the speed of light it wouldn't take very long, could be only a day. The catch is it would be 1 day on the spaceship but 2.5 million years on earth. So yeah, it's not really feasible because by the time you got back to earth it would be 5 million years in the future.

Alpha Centauri on the other hand is pretty close, it's only 4.3 light years away. It's also the solar system where Avatar takes place, haha
Apr 28 2010 11:22PM
0 0
profile picture
OhMyBosh
Posts: 5056 - Karma: 171
What are you talking about?

Mars is 36 million miles away, and to escape the Earth's orbit, a shuttle would have to travel about 25,000 mph... and according to my math, that means it is 60 days away at best.




Anyways, I do think that this technology will eventually be used in space travel, however, I dont see it happening for another 100 years or so. I think travel to other galaxies, or even other stars, is much, much further off though. I think you would need some form of technology that would manipulate spacetime itself in order to travel those distances.
Apr 28 2010 11:22PM
0 0
profile picture
Skwirl
Posts: 313 - Karma: 18
Haha, three days at light speed to get to mars? It takes like eight and a half min from the sun to earth so more like a min or two to mars. BTW, you can't go the speed of light.
Apr 28 2010 11:24PM
0 0
profile picture
Forkstealer
Posts: 508 - Karma: 16

1. You cant create a true (100%) vacuum for the same reason you can't reach 0K. They just have to make the probability of the antimatter coming into contact with matter and 'exploding' into pure energy low enough that it can be safely contained for a given amount of time.

2. Ohmybosh, thats 2.5 million years on earth. Realtivity of time means that as speed approaches the speed of light, experienced time approaches zero in the ratio Relative time= Percieved Time from Reference Point / 1- speed^2 x speed of light^2. 

Apr 28 2010 11:24PM
0 0
profile picture
cbeebzthasteeze
Posts: 1862 - Karma: 85
One more thing. Time travel would be much more efficient if we figured out how to warp Spacetime. If you don't know what that is, think of space as a table cloth. Here is an example: You are on one end of the table with the tablecloth, and an orange is on the other. You want to get to the orange, so instead of reaching over the table to grab it, you simple pull on the tablecloth towards you so the tablecloth and the orange get pulled together.
Apr 28 2010 11:25PM
0 0
profile picture
geteducated
Posts: 6410 - Karma: 86
sounds to me like event horizon
Apr 28 2010 11:27PM
0 0
profile picture
cbeebzthasteeze
Posts: 1862 - Karma: 85
My bad. I knew my math was sketchy. And I know you can't travel the speed of light, it was a hypothetical. Plus he never specified what form of travel the spaceship would be using.
Apr 28 2010 11:27PM
0 0
profile picture
Skwirl
Posts: 313 - Karma: 18
And that was for a photon not an object w/mass.
Apr 28 2010 11:30PM
0 0
profile picture
cbeebzthasteeze
Posts: 1862 - Karma: 85
Gah, I knew I fucked up in there. Whatever, I give up. At least I've learned something off of this... It's past my bedtime anyway. Keep going at it and keep proving me wrong :P
Apr 28 2010 11:30PM
0 0
profile picture
TheStudioCC
Posts: 2092 - Karma: 366
i always thought those big lazers were just in cartoons
Apr 28 2010 11:35PM
0 0
profile picture
cbeebzthasteeze
Posts: 1862 - Karma: 85
Nope.
Apr 28 2010 11:41PM
0 0
profile picture
jca
Posts: 4171 - Karma: 6,311
stop posting stuff like this, it's fucking with my head.
Apr 28 2010 11:54PM
0 0
profile picture
Wild-Willis
Posts: 222 - Karma: 1,071
By the balls of Zeus....
Apr 29 2010 12:09AM
0 0
profile picture
OhMyBosh
Posts: 5056 - Karma: 171
Can someone please explain how time dilation would make it so traveling the speed of light to another galaxy would only take seconds rather than the 2.5 million years?

I understand relativity in a very basic sense (as in i get this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHjpBjgIMVk), but i don't see how it would make your journey take less time? Wouldn't you still be sitting in your spaceship for 2.5 million years?
Apr 29 2010 12:31AM
0 0
profile picture
H8CH
Posts: 2709 - Karma: 218
Travelling at the speed of light through space..... You're gonna need some shit hot object collision avoidance technology in place first or else the first little bit of rock you hit it's game over....
Apr 29 2010 12:34AM
0 0
profile picture
salomon097
Posts: 1345 - Karma: 301
the closer you approach the speed of light, the slower time passes (for the person traveling at such a speed.) so to someone on earth observing someone traveling 4.5 lightyears away, the journey would appear to take 4.5 years. but to the person traveling at the speed of light ( or as close to it as possible) the journey would only take seconds.

Thats my elementary understanding of space, time and relativity. I try to educate myself on these types of things but explaining it to someone else is a different story.
Apr 29 2010 12:59AM
0 0
profile picture
I_Am_Mod
Posts: 13214 - Karma: 3,753
so basically they're trying to create a fusion reactor?
because that's basically the powersource of the sun...

they've been trying that for decades, scientist have most definately been succesfull with fusion; only problem was that the amount of energy and other resources required to start the fusion was greater than the energy actually gained...

check google for "tokamak" these are the chambers they used to study fusion in...

right now the'yre working on a large experimental fusion reactor in the south of france (cadarache) probably going into work around 2018....
just so you know....
Apr 29 2010 1:46AM
0 0
profile picture
squibble
Posts: 4569 - Karma: 104
my physics teacher was telling me that antimatter can be made, and it's useful. but the cost to make it is astronomical. (antimatter=+ve and -ve switch in an atom.
Apr 29 2010 1:49AM
0 0
All times are Eastern (-5)