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Okay, im just gonna toss this wild theory of mine out here.
The magnetic field moves at the speed of light. And some scientists believe it moves much much faster.
The sun is like a huge fucking magnet.
When playing with small magnets as kids we found out that holding + on + , or - on- the magnets would be pushed away from eachother.
so... what if some genius constructed a spacecraft powered by insanly strong and powerfull magnets, that could actually use the suns magnethic field to gain overlight speed by putting + vs +, using the sun to toss us out into cosmos.
I think the kea to lightspeed is right in front of us waiting to be discovered, and is much simpler than nukelear warpcores and such...
500ly is close in cosmic terms. And they are saying it most likely has liquid water because it is a rocky earth-like planet that is in the goldilocks zone of the star it orbits, so water is likely to be in liquid form if there is any... It is also the smallest planet they have discovered(only 1.5x bigger than earth) which is a good sign.
jibbpeterOkay, im just gonna toss this wild theory of mine out here.
The magnetic field moves at the speed of light. And some scientists believe it moves much much faster.
The sun is like a huge fucking magnet.
When playing with small magnets as kids we found out that holding + on + , or - on- the magnets would be pushed away from eachother.
so... what if some genius constructed a spacecraft powered by insanly strong and powerfull magnets, that could actually use the suns magnethic field to gain overlight speed by putting + vs +, using the sun to toss us out into cosmos.
I think the kea to lightspeed is right in front of us waiting to be discovered, and is much simpler than nukelear warpcores and such...
The problem is that funny shit happens once you start going near the speed of light. We aren't even sure what all the properties of it are...
DingoSeanThe problem is that funny shit happens once you start going near the speed of light. We aren't even sure what all the properties of it are...
We know what some of them are, though. And we're already using magnetic fields to accelerate particles to 99.99% the speed of light using magnetic fields in the large hadron collider, so maybe one day we will be able to move onto larger things traveling such a speed. Though the particles that they're sending throug the lhc are so incomprehensibly tiny it's hard to say what it would take to make this possible with larger objects, or if the known effevts would differ with such objects. But wouldn't harnessing the suns magnetic field cause a centripetal motion?
steezysteezeWe know what some of them are, though. And we're already using magnetic fields to accelerate particles to 99.99% the speed of light using magnetic fields in the large hadron collider, so maybe one day we will be able to move onto larger things traveling such a speed. Though the particles that they're sending throug the lhc are so incomprehensibly tiny it's hard to say what it would take to make this possible with larger objects, or if the known effevts would differ with such objects. But wouldn't harnessing the suns magnetic field cause a centripetal motion?
Harnessing the Sun's magnetic energy would be a bitch, in my opinion. The only way I know we can create a force (and thus an acceleration and therefore motion) is by changing the flux. Magnetic flux is related to the magnetic field and area. Maybe we could find a way to use the pole reversal with some contraption (massive mind you, would have to be around the entire Sun and not be annihilated).
So to get some object to accelerate to the solar system's escape velocity (about 600km/s) we would need about a 10 Newton force. I assumed the inductance of the Sun was negligible (any value greater than 1 would make this force higher, and therefore the acceleration would be faster). I assumed the resistance of our cannon contraption was about 50 ohms and I used a value of 24 micro Weber that I obtained from here (http://wso.stanford.edu/meanfld/mf.2014). I assumed our contraption was 1.5 million kilometers across.
My physics education isn't exactly at a high level, so I'm probably missing something but seems to me if we managed to build a giant rail gun with the Sun we might actually be able to leave our Solar System.
jibbpeterOkay, im just gonna toss this wild theory of mine out here.
The magnetic field moves at the speed of light. And some scientists believe it moves much much faster.
The sun is like a huge fucking magnet.
When playing with small magnets as kids we found out that holding + on + , or - on- the magnets would be pushed away from eachother.
so... what if some genius constructed a spacecraft powered by insanly strong and powerfull magnets, that could actually use the suns magnethic field to gain overlight speed by putting + vs +, using the sun to toss us out into cosmos.
I think the kea to lightspeed is right in front of us waiting to be discovered, and is much simpler than nukelear warpcores and such...
Except the magnetic field gets weaker as you get farther away and is already extremely weak compared to the force you feel holding two like poles of magnets together.
Also special relativity is about as likely to be proven wrong as evolution. Actually less likely.
Dont mean to shit on your idea but you should really forget about breaking the speed of light. Many paradoxes would arise
Wow, as a physics major in college, I realize that a person with only a bs is outclassed when it comes to most of the theoretical shit so instead I'll simply say this.
Peeps need to stop writing ridiculous and uniformed claims about the universe in a ski forum. If your theory is sound, someone else has thought of it and you will be able to find dozens of opinions on google. If you are actually interested in this shit go read a book. Besides, I think we've already solved how to get there...
steezysteezeWe know what some of them are, though.
That's like saying that we know what some of the causes of cancer are, so we should be able to just figure it out right now and go for it. Not that easy, and not that simple either.
The fact is, we don't know enough about what happens close to the speed of light to be able to know it's if even safe that we go there. Nothing made of any material that we can currently build is tough enough to deal with the potentially crushing effects that that sort of speed can inflict on an object.
...not to mention, once you get going that speed, what if you collide with one of the bazillion things that are out there? Not only do you have all the junk in the solar system, but there's also all the junk in interstellar space we know nothing about. Rogue planets and all that shit.
It only just struck me now (maybe it's just late and I'm just tired), but in theory if we were somehow able to travel to another planet and colonize, would time change. We operate on a 24 hour clock, 365 day year, but isn't that entirely based on how earth travels around the sun? Every planets rotation and orbit will be different, so do we continue to use earth time as the standard?
DingoSeanThat's like saying that we know what some of the causes of cancer are, so we should be able to just figure it out right now and go for it. Not that easy, and not that simple either.
The fact is, we don't know enough about what happens close to the speed of light to be able to know it's if even safe that we go there. Nothing made of any material that we can currently build is tough enough to deal with the potentially crushing effects that that sort of speed can inflict on an object.
...not to mention, once you get going that speed, what if you collide with one of the bazillion things that are out there? Not only do you have all the junk in the solar system, but there's also all the junk in interstellar space we know nothing about. Rogue planets and all that shit.
Yeah this is completely fair. I think some of you guys need to chill about the validity of what we're saying though, why can't we just talk about it and share our stupid ideas? I'm pretty sure it's assumed that we're not all physics majors here...
steezysteezeYeah this is completely fair. I think some of you guys need to chill about the validity of what we're saying though, why can't we just talk about it and share our stupid ideas? I'm pretty sure it's assumed that we're not all physics majors here...
This! who makes fun off star trek for not being unrealistic?? It's allways fun to toss around "stupid" ideas. Lot's of major discoveries was done by experimenting with "stupid" ideas.
To reach light speed requires shit load off energy! Like, to get to 99.99% require 3 times more energy than it will to reach 99.9%, and so on to infinity. In theory you need infinite energy to reach the speed of light.
Then as mr.dingo says, there is all the intersteallar junk, comets, astroids to be avoided, but i think when we figure out (not in our lifetime unfortunally) how to reach overlight-speed, our technology would allow us to solve those obstacles... Like a interstellar GPS that tells the spacecraft to avoid it, perhaps? Or some sci-fi magnethic shield... who knows.
But as i said before, i think the solution could be simpe and right in front of us, therfore we need to welcome unorthodox thinking towards this. This is critical for science to thrive. Even experts that says it is like this and that, could actually disregard something extrordenary just because they can't think out of the box. And the kea idea won't be mentioned again in perhaps hundreds of years (yes i watch cosmos ha-haa).
Perhaps an idea that is ment for something totally different will be the thing that would send us out in the universe?
I don't say science has no limits, or that experts are stupid and dont know what they're doing, but what i mean is that if we want to start exploring outside our solar system, scientists/engineers must study each idea, no matter how stupid.
They answer is out there, it's just waiting to be found.
I honestly think we need to start exploring our own neighborhood before we can even think about going beyond it. Think about how long we explored our own planet before we left it? 1492 colombus sailed the ocean blue? It was another 500 or so years before we hit the moon... and if you want to say the Vikings or the chinese were the first serious oceanic explorers, you have to go back a few hundred more years beyond that!
Granted, exploration with technology becomes exponentially quicker (or so it seems), think about what was the reason we left our planet in the first place. We didn't leave because we thought it would be cool, we left it because we were at war and we needed to take high ground against the Soviet Bloc and vise versa.
There is currently no serious reason to go to another system yet. There's no Pandora from Avatar with some crazy "unobtanium" to colonize and mine another place. When that happens, who knows if capitalism will even be the major form of economic system in place, and there won't be companies or even nations deciding upon taking the monetary risk on humans going to go all interstellar in this bitch.
...4.37 light years away is our closest star system neighbor, and we can't see any exoplanets around it that are worth a damn. We have a LOT to explore before then.
Intresting point. I guess if the main reason for going further into space are resources, then Titan would be the first stop when oil is running thin :P
But we didn't go to Mars bacause of resources, but for explorational reasons (unless transformers conspiracy). If we find a way to make interstellar travel posible, we will go anyway because being curious is being human.
Profitt or non-profitt we would go anyway... Or atleast i would :D
Venus is (barely) an "earth sized plant in the habitable zone" but it has no water. Just because liquid water 'could' exist doesn't mean there is any on the surface. Go fuck yourself
jibbpeterIntresting point. I guess if the main reason for going further into space are resources, then Titan would be the first stop when oil is running thin :P
But we didn't go to Mars bacause of resources, but for explorational reasons (unless transformers conspiracy). If we find a way to make interstellar travel posible, we will go anyway because being curious is being human.
Profitt or non-profitt we would go anyway... Or atleast i would :D
.Capn.Venus is (barely) an "earth sized plant in the habitable zone" but it has no water. Just because liquid water 'could' exist doesn't mean there is any on the surface. Go fuck yourself
(I wrote this because i'm bored at work and just sitting here for the next three hours, so prepare for a fucking book)
The reason Mars is interesting is because there's a possibility that there may be water on the surface, and it's JUUST inside the habitable zone for humans. the climate, though relatively uncomfortable, isn't all too harsh and shitty (though, it's basically like living in antarctica - which is pretty shitty). surface temperatures at the equator can be well within the comfortable range during summer, reaching around 68F degrees on average. Spirit rover recorded temperatures as high as 95F degrees, and generally, many recordings of 32F+/0C+ temps. There's actually an area called the Syrtis Major Planum, which is a giant volcanic plain with relatively little dust (so it's not as bad with dust storms, especially in crater shadows) and infrared scans have shown it to be pretty warm there even in comparison to the rest of the planet, similar to a cold desert climate (so Nevada or Utah) on Earth.
For the most part though, on average, temperature swings put it in the same realm as Antarctica like I said (which is part of why the Soviets and Americans flocked there in the 60's/70's because we thought Mars might be the next destination in the space race, and it's a great training ground) So it's pretty fucking uncomfortable, but can sustain life.
To add onto that, Having no Oceans, the climate on Mars is incredibly predictable in comparison to earth - So the weather at one geographical point within a Martian Year should basically be the same - give or take a week - at that same geographical point. So that's tight if you don't really like the cockfoolery moodswings mother nature puts on us here. They don't even have hurricanes! fuck yea.
A day on Mars (which we call a Sol) is 24 hours and 39 minutes, so our circadian rhythm won't be thrown off at all. The tilt is similar to earth, so there are seasonal changes like we're used to (though they are twice as long, because a martian year is twice as long) Mars also has a tolerable gravity (it's like just shy of 40% earth gravity, so it should be able to sustain human habitation for multiple years without detrimental effects (IE: we can get our food down, and take a shit without assistance, our bones won't become brittle like birds, and our blood can flow more/less correctly) Whereas, on the moon, where it's like 1/25th of earths gravity, there's not a really good way to sustain longer habitation periods without serious life process issues. Also, because it's so much less than our gravity, we can play that sweet slamball basketball game they used to have on spike TV, without trampolines, and noctuple cork 3600's will be required in all ski comps on mars to even have a chance to place in the top 5. Spin to win would be so in.
Shut the fuck up, slamball was the fucking shit and if you don't agree with me, go suck a dog peen.
Venus on the other hand, is outside of the habitable zone. even if it had an earth-like situation going on, and wasn't just a crazy acid-rain deathball, the temperature would be far too hot whether it had an atmosphere or not. It can't support liquid or solid water, and it certainly cannot support life as we know it because of that.
Furthermore, it has a fucking retrograde rotation, and it's year is shorter than it's day... and I mean it's day is like 2 Venus years long! AND BACKWARDS! That's what happens when a planet is too close to it's parent star, weird rotational shit gets out of whack.
Either way, Venus is a super fucked up place that sucks to the max core. I mean, you want to know how fucked up it is? you can simply tell just by the way the clouds go around the planet. Look at this shit.
all fucking warped and shit? in one giant mass? the clouds move around it like molasses rather than the far more fluid nature of our own or even Martian atmospheric movement. And on top of that, because one side of the planet has a staring contest with the sun for like two years straight, the clouds on one side will just billow out like crazy and cause mega storms that would make any christian view of hell seem like a semi-attractive place to go on holiday.
TITAN however, that's an interesting Idea. There's a chance there's water under the surface, which along with the abundance of nitrogen could give potential to creating artificial atmospheres within some sort of collection facility for the Titanic Dinosaur Juice fields...
That said, gravity on Titan SUUUCKS because it's even LESS than the moon! Getting there, and then maintaining any sort of workplace that OSHA would tolerate would be basically impossible without some gravity simulation tech - something I doubt we'd be able to create before we move beyond petty fossil fuels...
Also, it's cold as a MOTHERFUCK there. Like 300 below zero. You know how the east coast can get like REALLY COLD sometimes and the snow turns to a field of motherfucking trident strips and blue ice? Yeah. Think about that, but multiplied by like a fuckshitstack worth. Living on Titan would be the worst thing ever. I don't think hand warmers are gonna help you out very well. On top of that, you can't just burn some oil to warm up the place, because there's limited oxygen, and you'll be inside. So that's not going to work out very well without some far more impressive ventilation systems in place. Regardless, thermoinsulation is an epic problem.
On the other hand, some cool ass shit could happen if you were on Titan and could survive the temps. The atmosphere is crazy thick, and with the low gravity, you could actually just fly on Titan. You could grab like, a couple of pieces of printer paper, then tape them onto your arms, and flap your arms like that bitch ass kid from Angels in the Outfield and you could fly all over the place on Titan like some kind of Robo-American Bald Eagle powered by Nascar, Jesus, 9mm bullets, and apple pie.
Oh, and you know how we kinda need oxygen to breathe and shit? Well, there's a huge problem. Titan's Atmosphere is like SUUUPER reactive with Oxygen. If you went to a bunch of NFL games and Retirement homes, stole all of the oxygen tanks from those places, threw it into a space net and hurled it into Titan's atmosphere like Superman in Superman IV (when he hurled the earth's nuclear missle arsenal into the sun) Titan would probably explode so fucking hard, Michael Bay would probably die from his own explosion-boner actually exploding.
So yeah, if you are in some kinda space suit, breathing oxygen like no big deal, whistling and shit, minding your own business collecting Titan oil, and a leak happens? You will blow the fuck up like an infested Terran in Starcraft and cause +500 damage to structures. That would be at least sorta bad.
"God dammit, Jim opened up his spacesuit in the field!"
Sooo yup! that's all i gotta say abou that one!
I'm pretty stoked that Earth is still a place we can live on. It's not bad.
DingoSean(I wrote this because i'm bored at work and just sitting here for the next three hours, so prepare for a fucking book)
I think i can point out the next 5 big hit Sci-fi Hollywood ideas in that post!
But you forgett one thing about Mars. Massive fucking sandstorms.
Sandstorms? Thats not lethal, gtfo!
Not on Mars. If we had those sandstorms on earth, it would kill 99% of the population. It's some kind of toxic shit that would fuck us up (Can't remember all the details, but im sure it's not that hard to look up if you're intrested in reading more).
But if we can have suits that allowes us to walk on Titan, im sure someone invented a dust filter system to protect the people of Mars.
We'd be mostly subterranean on Mars. Haven't you ever seen Total Recall?
Also, we could totally terraform Mars if we can just get the planet's temperture up 4 degrees... It would melt the southern icecap, cover the thing in 11 meters of ocean, increase the density of the atmosphere, and thus bring us below the armstrong limit so our blood doesn't boil and turn us into the Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Air still won't be breatheable, but at least we could walk around like it was that planet in Avatar... We could also just drop a bunch of ammonia nukes (or just spray it with like, a LOT of windex), so the ammonia reacts and turns the atmosphere to mostly nitrogen like ours.
Kepler is incapable of detecting water. This planet could be covered in rocks, water, methane, or a sea of Furbies. We will have no idea about atmospheric or surface chemical composition until the James Webb Space Telescope is in orbit.
Not sure why my questioning the likely hood of water keeps getting flack, some ya'll straight ignant
saskskierIt only just struck me now (maybe it's just late and I'm just tired), but in theory if we were somehow able to travel to another planet and colonize, would time change. We operate on a 24 hour clock, 365 day year, but isn't that entirely based on how earth travels around the sun? Every planets rotation and orbit will be different, so do we continue to use earth time as the standard?
We would probably use the same time as on earth for seconds and hours and just define the length of the day, month and year based on the planet. Same way we do for planets we discover right now (eg. Venus' day is 1.92 solar days and Venus' year is 224.701 days).
