Miscellaneous tidbits

[Tmaq]

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has picked up gamma ray flashes from lightning storms on earth. That's not new. Here's what is new to researchers: "During two recent lightning storms, Fermi recorded gamma-ray emissions of a particular energy that could have been produced only by the decay of energetic positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons." So, apparently, lightning sometimes produces antimatter? Research continues...

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic ... _lightning

That's very similar to the recent discovery that pulling a piece of scotch tape off the roll generates X-rays.

-Tom

[Atheist Statist]

It's similar in that unexpectedly high energies are involved, but that's about it. Scotch tape doesn't produce antimatter. No positrons there.

[Tmaq]

It's similar in that unexpectedly high energies are involved, but that's about it.

The source is completely mundane in both cases, as well.

-Tom

[Dil]

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has picked up gamma ray flashes from lightning storms on earth. That's not new. Here's what is new to researchers: "During two recent lightning storms, Fermi recorded gamma-ray emissions of a particular energy that could have been produced only by the decay of energetic positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons." So, apparently, lightning sometimes produces antimatter? Research continues...

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic ... _lightning

That's very similar to the recent discovery that pulling a piece of scotch tape off the roll generates X-rays.

-Tom

A year ago, I showed a fellow science student that (tape -> xray movie clip), he was rather disturbed by it because it seemed so ridiculous (he didn't want to believe it).
He eventually conceded when he saw that Nature endorsed it.

[Tmaq]

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has picked up gamma ray flashes from lightning storms on earth. That's not new. Here's what is new to researchers: "During two recent lightning storms, Fermi recorded gamma-ray emissions of a particular energy that could have been produced only by the decay of energetic positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons." So, apparently, lightning sometimes produces antimatter? Research continues...

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic ... _lightning

That's very similar to the recent discovery that pulling a piece of scotch tape off the roll generates X-rays.

-Tom

A year ago, I showed a fellow science student that (tape -> xray movie clip), he was rather disturbed by it because it seemed so ridiculous (he didn't want to believe it).
He eventually conceded when he saw that Nature endorsed it.

X-rays are a little bit overrated. Kinda like the dangers of hydrogen gas.

-Tom

[Tmaq]

Here's something I thought was pretty interesting;

http://www.time.com/time/health/article ... 68,00.html

An extra-solar planet made of (mostly) water and only 2.7 times the size of Earth. Its basically the closest we've found to another Earth. And at only 40 light-years away, it's conceivable to travel to it.

I bet we find one with free oxygen or chlorophyll soon.

-Tom

[Brad Reddekopp]

Yeah, that's an interesting one.

[Brad Reddekopp]

This is pretty cool. It's a time-lapse video of lenticular clouds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KlRCq5SDTE

[Brad Reddekopp]

There will be a total eclipse of the moon on Monday night, December 20, or in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, December 21, depending on your time zone. It should be visible in to all of North America, weather permitting. For those of us on Pacific time, it begins 10:53 PM on Monday and ends at 2:01 AM on Tuesday, with totality from 11:41 PM to 12:53 AM.

More info and charts for other time zones here: http://www.mreclipse.com/LEdata/TLE2010 ... Dec21.html

[Brad Reddekopp]

Another meteor shower tonight: the Quadrantids. If you've got clear skies, you might see as many as 100 an hour. It's due to peak tonight, sometime between 8pm and 2am Eastern, 5 pm and 11pm Pacific. The meteors will appear to come from the Big Dipper's handle.

Unfortunately, clouds will conspire to keep this one from me.