Recent content by William Pennat

Be nice if the video actually pointed to where the reverse spiral twist is instead of just zooming in and back out to the sound of dramatic music. I think I see it but it would be good to have that verified.

In my understanding, at the very smallest scale, spacetime is composed of 4-D "Planck bits". These are the Planck length cubed (to get the Planck volume) which is 4.22 x 10^-105 cubic meters (pretty small!) times the Planck time, which is the time it takes a photon travelling at the speed of...

Riddle me this. The extra dimensions of string theory are themselves supposed to be very very small. But this means those dimensions also have a size relative to the three ordinary spatial dimensions. Not sure that makes a lot of sense, given the definition of "dimension". Time is a dimension...

The Higgs field is confused with the Higgs boson. I see this error all the time in physics stories like this. The Higgs boson does not technically give other particles mass. More precisely, the Higgs boson (particle) is a quantized manifestation of the Higgs field which is what actually...

I've been arguing for years that red dwarf planetary systems are the worst places to look for life for several reasons. Because the so-called "habitable" zones of these stars are so close in, not only does this make Earth-sized planets subject to the punishing eruptions of radiation typical of...

I just came across the following image of a rather amazing natural formation on Earth. I can virtually guarantee that if something similar were photographed from Mars orbit, Hoaglandites would be all over it -- This is in the Sahara and it's called (appropriately) "Eye of the Sahara". In...

That gives us two destinations....

Fly me to the moon And let me play among the stars Let me know what Spring is like On Jupiter and Mars....

It also required the existence of particles that travel faster than the speed of light, called tachyons. That was a major problem for early string theory, since tachyons don't exist, and if they did they would flagrantly violate the incredibly successful special theory of relativity. -- Quote...

I thought that too when I read the first story about this newly discovered planet. However, this story does not that this star is a "quiet" red dwarf, no flares so far. That leaves only tidal locking as big negative. Tidal locking is probably less unfavorable to life than flares though. I can...

But does that friend have "benefits"?...

Then beetle juice everywhere!...

OK. I think you're right. It's the difference between "multiplied" and "doubled". Multiplied would be 2 x original size, then 3x, 4x, 5x original size, etc., as opposed to doubling 2x, 4x, 8x etc.

An AI operated probe would obviously be "computer operated" OK. But still with "advanced AI." If you just say "computer operated" I would agree that's not sufficient. I also still don't get your hostile, nit-picky tone. What does that "prove"? NOTHING.

Back in the early '90's the British Interplanetary Society published an interesting design for an unmanned interstellar probe that could reach velocities of 1/10th light speed. Its propulsion system is a matter-antimatter reactor. The only difficulty for such a design is, apparently, simply...