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Skydiving Meteorites

What? What could meteorites have to do with skydiving? If you watched that video, congratulations, you saw nothing! Well, unless you are extremely observant that is. Here's a slowed down gif so you can see what's going on a bit better. That would be a meteor during it's "dark flight" phase. This happens when the meteorite reaches terminal velocity and starts falling straight down due to drag forces and blah blah blah and we have never gotten footage of this before. Which means tha

Velociraptor42

Velociraptor42

The Debate of Black Holes and Breakfast Foods

Ok, so. If you were to somehow make the grave mistake of falling into a black hole, what would happen? Obviously the answer is die. That bit isn't debatable. Sorry to burst your bubble. However, there are three main ideas of what would happen. Either you would be spaghettified, toasted, or scrambled. Unfortunately, none of these options are as appetizing as they sound. For a long time, physicists believed matter would be spaghettified upon entering a black hole. That's the legitimate term

Velociraptor42

Velociraptor42

Time Lapses of Blooming Flowers

Though we may not think of plants as moving things, we are sorely mistaken. The force of an opening flower may be very low - in the micro if not nano newtons - but as they exist and move, they are physics. Enjoy some beauty of nature, all dictated by the ever-present laws of physics. photo credit to Yutaka Kitamura Source

Velociraptor42

Velociraptor42

The Higgs Boson, The Early Universe, and Thunder

The Standard Model theorizes that the Higgs Field switched on about 100 picoseconds after the big bang. Recently, though, physicists have theorized that it happened a little more gradually than "switching on" in a process more like water boiling. When these bubbles of Higgs Field met, they created massive shockwaves that would have come with sonic booms. In one of the most cool theories in the early universe, the noise would have sounded a lot like thunder. or this (let's see if this co

Velociraptor42

Velociraptor42

Cytherean Mountains

Cytherean mountains (AKA mountans on planet Venus) cannot be seen directly. The surface of our sister planet is completely obscured by the thick clouds that also heat the surface to a balmy 900 or so degrees Fahrenheit. So, how do we know that the mountains are there? Fluids, of course! (dear god why) To put it simply (seeing as I can't make it more complicated if I wanted) the atmosphere of Venus is more like an ocean than a conventional Earth-like atmosphere, with a hotter under layer an

Velociraptor42

Velociraptor42

Direct Proof of the Big Bang

I nearly forgot the story of the month! Or, at this piont, last month. St. Patrick's day to be exact. Anyways, physicists have now detected direct proof of the big bang and, more specifically, inflation! I can't explain it very well, but my source is not cooperating, so I shall try. Because of the vast size of the universe, there hasn't been enough time for light and information to get from one end to the other. So how is it all the same temperature? That's where inflation comes into play.

Velociraptor42

Velociraptor42

Growing Snow

I'll admit that this has more to do with chemistry than physics, but really when it boils down to it, everything is physics. EVERYTHING To celebrate that the snow is over (hopefully), let's watch how it grows in the first place http://vimeo.com/87342468 Quite beautiful, isn't it? Especially with the music and all. So why do they grow that way? Well, it all has to do with the formation of hydrogen bonds. Usually, when water goes below the freezing temperature, the bonds form a nice cr

Velociraptor42

Velociraptor42

Galactic Tape Measure

Currently, we use a method called astronomical parallax to measure the distance from the Earth to various stars among our home galaxy and others. Well, we'll still be using it. Unfortunately, this post isn't about a literal tape measure from Earth to the stars. The usual way of measuring distance has to do with observing angles as the Earth goes around the sun, as is illustrated below But now, we have found a way to utilize the Hubble Space Telescope for yet another purpose: spacial scan

Velociraptor42

Velociraptor42

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