The Official Science Thread

Originally Posted by KrasivataSabine

exactly... which is why we're on this thread haha. Sounds good, thanks for the pep talk

no prob, learn from my mistakes

Originally Posted by Rubenk

Did everybody ignore my link earlier?

no but I definitely missed it, not sure how

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

Ok so after reading some and thinking about it I'm still confused. Space is fvcking cold, ~3^{o K}, or -270^{o C}. On the other hand, there is nothing there to transfer the heat, so I'm not sure what would happen. The air would definitely be sucked out of you and your insides would collapse, but after that I'm not sure.

Note that my proposition was about a corpse thrown into space (for a space burial of sorts) instead of ashes.
Not throwing a life body in space. We know what would happen. Given zero pressure outside, the blood pressure inside would do some major damage.
But a dead body has no blood pressure. Even if cell membranes rupture, the body would still remain in space "forever", preserved like a mummy, no?
No bacteria to decompose. Imagine a piece of meat in a permanent freezer.
Yes?

Originally Posted by Master Po

Note that my proposition was about a corpse thrown into space (for a space burial of sorts) instead of ashes.
Not throwing a life body in space. We know what would happen. Given zero pressure outside, the blood pressure inside would do some major damage.
But a dead body has no blood pressure. Even if cell membranes rupture, the body would still remain in space "forever", preserved like a mummy, no?
No bacteria to decompose. Imagine a piece of meat in a permanent freezer.
Yes?

According to the two links posted:

But severe symptoms such as loss of oxygen in tissue (anoxia) and multiplicative increase of body volume occur within 10 seconds, followed by circulatory failure and flaccid paralysis in about 30 seconds.

Joseph Kittinger experienced localised ebullism during a 31 kilometres (19 mi) ascent in a helium-driven gondola. His right-hand glove failed to pressurise and his hand expanded to roughly twice its normal volume accompanied by disabling pain.

In the absence of atmospheric pressure water will spontaneously convert into vapor, which would cause the moisture in a victim’s mouth and eyes to quickly boil away. The same effect would cause water in the muscles and soft tissues of the body to evaporate, prompting some parts of the body to swell to twice their usual size after a few moments. This bloating may result in some superficial bruising due to broken capillaries, but it would not be sufficient to break the skin.

This growth/swelling is not dependent on the body being alive. Unless the person has been dead long enough for these tissues to start to dry out, they're gonna blow up somewhat.

Now, they may slowly return to normal size and give up their water content without much damage. In which case, the end result may be something like the dessicated bodies we've seen with mummies. The account of the cosmonauts would seem to indicate that. But it's hard to say because by the time the bodies were viewed, they'd been back at normal atmospheric pressure. It could be that the gaseous water will eventually tear the skin in order to get out if the body is left in the vacuum indefinitely.

Remember, too, that one of the reasons cold can be so damaging to tissues is that as water freezes, it grows into crystals. When those crystals grow inside cells, they puncture the cell membrane, tearing it apart from the inside. That's why severe frostbite often results in amputation, every cell in the tissue is irreparably damaged. So IF the body ever got cold enough for the water to freeze despite the low pressure and most of the cells ruptured from the inside, the body might not be very recognizable anymore.

One of the things that DOES happen after death is that certain tissues in the body release gasses as the biological processes stop. If these gasses were released with the body in a vacuum, their expansion might do a lot of damage.

The articles posted are concerned primarily with surviving such exposure, so they don't draw a lot of conclusions about what would happen if the body was left in space for many days or weeks. So I'll admit that I'm extrapolating based on incomplete information.

Reminder,

Mars rover will probably reenter on Sunday. Hope all goes well.

http://news.yahoo.com/excitement-bui...185857943.html

Good idea of the scale of Curiosity vs the old rovers

wtf

The guy is crazy

2,000V? meh, I was using 110,000V just last month, gonna go up to 200,000V in a little bit

Originally Posted by mash20

2,000V? meh, I was using 110,000V just last month, gonna go up to 200,000V in a little bit

What are you using that kind of power for?


I love fluids, so this is really fvcking cool to me. Turn the captions on

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

What are you using that kind of power for?

I love fluids, so this is really fvcking cool to me. Turn the captions on

Hmm, that video is pretty interesting, I always attributed stuff going to the outside to centrifugal force, guess I was wrong.

Originally Posted by Rubenk

Hmm, that video is pretty interesting, I always attributed stuff going to the outside to centrifugal force, guess I was wrong.

It reminds me of galaxies. They rotate, but the closer you get to the center, the denser they become.

Originally Posted by Rubenk

Hmm, that video is pretty interesting, I always attributed stuff going to the outside to centrifugal force, guess I was wrong.

It did go to the outside. Did you miss the pot hanging in the chandelier?

Originally Posted by Master Po

It did go to the outside. Did you miss the pot hanging in the chandelier?

I did see it go to the outside, but did I misunderstand in that it wasnt centrifugal force causing it? I didnt listen to the audio but read the CC...

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

What year? I start school again in two weeks, planning on aerospace master's after a physics BS.

When did this come about?

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

What are you using that kind of power for?

For the dark matter experiment I'm working on, we need to supply a strong electric field in the detector. In the next generation experiment, we need an even stronger field, so we need higher voltages. The problem is getting the voltage in the detector without sparking, and that's what I'm working on solving (currently).

Originally Posted by k2pilot

When did this come about?

After extensive reading, I realized that a master's in physics isn't likely to land me in a job I want, and a PhD isn't for me. The private space industry (and tourism specifically) is going to explode over the next 20 years and I want to be a big part of that. I'm thinking commercial space flight like commercial jets were in the 50s, not like the buses with wings we have now. The BS in physics is more for my own curiosity; aerospace is a great fit because I love fluid dynamics and as a job candidate a master's in an applied science looks better than straight physics. Plus, fvcking rockets and planes man, who wouldn't love that?

Originally Posted by mash20

For the dark matter experiment I'm working on, we need to supply a strong electric field in the detector. In the next generation experiment, we need an even stronger field, so we need higher voltages. The problem is getting the voltage in the detector without sparking, and that's what I'm working on solving (currently).

Very interesting. How much space are you working with? And how did you get 110kV without it sparking?

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

Very interesting. How much space are you working with? And how did you get 110kV without it sparking?

The HV needs to be applied to a mesh in liquid xenon. There's about 1/2" between the HV and ground, but that's not the big problem. There's a lot of subtleties to supplying very high voltage in liquid xenon that you don't realize immediately. Any sort of bubbling of the xenon can cause a spark and the fact that any particle coming into the xenon (gamma rays, cosmic rays, anything from outside) ionizes the xenon and starts to cause problems with charge buildup and migrating of charges (which also causes sparking). We had to go through several iterations before we got it down, but to briefly describe it, it's a complicated structure that stops stray charges (ions or electrons) from moving and creates an electric field that counteracts the high field near the HV connection.

Oh, and we have a few videos of it sparking, it's pretty intense, maybe I'll upload them and show them here.

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

aerospace is a great fit because I love fluid dynamics and as a job candidate a master's in an applied science looks better than straight physics. Plus, fvcking rockets and planes man, who wouldn't love that?