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Comment Re:What a surprise (Score 2, Interesting) 260

The Chinese also understand this. They now have 80% of the world's high speed rail system, most of which has been built in the last decade. It's our interstate highway system on steroids. Not all routes are immediately profitable but they're fine with that. Is there any wonder why or how they are overtaking us as the next superpower.

Submission + - China Hopes to Redirect a Nearby Asteroid Within the Next Four Years

Submitted by InfiniteZero
InfiniteZero writes: The global effort to protect Earth from dangerous asteroids is set to become stronger, as China has announced its intentions to test an asteroid redirect system as early as 2025.

For the proposed test, a probe would closely survey a near-Earth object prior to smashing into it. Known as kinetic impaction, the idea is to alter the orbital trajectory of a threatening asteroid by directing a large, high-speed spacecraft into the object. NASA is currently running a similar test, known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, which seeks to deliberately crash a space probe into Dimorphos—a tiny asteroid—later this year.

Submission + - Astrophotographer spots spacewalking astronauts from the ground (space.com)

Submitted by InfiniteZero
InfiniteZero writes: Last Wednesday (March 23), NASA astronaut Raja Chari and the European Space Agency's Matthias Maurer spent nearly seven hours outside the International Space Station, performing a variety of maintenance work.

Amazingly, astrophotographer Sebastian Voltmer managed to capture a snapshot of the spacewalk action from the ground — and from Maurer's hometown of Sankt Wendel, Germany, no less.

"I feel like I just made a once-in-a-lifetime image", Voltmer wrote.

Submission + - China's Mars orbiter snaps sci-fi-esque selfie

Submitted by InfiniteZero
InfiniteZero writes: China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft at Mars pulled a big New Year's surprise with stunning new images captured by a small camera that flew free of the orbiter to snap epic selfies above the Red Planet.

The new images published by the China National Space Administration show Tianwen-1 above Mars' north pole, with its solar arrays and antennas on display, as well as a partial closeup of the orbiter and a view of the Red Planet's northern ice cap.

The views give an unprecedented view of a spacecraft in orbit around another planet, showing the golden body of Tianwen-1, the silver high-gain antenna for communications, solar arrays and science antennae. A closeup shows the spacecraft’s radar antenna parallel to the solar array.

Submission + - Imaginary numbers could be needed to describe reality

Submitted by InfiniteZero
InfiniteZero writes: Imaginary numbers are necessary to accurately describe reality, two new studies have suggested. If standard quantum theory holds up, imaginary numbers are critical.

But whether quantum theory needs them or just uses them as convenient shortcuts has long been controversial. In fact, even the founders of quantum mechanics themselves thought that the implications of having complex numbers in their equations was disquieting.

To test how important imaginary numbers were in describing reality, the researchers used an updated version of the Bell test, an experiment which relies on quantum entanglement.

Submission + - China's Zhurong Mars rover takes a selfie

Submitted by InfiniteZero
InfiniteZero writes: China's Zhurong rover has sent back a batch of new images from Mars — including a "selfie". The robot, which landed in May, positioned a wireless camera on the ground and then rolled back a short distance to take the snap.

Full resolution images including a 360 panoramic view of the landing site, can be found at the official CNSA website.

Submission + - China unveils 1st Mars photos from Zhurong rover (space.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: China has released the first photographs taken by its Zhurong rover, which touched down on Mars late on Friday (May 14) as part of the country's Tianwen-1 mission.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA), which runs the mission, has released two Mars photographs taken by the rover: one in color and one in black and white. Both images show parts of the rover and its lander against a backdrop of Utopia Planitia, the expansive northern plain that Zhurong will explore during its mission.

Comment Re:Tidal Force & Time Dilution (Score 1) 82

by InfiniteZero (#59693574) Attached to: Could a Habitable Planet Orbit a Black Hole?

Plugged the numbers into the equations. If Planet Earth were orbiting a black hole, in order for Roche Distance = Schwarzschild Radius, the black hole's mass comes out as 2.3 x 10^8 solar mass, which seems to be middle of the pack as far as supermassive black holes are concerned.

P.S. Yup it should be dilation. I blame autocorrect. :)

Comment Re:Tidal Force & Time Dilution (Score 2) 82

by InfiniteZero (#59692248) Attached to: Could a Habitable Planet Orbit a Black Hole?

OK that makes sense. Just took a detailed look into the equations. For a given planet, its Roche distance is proportional to the cubic root of the mass of the black hole it's orbiting. The planet must stay outside of that distance so that it won't be torn apart by the tidal forces. On the other hand, the black hole's Schwarzschild radius or event horizon, where time dilution becomes infinite, is proportional to its mass. So obviously, the event horizon grows faster than the Roche distance as the black hole's mass increases.

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