ebetz - Slashdot User

Comment Re:And the point is...? (Score 1) 53

by ebetz on Sunday September 26, 2010 @09:37AM (#33702758) Attached to: NASA Creates an Alien's Eye View of Solar System

The cost would be time on an already existing supercomputer and the point is to contribute to the search for evidence that we're not alone in the cosmos. What could be more worthy of a few taxpayer dollars than that? People need inspiration nearly as much as they need food.

Submission + - NASA creates an alien's eye view of solar system (physicscentral.com)

Submitted by Flash Modin on Friday September 24, 2010 @05:58PM

Flash Modin writes: Using the Discover supercomputer — which is capable of 67 trillion calculations per second — astronomers at NASA Goddard have created a series of images of what our solar system would look like to an alien astronomer at various points in time. Their simulations track the interactions of 75,000 dust grains in the Kuiper Belt, and show that while the planets would be too dim to detect directly, aliens could deduce the presence of Neptune from its effects on the icy region. Strikingly, the images resemble one taken by Hubble of the star Fomalhaut. NASA has put out a cute video to go with the announcement as well.

Submission + - Lasers Approach their Ultimate Intensity Limit (physicscentral.com)

Submitted by Flash Modin on Wednesday August 11, 2010 @10:39AM

Flash Modin writes: Death Star style superlasers? Don't bet on it. High power lasers currently in development appear to be nearing the theoretical laser intensity limit, according to new research set to be published in the journal Physical Review Letters. Ultra-high-energy laser fields can actually convert their light into matter as shown in the late '90s at the Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC). This process creates an "avalanche-like electromagnetic cascade" (also known as sparking the vacuum) capable of destroying a laser field. Physicists thought it might be a problem for lasers eventually, but this work indicates the technology is much closer to its limit than researchers believed. A preprint is available on the arXiv.

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