https://mastodon.social/@pomarede/112339170146519848 pomarede@mastodon.social - Taylor Swift as an hypermagnetized neutron star
#TaylorSwift #astrophysics #Swifties #neutron #star #neutronstar #magnetar #physics #astronomy #astrodon #meme #science #memes #sciencememes #space #STEM
Not really anything to do with astronomy. Have they run out of relevant material?
"US-based startup RocketStar has successfully demonstrated an electric propulsion unit for spacecraft that uses nuclear fusion-enhanced pulsed plasma."
"By introducing boron into the thruster's exhaust, high-speed protons generated from ionized water vapor collide with boron nuclei, triggering a fusion reaction that significantly boosts the thruster's performance. This fusion process, like an afterburner in a jet engine, transforms boron into high-energy carbon, which rapidly decays into three alpha particles. The result? A remarkable 50% improvement in thrust compared to our FireStar Foundation thruster."
"This discovery, initially made under an SBIR from AFWERX, has been independently validated. We've witnessed fusion reactions occur in our lab and the result is a 50% jump in thrust performance. 'RocketStar has not just incrementally improved a propulsion system, but taken a leap forward by applying a novel concept, creating a fusion-fission reaction in the exhaust! This is an exciting time in technology developments and I am looking forward to their future innovations,' stated Adam Hecht, Professor of Nuclear Engineering, University of New Mexico."
"The FireStar Foundation thruster is ready to ship now. It will fly in July and October 2024 on D-Orbit's proprietary OTV ION Satellite Carrier riding on two SpaceX Transporter missions, proving performance in the ultimate test -- space itself. But get ready, because our FireStar Fusion Drive is headed to the launchpad too, scheduled for in-space testing in February 2025 on Rogue Space System's Barry-2 spacecraft."
From what I've been able to figure out, and for those of you who like things expressed in equations (don't worry, for those of you scared by equations I'll describe it in words as well), what they're claiming looks like:
proton + 11B -> 12C* -> 3 4He + boatload of energy
Boron by definition has 5 protons, add 6 neutrons and we get the 11 isotope of boron. Hit it with a proton and that makes it 6 protons, which makes it carbon by definition. The asterisk indicates the carbon is in an "excited state", which means it has excess energy. It sheds this excess energy by splitting into 3 "alpha particles", also known as 3 helium nuclei (2 protons, 2 neutrons, without the orbiting electrons -- the "4" indicates the 4 isotope). The "boatload of energy" term of the equation increases the velocity of the thrust and cranks up the acceleration that the engine imparts to the spacecraft and the efficiency of the engine.
They say, "This discovery, initially made under an SBIR from AFWERX, has been independently validated."
SBIR stands for Small Business Innovation Research, a US government funding program, and AFWERX is an agency within the US Air Force for tapping into innovations from startups in the US economy. They say:
"As the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force and powered by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), AFWERX brings cutting edge American ingenuity from small businesses and start-ups to address the most pressing challenges of the Department of the Air Force."
Link to their website below. I wasn't able to find any record of this on their website, but that could be because I don't know how to properly search the website.
RocketStar tests fusion-enhanced in-space propulsion process
In 1973, there was a total solar eclipse that lasted 74 minutes. Well, sort of -- it was done with a clever trick. Viewed from any spot on Earth, the eclipse lasted a little over 7 minutes, but viewed from a supersonic aircraft flying in the direction of the eclipse, the duration could be stretched out.
The aircraft was a modified Concorde, and it wasn't quite able to keep up with the speed the moon's shadow moved over the face of the Earth. So it couldn't stretch out the length of the eclipse indefinitely. But it was able to stretch it out quite a lot.
This got me curious how fast the moon's shadow moves. For the eclipse we just had, I measured the distance from where it first lands on the North American continent, just south of Mazatlan, Mexico, to where it leaves the North American continent, near Rivière-au-Portage, New Brunswick, Canada, as 4,530 km (metric system!), or 2,815 miles. The time it takes to cross that distance is 1 hour, 27 minutes, 33 seconds. Doing the arithmetic that results in a speed of 3,105 km per hour, or 1,929 miles per hour. Translating that into a mach number we get mach 2.51. The Concorde's maximum speed was mach 2.04. The SR-71 has a maximum speed of mach 3.2, so an SR-71 could in fact keep up with the moon's shadow.
The other question is why eclipses near the equator can last more than 7 minutes while ours are much shorter up here in North America, at around 4 and a half minutes? Apparently the answer to this question is very similar to the supersonic airplane question. The moon's shadow moves from west to east during an eclipse, and the earth itself rotates from west to east as well, in the same direction -- this is why the sun rises in the east. So, the closer you are to the equator during an eclipse, the more the rotation of the earth itself mimics the movement of the supersonic airplane and elongates the eclipse.
