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AeroDork @AeroDork
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
Stars spin around the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. This sequence, shot over 20 years, shows a region called Sagittarius A.
The star that makes a complete orbit is S2. It's the fastest known ballistic orbit, reaching speeds exceeding 5,000 km/s (11,000,000 mph, or 1/60 the speed of light).
At its closest, S2 comes within 120 AU of the supermassive black hole...about twice the distance from Neptune to the sun.
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I love “mundane” moments from the Apollo program. Here, Alan Bean removes a dome used to cover a cask holding the mini nuclear generator (RTG) they strapped to the side of the lunar module. The cask was designed to withstand a vehicle explosion or re-entry.
(Here’s a view of the cask from training with Astronaut Edgar Mitchell.)
The fuel element was made of Plutonium 238. Bean had difficulty removing it from the cask during Apollo 12 due to thermal expansion. The plutonium put off so much heat he could feel it through his suit.
Read 5 tweets
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From 1896 to 1897, the United States experienced a wave of mystery airship sightings. In an early example of the UFO phenomenon, people across the country reported seeing giant airships with bright headlights flying in the night sky.
Like later UFO phenomenon, the craft were a reflection of their time: Lighter than air, with recently-showcased-at-the-Chicago-World’s-Fair electric lights shining from their frames.
This description is 👍: “Lowery described the craft as being powered by 2 men exerting themselves on pedals. Above the men seemed to be a passenger compartment. A light was mounted on the front end of the airship. Some witnesses reported singing as the craft passed overhead.”
Read 3 tweets
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Sergey Korolev, whose rocket would put the first human in space, was purged and imprisoned in 1938 by the very regime he later served.
During his time as director of the Soviet space program, paranoid Russians referred to him only as "Chief Designer" to prevent assassination attempts. His identity was only revealed after his death in 1966.
Today his name is memorialized by the “Korolev Cross”: the symmetrical dance the liquid-fueled boosters perform after separating during a Soyuz launch.
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It's almost #BlackHoleFriday! You should #FF some folks working on relativity and black holes. Here's a list to get you started:
twitter.com/mcnees/lists/r…
Animation: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab
Visualization of a black hole ripping apart and devouring a passing star. #BlackHoleFriday
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12005
Simulation of a pair of neutron stars tearing each other apart as they form a black hole. #BlackHoleFriday
Credit: NASA/AEI/ZIB/M. Koppitz and L. Rezzolla
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11530
Read 13 tweets
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Did you know you can get power out of a black hole?
It turns out that black holes can function as mass-energy converters, thanks to angular momentum & frame dragging.
So black holes have some angular momentum, which is a conserved quantity. Since they started out as big stars, they usually have a lot of it.
like an ice skater pulling their arms and legs in to spin faster, black holes usually "spin" very fast.
And frame-dragging is a distortion of spacetime that happens around masses.

specifically, rotational frame dragging happens around spinning objects, and since black holes are massive (no pun intended), it's very intense around them.
Read 27 tweets
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i should really like work with a reaction thread of sorts but it goes against my personality to a degree. anyways this is the rest of the kabuto reaction thread from 11 onwards
drake's introduction is. it's alot. but it's also indicative of his status as a foil to tendou from minute ONE as vs yaguruma who took a minute to really show his true colors

drake's thing seems to be detachment but of a more full degree. it isn't like performative like tendou's
it's a more full detachment. he wants to pretty things up but then leave them to die, as opposed to tendou, who always acts detached from other people but is always inevitably planning on saving them to the fullest extent of what he can do
Read 377 tweets
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Astronomers have seen the aftermath of a star torn in half by a supermassive black hole.

The energy released was… quite large.

syfy.com/syfywire/astro…
I’m still having a hard time dealing with the energy of this event. Half the mass of that star was blasted away from the black hole at very nearly the speed of light.
And by “very nearly” I mean 99.5% of c. The energy that took is the about the same amount the Sun will emit OVER ITS ENTIRE LIFETIME.
Read 6 tweets
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Starting a recurring thread on BLACK HOLES. From history to our modern understanding and, in between, any bizarre facts about it.
1. The idea of "dark stars" - from where light cannot escape - became obvious since we figured in the late 1600s that the speed of light is indeed finite. Here is a quote by philosopher-scientist John Michell from 1784.

(Source: Wikipedia)
2. After Einstein published his breakthrough paper on Special Theory of Relativity in 1905, it was known: (i) nothing travels faster than the speed of light, (ii) speed of light is constant for all observers. Therefore, a "dark star" is 'black' for all observers of the Universe.
Read 21 tweets
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THREAD: Need a break from #BlackFriday, digging @NASA’s #BlackHoleFriday? Perfect, enjoy our Black Hole 101! ☄️
First the basics. A black hole is a region in space where the pulling force of gravity is so strong that light is not able to escape. Because of this, black holes are invisible. Only telescopes with special instruments can help find them.
There are three main types of black holes. The black hole's mass and size determine what kind it is.
Read 13 tweets

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