Mastodon Migration
boosted
Saturn in Colour
Credits: WFPC, HST, #NASA
#nature #space #astrophotography
Saturn in Colour
Credits: WFPC, HST, #NASA
#nature #space #astrophotography
GhostOnTheHalfShell
boosted
#astronomy #space #science #technology
Black holes can act like volcanoes according to a study. Some black holes are weak and classed as dormant, whilst others are actively growing and emitting radiation. These are known as AGN black holes. And they also emit relativistic jets which can be turned off or on. When the jets are switched on they can cover a distance of millions of light years. Quite why they do this is not yet understood. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-intermittent-black-hole-jets-cosmic.html
#astronomy #space #science #technology
Black holes can act like volcanoes according to a study. Some black holes are weak and classed as dormant, whilst others are actively growing and emitting radiation. These are known as AGN black holes. And they also emit relativistic jets which can be turned off or on. When the jets are switched on they can cover a distance of millions of light years. Quite why they do this is not yet understood. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-intermittent-black-hole-jets-cosmic.html
Consider, for example, #Starlink and the general notion of the #satellite "constellation", filling the skies with lots of itty bitty low-orbit (i.e. cheap to launch) space junk. #SpaceX _expects_ these things to burn up quickly. That just means more SpaceX launches, bigger numbers going upwards, more more more.
It's wasteful and ineffectual to do things this way, but it's optimal in terms of generating business transactions, and you can deal in massive quantities by keeping technology crude and old-fashioned.
(cont'd)
That's why (for example) extruded plastics are so cheap and ubiquitous: the petrochemical industry insures that the world is flooded at all times with inexpensive, uncomplicated, easily worked polymer resins such as polyethylene and polystyrene. Hence such simple petroleum-derived plastics have been pushed into just about every product and consumer good. These plastics are literally in everything, including your own human bodies and brains (q.v. #microplastics.)
#ElonMusk and his pals want to apply this same pump-and-dump approach to #space exploitation, and other things. Great guy.
The true cost to human and Earth life that's accrued from many many decades of filling the world with cheap extruded plastics may never be known—and the present-day intellectual climate is hostile to such understanding.
(cont'd)