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Posted on: The Wonders of Antihydrogen..
at 11/25/2009 4:35pm

no, that is not at all what that means. again you confuse number of particles and the total mass.

a SINGLE Helium ... more(+)

no, that is not at all what that means. again you confuse number of particles and the total mass.

a SINGLE Helium releases 4x the energy of a SINGLE hydrogen because it's 4x heavier.

However, any mass of helium gives the same energy as the same mass of hydrogen.

You would need fewer helium atoms for the same energy output, true, but the exact same MASS.

And when you create anti-matter, it's the mass that counts, not the number of particles. So there is no advantage to creating anti-helium over anti-hydrogen. And that's assuming you can just create it from the initial reactions.

If you have to actually fuse the anti-hydrogen to get the helium, it's actually more problematic. close(-)

Posted on: Saturn and it's Core
at 11/25/2009 4:13pm

yeah, i'll stop you really early in your post...the planets atmospheres would not ignite, regardless of the composition ... more(+)

yeah, i'll stop you really early in your post...the planets atmospheres would not ignite, regardless of the composition and behavior of the core.


Either you're talking about the normal version of 'ignite' where an object rapidly and exothermically reacts with some chemical (usually oxygen)...in which case it won't happen, or it wouldn't matter. Once the reaction starts, the reactive element in the atmosphere would then be used...and the reaction would stop. I.e. the oxygen would be used up and bound up in the 'ash' left over.

Or you're talking about fusion...which wouldn't happen as no gas giant is large enough to sustain a fusion reaction.


So...no problem with ignition, thus you have a false dilema, and no reason to go haring off into wild (and basically erroneous) speculation. close(-)

Posted on: Complicated Question
at 11/25/2009 4:09pm

As long as you don't get to specific, this scenario isn't to bad. And I'd actually keep the tidal lock, makes the ... more(+)

As long as you don't get to specific, this scenario isn't to bad. And I'd actually keep the tidal lock, makes the world interesting, especially for a shorter story. A world of marshes and lakes, aliens that are awed by oceans and mountains.


As for the radiation, say it's far enough to avoid the worst, and the thick atmosphere protects them somewhat and helps trap the weak sunlight and the IR light given by the brown dwarf.

Throw in some biological measures to help cope, thick hides (maybe sorta insect like), and things like laying young as eggs in caves or such beneath the surface. This protects the young during a very critical and vulnerable period of growth. close(-)

Posted on: a carbon powered sun
at 11/25/2009 2:44pm

yep, up to Iron. Fusing Iron actually takes more energy than it releases, and as such once iron begins accumulating in ... more(+)

yep, up to Iron. Fusing Iron actually takes more energy than it releases, and as such once iron begins accumulating in the core, any star, no matter how massive, soon dies. This is because more and more energy is absorbed by the iron as is fused into the next level of elements, rapidly cooling the core, and stopping all core fusion. Once this happens the core rapidly turns into either a neutron star, or a black hole. This rapid ceasation of energy, not to mention the drastic contraction into the 10km wide neutron star (or 1km black hole) causes the rest of the star to collapse.

This contraction is so violent that the shockwaves begin fusion all over agian, and the rebounding shockwave blows the star to bits (essentially, I'm simplifying a bit). This is what we call a Supernova.

it's in this explosion, with so much excess energy that we actually get most of the elements heavier than carbon.

Now, there is one more interesting fact, the heavy elements don't come from the core! Even though there being an obscene amount of heavy elements (up to iron) there. This is because large portions of the core are lost to the newly formed neutron star (or bh) and any surviving elements are bombarded with so much high energy photons from the supernova, that they are broken apart down to single protons again (i.e. hydrogen).

The heavy elements actually come from the rapidly cooling and expanding debris cloud where there was enough excess energy and pressure during the collapse/rebound to fuse, but not to much to rip the atoms to pieces again. close(-)

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