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RE: Antimatter belt around Earth discovered by Pamela craft
August 8, 2011 at 2:32 am
(August 7, 2011 at 11:09 pm)Judas BentHer Wrote: And too bad about your itchy ass. They created soap centuries ago to solve that problem.
*Initiate nurse-mode
Ahem, one should never use soap to wash said area of the body, it only makes matters worse.
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Right, anti-matter, yay and coolness! \o/
When I was young, there was a god with infinite power protecting me. Is there anyone else who felt that way? And was sure about it? but the first time I fell in love, I was thrown down - or maybe I broke free - and I bade farewell to God and became human. Now I don't have God's protection, and I walk on the ground without wings, but I don't regret this hardship. I want to live as a person. -Arina Tanemura
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RE: Antimatter belt around Earth discovered by Pamela craft
August 8, 2011 at 6:23 am
Indeed, rubbing alcohol is much more fun. 
Back on topic: I am a complete noob on the topic of antimatter. What is the significance of this finding?
Best regards,
Leo van Miert
Horsepower is how hard you hit the wall --Torque is how far you take the wall with you
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RE: Antimatter belt around Earth discovered by Pamela craft
August 8, 2011 at 7:00 am
(August 8, 2011 at 6:23 am)leo-rcc Wrote: Indeed, rubbing alcohol is much more fun.
Back on topic: I am a complete noob on the topic of antimatter. What is the significance of this finding?
Well they'd previously predicted that high energy particles from cosmic rays colliding with particles in the atmosphere would, just like a particle accelerator, create a rage of particle debris, antimatter included - The strong magnetic fields on either side of the Van Allen belt would trap them, preventing them from annihilating when they collide with normal matter - The observations were conformation of a rather uncontroversial theory.
The "applications" are the more significant part in principle, colliding matter with it's antimatter counterpart releases energy that can be used to power an engine, providing a potential source of fuel that takes up little room, doesn't weigh much and is extremely efficient, at least relative to fossil fuels.
How they're going to go about collecting the antimatter is what I'm having trouble picturing, some kind of 'magnetic net' or a vacuum might be needed.
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RE: Antimatter belt around Earth discovered by Pamela craft
August 8, 2011 at 10:51 am
(This post was last modified: August 8, 2011 at 10:52 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Dropping in to defend man's tendency to immediately ask "and what can it do for me?". That's how we got where we are, and arguably the reason we have survived for so long. There has never been a time when this was not the case. To believe otherwise is naive romanticism.
Rocks are pretty, but to a hungry man they are not as pretty as a gazelle bludgeoned to death by the same rock thrown.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: Antimatter belt around Earth discovered by Pamela craft
August 10, 2011 at 8:39 am
I wonder if it might be possible for anti-matter powered starships (such as in Star Trek) could be built in the distant future.
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RE: Antimatter belt around Earth discovered by Pamela craft
August 10, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Only if one figures out how to make an Alcubierre drive.
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RE: Antimatter belt around Earth discovered by Pamela craft
August 10, 2011 at 6:02 pm
(This post was last modified: August 10, 2011 at 6:09 pm by Anomalocaris.)
Uhhhhhhh, An back of the envelope order of magnitude calculation shows that, even if the every atom in the van allen belt is made of anti-matter, one would still have to suck up every antimatter atom in 100 cubic kilometer's worth of van allen belt to equal the energy avilable from a gallon of hydrozine normally used as low power propellent in space crafts.
Since NASA seem to have a tendency to denote volumes in units of "Olympic swimming pool", as in there are 50 olympic swimming pool's worth of water in a lunar crater, I though I convert 100 cubic kilometers into units olympic swimming pools.
You have to sweep up every atom in volume of space equal to 40 million olympic swimming pools to match the energy available from vernier thrust system on a small satellite. So I don't think we'll be riding free on cosmic antimatter anytime soon.
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