Bucky wrote:You guys are missing the point of Phat's question. What *IF* we had zero carbon emissions today and the part of the planet's lifecycle is now at the other end of the swing from the ice age? Is there anything people could do? OK, the 'solar shield' part of one answer is in line with the question.

phatj wrote:

Bucky wrote:You guys are missing the point of Phat's question. What *IF* we had zero carbon emissions today and the part of the planet's lifecycle is now at the other end of the swing from the ice age? Is there anything people could do? OK, the 'solar shield' part of one answer is in line with the question.

Exactly.

I keep coming back to the idea that to meaningfully alter the global climate is going to require power on a massive scale, no matter the cause of climate change. Even if we were able to eliminate all sources of human carbon emissions tomorrow we still would need to reduce atmospheric carbon to slow or stop climate change that's already happening. Even the most "organic" of methods (reforestation) would require a ton of power.

I don't see how we get out of this without nuclear energy. Hopefully there's a breakthrough in fusion soon.

Uncle Milty wrote:If fusion really coming soon? Like tomorrow it's always a day away.

Also known as the aurora borealis, the Northern Lights are typically visible in the far northern United States, in Canada, Alaska and other places well north of the Garden State. However, a large solar flare on March 20 triggered a fairly intense geomagnetic storm that is expected to reach our planet this weekend, so some of the colorful lights may be seen in places that normally don’t get a good view.

How far south the lights will be visible is still uncertain, but it is possible sky watchers in northern New Jersey and upstate New York could catch a glimpse, said Patrick O’Hara, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s regional office in New Jersey.

Early Friday morning, Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft detonated an explosive device over a small asteroid. The goal was to create a fresh crater that will later be studied by the spacecraft.

Researchers watched from mission control in Sagamihara, Japan, and clapped politely as Hayabusa2 released an experiment known as the Small Carry-on Impactor. The device consisted of a copper disk packed with HMX high-explosive. Once the mothership had safely moved out of the line of fire, the impactor apparently detonated, firing the disk into the side of the asteroid...

In a few weeks, after the dust has settled, the little spacecraft will survey the blast site to see what lies beneath. It may even land a second time to collect subsurface samples.

The spacecraft is scheduled to leave Ryugu later this year, carrying its samples back to scientists here on Earth. On the return, it will eject a pod containing dust from Ryugu that is expected to land in Australia's Outback.

swishnicholson wrote:What kind of potato did they use to take that picture?

Most news outlets are only showing the blurry zoomed in picture of the black hole so I'm posting the entire zoomed-out image of the black hole and everything it is consuming. The tiny black spec in this image is 6.5 billion times the size of our sun. This thing is HUGE.

jamiethekiller wrote:that picture is 55 million years old