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My latest cartoon for New Scientist

#science #gravity #comic #myjetpack #Tom Gauld

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What does a fusion reactor sound like when it's running? Does it have any parts which make distinct noise or any behaviors that you can hear?

Great question!! They scream.

That's a view into one of the windows of the late, great Alcator C-Mod at MIT. I never had the privilege of witnessing a C-Mod discharge myself, but it went EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Of course, you'd never actually be in the same room as the reactor when it's firing a pulse, what with all the neutrons and x-rays. For a lot of reactors, they actually pipe the audio from the reactor into the control room so you can hear if a loose bolt gets yote across the room by the magnets, for example.

This is from the control room of DIII-D in San Diego. Listen over the HVAC and you can hear the reactor as a kind of high-pitched, whistling hiss with a crackle of distortion from all the EM interference of the plasma discharge.

#fusion reactor #the universe does not necessarily speak your language

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The Sun eclipsed by Earth, as it would appear on the Moon, illustrated by James Nasmyth, 1874.

#Sun #Earth #Moon #eclipse #scientific illustration #James Nasmyth #1874

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My latest cartoon for New Scientist.

#astrophysics #comic #myjetpack #Tom Gauld

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Antelope Canyon, Arizona

#Moon #Antelope Canyon #photography #astronomy

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wait what john finnemore is doing a sketch show at the ludlow fringe festival?

#John Finnemore Among Other #John Finnemore #JFSP cast #(well one of them at any rate) #Ludlow Fringe Festival #20 June 2024 #with many thanks to templeofshame for the heads-up #(I mean I'm almost certain I won't be able to go but still)

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#cosmic explosions #supernova #gamma ray bursts #astronomy #cosmology #the universe does not necessarily speak your language

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NASA art by Don Davis, 1975, showing a solar eclipse in a space colony. Earth's shadow moves up the valley as the lights of towns are seen in the distance.

#solar eclipse #space colony #scientific illustration #Don Davis #1975

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(first off: I'm not an astronomer, and I may be wildly off, but…) I had always assumed that "This too was incorrect. By almost a quarter of an hour", on the first page of Good Omens, was a throwaway joke. Today I realised it might actually be a reference; was it?

AIUI, Ussher said that although the creation occurred on the autumn equinox (22 September), he gave the date as 21 October to account for the drift caused by the Julian calendar, which was in use in Ireland at that time. I think he also said that it occurred at 9am Irish time, because that's noon in Jerusalem.

What just occurred to me is that Irish civil time is calculated from the Greenwich meridian. But Ussher lived in Armagh, 6.55° west of Greenwich. The solar time in Armagh at noon in Jerusalem is 9:19am and on 21 October is 9:11am. So 9am is off by almost a quarter of an hour.

Thanks for all the happy memories and the solidarity over the years.

I just want to show this to Terry Pratchett.

#Good Omens #time #Neil Gaiman #Terry Pratchett #a world of things that do not (exist)

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#art #everything is a circle #a world of things that do not (exist)

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New showreel with FULL DYER enjoy quick because I’ve no idea if it’ll get taken down THANKS BYE X

#Simon Kane #showreel #acting

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On this day in 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.

#Yuri Gagarin #space exploration #12 April 1961

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#Moon #time zones #NASA #lunar time #space exploration

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My latest cartoon for New Scientist.

#particle physics #comic #myjetpack #Tom Gauld #a world of things that do not (exist)

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#ghost particles #hidden particles #Cern #Large Hadron Collider #LHC #physics #particle physics #Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP)

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It's been a long time -- reacquainting myself with the crew of My Jet Now Air 🛫

#Cabin Pressure #fanar #halorvic

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#solar eclipse #total solar eclipse #astronomy #science #8 April 2024