Q&A 50: Can James Webb Find Megastructures? And More... Featuring Abby Harrison
In this week's questions show, I wonder if the James Webb Space Telescope will be able to find satellites around other stars, what my favorite sci-fi FTL method is, and why can't we see Mars as a bright object in the sky?
Q&A 50: Can James Webb Find Megastructures? And More... Featuring Abby Harrison (YouTube)
Comments (4)
On a more serious note, from watching you and Isaac, my takeaway -- rightly or wrongly -- is that our best first builds in space (other than a near Earth space station) are the Moon and O'Neill Cylinders. I have seen general discussions from you both (I think) about building both of them. I would love to see a collaboration on how to start building them TOMORROW and just how we would go about doing it -- as well as a timeframe. I'll try to remember to suggest the same to Isaac. Good luck!
To your Moon vs. pinky fingernail remark. Been to Canada numerous times and have observed many Canadians drink beer. If you happen to be one of them, here's a good bar bet. Use a Canadian quarter, slightly smaller than the US quarter. Bet anybody in the bar a beer they can't tell you within 10 cm how far they have to hold the coin to just barely cover a full moon. No takers? 20 cm. Still no? 40 cm. Enough. Answer, I believe is around 400 cm. In my experience, most guess around 80. Have fun!
Mars opposition is the when the Earth is closest to Mars. That term sounds counter-intuitive. Seems like it would be when it's the furthest. On a side note, I can't wait for the internet to start saying that Mars will appear to be 1/3 the size of the moon this summer...AGAIN
Opposite from the Sun in the sky. There's also conjunction and perigee. They're all roughly when Mars is close. Yeah, the whole Mars as big as the Moon will come back around...