This Week’s Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 278)
Posted by John Baez
In week278 of This Week’s Finds, hear how astronomers in a high desert in Chile use an "artifical star" to take photos of incredibly high resolution, and how this helped them spot what’s happening on Betelgeuse. Read how red supergiants like Betelgeuse and Ras Algethi spew out huge amounts of dust, which eventually forms planets like ours. Watch a Moon-sized object crash into a Mercury-sized one in a "hypervelocity collision" in a distant solar system:
Learn the new way to make graphene, and read my history of the Earth - for physicists. And when you’re ready: dive into groupoidification!
Posted at August 30, 2009 3:34 AM UTC
Re: This Week’s Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 278)
Hi! My friends in the astronomy department here would be upset if I didn’t comment on their related work. Plus, there is another nice picture of worlds colliding at their press release: Astronomers discover the dusty remains of two terrestrial planets. Here is a reprint of the paper .
Be sure to check out the artist who constructs a lot of these images, Lynette Cook.