NASA's 'crazy' plan yields dramatic pictures of our X-ray Sun

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) was designed to probe the distant galaxy looking for black holes, but NASA has recently been aiming the orbiting instrument at the Sun to get a close-up view of our star's atmosphere. "At first I thought the whole idea was crazy," said Fiona Harrison, principal investigator …

[Faux Science Slayer]

see...."Thunderbolts of the Gods"....on youtube

See the Electric Universe for "Thunderbolts of the Gods" and "The Sun on Trail" for the alternate, and correct analysis of reality.

[Vladimir Plouzhnikov]

Re: see...."Thunderbolts of the Gods"....on youtube

Sure.

[Sir Sham Cad]

Re: see...."Thunderbolts of the Gods"....on youtube

Alternate and correct? Velikovskian bollocks as espoused by Talbott?

There's so many ways that has been debunked beyond doubt by actual science (prediction, observation etc...) that the only reason to buy into it at all is that you were never any good at actual science and want to believe everyone else is wrong and you're a special intellectual flower after all.

Are you a special intellectual flower, Slayer of Faux Science?

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: see...."Thunderbolts of the Gods"....on youtube

Are you a special intellectual flower, Slayer of Faux Science?

He's just one of the Reg's local net kooks. (He might be a troll, but he seems too single-minded; if he's a troll, he's a pretty poor one.) Unfortunately I don't think I've ever seen him respond to any challenges, so I suspect he never returns to a forum after he's posted there.

(I do wonder about the two upvotes, though. People who thought it was a joke? Sock puppets? Three readers suffering from this particular delusion seems a bit improbable here in our little corner of the Internet.)

[Waspy]

Re: see...."Thunderbolts of the Gods"....on youtube

Haha, I thought you were taking the piss and then I looked up Thunderbolts of the Gods. Have a downvote on me!

[Mike Taylor]

standard units

Thanks for adding celcius parenthetically. Any chance you could give precedence to the units used by 95% of the world's population and nearly all its scientists please? Farenheit makes me think Daily Mail and I immediately tune out

[Thecowking]

Re: standard units

More to the point, why not Kelvin?

I know 273 isn't going to make much of a difference at these temps, but Kelvin are certainly what I used when I was studying Astrophyics.

[WraithCadmus]

Re: standard units

Yes, didn't we agree on metric for all but beer and aircraft altitude?

[Scroticus Canis]

Re: standard units @WraithCadmus - You forgot muzzle velocity

Agreed, any scientific article using Fahrenheit is an anathema but for some strange reason I still go imperial for muzzle velocity (fps) and bullet weight (grains) and just can't shake it.

Quite happy with beer in cc, ml, and cl though; probably due to my belief that it should be made the Reinheitsgebot way and be served cold to be drinkable. Ale in pints don't worry me though as I don't drink it.

[Katie Saucey]

Re: standard units, units smunits

"The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) was designed to probe the distant galaxy looking for black holes"

I just read the first line and thought, cool. I'll let SI units slide.

[Boothy]

Re: standard units

Yup, as far as I'm concerned, if it's an article on anything remotely scientific, Fahrenheit shouldn't even get a mention, not even in parentheses.

If you're into science in any way, even as a layman, you really should be more than familiar with Celsius already (& Kelvin).

[I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects]

Re: standard units

How about inventing the Snowden as a political temperature scale. Or rather, a non-political temperature scale. Or should that be a non-political political temperature scale?

We could have NSA and KGB equivalents for Fahrenheit and Centigrade.

[PacketPusher]

Re: standard units

As a 'murican and member of the elite few who uses Farenheit and other odd measurements,I second this motion and call for immediate implementation.

[SnowCrash]

How hot is that in olympic swimming pools or london buses?

fuck farenheit.....

[Francis Boyle]

Forget olympic swimming pools or london buses

Bring on the Scoville scale.

[Chris G]

Temperature is as any fule kno measured in Hiltons; For example the average 6000C at the surface would be equivalent to 598H (Hiltons)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html#temp

The super high atmospheric temperature must be due to the presence of huge numbers of Hiltons, obvious innit?.

[Anonymous Coward]

> For example the average 6000C at the surface would be equivalent to 598H (Hiltons)

Which is about 7.5 Albert Halls (burning).

[Phil O'Sophical]

How hot is that in olympic swimming pools or london buses?

Olympic swimming pools are maintained at 25-28°C, so that makes the Sun's surface a toasty 220x as hot as an OSP. SPF 50 won't cut it, I'm afraid.

[harmjschoonhoven]

Re: How hot is that in olympic swimming pools or london buses?

Kelvins, pleeeaaase

A temperature of 25-28°C is 298-301K. So the Sun's effective surface temperature of 5770K is 19.2 OSP.

[Little Mouse]

Re: How hot is that in olympic swimming pools or london buses?

It might be even hotter in the summer.

[Anonymous Custard]

Re: How hot is that in olympic swimming pools or london buses?

Except at night of course

[Chris G]

Re: How hot is that in olympic swimming pools or london buses?

"Except at night of course"

How do you know that?

Have you been to the dark side of the sun?

Hmmf! Some people!