NASA already has plans for a deep space probe to sample the tail of a comet, a simple flythrough that has the potential of capturing some organic compounds. To match speed and orbit a comet all of the way around the sun is big science, whether or not the probe or comet survive. Organic compounds and water ice would rewrite the origins of life. We have to check it out.
We're slipping a little off the topic of how our star will finish its life, but these numbers are truly staggering and I will tuck Sol back in before this is over.
I am familiar with the incomprehensibly long time-span of 10^34 years or so with an ancient universe dead and void of matter. But 10^122 years? More or less, that's a single quark finding itself outside of the grasp of its siblings and a single proton would vanish once every millenia or so. Back on topic, there is virtually no chance that the sun has lost a single proton in that fashion since its birth and it probably won't die of missing proton syndrome either.
Your memory serves you well, although I am not sure if lead is the medium. To the best of my knowledge and the consternation of physicists, they have yet to find compelling evidence of a single proton decay.
Another experiment, using tons of dry-cleaning fluid as the trap (I believe), and located deep in an abandoned mine, is catching far fewer neutrinos from the sun than expected. This tosses a monkey wrench into the math regarding the rate of conversion of hydrogen into helium. Fewer neutrinos=fewer nuclear reactions=less pressure in the core=a smaller, perhaps cooler Sol than observed, or a flawed neutrino experiment or faulty physics/math. I think the experiments are ongoing but they are keeping the mess under the rug.
I would bet the farm that there is life in a liquid Europa, but NASA has been humbled by a couple of relatively minor Martian fumbles and, earlier, by a single very expensive Martian probe that exploded when it began to re-pressurize its systems.
The next Martian attempts, two advanced rovers that will use the bounce and roll landing technique, will arrive at the red planet in 2004, if all goes well. NASA has a lot riding on those two robots and a Europan mission could be a decade or more away, if there are any mishaps with the Martian Rovers.
Slashdot Mirror
NASA already has plans for a deep space probe to sample the tail of a comet, a simple flythrough that has the potential of capturing some organic compounds. To match speed and orbit a comet all of the way around the sun is big science, whether or not the probe or comet survive. Organic compounds and water ice would rewrite the origins of life. We have to check it out.
We're slipping a little off the topic of how our star will finish its life, but these numbers are truly staggering and I will tuck Sol back in before this is over. I am familiar with the incomprehensibly long time-span of 10^34 years or so with an ancient universe dead and void of matter. But 10^122 years? More or less, that's a single quark finding itself outside of the grasp of its siblings and a single proton would vanish once every millenia or so. Back on topic, there is virtually no chance that the sun has lost a single proton in that fashion since its birth and it probably won't die of missing proton syndrome either.
Your memory serves you well, although I am not sure if lead is the medium. To the best of my knowledge and the consternation of physicists, they have yet to find compelling evidence of a single proton decay. Another experiment, using tons of dry-cleaning fluid as the trap (I believe), and located deep in an abandoned mine, is catching far fewer neutrinos from the sun than expected. This tosses a monkey wrench into the math regarding the rate of conversion of hydrogen into helium. Fewer neutrinos=fewer nuclear reactions=less pressure in the core=a smaller, perhaps cooler Sol than observed, or a flawed neutrino experiment or faulty physics/math. I think the experiments are ongoing but they are keeping the mess under the rug.
Proton decay has been documented?
I would bet the farm that there is life in a liquid Europa, but NASA has been humbled by a couple of relatively minor Martian fumbles and, earlier, by a single very expensive Martian probe that exploded when it began to re-pressurize its systems. The next Martian attempts, two advanced rovers that will use the bounce and roll landing technique, will arrive at the red planet in 2004, if all goes well. NASA has a lot riding on those two robots and a Europan mission could be a decade or more away, if there are any mishaps with the Martian Rovers.