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Something strange is happening on the sun, and we've never seen it before
- mbfg 4y agoThe saddest part is reading the twitter comments on the scientist's post.
- jccalhoun 4y agoSo many comments about the bible and how this "proves" climate change isn't man made. Sad to see so many are so proud of their ignorance.
- ohadron 4y agoI've just started reading Project Hail Mary, and this is more or less how it starts. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54493401-project-hail-mary https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54493401-project-hail-ma...
- 1900-01-01 4y agoOff topic. Do you have any movie suggestion close or related to this book? I've seen The Martian, 2001 Space Od, Interstellar, and Event Horizon.
- pcardoso 4y agoI liked The Three Body problem. The story is very good, but it was also interesting to read the Chinese point of view.
- robertlagrant 4y agoSunshine? I watched a review of it[0] recently and it took me back to when I watched it at the cinema. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3QdcvfXMHk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3QdcvfXMHk
- oillio 4y agoAwesome movie. The cinematography is beautiful
- robertlagrant 4y agoSo good. And the cast. From memory, the third act doesn't quite live up to the first two, but I struggle to imagine how it could've.
- unsupp0rted 4y agoCritical Drinker made me realize a couple years ago that I'm not crazy and movies really are generally unwatchable these days, with a handful of exceptions, many of which he points out.
- ryandvm 4y agoMoon
- TEP_Kim_Il_Sung 4y agoUnit Zappa
- TEP_Kim_Il_Sung 4y agoI take it you've never heard of Frank Zappa's daughter? https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/moon_unit_zappa https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/moon_unit_zappa
- TeaBrain 4y agoI took that as being their joke.
- moffkalast 4y agoSeconding that.
- ryandvm 4y agoWe Are Legion (We Are Bob) - Yes, the name is terrible, but the book series is actually quite good if you like hard sci-fi. It has that "written-by-an-ex-software-dev" vibe that is so popular around here.
- causi 4y agoI love the Bob series, but I'd recommend against it if you don't have a high tolerance for characters who are supposed to be extremely intelligent missing blindingly obvious solutions to problems.
- johnbellone 4y agoThat sounds like real life.
- causi 4y agoYeah but in real life you could grab somebody and yell "Oh my god, stop moping about how scared you are of explosives and just put a goddamn steel blade on your flying murder-drones so they're not one-use-only."
- FredPret 4y agoI feel like such a drone would need quite a bit of heft to offset swinging the blade - like the motorcycles in Daniel Suarez's Daemon. A drone with a gun would get thrown about as it shoots. Missiles, lasers, EMP, and explosives seem like the most practical drone weapons.
- causi 4y agoYeah but in the book he's literally having to ration his drones because he can't figure out how to kill a gorilla any way except suicidally ramming them head-on.
- 4y ago
- capableweb 4y agoWorth mentioning: Project Hail Mary is being made into a movie, will be adapted by Drew Goddard who also adapted The Martian. Read the book a while ago, didn't realize it was being made into a movie until recently, maybe others are unaware too. I'm eagerly optimistic :)
- huhtenberg 4y agoEuropa Report
- jibe 4y agoUnderrated low budget movie.
- wonderwonder 4y agoSunshine. Awesome movie
- hiidrew 4y agoArrival! It's a great movie, but I don't want to explain too much. Also I believe there's a movie in the works for Project Hail Mary. Just finished the book and am hoping the film will be as good.
- steaktartaar_ 4y agoOutstanding book. It took me way, way too long to figure out the pun in the title.
- nytesky 4y agoargh, what’s the pun???
- SamBam 4y agoI always just assumed it was simply because it was a last-ditch effort. But I just Googled it, and someone on Reddit pointed out: "Hail Mary full of Grace." Groan... Actually makes me like the book a little less than I already did. (Edit: Which I know is against the grain here, as evidenced by the downvotes for not liking the book.)
- soylentcola 4y agoI just took it as a "Hail Mary pass" ie: a long shot, last ditch effort as the phrase is used in American football. Also, the prayer referenced in this idiom starts off as "Hail Mary, full of grace" and the main character's name is Grace. edit: beaten by 6 min.
- rootbear 4y agoArgh. I just finished Project Hail Mary and I missed that.
- mckirk 4y agoGreat book! I can also wholly recommend the audiobook, it was quite well done.
- nikanj 4y agoI had the exact same thought.
- adenozine 4y agoIf you like it, you might enjoy a book called Seveneves. The first sentence involves the moon blowing up, and the rest of the book is about the consequences of that. Quite good, imo.
- bilater 4y agoThis was the book I was thinking about as I heard this news! Hopefully that vortex doesn't come down on us in a 5000 year rain of fire.
- BLKNSLVR 4y agoThe answer to the (paraphrased) question "how long do you expect that to last?" is so subtly delivered and unexpected and unhyped, and beautifully sets up the rest of the first (of two) section of the book. I had to read the small passage through a couple of times to make sure I had the right context. Also read, and loved, and had emotional reactions to Project Hail Mary. Highly recommend.
- adenozine 4y agoI liked Project Hail Mary (and Artemis, and The Martian) but I thought it was a little too heavy in the programmer narrative style. I won’t spoil anything in case someone reads this comment who hasn’t read it, but a large section involving establishing a communication protocol really wore me down from the story. The big revelation about how he got there also felt nearly translucent in how obvious it was when it was revealed. I hope he writes a couple more books though, if I can ever get some grandkids outta my kids, Weir’s books will be in their collection for sure.
- michaelmcdonald 4y agoI really enjoyed the first "part" of Seveneves. I felt the second part went a bit off the rails and was almost _too_ out there for me (at least as it compared to the first part. Love Neil Stephenson though (Cryptonomicon was amazing and Diamond Age / Snow Crash hold a special place in my heart).
- 4y ago
- tiffanyh 4y agoOff topic: is there a particular reason why you link to GoodReads instead of Amazon, given that Amazon owns GoodReads?
- ohadron 4y agoGood question. I think Goodreads put a bit more emphasis on audience reviews and sentiment other than just trying to outright sell it. But yes, the difference is not huge.
- oriolid 4y agoMaybe because it's less terrible. Some time I had a very surprising experience: I was shopping for a book and found it at bookdepository.com. It was nice experience: predictable price with no marketplace sellers or exchange rate shenanigans, shipping costs visible up front, and cheaper than Amazon. The surprise? Amazon owns it.
- rapnie 4y agoIt is always nice to drop links to something other than the local monopolist that pops up on the top of search results. Like the original publisher, Wikipedia, or default to a search on bookshop.org https://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/611060/ https://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/611060/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Hail_Mary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Hail_Mary https://bookshop.org/p/books/project-hail-mary-andy-weir/18644162?ean=9780593135228 https://bookshop.org/p/books/project-hail-mary-andy-weir/186...
- kolinko 4y agoI usually link in comments to Goodreads instead of Amazon to make it seem less like an ad.
- rurban 4y agoI would have linked to its wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Hail_Mary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Hail_Mary which covers the whole book, upcoming movie, pretty well. Exciting story. But completely unrelated to the recurring polar vortex. No sun-eating microbes, just H and He.
- nytesky 4y agoSo this the result of an overzealous marketing campaign for Hail Mary?
- azubinski 4y agoFinally the end of the world! I'm already tired of waiting for this to happen.
- trompetenaccoun 4y agoThere is such a weird cult around this in recent years, sometimes it feels like we're entering a modern dark age.
- bicijay 4y agoWhat a good title.
- williamcotton 4y agoPro clickbait for pro space weather. Shout out to: https://spaceweather.com/ https://spaceweather.com/
- adolph 4y agoWhat else could it possibly be? "Something strange is happening on the sun, and we've seen it before" "Something quite normal is happening on the sun, even though we've never seen it before (because we've existed for approx .0021% of the sun's life" "Something is happening on the sun, and we'll puff up the importance of this measurement anomaly better than any other ad platform"
- monkeynotes 4y agoMaybe factual plain headlines could make a comeback, perhaps: --- "Sun produces never seen before polar vortex" And when I ask ChatGPT to write a matter of fact headline for the article it comes up with this: --- "Sun's North Pole Experiences Unusual Phenomenon as Part of Surface Breaks Off and Forms a Giant Polar Vortex" When I ask it to make it more sensational we get closer to what we are used to from click hungry media these days --- "Mystery Unfolds as Sun's North Pole Forms a Giant Polar Vortex, Scientists Baffled by Unprecedented Event"
- Animatronio 4y agoI know! Everytime I look at the sun my eyes start hurting before I see anything.
- gwill 4y agothe article mentions the 11-year solar cycle and how strange things happen above 55 degrees around the end of those cycles, but is the sun currently at the stage that we'd expect to see strange occurrences?
- drmpeg 4y agoWe're on the upswing of solar cycle 25 and activity is increasing. http://www.solen.info/solar/images/cycles23_24.png http://www.solen.info/solar/images/cycles23_24.png
- drmpeg 4y agoNear real-time solar images and video can be found here. https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/
- pfdietz 4y ago"The find is just the latest in a series of interesting space observations thanks to the capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope." How has this anything to do with the JWST? That telescope would be ruined instantly if it were pointed at the Sun.
- matt123456789 4y agoNot to mention the prominent “SDO” watermark in the video shared by the astronomer in the linked tweet.
- moffkalast 4y agoLeast incompetent web journalist.
- barrell 4y agoMy first reaction as well XD
- cma 4y agoMaybe the source was Bard.
- busssard 4y agoor any of the thisclickbaitarticledoesnotexist.com websites based on gpt
- danbruc 4y agoI guess you could parse the sentence in a way that it is correct. The find by SDO extends a series of interesting space observations started by JWST. But that would be a somewhat weird point to make, so I would agree, they probably thought the observation was by JWST.
- georgeg23 4y ago> thought the observation was by JWST. ..article was written by Bard??
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- singularity2001 4y agoSaving two clicks: A polar vortex formed in the north. video: https://twitter.com/TamithaSkov/status/1621276153075109888?s=20&t=OiMCMAdZsGPRDBpTyW717Q https://twitter.com/TamithaSkov/status/1621276153075109888?s...
- Pxtl 4y agoThe title of this article is absurd clickbait.
- jjtheblunt 4y agoThat seems normal for vice.com, does it not?
- dmitriid 4y agoEvergreen (mildly NSFW): How Vice comes up with article ideas https://youtu.be/Ia7fUQXskvA https://youtu.be/Ia7fUQXskvA Applies to most media, really.
- antegamisou 4y agoYes, the problem is that HNers consider themselves intellectually superior to Redditors who tend to be the ones that upvote sensationalist articles. Apparently they don’t understand the heavy overlap between their collective behavior.
- hackernewds 4y agoCurious what warranted this backlash?
- antegamisou 4y agoPoor quality of top posts in the front page, considering HNs etiquette about content strictly pertaining to anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity when it’s clearly not the case. Also the cognitive dissonance of people here when their favorite platform gets compared to admittedly lower quality ones (Reddit). What should one expect however when the front page is for the most part infested with meaningless platitudes about trends that end up being short-lived but get hyped as life-altering innovations? And I haven’t even touched upon the subject of the course of debates on the site (bold assumptions by commenters significantly lacking background but still considering themselves authority)…
- saifali1122 4y agoEnter "download" rm -rf
- onion2k 4y agoSolar cycles are periodic 11-year changes in the Sun’s activity. Presumably we've only been observing the sun for a few hundred years at most, and maybe less than a hundred and fifty with any level of precise accuracy and scientific rigour. That's maybe 30 cycles in total, and 12 or 13 where we'd really be able to tell what's happening. If you bring probes or telescopes that can look at the sun into the mix we've observed maybe 4 or 5 cycles. The notion that something is extraordinary because we haven't seen it before is ridiculous. The sun probably does thousands of things we haven't observed yet. That doesn't make it weird or strange. That just means we've only been a scientifically literate species for an incredibly short time.
- sp332 4y agoIt doesn't say it's never happened before. It clearly says "we've never seen it before."
- onion2k 4y agoIt was the "This is STRANGE!" bit that I was talking about. It (probably) isn't strange. It's probably happened a lot over the past 4.6bn years that the sun has been doing its thing. It's new to us because we've only been observing it for a tiny length of time. That's not the same as it being strange.
- jaywalk 4y agoOne definition of strange is: "not previously visited, seen, or encountered; unfamiliar or alien" It's not necessarily strange in the scope of the sun's entire existence, but it's definitely strange to us.
- anigbrowl 4y agoBy that yardstick nothing is strange; there are so many trillions of cosmic bodies distributed across so many billions of years that any imaginable phenomenon has probably occurred zillions of times. Strangeness in science is synonymous with not being readily explicable by existing theory.
- boringg 4y agoIsn't vice trying to sell their publication ... so they are trying to boost engagement with clickbait ?
- wonderwonder 4y agoIs that a real unedited video of the sun? If so that's pretty incredible
- HelloMcFly 4y agoAs far as titles go, this is far from the worst. I feel title irritation has definitely increased around here.
- 6_6_6 4y agovice's motherboard seems desparate at rendering content. needs more cpu and ram.
- webdoodle 4y agoThe solar polar vortex isn't something new. It does it every 11 years, near the solar maximum.
- youssefabdelm 4y agoCan someone who knows something about the sun tell us... if this is cause for concern? (Not that we can really do anything about it lol)
- jcgoette 4y agoMaking sure this isn't a photo of chorizo again...
- somat 4y agoI went down a fun rabbit hole recently. It started with the innocent question "How much iron is in the sun?" fun because the answer ranges from fractional percentages to the sun is a stellar remnant and most of it is iron. Here is one of the more out there theories I found. https://arxiv.org/ftp/astro-ph/papers/0410/0410569.pdf https://arxiv.org/ftp/astro-ph/papers/0410/0410569.pdf The fractional percent crowd bases their theory on the observed spectrum of the sun. the large iron core side bases their theory on the observed distribution of iron in the inner solar system. It is interesting because too much iron and there would be no fusion, but think of the iron cores in the planets, the sun coalesced from the same dust, there has to be a large amount in there.
- 1attice 4y agoReminds me of my fave new microgenre: foreign films about something going wrong with the sun that causes it to scour the earth with gamma radiation, eg. _Into the Night_. It may be time to begin flying west