Talk:1730: Starshade

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 19:56, 7 September 2016 by Kynde (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search


I would like to note that in the last frame the microphone booms on the headsets are on the right side, rather than on the left, which would have been more common. Stackexchange discussion

Wauw that is not important here ;-) --Kynde (talk) 12:24, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Is this comic sexist? 198.41.239.34 10:28, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Umh, NO!? --Kynde (talk) 12:24, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
It passes the Bechdel Test, for whatever that's worth. Two women talking about astronomy! 162.158.167.20 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Does "kickstart" refer to Kickstarter? --JakubNarebski (talk) 14:15, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Pretty clearly, but it might be good to make that explicit, and point out that either there is no such Kickstarter project yet, or (less likely) link to the project.
FlashSheridan (talk) 14:59, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
Have mentioned this in the explanation. Not sure it is a reference to that. She does not call is kickstarter... --Kynde (talk) 19:53, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

May be related to 975: Occulting Telescope (https://xkcd.com/975/). 108.162.245.120 17:08, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Definitely worth referring too. Thanks and done. --Kynde (talk) 19:53, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

The reaction in the last panel seems rather extreme. I wonder if perhaps this was a custom starshade resembling the final image at the bottom of this page: https://what-if.xkcd.com/136/ 108.162.216.67siliconwolf

The James Webb Telescope already has measures to shade the stars! http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/nircam.html: "NIRCam is equipped with coronagraphs, instruments that allow astronomers to take pictures of very faint objects around a central bright object, like stellar systems. NIRCam's coronagraphs work by blocking a brighter object's light, making it possible to view the dimmer object nearby - just like shielding the sun from your eyes with an upraised hand can allow you to focus on the view in front of you. With the coronagraphs, astronomers hope to determine the characteristics of planets orbiting nearby stars." - Sebastian --162.158.83.168 18:26, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

From a NASA report: "JWST/Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) coronagraphy should be capable of detecting companions at contrasts of 10−6 at separations beyond 1.5 arcsec, capturing objects like our own Jupiter in 4.5 μm thermal emission if they are orbiting the nearest M stars. The uncertain luminosity evolution of young giant planets clouds the picture somewhat (Marley et al. 2007), but it appears that the some of the more massive planets orbiting nearby (d < 20 pc), young (age < 1 Gyr), low-mass (M < 1.0 Msun) stars could be in view by 2024." - it talks about detecting, not imaging, objects like Jupter. - Sebastian --162.158.83.168 18:57, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
Included in the explanation. --Kynde (talk) 19:53, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Perhaps it should be mentioned in the article that the James Webb is a near infrared and middle infrared telescope (+ orange visible light). For good infrared images one needs high mountains or space. Nasa has an article why infrared is good for examining (the spectra of) exoplanets: http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2013/10/24/maggies-blog-why-infrared-exoplanet-edition/ - Sebastian --162.158.83.168 18:33, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Included in the explanation. --Kynde (talk) 19:53, 7 September 2016 (UTC)