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Vulcanoids are hypothetical undiscovered asteroids near the Sun between 100 m and 6 km in size. They are believed to lie in a zone with an inner radius imposed by the Poynting-Robertson effect so that they don't get any hotter than 1000K or so. If they get nearer, they slowly spiral into the Sun.
Question: how slowly?
As they get very close to the Sun, they should exceed the 3100 K boiling point of iron, at which point I would expect it to vaporize away, leaving concentrated siderophiles such as rhenium, iridium and tungsten that are key commodities of asteroid mining.
Question: can these asteroids actually become "distilled" to contain only these exotic elements in nearly pure form? Or would alloying produce azeotropes, etc. that would be resistant to distillation?
Now if you have a molten ball of highly valuable metal that is about to fall into the sun, no sense wasting it. I would assume that a missile, encased in high-temperature ceramic and decelerated from Earth orbit, could strike such a blob with extreme force, and if very carefully simulated and very carefully aimed, this could spray gobs of the exotic metal into an orbit so distant it might solidify and be retrievable by specially built mining craft.
Question: would that work?
Last but not least: even as expensive as elements like these are, would they really be worth enough to pay off the energy expended to slow the missile down (even if it uses a fancy slingshot maneuver) and to bring them back? Wnt ( talk) 20:11, 19 July 2013 (UTC)
These objects are probably among the very few things in the known universe that literally "spiral out of control". -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 23:49, 23 July 2013 (UTC)
is there a difference in how people with adhd/autism gets influenced by video games, especially violent compared to people without autism/adhd? someone must have done a study about it. -- 80.161.143.239 ( talk) 20:12, 19 July 2013 (UTC)
Is there a name for the phenomenon where, in a heated argument or under stress, one cannot speak because of overwhelming emotion? -- TammyMoet ( talk) 20:46, 19 July 2013 (UTC)
Before I saw this video, I'd have suspected that the concept of a clam/oyster/etc. clamping shut on an extremity and trapping it to be an urban legend, or something from cartoons, because I didn't think that the shells actually shut that tight, all things considered.
Has there ever been a confirmed case of this happening to a human? -- Kurt Shaped Box ( talk) 23:37, 19 July 2013 (UTC)
Science desk | ||
---|---|---|
< July 18 | << Jun | July | Aug >> | July 20 > |
Welcome to the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk Archives |
---|
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages. |
Vulcanoids are hypothetical undiscovered asteroids near the Sun between 100 m and 6 km in size. They are believed to lie in a zone with an inner radius imposed by the Poynting-Robertson effect so that they don't get any hotter than 1000K or so. If they get nearer, they slowly spiral into the Sun.
Question: how slowly?
As they get very close to the Sun, they should exceed the 3100 K boiling point of iron, at which point I would expect it to vaporize away, leaving concentrated siderophiles such as rhenium, iridium and tungsten that are key commodities of asteroid mining.
Question: can these asteroids actually become "distilled" to contain only these exotic elements in nearly pure form? Or would alloying produce azeotropes, etc. that would be resistant to distillation?
Now if you have a molten ball of highly valuable metal that is about to fall into the sun, no sense wasting it. I would assume that a missile, encased in high-temperature ceramic and decelerated from Earth orbit, could strike such a blob with extreme force, and if very carefully simulated and very carefully aimed, this could spray gobs of the exotic metal into an orbit so distant it might solidify and be retrievable by specially built mining craft.
Question: would that work?
Last but not least: even as expensive as elements like these are, would they really be worth enough to pay off the energy expended to slow the missile down (even if it uses a fancy slingshot maneuver) and to bring them back? Wnt ( talk) 20:11, 19 July 2013 (UTC)
These objects are probably among the very few things in the known universe that literally "spiral out of control". -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 23:49, 23 July 2013 (UTC)
is there a difference in how people with adhd/autism gets influenced by video games, especially violent compared to people without autism/adhd? someone must have done a study about it. -- 80.161.143.239 ( talk) 20:12, 19 July 2013 (UTC)
Is there a name for the phenomenon where, in a heated argument or under stress, one cannot speak because of overwhelming emotion? -- TammyMoet ( talk) 20:46, 19 July 2013 (UTC)
Before I saw this video, I'd have suspected that the concept of a clam/oyster/etc. clamping shut on an extremity and trapping it to be an urban legend, or something from cartoons, because I didn't think that the shells actually shut that tight, all things considered.
Has there ever been a confirmed case of this happening to a human? -- Kurt Shaped Box ( talk) 23:37, 19 July 2013 (UTC)