Comic Discussion > ALICE GROVE
Alice Grove MCDLT - April 2016
JimC:
--- Quote from: Stoutfellow on 24 Apr 2016, 07:22 ---I'm inclined to think it had to have been a radiation pulse, not a missile of any kind.
--- End quote ---
Completely agree, I originally thought it was coherent light, but now I think of it isn't the central blue colour a reasonable facsimile of air ionisation blue?
cesium133:
A sufficiently intense laser beam can ionize air, so I'd still guess it's supposed to be a laser.
Skewbrow:
--- Quote from: Stoutfellow on 24 Apr 2016, 07:22 ---Is anyone else surprised by how quickly whatever-it-was got to the Moon? The Moon is over a light-second away, and very little time seems to have elapsed between launch and impact. (By way of comparison, the New Horizons launch in 2006 left Earth at about 10 miles/second (relative to Earth), fast enough to pass the Moon's orbit in about 6.4 hours.)
--- End quote ---
That's not much faster than the Apollos. You need about 11km/s to escape Earth gravity. And New Horizon was climbing out of the Sun's gravitational well to boot. I would have thought that starting from 1AU you would need something like 40 km/s (or 25 miles per second) to escape the solar system. Compare: to stay in a low orbit around the Earth you only need 8 km/s. The Earth is orbiting at 30 km/s, so a bit over 40 to get to Pluto is needed.
Edit: Hmm. I'm ignoring the fact that the New Horizon was piggybagging the Earth when launched. So that gave it an extra 30 klicks relative to the Sun. Nevermind.
--- Quote from: Stoutfellow ---I'm inclined to think it had to have been a radiation pulse, not a missile of any kind.
--- End quote ---
Agreed. We were not given a real time video, but radiation pulse feels more logical. No projectile of any kind was launched. I'm not at all conversant with all the physics and material science involved, but my guess would be that NW doesn't have the means to launch anything that hit the Moon in a matter of a minute or two at most. Also, whatever thoomed away had no rocket engine, so it would have needed huge acceleration. Speed of light, 1.3 seconds, and electromagnetic radiation is more like it.
May be the red speck is the point of impact cooling down and glowing as it gets rid of the excess heat?
cesium133:
--- Quote from: Skewbrow on 24 Apr 2016, 11:11 ---
--- Quote from: Stoutfellow on 24 Apr 2016, 07:22 ---Is anyone else surprised by how quickly whatever-it-was got to the Moon? The Moon is over a light-second away, and very little time seems to have elapsed between launch and impact. (By way of comparison, the New Horizons launch in 2006 left Earth at about 10 miles/second (relative to Earth), fast enough to pass the Moon's orbit in about 6.4 hours.)
--- End quote ---
That's not much faster than the Apollos. You need about 11km/s to escape Earth gravity. And New Horizon was climbing out of the Sun's gravitational well to boot. I would have thought that starting from 1AU you would need something like 40 km/s (or 25 miles per second) to escape the solar system. Compare: to stay in a low orbit around the Earth you only need 8 km/s. The Earth is orbiting at 30 km/s, so a bit over 40 to get to Pluto is needed.
--- End quote ---
New Horizons also got a gravitational assist from Jupiter, which lowered the required velocity quite a bit.
Sorflakne:
Looking at the angle of the walker's beam shot and Sedna and Ardent's line of sight while watching it in previous comics, and the Moon's position in the last panel of the current comic, I'm not sure the beam was aimed at it. If anything, I think it was a signal, and now something on the Moon is activating in response.
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