Christopher Piggott

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

@its_The_Dr I don't think it's that he's intentionally mean, I think there's something really wrong with him. If he weren't a comedian/actor I think he would have been a serial killer.

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

@rachbarnhart #waroncars

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

https://t.co/upsEZX6mZZ

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

I think we just had a tornado like event #rochesterny

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

@whec_bdavidsen @news10nbc Two issues:
• “Not sinister” — nonsense. Keeping surplus equity is very obviously unethical. Don’t normalize institutional moral blindness.
• “SCOTUS didn’t address retroactivity” — correct but framed deceptively. That’s for legislatures to decide, not the Court.

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

What the crap is this warning that just flashed across my screen? Sheriff's shelter in place order for all of Wayne County??? @mcfw

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

This is Earth (the thin crescent on the right) and Jupiter from the Artemis II Orion spacecraft live feed. The size difference struck me as wild, so I did the math.

Earth Equatorial diameter: 7,926 miles. Distance from Orion: ~81,400 miles.

Angular diameter θ = 2 × arcsin(diameter / (2 × distance))
≈5.58 degrees (or about 20,084 arcseconds)

Jupiter Equatorial diameter: 88,846 miles, Distance: roughly 475 million miles

Its angular diameter from Orion is only ≈0.0107 degrees (or ~38.6 arcseconds).

That means Earth should appear roughly 520 times wider than Jupiter in the sky right now.

So why does Jupiter look so big (and Earth relatively small) in the photo? It has to be the wide-angle camera optics, lens distortion, and bright-object blooming/flare on the sensor. These external solar-array cameras exaggerate extended bright objects like Jupiter’s disk.
Mind-blowing how much the camera distorts reality. Good thing to remember 📷

@NASA @NASA_Orion @NASAArtemis

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

@neiltyson as an astrophysicist what bores you most about artemis, that it didn't happen billions of years ago or that the moon is too damned close to be interesting?

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

@ehtelescope So the accretion ring is a pretty turbulent place. What we are witnessing is a crazy, turbulent swirl of gases and plasma whipping around at nearly unimaginable speeds. It really is awesome.

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

Hey @walterkirn I got in the habit of saying "no worries" from being around a USMC buddy. Is that a military thing? And by your logic, did I have something to worry about and he alleviated it?

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

"Albany can raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy and the most profitable corporations and address the fiscal imbalance between our city and state."

What he's saying is: the rest of New York State can pay for New York City's budget shortfall?

If any part of any state should secede from anybody it's Upstate New York. Obviously the mayor of NYC doesn't give a crap about us other than as a piggybank.

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

@NYCMayor And you wonder why people upstate don't think NYC gives a crap about any of us.

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

@SenMikeLee Amen

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

All you people hating on Wegmans are out of your minds. Go to a different city and tell me how much you enjoy their supermarkets. There is no comparison anywhere in this country that I have been.

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

I used to prefer ST because I felt like you have to accept the initial magic then everything else can build from there using pseudo-scientific progress. But at the moment, I'm having such a hard time with the relativistic (warp space distortion with no time distortion) that I think I ruined it for myself.

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

@neiltyson so would you rather have Star Trek which starts with a small scientific lie then explains everything else based on that lie; or Star Wars which starts with many, many lies and, without a sliver of shame, doesn't even attempt to explain them (it's magic)? I used to think the ST universe was better and more cohesive, but after your StarTalk discussing this subject I think I'm now falling to the dark side.

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

... then again, traveling through warp takes a finite (often lengthy) amount of time, too.

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

@neiltyson The problem I have with ST Warp Drive is that it manipulates space-time with symmetric time distortion inside and outside the warp bubble. Becoming an amateur physicist kind of ruined that for me!

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

That said ... imagine a relay system where you put your message into a satellite that send it through a warp to a location near your destination. Still not "instant" or "real time" but also not limited by c. Close if you can do it really, really fast.

[Christopher Piggott @wz2b]

@neiltyson In the Star Wars universe, what if communication was through relays that jump in and out of hyperspace like TDMA - if you accept the existence of hyperspace, then communications delay would be limited by the "speed" of hyperspace (it's not instant - but it's fast) plus the last mile speed-of-light delay between you and the relay.