riyehn
riyehn t1_j8st9ai wrote
The answers to your questions are yes and yes. Yes you could do it, and yes it would be stupid.
To make a planet, all you'd need to do is find enough matter and put it all in one place. You'd get the matter from asteroids and other orbital bodies. You'd put it all in one place by putting some kind of engine on the orbital bodies to change their orbits so that they slam into each other, creating an even bigger body that orbits the sun.
Once the collection of matter is massive enough, its own gravity would eventually turn it into a sphere, at which point it would meet the current definition of a dwarf planet. If your goal is a full-on, non-dwarf planet, it would have to be big enough that its own gravity also eventually pulls in everything else of a similar size that's orbiting the sun nearby.
But here's the thing - we already have a lot of planets. If the reason you want a planet is to make a place for humans to live, it would be a lot easier just to terraform an existing planet like Mars. This is reason #1 why it would be stupid.
Reason #2 why it's be stupid: "planet" is just a matter of definition. Technically, all you need to do to create a planet is add a bit more matter to the most massive non-planet you can find, then wait. It's not as cool as it sounds. You're just making a big thing a little bit bigger so that it fits a definition that humans invented.
Finally, scientists have changed the definition of "planet" before. This is why Pluto is no longer considered a full planet. So technically, scientists could "create a planet" today by changing the definition to label more things as planets.
riyehn t1_iuu9tcl wrote
Reply to The ALMA space telescope in the Chilean Andes suffered a cyberattack over the weekend that has downed its website and suspended its work, the observatory announced by DoremusJessup
I'm with the hackers on this one. Big Astronomy had it coming.
riyehn t1_jefdsd8 wrote
Reply to ELI5: Why sugar in fruits is good for you but processed sugar in chocolate and desserts is not? by Sensitive_Apple_7901
Sugar is actually good for your body as long as it doesn't get too much at once. The problem with processed sugar is it gives your body too much sugar at once, and it doesn't give you the other things your body needs.
Your body's main source of energy is a type of sugar called glucose. Glucose is like fuel for your body's gas tank. There are many different kinds of sugar, but your body turns them all into glucose. Then your body uses the glucose as fuel for everything from thinking to moving. Our bodies slowly turn a lot of other food into glucose too, which is why things like bread and rice still give us energy even though they're not sweet.
Because our bodies need sugar, they try to make us eat lots of it. They do this by telling us sugar tastes sweet and good. This is why we like sweet things - it's how our body convinces us to eat the sugar we need for energy.
But sugar isn't the only thing our bodies need. Just like a car also needs oil, your body needs other nutrients, like protein, fiber, vitamins, and of course water. Your body can't taste all of these things, but in nature we would get all of these things anyway just by eating and drinking what we can find when we're hungry or thirsty.
In nature, fruit is one of the foods with the most sugar, and this is part of why it's good for us. Before we invented processed sugar, people loved fruit because they thought it was so sweet. Fruit has a lot of other things our bodies need too, like fiber, water, and vitamins. So when we eat fruit, we get the sugar we need, but also a lot of other things our bodies also need.
Processed sugar is actually made by taking the sugar from fruits and leaving the other good stuff behind. This make processed sugar very sweet, and a powerful source of energy. But because it doesn't have all the good stuff, it's not nearly as good for you as fruit. If all you ate was processed sugar, you'd die because you wouldn't get any of the other stuff your body needs.
Also, getting enough energy from food isn't as big a problem for most people these days like it was when we all lived in nature. In fact, a lot of people get too much energy. When you eat processed sugar, you get way more energy than with fruit, because the sugar's not mixed in with other things. Your body turns the extra energy it doesn't need into fat. This can cause health problems if there's too much.
And because processed sugar isn't mixed in with a whole lot of other food, your body always gets a huge amount of it all at once. This is hard on your body, because it has to suddenly work really hard to turn all of that sugar into glucose all at once. Over time, this can cause things like diabetes. With fruit, your body gets the sugar more slowly. It's like how when just a little bit of gas burns in a car engine, it makes your car move, but if you light a lot of gas on fire suddenly, it can explode.