The solar system can potentially support 80 million-trillion humans if we build a Dyson sphere around the sun. A Dyson sphere is a spherical (and possibly habitable) structure built around a star to capture its energy. Were we to build a Dyson sphere — using the whole of Jupiter for materials — with a radius as large as the distance between the surface of the sun and the earth, we would be able to provide energy for the habitats of these 80 million-trillion people. Read full article here
Science
‘Ghostly’ neutrinos provide new path to study protons
In groundbreaking research, an international collaboration of scientists from the University of Rochester have used a beam of neutrinos to measure the size and shape of the protons that make up the nuclei of atoms. This feat, once thought impossible, provides scientists with a new way of looking at the small components of an atom’s nucleus and opens up a wealth of new information about the structure of an atom’s nucleus and the dynamics of the forces that affect neutrino interactions. The researchers solved the challenge of harnessing neutrinos in large numbers by using a neutrino detector containing a target of both hydrogen and carbon atoms, and over nine years of data collection at Fermilab’s accelerator. Read full article here