Super Webs, Super Strength and Super Flatulence?

Superheroes get a lot of criticism for not being accurate to our physics, but how far off are they really? Lets start with two for now.
 
Spiderman became a superhero after a spider with retrovirus bit him. We know that retrovirus's can change the structure of DNA causing many changes so lets start with one ability for now.
Web slinging ability: spider dragline silk's tensile strength is comparable to that of high-grade alloy steel (450 - 1970 MPa) This means that the dragline silk is 5x stronger than steel wire it's also stretchier than nylon. This means it can easily support spidermans swinging weight.

 Superman is known for many abilities but lets start on this post with his ability to fly. Superman comes from the planet Krypton on this planet there are many other properties. The gravity is much stronger there and on that planet his body would have the same abilities as ours. With our planet so much weaker in gravity from Kryptons there would be a few things that would work superman would be able to run a bit faster and jump much higher as we found to be true when we went to the Moon. So this is partially true but in order for Superman to speed up, change direction, slow down he would have to have an external force to cause this change. Since there's obviously nothing interacting with Superman externally he would have to lose mass to create a boost (IE spit throw stuff whatever). We constantly use rocket fuel to power rockets and space craft, pressure pushes one way the craft goes the other. So in all technicality Superman could just have super flatulence this would lose mass, create propulsion and would push him the right direction. So that's it Superman eats lots of beans before he fights crime.

If you have any questions on how other superheros powers fair feel free to ask.
Img credit: unknown

Brown Dwarf Star 7.2 Light Years Away

In stars it's not the size of the ship it's... Ok we won't go there, but not all stars are built the same and this is definitely true for this quiet guy.
Brown dwarf stars start hot like the rest but lack the pressure to continue feeding the center of the star and ultimately the fusion process stops. When this happens the star gets colder and fizzles out creating what is larger than typical gas planets.
We've known that this can happen and in fact we have found one very cold and very close to our solar system. Just 7.2 light years away our star like neighbor is called WISE J085510.83-071442.5. What a nice name huh? It was found by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer which creates names for discoveries based on coordinates in the sky.

All in all that puts this star about number 7 in the closest stars to our sun and leads us to ask what else are we missing if J0855 was that close?

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Cheetah Population declining

The Acinonyx jubatus or more commonly known as the

Cheetah is the last living member of its genus which there are 4 or 5 extinct members.
The Cheetah inhabits most of Africa and parts of the Middle East and is mostly known for being the quickest land animal being able to run up to 500m (1,600 ft) as fast as 112 - 120 km/h (70 - 75 mph).
The Cheetah is more than your next athlete for the 100 meter dash though it's hunting tactics are so brilliant it can even anticipate the escape tactics of its prey.
This beautiful creatures numbers are rapidly diminishing at the end of the 19th century, there were roughly 100,000. Today there are about 9,000 - 12,000 left mainly in Southern Africa. They were first put on IUCN's Vulnerable list in 1986 but numbers continue to drop due to habitat loss, killing and capture for livestock depredators, as well as trade.

Photo Credit: Chris Johns, of NatGeo

To learn more about Cheetahs and the IUNC red list of threatened species visit
www.iuncredlist.org/details/219/0