Bumble bee

[furrysocks2]

I just heard a quote referring to the James Webb Space Telescope (infrared, 6.5m primary), currently due to launch in October 2018:

Quote

Being cold, it enables us to pick up extremely small amounts of heat. So for instance, if there were a bumble bee orbiting around there at the distance of the moon, we would be able to pick up the heat of that bumblebee, at the distance of the moon, with this telescope.

Source: Dr. John Mather, project scientist for the JWST

 

What?!!!

[Dave In Vermont]

Indeed! That's over the top.

Dave

[Knighty2112]

Kind of hard to believe, but he is a scientist so we've got to believe him right?  

[Davey-T]

Bumble Bee orbiting the Moon would be very cold 

Dave

[furrysocks2]

Just now, Davey-T said:

Bumble Bee orbiting the Moon would be very cold 

Dave

I knew there'd be a flaw in the logic.

[oobydooby]

28 minutes ago, furrysocks2 said:

I knew there'd be a flaw in the logic.

Don't be daft- he must be wearing a heated space suit!

[furrysocks2]

Depending on the size of the bumble bee and assuming no space suit is worn (10-25mm), which detector is used (32 or 64 milliarcsec/pixel), and whether at a distance equivalent to moon's apogee or perigee, I calculate the bumblebee's angular size to be approximately 0.008% to 0.045% of a single pixel.

[barkis]

Heat from a candle yes, not sure how much body heat a Bee has, I've never held one in my hand
I try to avoid that. When they sting, they leave it embedded and die, so I'm told. 

[furrysocks2]

The thought of a bee in your space suit is not a pleasant one.

 

Quote

At rest a bumblebee's body temperature will fall to that of its surroundings. To raise the temperature of the flight muscles high enough to enable flight the bumblebee shivers, rather the same a we do when we are cold. This can easily be seen in a grounded bee as her abdomen will pump to ventilate the flight muscles. The rate of pumping can give an indication of the temperature of the bee. Ranging from around 1 pump per second when she is at 10oC, to 6 pumps per second when she reaches 35oC. The time taken to raise the thorax temperature has been studied and is laid out in the table below.

Bee/air temp. oC	Time taken to reach 30oC
24	a few seconds
13	5 minutes
6	15 minutes

Source: http://www.bumblebee.org/bodyTempReg.htm

An "air" temperature at -270 degrees C probably implies no space honey.

[oobydooby]

2 hours ago, furrysocks2 said:

The thought of a bee in your space suit is not a pleasant one.

 

Source: http://www.bumblebee.org/bodyTempReg.htm

An "air" temperature at -270 degrees C probably implies no space honey.

No need to call me honey, sweetheart!

[SilverAstro]

3 hours ago, barkis said:

Heat from a candle yes, not sure how much body heat a Bee has, I've never held one in my hand
I try to avoid that. When they sting, they leave it embedded and die, so I'm told. 

Nope ! Sorry, that it the common or honey bee, the sting of the bumble is not barbed so is not left behind and it can sting repeatedly ( but not often to humans)  at least, so I am told    (/pedantry sorry again )

I'm still creased up picturing this poor bee stranded in orbit round the moon !

 

21 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

 but he is a scientist so we've got to believe him right?  

like that Astronomer Royal who ( '50s ?? ) predicted human space travel would never happen,  all over the country there are bumble bees looking round nervously

 

[SilverAstro]

3 hours ago, furrysocks2 said:

An "air" temperature at -270 degrees C probably implies no space honey.

but most bumble bees are dark coloured (apart from a white, red or orange rear end depending on species) so unless it has been given a gold-foil sun-shade it may be exeeding hot ? Unless orbiting the dark side of the moon like they can do in Star Trek

[Naten]

On 2/18/2017 at 09:50, oobydooby said:

Don't be daft- he must be wearing a heated space suit!

Or, more likely, he is undergoing a period of star formation due to tidal interaction from nearby bumble bees.

[oobydooby]

2 hours ago, Naten said:

Or, more likely, he is undergoing a period of star formation due to tidal interaction from nearby bumble bees.

This topic is causing a huge buzz, methinks, or is it just humbug?

Sorry I'll bee off!