Matthias M. M. Meier
@mmmmeier.bsky.social
Meteorites, Museums, Mars, Mountains and many more things. Meteoriticist, Noble Gaser, Space Nerd, Family Man. Director of Naturmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland. Private account (en/de).
🇨🇭🇸🇪🇲🇫🇪🇺🇺🇦 orcid.org/0000-0002-7179-4173
🇨🇭🇸🇪🇲🇫🇪🇺🇺🇦 orcid.org/0000-0002-7179-4173
It's much harder to believe now that the balance of power between legislative, executive and judicative within the US works as advertised.
January 23, 2026 at 1:09 PM
It's much harder to believe now that the balance of power between legislative, executive and judicative within the US works as advertised.
Mercury needs more love. Celebrate weird and surprising! 😉
January 18, 2026 at 7:44 PM
Mercury needs more love. Celebrate weird and surprising! 😉
The question I now have: how much bigger would Europa need to be for it's crust to... yield? On the other hand, if I understand your comparison with Earth and Enceladus correctly, making it bigger would only make it harder.
January 6, 2026 at 7:26 PM
The question I now have: how much bigger would Europa need to be for it's crust to... yield? On the other hand, if I understand your comparison with Earth and Enceladus correctly, making it bigger would only make it harder.
Right, I was only thinking of the diurnal wave, where less than a meter would be more than enough. Not sure how deep the seasonal wave would penetrate?
January 2, 2026 at 2:03 PM
Right, I was only thinking of the diurnal wave, where less than a meter would be more than enough. Not sure how deep the seasonal wave would penetrate?
Unless it's covered under a sand dune, as the defenders of the iron mountain would certainly claim...
January 2, 2026 at 1:26 PM
Unless it's covered under a sand dune, as the defenders of the iron mountain would certainly claim...
To be fair: this is mentioned in the @newscientist.com article. It's just that some people do not let this fact discourage them from searching the iron mountain. To me, the fact he brought back a meteorite gives the claim some initial credibility - but as it doesn't fit, only the claim remains.
January 2, 2026 at 1:24 PM
To be fair: this is mentioned in the @newscientist.com article. It's just that some people do not let this fact discourage them from searching the iron mountain. To me, the fact he brought back a meteorite gives the claim some initial credibility - but as it doesn't fit, only the claim remains.
Well, the kinetic energy part is the easiest... 😉 This kind of modelling has been done, by Phil Bland and others (as mentioned in the article). It's really difficult to land a 10 m piece. They found no way to do it with a 100 x 40 m piece. If you want to land that, it needs a propulsion system. 😉🤣
January 2, 2026 at 1:19 PM
Well, the kinetic energy part is the easiest... 😉 This kind of modelling has been done, by Phil Bland and others (as mentioned in the article). It's really difficult to land a 10 m piece. They found no way to do it with a 100 x 40 m piece. If you want to land that, it needs a propulsion system. 😉🤣
So: whatever you make of Ripert's story🐫, the meteorite he brought back from the desert was never part of a huge mass (while exposed to cosmic rays). Also, you just can't bring such a huge mass of iron (estimated at 1 million tons!) down from space to the 🌍's surface intact, without making a crater.
January 2, 2026 at 12:52 PM
So: whatever you make of Ripert's story🐫, the meteorite he brought back from the desert was never part of a huge mass (while exposed to cosmic rays). Also, you just can't bring such a huge mass of iron (estimated at 1 million tons!) down from space to the 🌍's surface intact, without making a crater.
It is also Switzerland's origin story: a couple of valleys and small city states vowing to defend each other against external aggressors (here: the Habsburg). New allies are admitted over time. The confederacy comes later (only after the old order has been defeated by Napoleon, actually).
December 31, 2025 at 12:13 PM
It is also Switzerland's origin story: a couple of valleys and small city states vowing to defend each other against external aggressors (here: the Habsburg). New allies are admitted over time. The confederacy comes later (only after the old order has been defeated by Napoleon, actually).
I agree that we need a European Federation. It's always going to be a relatively loose one since we do not have a common language. But the federation could have one main goal, certainly at first: defend Europe's borders with federal armed forces.
December 31, 2025 at 9:23 AM
I agree that we need a European Federation. It's always going to be a relatively loose one since we do not have a common language. But the federation could have one main goal, certainly at first: defend Europe's borders with federal armed forces.