Recent comments in /f/askscience

pepinyourstep29 t1_j38p65n wrote

Reply to comment by Steinway-Grand-D in Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science by AutoModerator

It's angular momentum. The rotation starts when gravity begins pulling objects together. They have different masses and speeds so eventually they collapse into a sphere like a planet or star. These initial energies combine into a single moving object, which eventually goes from erratic chaotic rotations to one unified rotation over time.

Then anything of lesser mass will be pulled into the plane of rotation. So everything in the solar system eventually aligns to the same flat plane thanks to the sun's mass and rotation.

Same thing happens at larger scales, where galaxies are roughly flat.

Keep in mind that nebulae and elliptical galaxies exist as well. Under different circumstances things don't always turn out so flat.

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atomfullerene t1_j38m61b wrote

Reply to Could aquifers be actively recharged? by smontanaro

California has a management strategy to recharge aquifers during flood events like this one. It's called ag-MAR or flood-MAR.

Basically, the idea is to intentionally flood areas like orchards or fields during the winter, allowing floodwaters to soak into the ground and down to the aquifer. There are things you have to be careful about when doing this (nitrate contamination of groundwater, for instance) but it's a promising approach.

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