All Things Space

[MPH]

You got a real chip on your shoulder champ. In the future I'll preface my statements and opinions on here with "IMO" and illiterate "I don't have a PhD in this arena but here are some thoughts" so I don't offend your delicate sensibility.

Opinions are a good thing on a forum. Try forming an original one sometime...we've all read scholastic textbooks. No need to chastize someone for going beyond those pages.

Furthermore, I agreed with current theories and current theories are not based on catastrophism but rather observed linear development because in recorded history that is what we have observed...a stable local solar system.

You had me at "illiterate"

 

[andnowweknow]

You had me at "illiterate"

Jeez man. Latching onto grammar errors and avoiding the point of a post makes you right and is awesome.

 

[MPH]

Jeez man. Latching onto grammar errors and avoiding the point of a post makes you right and is awesome.

Thanks man

 

[andnowweknow]

Thanks man

You're welcome...have a happy holidays you orthodox scholar you Laetitia in her heyday was something else, back when VS magazines were like gold to me.

 

[jabba the punk]

I devote at least 5 minutes everyday of my life to reading the news on astronomy and anything related.

I love space so much that I would gladly volunteer to venture it; even if coming back would be a slim chance.

 

[andnowweknow]

I devote at least 5 minutes everyday of my life to reading the news on astronomy and anything related.

I love space so much that I would gladly volunteer to venture it; even if coming back would be a slim chance.

I believe they are taking resumes at the private space firms. Go for it. If you go to mars, at least for the first generation or two, you ain't coming back.

IMO, the earth is an oasis. There are probably billions of oasis' out there, but the in between might just equate to a massive death valley on earth...a wasteland. Mars probably had life, and we really don't know conclusively when, so it might be pretty goddamn interesting to live on depending on what your mobility is and what your resources are. I imagine for the first 10 generations it will suck a fat one though.

 

[ralphc1]

I believe they are taking resumes at the private space firms. Go for it. If you go to mars, at least for the first generation or two, you ain't coming back.

IMO, the earth is an oasis. There are probably billions of oasis' out there, but the in between might just equate to a massive death valley on earth...a wasteland. Mars probably had life, and we really don't know conclusively when, so it might be pretty goddamn interesting to live on depending on what your mobility is and what your resources are. I imagine for the first 10 generations it will suck a fat one though.

Even if you could come back from Mars, the radiation you will likely have absorbed on the trip and the planet will shorten your life expectancy.

 

[Popsaregood230]

 

[andnowweknow]

Even if you could come back from Mars, the radiation you will likely have absorbed on the trip and the planet will shorten your life expectancy.

Atrophy is the biggest problem outside our specific living environment on earth. There is a reason they don't popularize people coming back from the space station...they look like wet rags.

 

[ralphc1]

Atrophy is the biggest problem outside our specific living environment on earth. There is a reason they don't popularize people coming back from the space station...they look like wet rags.

As long as we stay within the protection of Earth's magnetic field the radiation is mitigated but long term travel beyond that is very risky. The moon missions were short term risks and we dodged the sunspot bullet. We can't depend on luck on Mars.

 

[andnowweknow]

As long as we stay within the protection of Earth's magnetic field the radiation is mitigated but long term travel beyond that is very risky. The moon missions were short term risks and we dodged the sunspot bullet. We can't depend on luck on Mars.

I think the trip to mars is a few months...but beyond that, you're right, all sorts of shit starts popping up that makes it seem like a difficult prospect in general. The first thing they need to figure out is some sort of artificial gravity...which would have to be some sort of spacecraft that propels itself while spinning. Something like a boomerang flying through space. Sounds difficult lol.

 

[seatea]

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/12/19/best-space-photos_n_4473029.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

 

[MARTIAN]

Venus's rotation is so slow that a day on Venus lasts longer than it's year. It takes 243 Earth days to fully rotate, while its only takes 224 earth days to complete its orbit.

It has has the most circular orbit of any planet in our solar system

 

[seatea]

Triple star system 'can reveal secrets of gravity'

Astronomers have discovered a unique triple star system which could reveal the true nature of gravity.

They found a pulsar with two white dwarfs all packed in a space smaller than Earth's orbit of the Sun.

The trio's unusually close orbits allow precise measurements of gravity and could resolve difficulties with Einstein's theories.

Pulsars emit lighthouse-like beams of radio waves that rapidly sweep through space as the stars spin on their axes.

They are formed after a supernova collapses a burnt-out star to a dense, highly magnetised ball of neutrons.

Using the Green Bank Telescope, the astronomers discovered a pulsar 4,200 light-years from Earth, spinning nearly 366 times per second.

Such rapidly-spinning bodies are called millisecond pulsars - and are used by astronomers as precision tools for studying gravitational effects and other phenomena.

Subsequent observations showed the pulsar is in a close orbit with a white dwarf star, and that pair is in orbit with another, more-distant white dwarf.

Three-body systems are keenly studied because they allow competing theories of gravity to be tested.

The system gives the scientists the best opportunity yet to look for violations of the equivalence principle described by Einstein - which states that the effect of gravity on a body does not depend on the nature or internal structure of that body.

This was famously illustrated by Galileo's dropping of two balls of different weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and Apollo 15 Commander Dave Scott's dropping of a hammer and a falcon feather while standing on the Moon in 1971.

 

[Kiddo716]

Pretty cool vid of Moon & Saturn

http://vimeo.com/87319245

 

[seatea]

Celestia. Not the MLP character.

Celestia is a 3D astronomy program created by Chris Laurel. The program is based on the Hipparcos Catalogue (HIP) and allows users to travel through an extensive universe, modeled after reality, at any speed, in any direction, and at any time in history. Celestia displays and interacts with objects ranging in scale from small spacecraft to entire galaxies in three dimensions using OpenGL, from perspectives which would not be possible from a classic planetarium or other ground-based display.
NASA and ESA have used Celestia in their educational and outreach programs, as well as for interfacing to trajectory analysis software.

Celestia is available for AmigaOS 4, Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. Celestia is free software released under the GNU General Public License.

Download it here.

A community for Celestia users.

[YT]lHZRuyLI8jY[/YT]

I've only spent an hour of so with this programme and have yet to get the hang of it, but it is amazing; to be able to race around the galaxy (or even the local galactic cluster) is fun. A lot of is for more serious astronomic study and goes right over my head, but there is still plenty there for others IMO. The community site linked above has many add-ons for Celestia, what they are I don't know as I haven't really had a look yet.

There is also Space Engine which is along similar lines. I've installed it, but I need to get some driver or some such updated before I can get it working.

Space Engine is a computer program created by the Russian programmer Vladimir Romanyuk as a space simulator which allows the user to use it to explore simulations of stars, planets, galaxies and other planetary objects in a three-dimensional environment. One of the program main features is its heavy scientific accuracy. For example, planets and stars simulations are based on real data and many characteristics such as temperature and size are available to be seen by the user. It is currently in a beta phase development and is available for download in the official forum.

[YT]YieL0qK-qCk[/YT]

 

[Kiddo716]

Scientists Have Discovered A Planet They Thought Was Impossible

Based on what we know about how solar systems form, researchers thought that a giant rocky planet could not exist. But they just found one that's 17 times Earth's mass. They're calling it the Mega-Earth.

Scientists say the new planet may have "profound implications for the possibility of life" on extra-solar planets, according to a press release from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. They announced the finding in a talk at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Boston.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/scientists-discovered-planet-thought-impossible-170448463.html

 

[MARTIAN]

Aurora Borealis from the ISS

Surface of Venus from Venera-13

Jupiter and Lo

 

[Cheese]

^^We have a rover on Venus?

 

[chunglii]

^^We have a rover on Venus?

My guess is it's a stationary lander.

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_13