SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Stefan Stirzaker · Post by **Stefan Stirzaker** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 8:26 pm

Space related. My daughter and I participated in a Guiness world record attempt of Most People simultaneously star gazing - at one site and nationally. It was a great night organised by the ANU which run the Mt STromlo Observatory and we had people like nobel prize winner Brian Schmidt and others doing lectures and talks. So in the end we smashed the world record! 1869 people observing the stars in one location (Canberra where we are located) and 7323 (so far offical counting packs still coming in, could be > 12000 by the end) people observing nationwide simultaneously. Beating Mexico's record of 630 and 3000 respectively

Good to see so many people with their telescopes out there and an interest in the stars.

https://www.facebook.com/WorldRecordStargazing
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-new ... j4n9b.html

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 1:00 am

Mars rover snaps some selfies

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:20 pm

Daehawk wrote:Mars rover snaps some selfies

I'm partial to the APOD version:

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 2:09 pm

NASA likes to drop things.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Sep 01, 2015 10:43 am

HI-SEAS

On Friday (Aug. 28), six scientists left the comforts of civilization, set to be gone for an entire year. Their mission will simulate what it might be like for astronauts journeying to Mars.

In the confines of a 36-foot-wide (11 meters) and 20-foot-high (6 m) solar-powered dome in a remote location on the island of Hawaii, the six team members will have to live together for 365 days. They will have no face-to-face contact with humans outside of the dome. This is the fourth and longest such mission carried out by the Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) program, and its goal is to find out how people will respond to the isolation that might accompany a mission to Mars.
...
The HI-SEAS project, which is based at University of Hawaii at Manoa, has put crews into the isolated mock Mars colony in four previous missions: two 4-month missions in 2013 and 2014, respectively, and an eight-month mission that ended in June 2015. During those previous trips, the crewmembers were allowed to leave the dome in spacesuits, occasionally engaging in outdoor activities like golfing, but mostly to do research in the local environment, the way members of a real Mars crew would.
...
The current mission will “focus on crewmember cohesion and performance,” the statement said. “HI-SEAS researchers are working to develop effective team composition and support strategies to allow crews to successfully travel to Mars and back, an estimated three-year journey.”

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Tue Sep 01, 2015 4:18 pm

I appreciate the thought going into this, but the big factor they can't test isn't spending a year cooped up with the same 6 people... it's spending a year with nothing but millions of miles of raw death between you and home.

What they might want to think about is going all Rama on this. Send three different modules, at different times, so they can survive the loss of one or maybe two and have some shred of a chance at surviving by reaching the remaining modules. Psychologically, I think that knowing that safety is just a day or two away could be very helpful... unless you're the guy at the end. That one might need to be automated and empty.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 7:05 am

Universe Sandbox 2 on Steam

Looks liek an amazing universe sim for the computer.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 10:39 am

NASA has self healing stuff that can heal in 2 seconds. http://www.iflscience.com/watch-amazing ... spacecraft

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 6:42 pm

New Horizons has started transmitting images again.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sat Sep 12, 2015 5:50 pm

Furthest galaxy detected

describe evidence for a galaxy called EGS8p7 that is more than 13.2 billion years old. The universe itself is about 13.8 billion years old. - See more at:

I'll take that as furthest detected YET.

Signs of Nutrinos from the dawn of time

Signs of neutrinos from the dawn of time, less than a second after the Big Bang

And lastly.....

Super Harvest Blood Moon Sept 27

The moon will pass into Earth’s shadow producing a total lunar eclipse during the "Supermoon" – a time when the full moon occurs "at or near its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit," according to NASA

So we're going to have the largest moon and a blood moon at that and harvest moon to boot.. Very rare.

Lassr · Post by **Lassr** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 8:38 pm

So ABC News is filming something at the Space and Rocket Center tomorrow morning and they have asked for about 300 Marshall Space Flight Center folks to show up to support the filming. The subject matter of the show is a secret. So I will be there bright and early, 5:15 am, to check it out. I assumed it was Good Morning America and maybe something about the film "The Martian" that opens up this weekend since MSFC advised on the movie. But I'm not sure...

Lassr · Post by **Lassr** » Thu Sep 17, 2015 9:59 am

So they honored Trent Griffin who works in my department. They highlighted his work with neighborhood kids. It was very touching. If you like feel good stories then see if you can find a replay online.

here it is:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/nasa-sc ... s-33827515

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 11:41 am

A Plutonian Landscape

Explanation: This shadowy landscape of majestic mountains and icy plains stretches toward the horizon of a small, distant world. It was captured from a range of about 18,000 kilometers when New Horizons looked back toward Pluto, 15 minutes after the spacecraft's closest approach on July 14. The dramatic, low-angle, near-twilight scene follows rugged mountains still popularly known as Norgay Montes from foreground left, and Hillary Montes along the horizon, giving way to smooth Sputnik Planum at right. Layers of Pluto's tenuous atmosphere are also revealed in the backlit view. With a strangely familiar appearance, the frigid terrain likely includes ices of nitrogen and carbon monoxide with water-ice mountains rising up to 3,500 meters (11,000 feet). That's comparable in height to the majestic mountains of planet Earth. This Plutonian landscape is 380 kilometers (230 miles) across.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 10:39 pm

Scale model of the solar system built in NV desert.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 11:09 pm

2015 Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition

Overall winner: Eclipse Totality over Sassendalen by Luc Jamet

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 10:37 am

We missed the 2011 announcement of the water quasar:

Two teams of astronomers have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe. The water, equivalent to 140 trillion times all the water in the world's ocean, surrounds a huge, feeding black hole, called a quasar, more than 12 billion light-years away.
...
Astronomers expected water vapor to be present even in the early, distant universe, but had not detected it this far away before. There's water vapor in the Milky Way, although the total amount is 4,000 times less than in the quasar, because most of the Milky Way’s water is frozen in ice.

Water vapor is an important trace gas that reveals the nature of the quasar. In this particular quasar, the water vapor is distributed around the black hole in a gaseous region spanning hundreds of light-years in size (a light-year is about six trillion miles). Its presence indicates that the quasar is bathing the gas in X-rays and infrared radiation, and that the gas is unusually warm and dense by astronomical standards. Although the gas is at a chilly minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius) and is 300 trillion times less dense than Earth's atmosphere, it's still five times hotter and 10 to 100 times denser than what's typical in galaxies like the Milky Way.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:10 am

NASA Mars announcement expected Monday

News conference participants include Jim Green, director of planetary science; Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program; Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology; Mary Beth Wilhelm from NASA’s Ames Research Center; and, Alfred McEwen, principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE).

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:17 am

Isgrimnur wrote:We missed the 2011 announcement of the water quasar:

Two teams of astronomers have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe. The water, equivalent to 140 trillion times all the water in the world's ocean, surrounds a huge, feeding black hole, called a quasar, more than 12 billion light-years away.
...
Astronomers expected water vapor to be present even in the early, distant universe, but had not detected it this far away before. There's water vapor in the Milky Way, although the total amount is 4,000 times less than in the quasar, because most of the Milky Way’s water is frozen in ice.

Water vapor is an important trace gas that reveals the nature of the quasar. In this particular quasar, the water vapor is distributed around the black hole in a gaseous region spanning hundreds of light-years in size (a light-year is about six trillion miles). Its presence indicates that the quasar is bathing the gas in X-rays and infrared radiation, and that the gas is unusually warm and dense by astronomical standards. Although the gas is at a chilly minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius) and is 300 trillion times less dense than Earth's atmosphere, it's still five times hotter and 10 to 100 times denser than what's typical in galaxies like the Milky Way.

I am the only that suspects they are making all this crap up? It's not like we can argue with them. Yeah, there's totally a big vapor cloud 12 billion light years away. It's right there, are you blind?!

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:35 am

Given that it was being studied by two different groups, they all have to time-share the same telescopes, meaning that anyone can use the same tools to gather evidence, and the fact that you can't take the sky from me, I'd say the odds of faked results are pretty low.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:40 am

Peer review!

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 12:03 pm

It's a conspiracy to keep jobs where they just get to make stuff up about stuff too far away to confirm.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 1:31 pm

If you're east of the Dakotas, you'll get a crack at a total lunar eclipse on the 28th. Check your local listings for times, but it should be before the nightly news.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:42 pm

Enhanced colour (combining blue/red/near infrared data) high-resolution image of Pluto, resolution ~1.3 km:

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:47 pm

coopasonic wrote:It's a conspiracy to keep jobs where they just get to make stuff up about stuff too far away to confirm.

Talkie Toaster wrote:The question is this: Given that God is infinite, and that the universe is also infinite... would you like a toasted teacake?

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Sun Sep 27, 2015 5:49 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:If you're east of the Dakotas, you'll get a crack at a total lunar eclipse on the 28th. Check your local listings for times, but it should be before the nightly news.

To clarify, it will be the evening of the 27th (today) in North America and the early morning of the 28th in Europe.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sun Sep 27, 2015 6:16 pm

The little guy has taken some more selfies.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Sun Sep 27, 2015 7:09 pm

Sometimes, even bureaucrats wax poetic:

The reason the Moon turns red may be found on the surface of the Moon itself. Using your imagination, fly to the Moon and stand inside a dusty lunar crater. Look up. Overhead hangs Earth, nightside facing you, completely hiding the sun behind it. The eclipse is underway.

You might suppose that the Earth overhead would be completely dark. After all, you’re looking at the nightside of our planet. Instead, something amazing happens. When the sun is located directly behind Earth, the rim of the planet seems to catch fire! The darkened terrestrial disk is ringed by every sunrise and every sunset in the world, all at once. This light filters into the heart of Earth's shadow, suffusing it with a coppery glow.

That phrase, "The darkened terrestrial disk is ringed by every sunrise and every sunset in the world, all at once." is just so damned awesome.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sun Sep 27, 2015 7:45 pm

Damn...its completely cloudy here. I cant see a thing!!! It wont be back until 2033 I dont think. Ill be in my 60s!!

WYBaugh · Post by **WYBaugh** » Sun Sep 27, 2015 8:16 pm

Daehawk wrote:Damn...its completely cloudy here. I cant see a thing!!! It wont be back until 2033 I dont think. Ill be in my 60s!!

Same here. Very disappointed.

$iljanus · Post by **$iljanus** » Sun Sep 27, 2015 8:24 pm

Nice clear night here...Good God it's coming right for us! (can't wait till it turns bloody)

Lassr · Post by **Lassr** » Sun Sep 27, 2015 10:21 pm

WYBaugh wrote:
Daehawk wrote:Damn...its completely cloudy here. I cant see a thing!!! It wont be back until 2033 I dont think. Ill be in my 60s!!
Same here. Very disappointed.

same here

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Sun Sep 27, 2015 10:24 pm

That was some pretty impressive eclipsing there. Wish I'd gotten away from the local skyglow, but on the East Coast one must travel far to find even a passably dark sky. Bet it looked great from the Berkshires.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Sun Sep 27, 2015 10:30 pm

Patchy clouds in Chicago.... got to see it start, got to see it go under full umber, and hope to get another look again in a few at it's blood-peak.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sun Sep 27, 2015 10:46 pm

Max Peck wrote:
Isgrimnur wrote:If you're east of the Dakotas, you'll get a crack at a total lunar eclipse on the 28th. Check your local listings for times, but it should be before the nightly news.
To clarify, it will be the evening of the 27th (today) in North America and the early morning of the 28th in Europe.

Thanks for the clarification.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Mon Sep 28, 2015 12:01 am

Isgrimnur wrote:
Max Peck wrote:
Isgrimnur wrote:If you're east of the Dakotas, you'll get a crack at a total lunar eclipse on the 28th. Check your local listings for times, but it should be before the nightly news.
To clarify, it will be the evening of the 27th (today) in North America and the early morning of the 28th in Europe.
Thanks for the clarification.

I figured it was better to look like an ass for pointing out the obvious (that the times in the ref are all UTC) than assume that I was the only dope that that didn't notice. Right up until this morning, when I checked the times again, I was planning to watch the eclipse on Monday night. I'd have had the worst view ever!

It was pretty good here, right up until the moon entered full eclipse. That's when the clouds rolled in, in earnest. We were able to get a few glimpses of the bloodmoon through breaks in the cloud cover, but not a great view of it. Still, it's probably the last chance I'll have to see a supermoon eclipse (I might be around for the next one, but I wouldn't bank on it) so I'll take what I got and be happy with it.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Mon Sep 28, 2015 12:31 am

Max Peck wrote: it's probably the last chance I'll have to see a supermoon eclipse (I might be around for the next one, but I wouldn't bank on it) so I'll take what I got and be happy with it.

When is it again, 2033? Right now my plan is to live until someone walks on Mars, so that might work out. I'd be 76 then. Hard to imagine living that long, but I never expected to see 58, either, so it could happen.

Glad I got a good look at this one, anyway, even though I had to block out two streetlights.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Mon Sep 28, 2015 2:00 am

It was a nice clear night here. It was fun to pull out the telescope again and have people from the neighborhood taking a peek.

Cortilian · Post by **Cortilian** » Mon Sep 28, 2015 4:25 am

Super overcast here. Bubkis

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Mon Sep 28, 2015 11:18 am

NASA is about to confirm alien life on Mars at an 11:30am press conference!!!! Or something like that.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Sep 28, 2015 11:25 am

I thought they were going to announce they solved some type of mystery. Maybe the same one that has been puzzling me since 1988.