SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Max Peck »

The world's oldest scientific satellite is still in orbit.
Nearly 60 years ago, the US Navy launched Vanguard-1 as a response to the Soviet Sputnik. Six decades on, it’s still circling our planet.

From his desk at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, space debris analyst Tim Flohrer keeps track of the 23,000 or so catalogued objects currently orbiting the Earth. They range from spacecraft and satellites – some working, most not – to discarded rocket stages and fragmented space hardware. All of them the result of 60 years of space exploration.

Using radar data from the US Space Surveillance Network (also, primarily, the country’s early warning system) and observations from optical telescopes, Flohrer helps ensure none of this space junk puts operational spacecraft at risk.

Before we speak, I’ve asked him to check on object 1958-002B, also known as Vanguard 1. Launched in March 1958, this grapefruit-sized shiny metal sphere was boosted into a high elliptical orbit. And it’s still there, passing between 650 and 3,800km (406 to 2,375 miles) from the Earth.

“The earlier satellites, such as Sputnik, have all re-entered the atmosphere,” says Flohrer. “But I estimate that Vanguard 1 will remain in orbit for several hundred, if not a thousand years.”
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Daehawk »

Thats really cool.

Also....Mar's brightest 'star' in the night sky is Earth :)

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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by dbt1949 »

I saw a show last night that said with today's technology we could completely transform Mar's ecology to be just like earth's in 100,000 years.
I wonder if that's with or without our pollution?
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Kraken »

No fossil fuels on Mars, so you can skip that. It's amusing that terraforming Mars would require infusing massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere...exactly the opposite of the most pressing problem on Earth today.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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China’s 8½-ton space lab will soon crash to Earth. No one knows where it will hit.
Tiangong 1, which translates to “Heavenly Palace,” is China's first space laboratory, launched in September 2011, serving as a prototype for a permanent space station that it aims to eventually build and launch. But six years after it first went into orbit, the 8½-ton laboratory is soon expected to meet a fiery and uncontrolled end, hurtling down to Earth and crashing somewhere — anywhere — on the planet.

In September 2016, Chinese officials confirmed that they had lost control of the space lab and that it would crash into Earth sometime in the latter half of 2017. In May, China told the United Nations that the lab would reenter Earth between October and April 2018.

Much of the space lab, which measures 34 feet in length, is expected to burn up during its reentry. But Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist from Harvard University, told the Guardian that pieces weighing up to 220 pounds could make it to the Earth's surface.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by wonderpug »

Grifman wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 2:16 pm Neutron star collision:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/16/world/neu ... index.html
This feels like it's a huge deal that everyone (myself almost included) isn't paying much attention to because it isn't obvious why it's important. This post on reddit got me to sit up in my chair about it more.

The tl;dr summary:
Andromeda321 wrote:Astronomer here! This is HUGE news! (TL;DR at bottom for those who just want the skinny.)
...
TL;DR- Not only did they discover the first ever neutron star-neutron star merger, they also did the first ever follow up in light to detect it there, and solved an enduring mystery lasting decades on where 30% of all gamma ray bursts come from. Pretty awesome day for science!
...
Well off the top of my head [about what this means for science]:
1) NS-NS mergers are where the far majority of heavy elements like gold and uranium are thought to be created. Huge to be able to study that
2) NS-NS mergers likely create black holes in many cases- we can actually study black holes being born!
3) It also proves that gravitational waves are going to be super important for finding these super rare astronomical events in the future
4) It solves the long-standing question of what creates short GRBs, which are some of the most energetic explosions we know of and are a third of all GRBs, but people haven't had proof of where they come from for decades.
I'm probably skipping some, but that's not a shabby starting list![/list]
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Max Peck »

Gravitational waves: So many new toys to unwrap
One very smart calculation from the 17 August event is the determination of the Hubble Constant, which describes the expansion rate of the Universe.

The further away you look, the faster galaxies are receding from us. Ever since the American Edwin Hubble first detailed this relationship in 1929, astronomers have meticulously tried to put a value on it because it helps us gauge the size and age of the Universe.

It's been done by measuring the distance and velocities of a large number of stars in a good sample of galaxies.

The stars have all been so-called "standard candles" - objects that shine with a known power output.

If you understand this absolute quantity and compare it with the stars' apparent brightness on the sky, you can figure out their distance from Earth using the inverse square law. But it's not easy because no one standard candle will do the job; you must use one type to calibrate the next in a series of steps.

"It's like taping a large number of rulers together. Every time you do it, there's a chance for a little bit of wobble, and a little bit of extra uncertainty creeps in,” explains Will Farr from the University of Birmingham. "[But] because gravitational waves can directly measure distances, we don't need to tape rulers together."

Simply put, they neatly package the distance information for us.

"The absolute intensity of an event is encoded in the signal shape, and the apparent intensity is what you measure with your gravitational wave detector - and from 'one over r squared', you can then tell how far away it was," says Karsten Danzmann from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics.

You still need a velocity measurement to go with the distance, and that is obtained from analysing the light associated with the event that generated the gravitational waves. Hence, the thrill we’ve seen this week from astronomers in being able to sense gravitational waves AND light from the same source at the same time.

Bernie Schutz from Cardiff University first proposed working out the Hubble Constant in this way some 30 years ago (some more history).

"It's amazing to have done it after all this time," he told me. "From this event, we get a value of 70 kilometres per second per megaparsec." What does that mean? Well, a megaparsec is 3.26 million light-years, so it follows that cosmic expansion increases by 70km/second for every 3.26 million light-years we look further out into space.

Now, this is just one data point with a fair bit of uncertainty associated with it (the range goes from 62 to 82), so no-one is yet yelling from the rooftops. But there is good confidence that as more and more gravitational wave observations are made, the error bars will narrow significantly.

The speculation is that within 10 years or so, sufficient observations could have been acquired to provide an independent check on the conventional technique.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Kraken »

Somebody compared it to the first talkie -- the first time sound was paired with video -- because it's the first time a gravitational-wave event was paired to a visible object. In this analogy the g-waves are the audio and the electromagnetic realm (including optical) is the video. Astronomers are peeing themselves over it.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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...

:sci-fi-grayalien: :sci-fi-grayalien: :sci-fi-grayalien: ... Orionid meteor shower peaks this weekend
By Tony Rice

Raleigh, N.C. — The Orionid meteor shower will peak overnight, and your best opportunity to see meteors comes before dawn Sunday morning when an astonishing 15-20 meteors per hour are forecasted to be visible under the best viewing conditions (away from light pollution).

These meteors are caused by debris left behind by Halley’s Comet’s burning up in the atmosphere as Earth passes through the trail. Estimating exactly how many meteors we might see is as tough as forecasting exactly when and where a summer thunderstorm might hit.

There are many trails left by Halley’s and other comets. These trails get pushed and pulled, especially by Jupiter's gravity. According to Bill Cooke of NASA's Micrometeorite Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., Orionid activity has been trending upward recently, but an outburst like this was not expected.

Viewing conditions are favorable this year, and the nearly moonless sky will help bring a few more meteors into view. Unlike most showers, Orionid activity does not peak sharply. If you aren’t up at 5 a.m. on Sunday, you still have the opportunity to see 10-15 meteors per hour over the next morning or two. Orionids may be visible in smaller numbers throughout the week.

The Orionids are one of four minor meteor showers underway this weekend, though the Southern Taurids, Epsilon Geminids, and Leonis Minorids are all near the end of their periods and produce single digit meteor rates.

This reinforces the advice seasoned meteor observers give during each meteor shower -- don’t just look to the radiant point (in this case the constellation Orion) for meteors. Look anywhere in the sky, preferably away from light pollution.

The next major meteor shower, with up to 120 meteors per hour visible, arrives in December. The Geminids peak on Dec. 13, a few days after the new moon, which should provide great conditions for observing.


I'm down with that .. So long as they don't inject the word .. Totality .. into the American News Broadcaster lexicon once again
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Max Peck »

Astronomers Spot First-Ever Space Rock from Another Star
For the first time ever, an asteroid or comet from another star has been caught hurtling through our solar system, astronomers announced late Thursday. Provisionally designated A/2017 U1, the object appears to be less than a half-kilometer in diameter and is traveling at just over 40 kilometers per second—faster than humanity’s speediest outbound space probes. Because this is the first object of its type to be found, there are as yet no official rules for naming it, and its discoverers have balked at suggesting anything besides “Interstellar.” Whatever one might call it, though, it is presently racing away from the sun and has sparked a stampede of astronomers rushing to observe it before it fades entirely from view in the darkness of interstellar space.

“All we can say right now is this was something that was tossed out of another star system,” says Karen Meech, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii. Meech is helping coordinate a global observation campaign, which presently includes nights on large telescopes in Chile and Hawaii, as well as five orbits of the Hubble Space Telescope. “Everyone is trying to get time to look at this thing on big telescopes right now, urgently, within the next few days,” she explains.

Exactly what those telescopes might see is anyone’s guess. Astronomers will first and foremost attempt to pin down the object’s exact size (based on its brightness), as well as its shape and spin rate (based on how its brightness fluctuates). They will also seek to measure A/2017 U1’s color, and perhaps even its spectrum—the subtler details of its emitted and absorbed light. Taken together, all that information could show what exactly A/2017 U1 is made of—whether it is mostly rock, or ice, for instance—and potentially reveal more about its history and origins, somewhere out there among the stars.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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How exactly do they know its from another star? Does it have a bumper sticker?
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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Daehawk wrote: Fri Oct 27, 2017 10:09 am How exactly do they know its from another star? Does it have a bumper sticker?
I'd guess its orbital path makes it unlikely to have originated in our solar system. Gravity and trajectories don'tchaknow.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Kraken »

The Meal wrote: Fri Oct 27, 2017 10:21 am
Daehawk wrote: Fri Oct 27, 2017 10:09 am How exactly do they know its from another star? Does it have a bumper sticker?
I'd guess its orbital path makes it unlikely to have originated in our solar system. Gravity and trajectories don'tchaknow.
Yeah, the trajectory map I saw has it diving down from "north" of the sun, perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic. How they inferred that from observing its current trajectory, IDK. Probably physics or something.

I had understood the Oort Cloud to be a sphere around the sun, not a torus, so I wonder why they don't think it's an Oortie.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Isgrimnur »

Based on its estimated speed and direction of travel, the object appeared to be on a “hyperbolic” trajectory, moving out from the sun fast enough to escape our star’s gravitational pull entirely. Barring the rare space probe launched from Earth, any massive object with enough speed to leave the solar system likely originated beyond its boundaries, too, because such speeds are difficult to build up solely through natural gravitational encounters with our sun and its planets..
...
“This is the most extreme orbit I have ever seen,” said CNEOS scientist Davide Farnocchia, who worked with others to trace A/2017 U1’s path through the solar system. “We can say with confidence that this object is on its way out of the solar system and not coming back.”
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Max Peck »

Kraken wrote: Fri Oct 27, 2017 4:20 pm
The Meal wrote: Fri Oct 27, 2017 10:21 am
Daehawk wrote: Fri Oct 27, 2017 10:09 am How exactly do they know its from another star? Does it have a bumper sticker?
I'd guess its orbital path makes it unlikely to have originated in our solar system. Gravity and trajectories don'tchaknow.
Yeah, the trajectory map I saw has it diving down from "north" of the sun, perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic. How they inferred that from observing its current trajectory, IDK. Probably physics or something.

I had understood the Oort Cloud to be a sphere around the sun, not a torus, so I wonder why they don't think it's an Oortie.
My understanding is that its velocity is too great, even before the gravitational slingshot past the sun, to have originated within the Oort Cloud.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Holman »

This is how RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA started.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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Found this on Ebay. Seems pretty cool to be so cheap.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3D-USB-LED-Mag ... 85bgD4EJ0w

Enlarge Image Enlarge Image

This realistic looking night light has been made to look like the moon and has craters and pockmarks along the surface to mimic the moon's surface.
As well as this the Moonlight emits a soft white glow that really does look like moonlight (as the name suggests) and will light the area around it up with a soft white light.

Features:
It brings you mystery and romance,
this night light is just what you need for an out of this world lighting experience.
3D Printing Technology: Print layer by layer, restore the real appearance of the moon
Charging Port and Switch Integration: Simple, beautiful and practical, easy to operate. You can hold it on your hand or put anywhere you like with the wood holder
Safe and Environmentally Friendly: PLA material extracted from corn stalks, hard and smooth, non-toxic, odorless
Long Using Time: 240mAh built-in battery, after the full charge, the lamp can be used 8-30 hours, a full charge takes about 6-8 hours
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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RIP Dick Gordon
The Apollo 12 astronaut Richard “Dick” F Gordon Jr, one of a dozen men who flew to the moon but didn’t land, has died aged 88.

Gordon was a test pilot when he was chosen for Nasa’s third group of astronauts in 1963. He flew on Gemini 11 in 1966, walking in space twice. In 1969 Gordon circled the moon in the Apollo 12 command module Yankee Clipper while crewmates Alan Bean and Charles Conrad landed and walked on the lunar surface.

Over the two flights he spent nearly 316 hours in space.
...
Gordon died on Monday at his home in San Marcos, California, according to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.

Born in Seattle, a navy captain and a chemist, Gordon was such a steely professional that after a difficult first spacewalk he fell asleep during a break in his second spacewalk. He downplayed Apollo 12 being hit by lightning during liftoff; backup batteries saved the crew from having to abort the mission.
...
In a 1997 Nasa oral history, Gordon said people would often ask if he felt alone while his two partners walked on the moon. “I said, ‘Hell no, if you knew those guys, you’d be happy to be alone’.”
...
Gordon had been slated to command the Apollo 18 mission that would land on the moon but it was cut for budget reasons.
...
After retiring from Nasa in 1972 he became executive vice-president of the New Orleans Saints football team. He went on to be an executive in energy and science companies.

Gordon is survived by six children, two stepchildren and five grandchildren.
Saints website article
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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RIP. We are losing the last of the great explorers. Guys who strapped themselves to a well known explosive candle and went to the moon on a computer less powerful than your watch is today. A feat we cannot even come close to doing with todays tech.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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Voyager 1 spacecraft thrusters fired up for first time since 1980
NASA scientists needed to reorient the 40-year-old Voyager 1 -- the space agency's farthest spacecraft -- so its antenna would point toward Earth, 13 billion miles away. But the "attitude control thrusters," the first option to make the spacecraft turn in space, have been wearing out.

So NASA searched for a Plan B, eventually deciding to try using four "trajectory correction maneuver" (TCM) thrusters, located on the back side of Voyager 1. But those thrusters had not been used in 37 years. NASA wasn't sure they'd work.

Tuesday, engineers fired up the thrusters and waited eagerly to find out whether the plan was successful. They got their answer 19 hours and 35 minutes later, the time it took for the results to reach Earth: The set of four thrusters worked perfectly. The spacecraft turned and the mood at NASA shifted to jubilation.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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Reagan was just elected last time those thrusters were fired. Crazy stuff.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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The fact that this was successful is just damn awesome.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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In 6.3 billion years that slight adjustment will cause the Voyager 1 comet, now 6 miles in diameter and coated in ice, to slam into a populated planet in a distant galaxy, ending prehistoric life and spurring the evolution of a smaller, mammalian species that will eventually come to dominate the planet.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Holman »

Max Peck wrote: Fri Oct 27, 2017 8:52 am Astronomers Spot First-Ever Space Rock from Another Star
For the first time ever, an asteroid or comet from another star has been caught hurtling through our solar system, astronomers announced late Thursday. Provisionally designated A/2017 U1, the object appears to be less than a half-kilometer in diameter and is traveling at just over 40 kilometers per second—faster than humanity’s speediest outbound space probes. Because this is the first object of its type to be found, there are as yet no official rules for naming it, and its discoverers have balked at suggesting anything besides “Interstellar.” Whatever one might call it, though, it is presently racing away from the sun and has sparked a stampede of astronomers rushing to observe it before it fades entirely from view in the darkness of interstellar space.

“All we can say right now is this was something that was tossed out of another star system,” says Karen Meech, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii. Meech is helping coordinate a global observation campaign, which presently includes nights on large telescopes in Chile and Hawaii, as well as five orbits of the Hubble Space Telescope. “Everyone is trying to get time to look at this thing on big telescopes right now, urgently, within the next few days,” she explains.

Exactly what those telescopes might see is anyone’s guess. Astronomers will first and foremost attempt to pin down the object’s exact size (based on its brightness), as well as its shape and spin rate (based on how its brightness fluctuates). They will also seek to measure A/2017 U1’s color, and perhaps even its spectrum—the subtler details of its emitted and absorbed light. Taken together, all that information could show what exactly A/2017 U1 is made of—whether it is mostly rock, or ice, for instance—and potentially reveal more about its history and origins, somewhere out there among the stars.
‘Oumuamua phone home.

The interstellar visitor has been named ‘Oumuamua ("scout" or "messenger" in Hawaiian), and it has been determined that it is shaped EXACTLY LIKE A CIGAR-SHAPED SPACESHIP OMG YOU GUYS!!

Anyway, today's the day it's being observed closely for emanations.
Breakthrough Initiatives, launched by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner to study the galaxy for signs of extraterrestrials, is most famous for its Stephen Hawking–backed Starshot project to send cheap spacecraft to Alpha Centauri at one-fifth the speed of light to find signs of habitability or alien life. Its more conventional SETI sister project, Listen, uses radio telescopes to scan space and listen for complex radio signals that might be signs of an alien civilization.

For 10 hours on Wednesday, Breakthrough Listen will point the Green Bank Telescope, based in West Virginia, at ‘Oumuamua and listen for anything unusual emanating from the object that doesn’t have a conventional explanation. The Green Bank Telescope could detect signals on the scale of a mobile phone coming from ‘Oumuamua, Milner tells Scientific American.

Even if there’s no signal coming from ‘Oumuamua, the Green Bank observations can still collect valuable insight on whether the asteroid possesses water or ice or exhibits any strange chemistry.
If it's truly from another star system and it's really just a rock, is space just absolutely chock-full of such free-flying bullets? If not, what are the odds of such a thing intersecting our system in the first human generation that we have the tech to notice it?
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Kraken »

If it's a spacecraft, it's probably a derelict. Unless it's just using our Sun's gravity well en route to someplace else, it gave no sign of maneuvering in our solar system other than just passing through. Plus, it's my understanding that it's tumbling (which is how they know its size and shape).

Some astronomers believe that rogue planets (and sub-planetary bodies) might outnumber those bound to star systems. Some get ejected from systems and others just form in deep space.

A derelict spacecraft would be supremely cool, but it's doubtful that we'll be able to tell if it's not generating some form of energy.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Holman »

Kraken wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:20 pm If it's a spacecraft, it's probably a derelict. Unless it's just using our Sun's gravity well en route to someplace else, it gave no sign of maneuvering in our solar system other than just passing through. Plus, it's my understanding that it's tumbling (which is how they know its size and shape).
Why do they need to maneuver? Probably their Q-Beams and Meson Cannons can blast us from 10 au's.

It could hardly make 2017 any worse.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by msduncan »

Kraken wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:20 pm If it's a spacecraft, it's probably a derelict. Unless it's just using our Sun's gravity well en route to someplace else, it gave no sign of maneuvering in our solar system other than just passing through. Plus, it's my understanding that it's tumbling (which is how they know its size and shape).

Some astronomers believe that rogue planets (and sub-planetary bodies) might outnumber those bound to star systems. Some get ejected from systems and others just form in deep space.

A derelict spacecraft would be supremely cool, but it's doubtful that we'll be able to tell if it's not generating some form of energy.
The stories I read today say astronomers were curious if it was artificial in origin exactly *because* it's tumbling. Most asteroids do not tumble. That's a quality more closely related to theoretical disabled (derelict) space craft.
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Max Peck
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Max Peck »

"What? What? What?" -- The 14th Doctor

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Kraken
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Kraken »

I posted the same thing in the Tesla thread yesterday, but you're forgiven: It has crossover appeal. Really hoping the first Falcon Heavy doesn't blow up. Musk is not supremely confident in its chances. He's throwing that car away either way, but how cool would it be to put it in Mars orbit for a billion years? Or until someone can retrieve it, whichever comes first.
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Grifman
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Grifman »

Kraken wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:20 pm If it's a spacecraft, it's probably a derelict. Unless it's just using our Sun's gravity well en route to someplace else, it gave no sign of maneuvering in our solar system other than just passing through. Plus, it's my understanding that it's tumbling (which is how they know its size and shape).

Some astronomers believe that rogue planets (and sub-planetary bodies) might outnumber those bound to star systems. Some get ejected from systems and others just form in deep space.

A derelict spacecraft would be supremely cool, but it's doubtful that we'll be able to tell if it's not generating some form of energy.
I've got a bad feeling about this:

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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Daehawk »

Falcon 9 launch. Giant sperm launch.

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I've got a bad feeling about this:
Funnily enough just the other day I read an article from the guy who made the original model for the Doomsday Machine on how and what he used to create it. Was pretty interesting.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Jaymann »

Daehawk wrote: Sun Dec 24, 2017 1:50 am Falcon 9 launch. Giant sperm launch.

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I've got a bad feeling about this:
Funnily enough just the other day I read an article from the guy who made the original model for the Doomsday Machine on how and what he used to create it. Was pretty interesting.
My kids saw this from the local In n Out.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by raydude »

There's a cool AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit with respect to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the moon:


Found out about this from the LRO science meeting I attended last week.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Max Peck »

Scientists may have discovered the first planets outside the Milky Way
The truth is out there. And past that is a cluster of planets 3.8 billion light-years away, a recent discovery that if confirmed could extend the boundary of what we know about the universe.

Using data from a NASA X-ray laboratory in space, Xinyu Dai, an astrophysicist and professor at the University of Oklahoma, detected, for the first time ever, a population of planets beyond the Milky Way galaxy. The planets range in size from Earth's moon to the massive Jupiter.

There are few methods to determine the existence of distant planets. They are so far away that no telescope can observe them, Dai told The Washington Post. So Dai and postdoctoral researcher Eduardo Guerras relied on a scientific principle to make the discovery: Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.

Einstein's theory suggests light bends when tugged by the force of gravity. In this case, the light is coming from a quasar — the nucleus of a galaxy with a swirling black hole — that emits powerful radiation in the distance.

Between that quasar and the space-based laboratory is the galaxy of newly discovered planets. The gravitational force of the galaxy bends the light heading toward the Milky Way, illuminating the galaxy in an effect called microlensing. In that way, the galaxy acts as a magnifying glass of sorts, bringing a previously unseen celestial body into X-ray view.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Jaymann »

Has anyone else looked at the videos of people allegedly on the International Space Station? They appear to be fakes full of video artifacts, green screen fakery, visible wire harnesses, phoney hair propped up to look to look "weightless," and people playing with stuffed animals with no scientific experiments in sight. Sometimes there is supposed "transmission delay" and other times instant communication. Sometimes there are loose wires hanging all over the place. I don't know what is really going on in the ISS, but I sincerely doubt it is these goofballs.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Daehawk »

SpaceX Falcon Heavy...FUCK YEAH! Perfect.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Isgrimnur »

Holman wrote: Fri Dec 30, 2016 10:10 am Proxima Centauri b is 4 light years away, Earth-sized, rocky, and orbits in the Goldilocks zone.

Let's call them and see if they're home!
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Proxima B, was recently slammed by a colossal stellar flare that bombarded the planet with radiation. That’s obviously not great news for the possibility of life thriving there, and any organisms that call the planet home would not have had a pleasant few days.
...
The team discovered the flare after combing through data gathered from 2017. The flare occurred in March, and increased the brightness of Proxima Centauri by 1,000 times in mere seconds. That’s an incredible amount of energy, and it’s at least ten times brighter than the largest flares our own Sun produces.
...
In short, the flare detected by the researchers is likely one of many that have slammed into Proxima B over its lifetime, and if Proxima Centauri has a habit of blowing off steam in this manner there’s little hope that its nearby “habitable” planet is actually habitable at all. If live ever existed on the planet, it would have had a very hard time hanging on through events such as this.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Hyena »

Mind worms won't be happy...

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