SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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Daehawk
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Daehawk »

I would have tried to charge them $100,000. Its on my property. Lol.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by noxiousdog »

Some folks are convinced we have already found life on Mars.
[Gilbert Levin] was fortunate to have participated in that historic adventure as experimenter of the Labeled Release (LR) life detection experiment on NASA’s spectacular Viking mission to Mars in 1976.

On July 30, 1976, the LR returned its initial results from Mars. Amazingly, they were positive. As the experiment progressed, a total of four positive results, supported by five varied controls, streamed down from the twin Viking spacecraft landed some 4,000 miles apart. The data curves signaled the detection of microbial respiration on the Red Planet.

When the Viking Molecular Analysis Experiment failed to detect organic matter, the essence of life, however, NASA concluded that the LR had found a substance mimicking life, but not life.
Surface water sufficient to sustain microorganisms was found on Mars by Viking, Pathfinder, Phoenix and Curiosity;

Ultraviolet (UV) activation of the Martian surface material did not, as initially proposed, cause the LR reaction: a sample taken from under a UV-shielding rock was as LR-active as surface samples;

Complex organics, have been reported on Mars by Curiosity’s scientists, possibly including kerogen, which could be of biological origin;

Phoenix and Curiosity found evidence that the ancient Martian environment may have been habitable.

The excess of carbon-13 over carbon-12 in the Martian atmosphere is indicative of biological activity, which prefers ingesting the latter;

The Martian atmosphere is in disequilibrium: its CO2 should long ago have been converted to CO by the sun’s UV light; thus the CO2 is being regenerated, possibly by microorganisms as on Earth;

Terrestrial microorganisms have survived in outer space outside the ISS;

Ejecta containing viable microbes have likely been arriving on Mars from Earth;

Methane has been measured in the Martian atmosphere; microbial methanogens could be the source;

The rapid disappearance of methane from the Martian atmosphere requires a sink, possibly supplied by methanotrophs that could co-exist with methanogens on the Martian surface;

Ghost-like moving lights, resembling will-O’-the-wisps on Earth that are formed by spontaneous ignition of methane, have been video-recorded on the Martian surface;

Formaldehyde and ammonia, each possibly indicative of biology, are claimed to be in the Martian atmosphere;

An independent complexity analysis of the positive LR signal identified it as biological;

Six-channel spectral analyses by Viking’s imaging system found terrestrial lichen and green patches on Mars rocks to have the identical color, saturation, hue and intensity;

A wormlike feature was in an image taken by Curiosity;

Large structures resembling terrestrial stromatolites (formed by microorganisms) were found by Curiosity; a statistical analysis of their complex features showed less than a 0.04 percent probability that the similarity was caused by chance alone;
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Jaymann »

Like that picture of the squirrel sent by the mars rover?
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Kraken »

I remember being disappointed by the Viking results back in the day. Mars was still a big unknown then; everyone half-hoped the cameras would image something like lichens or primitive plants, or maybe even simple animals. So when they showed a lifeless plain, and the chemical analysis was also inconclusive, I was like "really Vikings? You had ONE job..." Every mission since then has been designed to determine whether the environment was ever hospitable, but they haven't actively sought out fossil evidence of life, much less extant organisms. The Mars 2020 rover will be the first robot meant to do so.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Jeff V »

Pfft.

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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Isgrimnur »

Space.com
Boeing's CST-100 Starliner crewed vehicle aced a crucial safety test this morning (Nov. 4) in the New Mexico desert.

Called a pad abort test, the drill checked the vehicle's ability to carry astronauts to safety should engineers notice an anomaly with the rocket that could endanger a launch. That scenario means that during a pad abort test, the capsule has to quickly pick up enough speed to carry humans to safety, starting from a standstill.
...
All three astronauts who will fly on Starliner's first crewed launch, a demonstration mission to the International Space Station, were present at today's test.

"We hope we never need to use this system," NASA astronaut Mike Fincke said. "We know after today's test we'll be able to get off safely and come back and try another day."

Boeing is hoping the trio will fly next year. "It's starting to feel really close, it's amazing, especially being here for the test," NASA astronaut Nicole Mann said. "Big milestones like the test today are just showing that we're getting a lot closer."
...
During the test, the Starliner capsule was programmed to reach a speed of 650 mph (1,046 km/h) in just 5 seconds. Engines on board the spacecraft fired intermittently over the course of 10 seconds in order to carry the capsule away from the launch pad and the hypothetical unstable rocket.
...
Then, the spacecraft oriented itself and a suite of parachutes released in three pulses over the course of about 25 seconds. The parachutes are crucial for crew safety because they both slow the capsule down and orient the spacecraft for a safe landing.

Those parachutes come in three pulses: two drogue parachutes, three pilot parachutes and three main parachutes. Only two of the last category deployed during today's test, but that is within the range of acceptable safety conditions for the vehicle, Landa said.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Holman »

LordMortis wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 2:50 pm Not sure how I feel about this. I'm really curious to know what all the laws around this are. I can only assume Raven Industries knows them well.

https://www.mlive.com/weather/2019/10/s ... kyard.html
At nearly the same time, a large balloon came down onto a power line in Wheeler, Mi., a few miles away. Welke says power had to be shut off in the area while crews removed the popped balloon from the power line on Barry Road in eastern Gratiot County. Welke estimates her power was off for about two hours.

...

Staff from a company called Raven Industries came to pick up the space contraption. Welke says the Raven representative wouldn’t say much about the situation. That person only told her the contraption was launched from Iowa yesterday and was being used to take pictures. The Raven representative told Welke the company is based “out of the Dakotas.”

Samsung just this week launched a program called Space Selfie. According to the Samsung website, the idea is for people to upload their picture and a space photo of Earth will be merged with their photo. The photo will then be sent back to the original uploader.
This kind of reminds me of something that happened to me in Ann Arbor.

I was renting an apartment in a house on the north side of campus, when suddenly I heard a thump on the roof, much heavier than an animal would make, and there were no trees above the house to lose branches.

I stepped outside and saw a weird contraption draped over the roof peak: large parachute (or so I assumed) on one side, its payload (an unmarked box maybe two feet long) on the other.

I called my housemates and my landlord. At first we wondered whether it was some sort of drug-drop gone wrong, or else a fireworks thing that might be dangerous. (We were close to July 4.)

Eventually the landlord got a ladder up and saw (due to very small print on the side of the payload) that it was a weather experiment sent up by graduate students in the UM Engineering school. The "parachute" was actually a balloon that had failed.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by LordMortis »

I have no idea what laws and liabilities are but if I were the home owner I'd be annoyed at the violation of my the sanctity of my property. If there were damages (and you can't crawl on a roof without taking some life off it) I'd be livid.

Maybe this just hits too close to home for me and the animals I have renting next door, who regularly throw garbage out of their windows on to my property, who have cats shitting in my yard, whose trees I have to cut back to keep from scratching my car in my driveway, who have stolen and vandalized stuff from my backyard and deny it when I can see it in their yard.

I've come >< close to escalating to law enforcement on multiple occasions, but as animals, I don't want to deal retaliation when the police are likely to do nothing. I tried setting up amateur surveillance but it was too hard to get a good angle without including their property and non expert legal advice suggests if I include their yard and their underage animals are recorded I could get in a whole lot more trouble than they should be in.

/rant
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Kraken »

Hardly a new idea, but beautifully executed: Prepare to feel small. (Just keep pressing the right arrow key, or "swiping left" as the kids say.)
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Alefroth »

Starlink

Falcon X just deployed another 60 satellites in the Starlink program. 12000 planned and approval for another 30000 requested.

Not surprisingly, astronomers are concerned.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Daehawk »

Id be concerned if I was an astronaut now days. Too many little things flying around up there at crazy speeds.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Zaxxon »

I think the concerns are (largely, but not completely) overblown. See this post of Casey Handmer's for much more detail on Starlink, including a look at the impacts that you've mentioned.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Daehawk »

There’s Growing Evidence That the Universe Is Connected by Giant Structures
Scientists are finding that galaxies can move with each other across huge distances, and against the predictions of basic cosmological models. The reason why could change everything we think we know about the universe.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Isgrimnur »

Kraken wrote: Sun Dec 30, 2018 11:01 pm On Tuesday New Horizons has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it encounter with Ultima Thule
:naughty:

EarthSky.org
[A] reporter at Newsweek pointed out that the Nazi party had used the phrase Ultima Thule to refer to the mythical homeland of the Aryan people. The term apparently remains in use by modern so-called alt-right groups. Now the object has a new name yet again. The name is now Arrokoth, which means sky in the Powhatan and Algonquian languages.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Kraken »

Yeah...IDK if "Arrokoth" will catch on, given that all of the popular flyby coverage referred to it as Ultima Thule, or by its scientific designation if the editor was being cautious (scientists knew at the time that the U-T name was an informal placeholder, and its unsavory association came to light quickly). Maybe Arrokoth will dominate in subsequent publications, but it can't scrub U-T from contemporaneous accounts.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Kraken »

The news about a star being ejected from the galaxy is mildly interesting, but I can't get over these two points:
Astronomers have spotted a star speeding through our galaxy at more than 3,728,227 mph.
That's an oddly precise number. What's "more than" 3,728,227 mean? 227.5? 228?
The astronomers plan to keep tracking the star and gain a more precise measurement of its velocity
Glad they're going to clear that up!
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Daehawk »

Can only hope there wasn't any planets with life around that star.

Also its at the edge of our galaxy so its 29,000 light years away which also means its where we see it 29,000 years ago. So where is it now?

29,000 years of travel at nearly 4 million miles per hour.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Max Peck »

Kraken wrote: Thu Nov 14, 2019 12:17 am The news about a star being ejected from the galaxy is mildly interesting, but I can't get over these two points:
Astronomers have spotted a star speeding through our galaxy at more than 3,728,227 mph.
That's an oddly precise number. What's "more than" 3,728,227 mean? 227.5? 228?
The astronomers plan to keep tracking the star and gain a more precise measurement of its velocity
Glad they're going to clear that up!
3,728,227.15 mph is more than 3,728,227 mph, and happens to be what you get when you convert 6,000,000 km/h into Freedom Units.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Isgrimnur »

Daehawk wrote: Thu Nov 14, 2019 12:49 am Can only hope there wasn't any planets with life around that star.
Odds are that they would go with it.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by The Meal »

Kraken wrote: Thu Nov 14, 2019 12:17 am
Astronomers have spotted a star speeding through our galaxy at more than 3,728,227 mph.
That's an oddly precise number. What's "more than" 3,728,227 mean? 227.5? 228?
:lol:

Someone dumbed down 6 Gm/hr for your imperial brain. And it was someone with a completely lack of knowledge of significant digits.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Isgrimnur »

Alefroth wrote: Mon Nov 11, 2019 2:37 pm Starlink

Falcon X just deployed another 60 satellites in the Starlink program. 12000 planned and approval for another 30000 requested.

Not surprisingly, astronomers are concerned.
Forbes
Image

In the early hours of the morning today, Monday, November 18, two astronomers checked in on their remotely operated telescope in Chile, expecting to see images of distant stars and galaxies. Instead, they saw a train of SpaceX satellites crossing the night sky, a worrying sign of what might be to come for astronomy.
...
However, with just 3,000 active satellites orbiting earth today, many astronomers have expressed concerns that this dramatic increase will create many more artificial points of light in the night sky. For a science that relies on dark skies, having multiple satellites constantly visible could pose significant problems.
...
Last night, they were taking about 40 exposures of the night sky, looking towards the small and large magellanic clouds, two dwarf galaxies that neighbor the Milky Way. But during one set of those observations, 90 minutes before sunrise, the train of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites moved into view, glinting in the early morning sunlight and taking five minutes to pass across the telescope's line of sight.
...
In the dead of night, the Starlink satellites are not visible as they are shrouded in Earth’s shadow. But at this time in the morning, still a prime time for astronomy, the satellites were clearly visible in orbit, caught not just in the telescope's field-of-view but a webcam at the observatory too.
...
So far, SpaceX has launched just 0.14 percent of its total planned Starlink constellation, but aims to start launching every fortnight to increase the number of Starlink satellites orbiting Earth to about 1,500 by the end of 2020. With thousands more satellites on the way, the risk of more events like this last night in Chile becomes ever-present.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Daehawk »

This is a terrible idea that should never have been passed. What they need to work on is clearing the crap thats already up there that is junk and useless garbage.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Zaxxon »

It's worth noting that the StarLink sats have not yet elevated their orbits, making them more visible now than they will be once stable.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Daehawk »

Thats a huge ass rover.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Hyena »

Daehawk wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 6:28 pm Thats a huge ass rover.
I was under the impression that it is roughly the same size as the current rover on Mars, Curiosity, which is about the size of a Mini Cooper.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Daehawk »

Dont forget the giant meteor shower. Possibly 100 in 15 minutes.

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentia ... 21-22-2019

Also this...no not the basketball shot.

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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Kraken »

Hyena wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 1:06 pm
Daehawk wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 6:28 pm Thats a huge ass rover.
I was under the impression that it is roughly the same size as the current rover on Mars, Curiosity, which is about the size of a Mini Cooper.
Yup, same form factor with different instruments, better wheels...and a helicopter! Keeping the same chassis allows them to use the same aeroshell, sky crane, and other infrastructure that they already know and love.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Hyena »

Kraken wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 2:41 pm
Hyena wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 1:06 pm
Daehawk wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 6:28 pm Thats a huge ass rover.
I was under the impression that it is roughly the same size as the current rover on Mars, Curiosity, which is about the size of a Mini Cooper.
Yup, same form factor with different instruments, better wheels...and a helicopter! Keeping the same chassis allows them to use the same aeroshell, sky crane, and other infrastructure that they already know and love.
The first time I heard about how they were planning on dropping the rover down, I was flabbergasted. It seemed like they were making things WAAAAAAY more complicated than they actually needed to be. And then they pulled it off, and I remembered that they are aerospace engineers, scientists, and astrophysicists and I'm a football coach.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Kraken »

Hyena wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 3:24 pm
Kraken wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 2:41 pm
Hyena wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 1:06 pm
Daehawk wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 6:28 pm Thats a huge ass rover.
I was under the impression that it is roughly the same size as the current rover on Mars, Curiosity, which is about the size of a Mini Cooper.
Yup, same form factor with different instruments, better wheels...and a helicopter! Keeping the same chassis allows them to use the same aeroshell, sky crane, and other infrastructure that they already know and love.
The first time I heard about how they were planning on dropping the rover down, I was flabbergasted. It seemed like they were making things WAAAAAAY more complicated than they actually needed to be. And then they pulled it off, and I remembered that they are aerospace engineers, scientists, and astrophysicists and I'm a football coach.
Yeah, the 7 Minutes of Terror -- there were just so many potential failure points, so many steps that had to go just right, that the probability of success seemed tiny. I actually teared up when Curiosity landed safely. You can see why they'd want to stick with that now-proven technology, with no compelling reason to change its parameters. It's still going to be another hairy landing, though. There are still lots of dice to roll.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by raydude »

It's mostly because Mars' atmosphere is the anti-Goldilocks. It's not too thick, not too thin, it's just right for screwing up atmospheric entry, descent, and landing.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Lassr »

Artemis Test Flight Software certified

this is the Software branch of the dept I support. It is quite impressive in person as the picture at the link only shows a portion of the SIL. Part of it is Boeing and and proprietary so no pictures. The other parts not pictured are the engines simulation computers.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Kraken »

Bah. In my day, we went to the moon without software.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Zaxxon »

Kraken wrote:Bah. In my day, we went to the moon without software.
Or so the Germans would have you believe...
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Holman »

Kraken wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 8:16 pm Bah. In my day, we went to the moon without software.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Kraken »

Recognized that photo immediately; she's a legend at MIT.

I was kidding (of course) about software on Apollo. It was primitive by today's standards but state-of-the-art then, just as today's state-of-the-art will be primitive in 50 years, if we manage to keep civilization going that long.

Core rope memory. Ingenious then; steampunk now.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Hrdina »

Kraken wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 11:06 pm Recognized that photo immediately; she's a legend at MIT.
She's a legend among the larger embedded flight SW world, too.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Isgrimnur »

CBS News
After prepping their patient — a $2 billion cosmic ray detector — during two earlier spacewalks, two space station astronauts ventured back outside for a third outing Monday to carry out what amounted to transplant surgery, installing replacement coolant pumps in a bid to revive the costly instrument and extend its life.

The work required European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA crewmate Drew Morgan to attach the 350-pound pump module to the 7.5-ton Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, plug in power and data cables and then splice together eight existing coolant lines that were cut during the crew's second spacewalk.

The AMS was not designed to be serviced in orbit and connecting, or "swaging," the small, relatively fragile coolant lines while working in pressurized spacesuits was considered an especially challenging task, rivaling work to repair some of the Hubble Space Telescope's most delicate systems.

But four years of planning and training paid off, and the astronauts had no problems working through their repair checklist, completing all of the required connections. They returned to the International Space Station's Quest airlock at 12:33 p.m. EST to wrap up a six-hour, two-minute excursion.
...
Launched to the space station in 2011, the AMS was built to study high-energy cosmic rays to glean clues about what happened to the antimatter presumably created during the big bang in equal measure with normal matter. Matter and antimatter annihilate on contact, and it's not clear why the universe is dominated by normal matter today.

The AMS also may shed light on the nature of the unseen dark matter permeating the universe and the mysterious dark energy that appears to be speeding up the expansion of the cosmos.

To achieve the required sensitivity, the AMS detectors must be chilled using carbon dioxide coolant pushed through the instrument in thin lines the width of a pencil. Originally designed to operate for just three years, the AMS chalked up eight years of operation before being hobbled by coolant pump failures.
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Daehawk »

Wonder if they got a refund on those pumps.

Seller: Now you bring them back if they dont work out ok. :)
NASA: Here ya go
Seller: ummm
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Daehawk
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Re: SPACE - random thread about space stuff

Post by Daehawk »

Hoag's Object Is a Galaxy Within a Galaxy Within a Galaxy (and Nobody Knows Why)

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This cosmic turducken is known as Hoag's object, and it has befuddled stargazers since astronomer Arthur Hoag discovered it in 1950.

The object in question is a rare, ring-shaped galaxy measuring some 100,000 light-years across (slightly larger than the Milky Way) and located 600 million light-years from Earth. In a recent image of the oddball object taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and processed by geophysicist Benoit Blanco, a bright ring of billions of blue stars forms a perfect circle around a much smaller and denser sphere of reddish stars. In the dark gap between the two stellar circles, another ring galaxy — much, much farther away from us — peeks out to say hello.
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I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
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