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[endre]

What is the point of this? Do you want me to find the video?

 

[Hootie]

What is the point of this? Do you want me to find the video?

No I'm facepalming the fact that the US rejected China from being part of the ISS

 

[Kyaw]

yeah it was launched late last year.

if i remember correctly, we will be able to watch its landing live (well, takes 14min for the signal to travel) in HD, at 5fps. i don't know if i will be able to contain myself when watching it...

It would definitely be awesome. Hopefully, everything goes well with the landing...

Are you sure about the 5fps thing? Wouldn't the camera be able to record everything at 30fps or whatever and just take time sending all the frames back to earth?

 

[Navidson REC]

I think that one day man might have to send a hyperkinetic missile after voyager and destroy it. It's a naked invitation to come and invade a weak semi-technological resource rich society. There is not only SERO reason to suspect aliens would be peaceful, but a giant preponderance of evidence and logic to suggest predatory species advance quickly and that hegemonies succeed by eliminating competition.

That said, voyager is a needle in a haystack, while our radio emissions are a big old hayloft.

If Voyager manages to wake up that Ancient Evil™ earlier than November 6, I'm okay with this.

On another note, glad to see this thread keeps on trucking. Only yesterday did I rewatch this Sagan classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw&feature=youtu.be

 

[Neo C.]

I'm not a fan of Chinese politics, but I appreciate their effort in pushing science. Hopefully the US step up their game the more advances China makes.

 

[hydragonwarrior]

Nasa has released a new "White Marble" image of the amazing planet we call home.

We really need some more green lol

 

[Hootie]

Not sure if this has been posted before but I believe this is the first photo that fully contains both the moon in the earth in it. It has an...eerie quality to it

 

[Log4Girlz]

Not sure if this has been posted before but I believe this is the first photo that fully contains both the moon in the earth in it. It has an...eerie quality to it

I love the one taken from mercury, just two dots, one brighter than the other...you can really see the distant between the two bodies.

 

[Orgun]

http://i.minus.com/iYb7hqeW1M2v8.jpg

Not sure if this has been posted before but I believe this is the first photo that fully contains both the moon in the earth in it. It has an...eerie quality to it[/QUOTE]

Where's that image taken from?

 

[Log4Girlz]

Where's that image taken from?

Kentucky.

 

[Orgun]

Kentucky.

Impressive.

 

[RoadHazard]

this video is awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzqdoXwLBT8

shows the landing sequence for the Curiosity rover and challenges with the landing. super cool!

That's pretty damn cool, but a couple of rovers have already been landed successfully on Mars, right? So why are they are making it sound like this is something that has never been done before and requires all kinds of new solutions?

 

[XMonkey]

Because we landed the other rovers a different way. This new one is also a lot bigger so the old solutions weren't going to work.

 

[RoadHazard]

Because we landed the other rovers a different way. This new one is also a lot bigger so the old solutions weren't going to work.

Ok, cool! Gonna be exciting to see if it works, definitely gonna try to follow the live coverage.

 

[Log4Girlz]

Can't wait for them to get that huge SUV on mars man.

Fuck, I can't wait for the day we really make spaceflight cheaper so that private enterprises can start making their own probes and rovers

 

[Joel Was Right]

I'd like to do some stargazing this summer. Willing to travel abroad. Anyone here live where there is little light pollution willing to host me for a few nights?

 

[Maklershed]

Possibly an utterly stupid question but .. I'm aware there are random gasses floating in space but is it possible that there are clouds of breathable oxygen out there? And if so, would it feasibly be possible for a space ship to somehow suck it up with a hose more or less?

 

[Slightly Live]

Possibly an utterly stupid question but .. I'm aware there are random gasses floating in space but is it possible that there are clouds of breathable oxygen out there? And if so, would it feasibly be possible for a space ship to somehow suck it up with a hose more or less?

There is oxygen. But you can't "suck" something up in space because it's a vacuum. You need to "scoop" it up to collect it - something that technically feasible but I don't know the logistics.

Problem, there are no local oxygen "clouds" near by to do this with. Gases don't just float about randomly- they are usually localised in a gravity well of some sort belonging to a bigger object, such as a star, planet, moon or even black hole. They do, however, exist.

There was a recent "cloud" of water found recently, containing more fresh water than the Earth has oceans. It's actually 40 times the entire mass (everything!) of Earth. Space is awesome.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Possibly an utterly stupid question but .. I'm aware there are random gasses floating in space but is it possible that there are clouds of breathable oxygen out there? And if so, would it feasibly be possible for a space ship to somehow suck it up with a hose more or less?

Outer space is a near-vacuum, so only bodies with sufficient gravity can have anything that your lungs are capable of breathing in. There is nowhere in space where you could step outside and take a breath, if that's what you meant. As to whether there is O2 floating around that could be harvested, there is, but not in any large concentrations (see above). In order for it to be on Earth, it had be collected from what was once interstellar gasses. Oxygen itself is formed by Stellar nucleosynthesis, when stars are nearing the latter part of their life. When the star eventually breaks up, this material will spread out (along with all of the other materials produced by the star).

 

[Insane Metal]

There are 2 event's that I'm really looking forward to:

1 - Curiosity - I'm really optimistic about it and I think it will show us some impressive stuff;
2 - JWST - I bet this will be a mind blowing marvel, that will show us things we never imagined and help us explain many of the 'unexplainable' things we have no clue about today. Too bad we'll have to wait for AT LEAST 6 more years until it get green light to fly =(

 

[Mengy]

I'd like to do some stargazing this summer. Willing to travel abroad. Anyone here live where there is little light pollution willing to host me for a few nights?

Hah, we need a GAF stargazing party. I've got a 10" Dobsonian scope I could bring!

 

[Crazymoogle]

Outer space is a near-vacuum, so only bodies with sufficient gravity can have anything that your lungs are capable of breathing in. There is nowhere in space where you could step outside and take a breath, if that's what you meant.

Well, even if Makler meant the other way (if a random high concentration of oxygen floated by, could you breathe it in?) the answer is probably no as your lungs work on pressure change (air rushing to fill or vacate a space). With no pressure in the vacuum the best you could hope for is the oxygen somehow randomly hitting your lungs, which is more or less as likely as just floating around and hoping you get hit by a space hotdog.

 

[fallout]

I'd like to do some stargazing this summer. Willing to travel abroad. Anyone here live where there is little light pollution willing to host me for a few nights?

Hit up Arizona, if you can. They've got houses you can rent and such. Never been myself, but I know quite a few people who have gone.

 

[Maklershed]

Outer space is a near-vacuum, so only bodies with sufficient gravity can have anything that your lungs are capable of breathing in. There is nowhere in space where you could step outside and take a breath, if that's what you meant. As to whether there is O2 floating around that could be harvested, there is, but not in any large concentrations (see above). In order for it to be on Earth, it had be collected from what was once interstellar gasses. Oxygen itself is formed by Stellar nucleosynthesis, when stars are nearing the latter part of their life. When the star eventually breaks up, this material will spread out (along with all of the other materials produced by the star).

There are 2 event's that I'm really looking forward to:

1 - Curiosity - I'm really optimistic about it and I think it will show us some impressive stuff;
2 - JWST - I bet this will be a mind blowing marvel, that will show us things we never imagined and help us explain many of the 'unexplainable' things we have no clue about today. Too bad we'll have to wait for AT LEAST 6 more years until it get green light to fly =(

Well, even if Makler meant the other way (if a random high concentration of oxygen floated by, could you breathe it in?) the answer is probably no as your lungs work on pressure change (air rushing to fill or vacate a space). With no pressure in the vacuum the best you could hope for is the oxygen somehow randomly hitting your lungs, which is more or less as likely as just floating around and hoping you get hit by a space hotdog.

I was asking because I was wondering would it be possible if a generation ship could be out in deep space and instead of just using completely recycled air (or water as Slightly Live points out) if they could locate random floating clouds of resources in space and bring it into the ship - therefore never having to dock anywhere to resupply themselves.

 

[Escape Goat]

This image of Mars released Thursday combines 817 component images taken between Dec. 21, 2011, and May 8, 2012, by the rover Opportunity.

 

[Cromat]

I was asking because I was wondering would it be possible if a generation ship could be out in deep space and instead of just using completely recycled air (or water as Slightly Live points out) if they could locate random floating clouds of resources in space and bring it into the ship - therefore never having to dock anywhere to resupply themselves.

Molecular Oxygen (O2) is highly reactive and is therefore rarely found in nature. The only reason we have significant amounts of it on Earth is because living organisms replenish it through photosynthesis.

Therefore it is unlikely you could find breathable Oxygen floating in space. Water however is a pretty common compound and is contained in large quantities in icy meteors. You could theoretically mine icy meteors for water and electrolyze it into hydrogen and oxygen.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

this video is awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzqdoXwLBT8

shows the landing sequence for the Curiosity rover and challenges with the landing. super cool!

so if they fail, can we still blame it on the alien death beams?

 

[BruiserBear]

this video is awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzqdoXwLBT8

shows the landing sequence for the Curiosity rover and challenges with the landing. super cool!

Thanks for the link. Loved it. Can't wait to see the first images.

 

[6.8]

I'd like to do some stargazing this summer. Willing to travel abroad. Anyone here live where there is little light pollution willing to host me for a few nights?

South Island in New Zealand had very little light pollution. Plus it's the superior sky, so there.

 

[Gr1mLock]

I been watching Lawrence Krauss' 'a universe from nothing' conferences with Dawkins. Pretty deep stuff. I know its no news to anyone but hot damn is the human brain not equipped to consider almost any scale of any sort significant to the universe.

 

[BruiserBear]

I been watching Lawrence Krauss' 'a universe from nothing' conferences with Dawkins. Pretty deep stuff. I know its no news to anyone but hot damn is the human brain not equipped to consider almost any scale of any sort significant to the universe.

I agree. It's almost impossible to comprehend the big picture sometimes. It's overwhelming.

At the same time I find it fascinating/troubling just how little of the human race alive today even understands the basics of it all.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

I been watching Lawrence Krauss' 'a universe from nothing' conferences with Dawkins. Pretty deep stuff. I know its no news to anyone but hot damn is the human brain not equipped to consider almost any scale of any sort significant to the universe.

this is one of the things I find very intimidating about Science it is so far beyond my own level of thinking that it almost feels magical, I am sad I was not born smarter to explore it all or even understand half of it

when these guys talk about the Universe, none of it makes sense until you love 'Thinking'

 

[Ovid]

This image of Mars released Thursday combines 817 component images taken between Dec. 21, 2011, and May 8, 2012, by the rover Opportunity.

Damn, that thing is still alive?


Oh yeah, and Curiosity is a month away from touch down

August 6th EST.

 

[Escape Goat]

Damn, that thing is still alive?

I thought they lost contact but then it woke up. Or they shut it down for the winter.

 

[PantherLotus]

There are 2 event's that I'm really looking forward to:

1 - Curiosity - I'm really optimistic about it and I think it will show us some impressive stuff;
2 - JWST - I bet this will be a mind blowing marvel, that will show us things we never imagined and help us explain many of the 'unexplainable' things we have no clue about today. Too bad we'll have to wait for AT LEAST 6 more years until it get green light to fly =(

Agreed with both. I'll add (sorry if they're more vague):

3. Practical application of Higgs Boson discovery.
4. A Plan and deadline for humans on Mars.

This image of Mars released Thursday combines 817 component images taken between Dec. 21, 2011, and May 8, 2012, by the rover Opportunity.

Wonderful!

I been watching Lawrence Krauss' 'a universe from nothing' conferences with Dawkins. Pretty deep stuff. I know its no news to anyone but hot damn is the human brain not equipped to consider almost any scale of any sort significant to the universe.

Indeed. This is the stuff that keeps me awake at night. Sometimes I wonder, like Dr. NDGT said, if we're just not smart enough to succeed. But that would be terrifying -- because we're almost smart enough to know we're not smart enough. That's fucking dangerous.

 

[makingmusic476]

Not sure if this has been posted before but I believe this is the first photo that fully contains both the moon in the earth in it. It has an...eerie quality to it

Incredible photo. In my head, I've always visualized the moon as being about 1/4th that size, and about 1/3rd that distance from the Earth.

 

[MisterAnderson]

Not sure if this has been posted before but I believe this is the first photo that fully contains both the moon in the earth in it. It has an...eerie quality to it

Do you guys know if that is a "side profile" shot of the Earth and Moon? As in... is that a representation of the distance between the two Planetoids or is the Moon perhaps closer or farther to the camera than the Earth is?

 

[PantherLotus]

There's a much better photo out there that shows the true distance and relative size of the Earth and Moon -- I think it's shot from mars or one of satellites on the way to Mars or something...but it looks like a blue marble and a golf ball, sitting unfathomably farther away than you think.

edit: It's from a Jupiter probe:

 

[Gr1mLock]

this is one of the things I find very intimidating about Science it is so far beyond my own level of thinking that it almost feels magical, I am sad I was not born smarter to explore it all or even understand half of it

when these guys talk about the Universe, none of it makes sense until you love 'Thinking'

There's a term for this line of though. I forget what it is but its akin to the 'fatalist depression' thing where the feeling of being overwhelmed by it all causes a disconnect. Its perfectly natural.

 

[derFeef]

Simultaneous launch of all space shuttles.
http://vimeo.com/27505192

 

[Windu]

I was thinking about updating the OP...but i'm lazy. If someone wants to create a good one with a lot of useful links i'll gladly put it in there.

 

[Insane Metal]

edit: wrong thread LOL

 

[PantherLotus]

New Type of Black Hole Found—Relic of Early Universe?
Middleweight black hole may explain how giant cousins formed.

Until recently, black holes were thought to come in only two sizes: Small stellar varieties that are several times heavier than our sun, and supermassive black holes that pack the gravitational punch of many million suns—large enough to swallow our entire solar system.

Notorious for ripping apart and swallowing stars, extra-large black holes live exclusively in the hearts of most galaxies, including our own Milky Way.

The new middleweight black hole is between these two types—equal to the matter of about 90,000 suns.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...ack-hole-middleweight-space-science-universe/

 

[Hootie]

Pfft, only 90,000 suns?

 

[Log4Girlz]

Pfft, only 90,000 suns?

Yeah, that's like the size of my ass. No big whup.

 

[abstract alien]

How could we not think this existed? It's seems like a matter of seeing what we would just assume to be. I mean, why wouldn't there be a gradation in black hole size if it's directly affected by the matter it can consume?

Or do I have this entire thing screwed up? I know the universe is an infinitely weird place, but this sounds like something that should have been assumed almost.

 

[Woorloog]

I take it hese "new" black holes are not the type Hawking predicted?
What were those called, primordial black holes? Anyway, weren't those formed (according to theory) by extremly thick regions of early universe, just like stars do form from gas clouds?

 

[abstract alien]

I take it these "new" black holes are not the type Hawking predicted?
What were those called, primordial black holes? Anyway, weren't those formed (according to theory) by extremely thick regions of early universe, just like stars do form from gas clouds?

I thought they formed from a collapsing star. I don't know. There is so much to remember I forget in the process lol

 

[WeAreStarStuff]

Pfft, only 90,000 suns?

Haha I love how that's just a middleweight black hole...

 

[Mato]

Not sure if this has been posted. It shows everything. Mute it, music doesn't add anything helpful:

UNIVERSE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U

Every human being needs to see this. It should be in TV every day in the morning and before bedtime to put things in perspective so we can stop killing each other.