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Space: The Final Frontier

O

Ovid

Member
Socreges said:
Went camping last night, by convenience on the same night as Perseides. We were on a beach with no street lights or buildings within several km so I was excited to get a great view. Sure enough, though, it's overcast all night (we were on the ocean) so my gf and I head to bed a bit disappointed. About an hour later our friends wake us up. The sky had cleared up, and I don't remember it ever being so filled with stars. We could even see the "Milky Way" stretching across the sky. Then we see a meteor.

My friend: "That was just a shooting star"
"....wait, what do you think a shooting star is?"
"Something different, isn't it."
"A shooting star is a meteor..."
"..."
"This is what we're here for."

Was honestly happy that he didn't actually think a shooting star was literally a shooting star. Though I was camping with some people last weekend who thought Pluto had been "downgraded to a star". And these are fairly intelligent people. Just totally ignorant to astronomy.

Anyway, there were tons all over the sky. I came out later in the night and they were appearing even more frequently. I didn't see any slow burners, though.

I need a telescope. And maybe some new friends.
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I tried looking last night to no avail. I knew I wouldn't see anything here in NYC but it couldn't hurt to try.

Although, I did see a shooting star a couple months ago. I was amazed to say the least. Those things are incredibly fast.
 
L

Log4Girlz

Member
I've been seeing some people crunch numbers and it does indeed appear possible that there are more stars than there are grains of sand in all the beaches in all the world.
 
S

Sirius

Member
But they're already oran-

nvm. I think you get the point, our system = one blue among all the orange of the sands of this world.
 
T

Tawpgun

Member
300872_459945900693093_244856339_n.jpg
 
L

Log4Girlz

Member
Sirius said:
But they're already oran-

nvm. I think you get the point, our system = one blue among all the orange of the sands of this world.
Click to expand...

Yeah I do.

How about this. If the entire observable Universe were the size of the Earth, then the earth would be less than 1% the size of an Atom.
 
S

Starsunder

Member
Clevinger said:
It's so sad that he died before finishing the Pale Blue Dot audiobook. It's weird listening to Sagan's incredible cadence, and then it cuts to a goofy sounding guy all of a sudden and you realize, "Oh, that's when Sagan died..."
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Yup, agree 1000%. He died too young. Science could have done with another 10 or more years of Carl Sagan.
 
F

fanboi

Banned
This then:

If the space between the atom and the nucleus wasn't there all of humanity (all created etc) would be the size of a bit of sugar.
 
L

Leeroy3101

Banned
The Sagan Series, along with Cosmos, inspired me to head to the library and checkout Pale Blue Dot. Hopefully it's all that I hope it is.

I asked many pages back but where should I go for Space/Universe Documentaries since I'm done with Cosmos? I've already watched When We Left Earth as it's on netflix. I enjoyed that series a lot, too.
 
W

WeAreStarStuff

Member
Leeroy3101 said:
The Sagan Series, along with Cosmos, inspired me to head to the library and checkout Pale Blue Dot. Hopefully it's all that I hope it is.

I asked many pages back but where should I go for Space/Universe Documentaries since I'm done with Cosmos? I've already watched When We Left Earth as it's on netflix. I enjoyed that series a lot, too.
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Brian Cox is great, and reminds me a lot of the awe and enthusiasm that so characterized Sagan. I highly recommend Wonders of the Universe and Wonders of the Solar System.

Also, since you have Netflix How the Universe Works is fantastic!
 
O

Ovid

Member
How Much Longer Will We Talk to the Voyagers?

Since its 1977 launch, the Voyager 1 probe has passed gas-giant planets, beamed back the famous Pale Blue Dot picture of Earth from afar, and is now passing through the limits of the solar wind’s reach. Its sister craft, Voyager 2, took the first pictures of the outer gas giants, Uranus and Neptune. Likewise, it’s leaving the solar system.

Despite the Voyagers' incredible distance and its 1970s hardware, scientists can still communicate with them. But how much longer will they be able to talk to the first man-made crafts to venture so far? Turns out, nobody is totally sure.

"We thought we might not be able to go beyond where we are right now," says Jim Hodder, the operations manager in charge of the arrays of antennae responsible for Voyager communications. "But because we advanced our ground systems over the past few decades, I think right now it’s about another 10 years."

Distance isn’t such a big problem. Technological advances since the 1977 launch have made our antenna arrays incredibly powerful, Hodder says. For example, the Deep Space Network—a series of three antenna arrays strategically placed in rural locations around the world—can send and receive messages to and from the areas well outside our solar system. Cooling the 70-meter antennas to 18 degrees Kelvin ( minus 427 F) reduces noise, and the radio waves transmit data from probes and satellites loud and clear.

The real reason scientists can’t communicate with Voyager indefinitely is that the pioneering probes' fuel supply is not infinite. Eventually they will run out of juice and be left to wander the galaxy alone.

Suzanne Dodd, the Voyager project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says the Voyager spacecraft are powered by a couple of nuclear reactors sitting on the back of the probe, but they will soon run out of steam. "The nuclear power sources lose about 4 watts of power a year," she says. At this rate, Dodd says, Voyager should have enough power to communicate with Earth until 2022 or maybe 2025.

The fact that Voyager is still sending back data today is a feat in itself. When the Voyager probes were launched in 1977, no one thought they would still be in operation today. The missions were initially set up to get a better idea of the geography of Jupiter and Saturn, but the researchers in control of the mission didn’t want to stop there. Dodd and the rest of the team have extended Voyager’s life using the few improvised tactics they have available to them.

The scientists turned off Voyager 1's cameras in 1990 to conserve energy (but not before they turned Voyager back toward home to take the Pale Blue Dot photo). Last fall, they turned off the heaters on the backup thrusters. This means that the backup fuel lines will eventually freeze. It’s a risk the team was willing to take to extend the viability of the primary thrusters. Dodd thinks that in 2016, the team will probably have to turn off the gyros responsible for maneuvering the probe, and its movements will be left to the whims of deep space.

Voyager 1 also has a few built-in fail-safe devices to keep it talking to Earth. "If it doesn’t hear from us, it will go into a set pattern of activities," Dodd says. "It will still send things to us even if it doesn’t get information from home. It assumes its receiver failed."

Still, hearing from the explorers will grow more difficult. Voyager 1 is now 11 billion miles from the sun and getting 330 million miles farther away each year. At it current distance, a round-trip message from Voyager I to Earth and back again takes a little more than 33 hours. And Voyager scientists are allotted only 6 to 8 hours per day on the Deep Space Network, meaning there may not be somebody listening when Voyager is talking. (In fact, when Voyager first ventured into the heliosheath—the last layer between deep space and the sun’s wind—another group of researchers was using the array to monitor another mission. The data was saved, and the Voyager team got the exciting news a few hours later.)

That doesn’t dampen Dodd’s enthusiasm. "We want to see it get into interstellar space. We want to see it continue sending data back even if we can’t send it to them."
Click to expand...
Source: Popular Mechanics
 
L

Log4Girlz

Member
Woorloog said:
Wonder if neutron stars are even rounder, assuming no rotation (ie has already slowed down) to avoid bulging at equator.
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Structure

Cross-section of neutron star. Densities are in terms of ρ0 the saturation nuclear matter density, where nucleons begin to touch.

Current understanding of the structure of neutron stars is defined by existing mathematical models, but it might be possible to infer through studies of neutron-star oscillations. Similar to asteroseismology for ordinary stars, the inner structure might be derived by analyzing observed frequency spectra of stellar oscillations.[3]

On the basis of current models, the matter at the surface of a neutron star is composed of ordinary atomic nuclei crushed into a solid lattice with a sea of electrons flowing through the gaps between them. It is possible that the nuclei at the surface are iron, due to iron's high binding energy per nucleon.[18] It is also possible that heavy element cores, such as iron, simply sink beneath the surface, leaving only light nuclei like helium and hydrogen cores.[18] If the surface temperature exceeds 106 kelvin (as in the case of a young pulsar), the surface should be fluid instead of the solid phase observed in cooler neutron stars (temperature <106 kelvins).[18]

The "atmosphere" of the star is hypothesized to be at most several micrometers thick, and its dynamic is fully controlled by the star's magnetic field. Below the atmosphere one encounters a solid "crust". This crust is extremely hard and very smooth (with maximum surface irregularities of ~5 mm), because of the extreme gravitational field.[19]
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.
 
E

Escape Goat

Member
Behold! The Octomom of the Universe!


5o7pw.jpg


An extraordinary cluster of faraway galaxies is shattering or challenging a number of cosmic records, weighing in as potentially the most massive cluster known.
The colossal galaxy cluster is also the brightest in X-ray light, and the galaxy at its heart apparently gives birth to more than 700 stars per year — hundreds of times as fast as our Milky Way forms stars, researchers say.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4867747...er-contains-super-mom-starbirth/#.UC67B92PXng
 
L

Leeroy3101

Banned
Cross posted from Kerbal Space Program Thread:

omlAv.jpg

A crude NASA Space Launch System mockup. It works even with the scramjet EVAC system at the top. I just need to add more fuel/stages towards the top. This will be coming to a launchpad near you, if you live in Titusville...., in 2014!

F603H.jpg

STS-Kerbal Edition! I need to work on the aerodynamics and RCS properties. It goes belly up at about 10km into the air. The shuttle, when separated, works fantastic as a glide
 
O

owlbeak

Member
Leeroy3101 said:
Cross posted from Kerbal Space Program Thread:

omlAv.jpg

A crude NASA Space Launch System mockup. It works even with the scramjet EVAC system at the top. I just need to add more fuel/stages towards the top. This will be coming to a launchpad near you, if you live in Titusville...., in 2014!

F603H.jpg

STS-Kerbal Edition! I need to work on the aerodynamics and RCS properties. It goes belly up at about 10km into the air. The shuttle, when separated, works fantastic as a glide
Click to expand...
Nice ship designs! Using any addons there?
 
E

EVIL

Member
Sirius said:
Anyone subscribed to this thread who hasn't seen The Sagan Series, boy are you in for a show. There are 9 parts so far - each as amazing as the next.

Watch them. I'm Sirius:


THE SAGAN SERIES [Part 1] - The Frontier Is Everywhere

THE SAGAN SERIES [Part 2] - Life Looks for Life (I literally shed a tear to this one.)

THE SAGAN SERIES [Part 3] - A Reassuring Fable

THE SAGAN SERIES [Part 4] - Per Aspera Ad Astra

THE SAGAN SERIES [Part 5] - Decide To Listen

THE SAGAN SERIES [Part 6] - End of an Era: The Final Shuttle Launch

THE SAGAN SERIES [Part 7] - The Long Astronomical Perspective

THE SAGAN SERIES [Part 8] - Gift of Apollo

THE SAGAN SERIES [Part 9] - The Humans
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yeah these are absolutely amazing!

the words of sagan are very moving and inspiring
 
A

Apath

Member
Teh Hamburglar said:
Are there any planets visible right now? I saw two REALLY bright stars last night and I'm pretty sure they weren't planes.
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I think I saw what you were talking about last night. I'm in Chicago and it was around 3-ish in the morning, but I saw a star that was so bright, if someone told me it was a small part of the moon I'd have believed them. It was visible bright and clear despite none of the other stars penetrating the Chicago light-pollution.

I just figured it was Jupiter.
 
D

DrM

Redmond's Baby
olore said:
Wow, you should´ve highlighted everything, didn`t know they carry a nuclear reactor for power
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Almost all deep space probes are using radioisotope thermoelectric generators for their power source. Juno (latest probe headed for Jupiter) is now first probe that is using solar panels for power, due to progress in this tech. But for deep space missions (Saturn and beyond), RTGs are still the only way to go.
 
Melchiah

Melchiah

Member
YtdvD.jpg


http://www.universetoday.com/96927/...-the-act-of-devouring-a-planet/#ixzz2457YnEaW
A First: Star Caught in the Act of Devouring a Planet

How’s this for a depressing look into Earth’s potential future: astronomers have witnessed the first evidence of a planet’s destruction by its aging star as it expands into a red giant.
“A similar fate may await the inner planets in our solar system, when the Sun becomes a red giant and expands all the way out to Earth’s orbit some five-billion years from now,” said Alex Wolszczan, from Penn State, University, who led a team which found evidence of a missing planet having been devoured by its parent star. Wolszczan also is the discoverer of the first planet ever found outside our solar system.

The planet-eating culprit, a red-giant star named BD+48 740 is older than the Sun and now has a radius about eleven times bigger than our Sun.

The evidence the astronomers found was a massive planet in a surprising highly elliptical orbit around the star – indicating a missing planet — plus the star’s wacky chemical composition.

“Our detailed spectroscopic analysis reveals that this red-giant star, BD+48 740, contains an abnormally high amount of lithium, a rare element created primarily during the Big Bang 14 billion years ago,” said team member Monika Adamow from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. “Lithium is easily destroyed in stars, which is why its abnormally high abundance in this older star is so unusual.

“Theorists have identified only a few, very specific circumstances, other than the Big Bang, under which lithium can be created in stars,” Wolszczan added. “In the case of BD+48 740, it is probable that the lithium production was triggered by a mass the size of a planet that spiraled into the star and heated it up while the star was digesting it.”

The other piece of evidence discovered by the astronomers is the highly elliptical orbit of the star’s newly discovered massive planet, which is at least 1.6 times as massive as Jupiter.

“We discovered that this planet revolves around the star in an orbit that is only slightly wider than that of Mars at its narrowest point, but is much more extended at its farthest point,” said Andrzej Niedzielski, also from Nicolaus Copernicus University. “Such orbits are uncommon in planetary systems around evolved stars and, in fact, the BD+48 740 planet’s orbit is the most elliptical one detected so far.”

Because gravitational interactions between planets are responsible for such peculiar orbits, the astronomers suspect that the dive of the missing planet toward the star could have given the surviving massive planet a burst of energy, throwing it into an eccentric orbit like a boomerang.

“Catching a planet in the act of being devoured by a star is an almost improbable feat to accomplish because of the comparative swiftness of the process, but the occurrence of such a collision can be deduced from the way it affects the stellar chemistry,” said Eva Villaver of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain Villaver. “The highly elongated orbit of the massive planet we discovered around this lithium-polluted red-giant star is exactly the kind of evidence that would point to the star’s recent destruction of its now-missing planet.”

The team used the Hobby-Eberly Telescope – searching for planets – when they detected evidence of the missing planet’s destruction.
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