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[DEAD RABBIT]

Thanks for that elaboration, but I don't see how it was any different than what you quoted. Desperado never said the matter itself expanded, but space in between (space time)

No, he never mentioned that it was the space-time itself that was expanding. And in context of motion, does rarely someone refer to the space itself, or so, that is how interpreted his post.

 

[Lime]

• Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party

FUUUUUUCKK

 

[Desperado]

No, he never mentioned that it was the space-time itself that was expanding. And in context of motion, does rarely someone refer to the space itself, or so, that is how interpreted his post.

Yeah, you're right. Actually, I don't even remember where I got that idea. Certainly not in the astronomy courses I've taken.

 

[fallout]

It can't be possible to see that with your own eye right?

No, unfortunately. It says they were using 20 second exposures and there's just no way that your eye can take 20 second exposures, heh. The video is better for perspective than anything.

 

[speedpop]

That video is intense.

 

[DarkJediKnight]

awesome video.!!!

 

[jett]

Awesome...if only we could see something like that with the naked eye.

 

[BronzeWolf]

I work in a Astronomy Institute and I know nothing about space!

 

[Shorty]

I work in a Astronomy Institute and I know nothing about space!

ur prolly the janitor

 

[CurlySaysX]

I work in a Astronomy Institute and I know nothing about space!

Dont stress. Read wikipedia. It will make you an expert on everything.

 

[SuperBonk]

No, he never mentioned that it was the space-time itself that was expanding. And in context of motion, does rarely someone refer to the space itself, or so, that is how interpreted his post.

Also, the orginal question was how could something move faster than the speed of light. This can only be explained by the expansion of space. It's not like the Milkway Galaxy is going .5c and some other galaxy is going -.5c (or some other combination whose difference is greater than or equal to c). The expansion of space makes it seem like this is happening.

 

[Extollere]

Also, the orginal question was how could something move faster than the speed of light. This can only be explained by the expansion of space. It's not like the Milkway Galaxy is going .5c and some other galaxy is going -.5c (or some other combination whose difference is greater than or equal to c). The expansion of space makes it seem like this is happening.

Point is the space between the two points is expanding in both directions at a rate that makes it seem the the galaxies beyond are particle horizon are leaving faster than light. Anyway the effect is the same since the light can't reach us, thus rending those areas beyond the field invisible.

Here's another picture of the Milky Way from Earth (Death Valley) A panorama shot, you can click it for higher res.



And some more from Earth.

I'm assuming they are all shot with filters, or over exposed. You could never see this much from Earth due to light pollution, but even in areas with no light pollution I'm guessing you'd still only see a faint band. It's been a while since I've been out camping/hiking, and I really don't remember paying too much attention last time.

 

[SuperBonk]

Point is the space between the two points is expanding in both directions at a rate that makes it seem the the galaxies beyond are particle horizon are leaving faster than light. Anyway the effect is the same since the light can't reach us, thus rending those areas beyond the field invisible.

That's...what I said. Or at least what I intended to say.

Very nice pictures btw. Wish I didn't live in such a light polluted area.

 

[xBerserker]

That's...what I said. Or at least what I intended to say.

Very nice pictures btw. Wish I didn't live in such a light polluted area.

In areas with no light pollution it is very bright and visible.

 

[Extollere]

In areas with no light pollution it is very bright and visible.

Even without the over exposure of cameras? Damn. I Need to get out. Btw anyone been to Griffith Observatory in LA? Thinking of making the drive over there.

 

[Scum]

• Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party

:O

 

[WyndhamPrice]

Even without the over exposure of cameras? Damn. I Need to get out. Btw anyone been to Griffith Observatory in LA? Thinking of making the drive over there.

Yeah, I remember when I was young and we took a road trip to Texas, and when you get to the rural areas you can see a ridiculous amount of stars and bands of the milky way when it's clear out. I love that stuff.

 

[MisterAnderson]

Just to comment on this (and sound even more negative!), don't forget that radio transmissions are light as well, so they're bound by that speed limit. If we discovered an alien civilization 50 light years away (pretty small in galactic terms), it would take 50 years just to receive the initial message, then another 50 years for them to receive the reply. So, like you say ... hopefully we find some alternative.

Aren't radio transmissions radio waves and not light waves?... and thus only travel at the speed of sound as opposed to the speed of light?

 

[fallout]

Aren't radio transmissions radio waves and not light waves?... and thus only travel at the speed of sound versus the speed of light?

Nope! Radio waves (and radio transmissions) are indeed part of the light spectrum. Just like x-rays, infrared, the visible spectrum, etc., they travel at the speed of light.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum

Sound itself is transmitted by vibrations in the atmosphere and that's why you can't hear anything in space.

 

[Extollere]

Aren't radio transmissions radio waves and not light waves?... and thus only travel at the speed of sound as opposed to the speed of light?

Radio is part of the light spectrum, but not the visible light spectrum. It is just a frequency on the opposite end of infrared, x-ray and gamma. It is light.

 

[The Librarian]

• Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party

Nice.

 

[gofreak]

Just curious, but what did medieval folk think the bands of the milky way were? I'm assuming if anything they were even more visible then (what with less light pollution etc.).

 

[fallout]

Radio is part of the light spectrum, but not the visible light spectrum. It is just a frequency on the opposite end of infrared, x-ray and gamma. It is light.

Yeah, I guess "electromagnetic spectrum" might be a better option for terminology. I think I just got so used to calling it "light" from school. Damn physicists!

 

[iidesuyo]

From Wikipedia: the first woman in space


Vostok 6 (Russian: Восток-6, Orient 6 or East 6) was the first human spaceflight mission to carry a woman, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, into space. Data was collected on the female body's reaction to spaceflight. Like other cosmonauts on Vostok missions, she maintained a flight log, took photographs, and manually oriented the spacecraft. Her photographs of the horizon from space were later used to identify aerosol layers within the atmosphere. The mission, a joint flight with Vostok 5, was originally conceived as being a joint mission with two Vostoks each carrying a female cosmonaut, but this changed as the Vostok program experienced cutbacks as a precursor to the retooling of the program into the Voskhod program. Vostok 6 was the last flight of a Vostok 3KA spacecraft.

It was revealed in 2004 that an error in the control program made the spaceship ascend from orbit instead of descending. Tereshkova noticed the fault on the first day of the flight and reported it to Sergey Korolev. The mistake was promptly repaired. Tereshkova entered the data that she got from the Earth into the descending program and landed safely.

By request of Soviet spaceship designer Sergey Korolev, Tereshkova kept the problem secret for dozens of years. “I kept silent, but Evgeny Vasilievich decided to make it public. So, I can easily talk about it now.”

The landing site was the Pavinskiy Collective Farm west of Bayevo in the Altai Region. After parachuting from the capsule, Tereshkova barely missed the lake because of the violent wind. After the landing, the wind was blowing off her parachute, and Tereshkova received a large nose bruise before she managed to free herself from it.[citations needed]

The re-entry capsule is now on display at the RKK Energia Museum in Korolyov (near Moscow).

This was the final Vostok flight.

 

[speedpop]

Friend of mine passed this link onto me containing photos from the ISS taken looking towards Earth and the Moon. I've seen one or two before, but most of them are highly impressive.

http://uzaydabiryer.net/uuidan-dunya-manzaralari/


I enjoy this one a lot, specifically with the shot of the city in the background showing just how insignificant and minuscule we are against the endless saga that plays outside of our normal lives.

 

[Windu]

Above Earth, Fixing Hubble

Click For Bigger Image:

What is that astronaut doing? Fixing the Hubble Space Telescope. During the fourth servicing mission to upgrade and fix Hubble, astronaut Michael Good can be seen attached to the shuttle's robotic arm, working in an open panel of Hubble. Far below, the terminator between day and night can be seen across planet Earth. Since Hubble was captured by the space shuttle Atlantis last Wednesday, five long space-walks have been used to fix and upgrade the aging telescope. One of the more ambitious orbital missions yet taken, the toiling astronauts have upgraded the Wide Field Camera, fixed the Advanced Camera for Surveys, repaired the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, and replaced COSTAR with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. Numerous other general repairs included replacing batteries, gyroscopic sensors, and insulation panels. Hubble will now undergo testing as Atlantis prepares to return to Earth later this week.

 

[fallout]

I love the astronaut's feet hanging out.

 

[Windu]

Click For Bigger Image:

Rays of light from the sun have taken many different paths to compose this glorious image of Saturn and its rings.

This view looks toward the unilluminated (north) side of the rings and, at the top of the image, the night side of Saturn. Sunlight has been reflected off the illuminated side of the rings to light the planet's southern hemisphere, seen here as a bright band of yellow-orange. The northern hemisphere, in the top left corner of the image, is dimly lit by light diffusely scattered through the rings. The planet's shadow cuts across the rings, but light reflected off the southern hemisphere backlights parts of the C ring, making them visible in silhouette. A similar lighting arrangement can be seen in Saturn by Ringshine.

Bright points of light in the image are stars occulted by the rings.

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 41 degrees above the ringplane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on March 20, 2009 at a distance of approximately 892,000 kilometers (554,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 50 kilometers (31 miles) per pixel.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

 

[Windu]

View of the Journey Home

Click For Bigger Image:

Backdropped by the blackness of space and the thin line of Earth's atmosphere, space shuttle Atlantis' payload bay, Canadian-built remote manipulator system robotic arm, vertical stabilizer and orbital maneuvering system pods are featured in this image photographed by the STS-125 crew on flight day 10.

Astronauts Drink Recycled Urine, and Celebrate

Astronauts took a swig of recycled urine water to toast their successful testing of the wastewater recycling system on the International Space Station.

U.S. astronaut Michael Barratt called drinking the recycled water the stuff of science fiction, and cracked several jokes during the inauguration of the system known as ECLSS.

"We have these highly attractive labels on our water bags that essentially say 'brought to you by ECLSS,' and 'drink when real water is over 200 miles away,'" Barratt said.

Barratt appeared on NASA TV with crewmate Koichi Wakata, a Japanese astronaut, and station commander Gennady Padalka, a Russian cosmonaut. Earth crowds gathered at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

The water recycling system cost about $250 million and will be used daily to recycle urine and wastewater back into potable water suitable for drinking, food preparation, bathing and oxygen generation. The system has been used in the station's U.S. built oxygen generator, which uses electrolysis to separate water into oxygen and hydrogen, since November.

"We have completely checked out the system from end to end," said Marybeth Edeen, a JSC manager who led the development of the space station gear needed to support a full six-person crew.

A series of glitches and malfunctions in the new space gizmo have prevented astronauts from using it since it launched last November with the space shuttle Endeavour's STS-126 mission.

Today astronaut Don Pettit spoke with the space station crew from Houston, as part of the STS-126 crew celebrating the overdue inauguration of the recycler. He also apologized for not leaving his homemade zero-g coffee cup.

"We're getting ready to toast with some of yesterday's coffee with you guys," Pettit said.

That prompted a tongue-in-cheek reply from the space station.

"We're going to be drinking yesterday's coffee frequently up here, and happy to do it," Barratt replied.

A round of "Cheers!" was followed by the astronauts "clinking" together giant water pouches, before each grabbed a sip from their straws. The crew toasted twice, once for Mission Control and once for Marshall.

"Gennady's showing it's perfectly clear and worth chasing in zero-g," Barratt noted as the Russian cosmonaut closed in on an escaping water drop.

Wakata thanked everyone for the "real teamwork that made it possible to drink this recycled water." His sentiments were widely shared.

The small celebration signaled an important step for the space station to support its newly expanded six-member crew starting later this month. Having recycled water available also lightens the load for Russian resupply ships.

"It was wonderful," Edeen told SPACE.com following the toast. "It really is the culmination of maybe a decade of work to make this happen."

 

[Extollere]

I know it sounds gross, but I would try drinking it if offered to me in space (so long as my urine was was also processed and cleaned in the batch. I don't want to be drinking water from other people's piss without them drinking some of mine :lol ) I am sure it probably tastes exactly like water though.

 

[Lucky Forward]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30896443/

Obama picks ex-astronaut to lead NASA
Charles Bolden in line to be first African-American space chief
By Jay Barbree
Correspondent
updated 10:04 a.m. ET, Sat., May 23, 2009

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - President Obama intends to name former astronaut Charles F. Bolden to head NASA. If confirmed by the Senate, Bolden would become the first African-American NASA administrator.

Word of Obama's choice came in statements from NASA and the White House. The president also intends to nominate former NASA official Lori Garver, who headed Obama's space transition team, to become deputy administrator.

"These talented individuals will help put NASA on course to boldly push the boundaries of science, aeronautics and exploration in the 21st century and ensure the long-term vibrancy of America's space program," Obama said in Saturday's statement.

Bolden is an African-American born in 1946 in segregated South Carolina, where the law at the time forced him to study in a blacks-only school equipped with hand-me-downs and used books.

Despite the hard road of segregation, he logged top grades and pounded on the gates of the U.S. Naval Academy until a Northern congressman helped him get in. Bolden was elected president of his class, and graduated with the gold bars of a Marine second lieutenant.

Bolden earned his Naval Aviator wings and became one of America's outstanding combat pilots, flying more than 100 missions in the skies of North and South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Upon returning home, he became a leading Marine Corps test pilot and a NASA astronaut — logging 680 hours in Earth orbit.

Bolden first piloted the shuttle Columbia 23 years ago, and followed with three more space shuttle flights, including the flight that deployed the famed Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 and the first shuttle mission with a Russian crew member, in 1994. Bolden was shuttle commander for two flights, the one in 1994 as well as a science mission in 1992.

 

[Anticitizen One]

Is the new NASA chief good news for space travel or bad news?

 

[Hootie]

Whoa, I just found out yesterday was the 40 year anniversary of when Apollo 8 was just a few thousand feet from the earth. I believe that was also the mission where we got the amazing "Earth Rise" photograph.

By the way, are there any special events planned for the 40 year anniversary of the Moon Landing? I'd assume Obama will meet with the crew and there will be a celebration

 

[Windu]

Milky Way Seen From Death Valley



edit: oh, posted on the last page. Oh well. :|

Welcome Home, STS-125 Astronauts and Space Shuttle Atlantis!

NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis touches down on Runway 22 at Edwards AFB (EAFB) in California, U.S.A. on 24 May 2009, ending a journey of 5.3 million miles on the STS-125 mission to repair and upgrade NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The mission's elapsed time was 12 days, 21 hours, 37 minutes, 9 seconds.

 

[Extollere]

Milky Way Seen From Death Valley

edit: oh, posted on the last page. Oh well. :|

You mean posted on this page

 

[Tom_Cody]

Click for Source:

The Original Seven

In this 1960 photograph, the seven original Mercury astronauts participate in U.S. Air Force survival training exercises at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada. Pictured from left to right are: L. Gordon Cooper, M. Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Virgil I. Grissom, Walter Schirra and Donald K. Slayton. Portions of their clothing have been fashioned from parachute material, and all have grown beards from their time in the wilderness. The purpose of this training was to prepare astronauts in the event of an emergency or faulty landing in a remote area.

Forty-five years ago today on May 24, 1962, Scott Carpenter went on to fly the second American manned orbital flight. He piloted his Aurora 7 spacecraft through three revolutions of the Earth, reaching a maximum altitude of 164 miles. The spacecraft landed in the Atlantic Ocean about 1,000 miles, about 1,609 kilometers, southeast of Cape Canaveral after the 4 hour, 54 minute flight.

I love this image. I originally saw it on wired in low res form and I was eventually able to find the source thanks to TinEye. There are a few famous pictures of the Mercury Seven together (one of which I have framed in my apartment), but I had never seen this one. This just represents such an interesting piece of history to me.

 

[AndersTheSwede]

Titan's clouds (distinct from the haze) shown in infrared.

http://arstechnica.com/science/news...tan-cassini-mission-sees-seasonal-changes.ars

 

[ATF487]

I want to see those seas of methane!

 

[Lucky Forward]

BREAKING: EARTH TO COLLIDE WITH MARS (maybe)

'Tiny chance' of planet collision
By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News

Astronomers calculate there is a tiny chance that Mars or Venus could collide with Earth - though it would not happen for at least a billion years.

The finding comes from simulations to show how orbits of planets might evolve billions of years into the future.

But the calculated chances of such events occurring are tiny.

Writing in the journal Nature, a team led by Jacques Laskar shows there is also a chance Mercury could strike Venus and merge into a larger planet.

Professor Laskar of the Paris Observatory and his colleagues also report that Mars might experience a close encounter with Jupiter - whose massive gravity could hurl the Red Planet out of our Solar System.

Astronomers had thought that the orbits of the planets were predictable. But 20 years ago, researchers showed that there were slight fluctuations in their paths.

Now, the team has shown how in a small proportion of cases these fluctuations can grow until after several million years, the orbits of the inner planets begin to overlap.

The researchers carried out more than 2,500 simulations. They found that in some, Mars and Venus collided with the Earth.

"It will be complete devastation," said Professor Laskar.

"The planet is coming in at 10km per second - 10 times the speed of a bullet - and of course Mars is much more massive than a bullet."

Professor Laskar's calculations also show that there is a possibility of Mercury crashing into Venus. But in that scenario, the Earth would not be significantly affected.

"If there is anyone around billions of years from now, they'd see a burst of light in the sky and the two planets would be merged," he said.

"The new planet would be a little bit bigger than Venus, and the Solar System would be a little more regular after the collision, but the Earth's orbit would not be affected."

 

[Extollere]

Slightly off-topic but I love these paintings by Donato Giancola. Some may be a little cheesy, but this man has an obvious love for space.

 

[Tashi]

This space shit is so cool. It's really insane when you deeply think about what could be out there. No one knows.

 

[Extollere]

I don't think this was posted in this thread yet, but I found this beast searching through links late last night. released in early 2006, it's the largest image of a galaxy to date. This monster is 15,852 x 12,392 pixels large. Click on the image below if you dare.

28-Feb-2006: This new Hubble image reveals the gigantic Pinwheel galaxy, one of the best known examples of "grand design spirals", and its supergiant star-forming regions in unprecedented detail. The image is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy ever released from Hubble.

Giant galaxies weren't assembled in a day. Neither was this Hubble Space Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (the Pinwheel Galaxy). It is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy beyond the Milky Way that has ever been publicly released from Hubble. The galaxy's portrait is actually composed from 51 individual Hubble exposures, in addition to elements from images from ground-based photos. The final composite image measures a whopping 16,000 by 12,000 pixels.

The giant spiral disk of stars, dust and gas is 170,000 light-years across or nearly twice the diameter of our Milky Way. The galaxy is estimated to contain at least one trillion stars. Approximately 100 billion of these stars alone might be like our Sun in terms of temperature and lifetime. Hubble's high resolution reveals millions of the galaxy's individual stars in this image.

source

The full jpg image is about 63MB, my image viewer crashed while zooming in on this galactic mammoth. The original uncompressed tif image weighs in at 455MB! I wanted to download it, but I feared my computer would self implode just thinking about loading up an image that huge. Anyways, enjoy

 

[cjdunn]

Yeah, I caught this from the Hubblecast podcast, which is in full HD. Verrrry pretty.

 

[TehOh]

So, I brought this up in the LCROSS thread, but you guys might enjoy this here..

I'm an intern over at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. Every once in awhile, I'll see something cool and snap a picture of it.

So, if you guys were curious about where a lot of the science goes down:

View from the back side:

That giant building is one of the world's largest wind tunnels. Right now, they are testing a parachute for descent into the Martian atmosphere.

Some of these buildings sound like supervillain labs.

The vertical motion simulator is pretty awesome. Astronauts practice landing maneuvers here.

More pics here. I'll add things to this album every now and then.

I, sadly, won't be posting anything from inside buildings unless I know I'm in the clear. I also can't go into a lot of detail on certain topics. If you have any NASA questions though, feel free to toss them at me. I can take a crack at answering them.

(Oh, and even though I haven't posted in this thread before, it is one of my favorite GAF threads. I love the pics that are posted here. Space is such an awe-inspiring place.)

 

[Spire]

*giantasspic*

Wow.

Space is so damn cool. I really hope we start to properly explore it in my lifetime.

 

[AndersTheSwede]

I'm an intern over at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. Every once in awhile, I'll see something cool and snap a picture of it.

So how does it feel to have a dream job?

 

[kkaabboomm]

I'm an intern over at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA.

.....

I also can't go into a lot of detail on certain topics. If you have any NASA questions though, feel free to toss them at me. I can take a crack at answering them.

so which building do you work in/what general stuff do you do? you're an intern, so what are you getting your grad degree in and where? a buddy of mine is finishing up his first year getting an astrophysics masters? phd? i dont remember at UC....LA? it's in LA. anyways, just curious as to what you're doing

 

[TehOh]

So how does it feel to have a dream job?

Honestly? It's like being a kid again.

Like, even the more boring parts of my work are automatically more awesome because it involves spacecraft.

It also makes for great conversations. I can tell people that I am a rocket scientist and I'm not (completely) lying. :lol

 

[TehOh]

so which building do you work in/what general stuff do you do? you're an intern, so what are you getting your grad degree in and where? a buddy of mine is finishing up his first year getting an astrophysics masters? phd? i dont remember at UC....LA? it's in LA. anyways, just curious as to what you're doing

If you're familiar with Ames, I work in building 269 in the Robust Software Engineering group.

My basic job is applying AI/data mining techniques to build mathematical models and discover what factors lead to failures in various systems.

I'm finishing a MS in Computer Science at West Virginia University. So, my background is mainly in artificial intelligence, but the work here does require a decent education in physics and statistics (thankfully, I have both, but there are a lot of times where I have to smile and nod, then go and read papers later).

 

[RSTEIN]

(but there are a lot of times where I have to smile and nod, then go and read papers later).

"going and reading a paper" for me involves taking the morning funnies into the bathroom while I have a dump.