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[Myke Greywolf]

Looking at the Orion nebula with binoculars is an incredibly humbling experience. I imagine it would be moreso with a powerful telescope.

Even where I live, under the city lights, I can just faintly make it out with my naked eye. I can only imagine how it must be like if you can watch it under a perfectly dark sky.

 

[Alucrid]

Even where I live, under the city lights, I can just faintly make it out with my naked eye. I can only imagine how it must be like if you can watch it under a perfectly dark sky.

I remember when I was stay at a friends house in Tahoe. The sky was so clear it was incredible. You could see so much man...now I'm stuck back in the city and it sucks.

 

[Escape Goat]

Astronomers have found a star that's only as hot as a cup of coffee, making it a candidate for the coldest star known. That is, assuming it's a star.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/23/6324415-brown-dwarf-as-cool-as-coffee-found


Pretty neato. Thats one cold star-planet thing!

 

[Clevinger]

Man, I'd pay $$$$ for a bluray of a bunch of 1080p footage of this kind of stuff:

http://vimeo.com/19711309


Out of all the stuff I've seen in astronomy, I think these time lapse videos of our planet so obviously spinning amidst countless, beautiful stars impresses me the most. I love it.

 

[Escape Goat]

Man, I'd pay $$$$ for a bluray of a bunch of 1080p footage of this kind of stuff:

http://vimeo.com/19711309


Out of all the stuff I've seen in astronomy, I think these time lapse videos of our planet so obviously spinning amidst countless, beautiful stars impresses me the most. I love it.

Intensify forward batteries! I don't want anything to get through!

 

[Like the hat?]

Man, I'd pay $$$$ for a bluray of a bunch of 1080p footage of this kind of stuff:

http://vimeo.com/19711309


Out of all the stuff I've seen in astronomy, I think these time lapse videos of our planet so obviously spinning amidst countless, beautiful stars impresses me the most. I love it.

agreed on all counts

 

[RankoSD]

MWC 922: The Red Square Nebula

Explanation: What could cause a nebula to appear square? No one is quite sure. The hot star system known as MWC 922, however, appears to be embedded in a nebula with just such a shape. The above image combines infrared exposures from the Hale Telescope on Mt. Palomar in California, and the Keck-2 Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. A leading progenitor hypothesis for the square nebula is that the central star or stars somehow expelled cones of gas during a late developmental stage. For MWC 922, these cones happen to incorporate nearly right angles and be visible from the sides. Supporting evidence for the cone hypothesis includes radial spokes in the image that might run along the cone walls. Researchers speculate that the cones viewed from another angle would appear similar to the gigantic rings of supernova 1987A, possibly indicating that a star in MWC 922 might one day itself explode in a similar supernova.

 

[BetterThanNothing]

Homeworld music. How fitting.

lol @ 0:54 Somebody played Homeworld

Is this in any downloadable form perhaps? Or should I just use a general flash download plugin?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV3SHBFyDZM

This thread is amazing, by the way. I'm humbled every time I view it. I truly hope great strides are made in the field of space exploration/discovery in the coming years. I want to know as much as possible.

 

[Melchiah]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/11/hannys-voorwerp-green-blob-hubble_n_807298.html

Mystery Green Blob In Space Captured By Hubble

The Hubble Space Telescope got its first peek at a mysterious giant green blob in outer space and found that it's strangely alive. The bizarre glowing blob is giving birth to new stars, some only a couple million years old, in remote areas of the universe where stars don't normally form.

Parts of the green blob are collapsing and the resulting pressure from that is creating the stars. The stellar nurseries are outside of a normal galaxy, which is usually where stars live.

That makes these "very lonely newborn stars" that are "in the middle of nowhere," said Bill Keel, the University of Alabama astronomer who examined the blob.

The blob is the size of our own Milky Way galaxy and it is 650 million light years away. Each light year is about 6 trillion miles.

The blob is mostly hydrogen gas swirling from a close encounter of two galaxies and it glows because it is illuminated by a quasar in one of the galaxies. A quasar is a bright object full of energy powered by a black hole.

The blob was discovered by elementary school teacher Hanny van Arkel, who was 24 at the time, as part of a worldwide Galaxy Zoo project where everyday people can look at archived star photographs to catalog new objects.

Van Arkel said when she first saw the odd object in 2007 it appeared blue and smaller. The Hubble photo provides a clear picture and better explanation for what is happening around the blob.

"It actually looked like a blue smudge," van Arkel told The Associated Press. "Now it looks like dancing frog in the sky because it's green." She says she can even see what passes for arms and eyes.

Since van Arkel's discovery, astronomers have looked for similar gas blobs and found 18 of them. But all of them are about half the size of Hanny's Voorwerp, Keel said.

 

[Walshicus]

Homeworld music. How fitting.

That music wasn't made *for* Homeworld, Homeworld just happened to use it.

 

[RankoSD]

1,235 candidate planets discovered orbiting other suns:

Explanation: Using the prolific planet hunting Kepler spacecraft, astronomers have discovered 1,235 candidate planets orbiting other suns since the Kepler mission's search for Earth-like worlds began in 2009. To find them, Kepler monitors a rich star field to identify planetary transits by the slight dimming of starlight caused by a planet crossing the face of its parent star. In this remarkable illustration, all of Kepler's planet candidates are shown in transit with their parent stars ordered by size from top left to bottom right. Stars and the silhouettes of transiting planets are all shown at the same relative scale, with saturated star colors. Of course, some stars show more than one planet in transit, but you may have to examine the picture at high resolution to spot them all. For reference, the Sun is shown at the same scale, by itself below the top row on the right. In silhouette against the Sun's disk, both Jupiter and Earth are in transit.


EDIT: Original size here (9633 x 9633): http://www.flickr.com/photos/astroguy/5552363328/sizes/l/in/photostream/

 

[East Lake]

Can anyone recommend some good science/space documentaries? I've watched Cosmos, Wonders of the Solar System, Through the Wormhole... A couple with Jim Al-Khalili that I really enjoyed. I often find ones about space that seem really interesting always have these really dramatic tones with generic history channel-like voiceovers... anything a little more serious in tone?

Late as hell but along with the other stuff mentioned watch For All Mankind. No narration other than commentary from those in involved in the space program, plus Brian Eno music. It's only like 80 minutes long.

 

[LuFel]

1,235 candidate planets discovered orbiting other suns:

http://i53.tinypic.com/6htbgh.jpg

Explanation: Using the prolific planet hunting Kepler spacecraft, astronomers have discovered 1,235 candidate planets orbiting other suns since the Kepler mission's search for Earth-like worlds began in 2009. To find them, Kepler monitors a rich star field to identify planetary transits by the slight dimming of starlight caused by a planet crossing the face of its parent star. In this remarkable illustration, all of Kepler's planet candidates are shown in transit with their parent stars ordered by size from top left to bottom right. Stars and the silhouettes of transiting planets are all shown at the same relative scale, with saturated star colors. Of course, some stars show more than one planet in transit, but you may have to examine the picture at high resolution to spot them all. For reference, the Sun is shown at the same scale, by itself below the top row on the right. In silhouette against the Sun's disk, both Jupiter and Earth are in transit.


EDIT: Original size here (9633 x 9633): http://www.flickr.com/photos/astroguy/5552363328/sizes/l/in/photostream/

mother of god...

 

[UltimaPooh]

First image of Mercury from its orbit via the MESSENGER program.

 

[Maklershed]

Looks like the moon

 

[Stinkles]

Mercury is total shit, confirmed. You know what a real planet is? The planet Jumbonia shown as the HUMONGOUS black silhouette in front of the first sun on this image stolen from above.

 

[Extollere]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx96uy7EnZo&hd1

Shit's too far away mang.... our lolos will never reach it =(

 

[Escape Goat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx96uy7EnZo&feature=channel_video_title

Shit's too far away mang.... our lolos will never reach it =(

Its never encouraging when a video uses Wiki as a source of info in the first minute.

 

[Extollere]

Its never encouraging when a video uses Wiki as a source of info in the first minute.

It's TDarnell a well known and respected astronomer.

It's common, and accurate, information that Alpha Centauri is about 4 light years away. I don't think he was citing Wiki - just screen capping a page to fill a couple of seconds of dialog...

 

[LQX]

Secret Space Plane Can’t Hide From Amateur Sleuths

.....

The X-37B has generated intense interest, long before it ever left the ground. Boeing originally developed the 29-foot unmanned craft — a kind of miniature Space Shuttle — for NASA. Then, the military took over in 2004, and the space plane went black. Its payloads were classified, its missions hush-hush.

......

The X-37B, on the other hand, is orbiting around the fat middle of the planet, traveling over the Middle East, Africa, and fair chunk of China. “It means they are giving up global coverage and predictable shadow lengths, but getting more frequent passes,” Weeden says. The orbit lends credence to the idea that the space plane is an orbiting spy.

 

[owlbeak]

Mercury is total shit, confirmed. You know what a real planet is? The planet Jumbonia shown as the HUMONGOUS black silhouette in front of the first sun on this image stolen from above.

 

[Escape Goat]

Didn't some amateur astronomers catch one in orbit while star gazing? Or was that another stealth mini satellite/plane?

 

[Escape Goat]

A huge, powerful star explosion detonated in deep space last week — an ultra-bright conflagration that has astronomers scratching their heads over exactly how it happened.
The explosion may be the death cry of a star as it was ripped apart by a black hole, scientists said. High-energy radiation continues to brighten and fade from the March 28 blast's location, about 3.8 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco.

Full article here

 

[wolfmat]

A huge, powerful star explosion detonated in deep space last week

.. maybe, but that's not the explosion you're referring to — that one detonated in deep space about 3.8 billion years and a week ago.

 

[Escape Goat]

Scientists have found convincing evidence of liquid water inside a comet for the first time ever, according to a new study.

The result, which was obtained by studying tiny granules of comet material sent back to Earth by NASA's Stardust spacecraft, should help astronomers better understand how comets form and evolve, researchers said. In particular, it shows that comets can get warm enough to melt the ice that makes up the bulk of their mass — which will likely come as a surprise to many scientists.

"Current thinking suggests that it is impossible to form liquid water inside of a comet," said study co-author Dante Lauretta, of the University of Arizona, in a statement.
Peering at grains of Stardust

The researchers, led by graduate student Eve Berger of the University of Arizona, analyzed tiny particles of comet Wild 2 (pronounced "Vilt 2"). The Stardust probe scooped the grains up from Wild 2's coma — the diffuse cloud of material around its nucleus — on a close flyby of the comet in 2004, then sent the samples to Earth in a capsule two years later.

After studying the comet dust using electron microscopy and X-ray analysis, the researchers found minerals that formed in the presence of liquid water.

NASA
A closeup view of a cometary impact, center, into aerogel was inspected at a laboratory at the Johnson Space Center hours after the Stardust Sample Return Canister was delivered to the Johnson Space Center from the spacecraft's Utah landing site.

Comets spend most of their lives in the frigid depths of the outer solar system. So finding signs of liquid water inside the icy wanderers was unexpected.

"When the ice melted on Wild 2, the resulting warm water dissolved minerals that were present at the time and precipitated the iron and copper sulfide minerals we observed in our study,” Lauretta said. “The sulfide minerals formed between 50 and 200 degrees Celsius (122 and 392 degrees Fahrenheit), much warmer than the sub-zero temperatures predicted for the interior of a comet."

In addition to providing evidence of liquid water, the minerals put an upper limit on the temperatures Wild 2 experienced during its origin and history. For example, the researchers found one form of a copper iron sulfide mineral, called cubanite, that exists only below 210 degrees Fahrenheit.

"Such detailed thermal constraints will allow for detailed analysis of the role temperature played during the history of comet Wild 2," Lauretta said.

Wild 2's interior could have warmed up in several different ways, researchers said. Minor collisions with other objects could have done the trick, for example, and radioactive decay of elements found throughout the comet could have as well.

Comets are pieces left over from the solar system's youth — some of the stuff that didn't coalesce into the sun and planets. So learning more about comets' structure and evolution could shed light on the origins of the solar system, researchers said.
More space news from MSNBC Tech & Science

Science editor Alan Boyle's Weblog: Physicists produce computer models that show how colliding black holes can stretch or spin space-time in weird ways. They've even invented a new word to describe one of the ways.

The study also reinforces the fact that comets are active, changeable bodies — and that each one is likely different.

"What we found makes us look at comets in a different way," Lauretta said. "We think they should be viewed as individual entities with their own unique geologic history."

An artist's concept of the Stardust spacecraft beginning its flight through gas and dust around the comet Wild 2.

 

[Melchiah]

Unfortunately I don't know the origins of the image.

 

[sinxtanx]

You could just type Crab Nebula into Google

It's pretty well-known because it's AWESOME

 

[Melchiah]

You could just type Crab Nebula into Google

It's pretty well-known because it's AWESOME

Thanks for the info. Found it on FB, on my friend's friend's page.

 

[CabbageRed]

Thanks for the info. Found it on FB, on my friend's friend's page.

That's where the survey team went "missing" (there was a leak some time ago that alleged that Tali'Zorah located the team and described as "mindless fanatics") and the biotic extremists hid the MSV Ontario while holding Chairman Burns prisoner.

 

[Melchiah]

That's where the survey team went "missing" (there was a leak some time ago that alleged that Tali'Zorah located the team and described as "mindless fanatics") and the biotic extremists hid the MSV Ontario while holding Chairman Burns prisoner.

=D

 

[Dead Man]

That Cassini fly through is awesome. I was clicking around on some 'pale blue dot' type of videos and found this interactive graphic:

The Scale of the Universe

Didn't think it was really worth a thread, but thought some people in here might find it interesting.

 

[Zzoram]

Time to send satellite probes with archaebacteria and various bacterial endospores in seperate pods to all of the above planets. Either intelligent life will receive them in a few thousands to millions of years, or we'll seed life on dead planets or developing planets. Yeah!

 

[Garcia]

Ahhh, this thread always brings a good smile. *Hugs thread*

 

[elfinke]

Just spent a large portion of this easter break reading the entirety of this thread - astonishing stuff, such a wonderful thread.

Content for the bump:

All credit goes to Chris from the iceinspace forums, and I apologise if I somehow missed/forgot this in the thread earlier!

 

[fallout]

Just spent a large portion of this easter break reading the entirety of this thread - astonishing stuff, such a wonderful thread.

Huzzah! New people.

Content for the bump:

http://i.imgur.com/hoIqU.jpg

All credit goes to Chris from the iceinspace forums, and I apologise if I somehow missed/forgot this in the thread earlier!

Man, that is a fantastic image.

 

[elfinke]

Huzzah! New people.

Man, that is a fantastic image.

Yeah, shame about the amount of criticism from non-believers it attracted.

I've always had a keen interest in astronomy - I believe a telescope was one of the earliest gifts I received as a kid, and one has followed me ever since. I was going to treat myself to an 8" Dob at xmas last year, but couldn't afford one after my holiday. This year however, I've been hinting at one for my b'day to my partner and family (the rising aussie dollar is helping somewhat too!)

I've been 'levelling' up my powaaah in the Hubble iPhone app while during down time at work lately. The bug has been well and truly caught lol!

I also pulled out my old pair of bino's and tripodded them to test my memory at finding things in the sky (as well as take in some lunar sights), a set of 20x50 and guess what? It hasn't stopped raining since!

 

[Dynoro]

Nick Risinger has released his composite image of the night sky taken after travelling around the world

The Photopic Sky Survey is a 5,000 megapixel photograph of the entire night sky stitched together from 37,440 exposures. Large in size and scope, it portrays a world far beyond the one beneath our feet and reveals our familiar Milky Way with unfamiliar clarity. When we look upon this image, we are in fact peering back in time, as much of the light—having traveled such vast distances—predates civilization itself.

Seen at a depth thousands of times more faint than the dimmest visible star, tens of millions of other suns appear, still perhaps only a hundredth of one percent thought to exist in our galaxy alone. Our Milky Way galaxy is the dominant feature, its dusty arms sweeping through the frame, punctuated by red clouds of glowing hydrogen. To the lower right are our nearest neighbors, each small galaxies themselves with their own hundreds of millions of stars.

He's done a nice interactive version that superimposes the constellations on the image where you can zoom in the full resolution too.

And this is what he used to do it:

 

[Extollere]

Nick Risinger has released his composite image of the night sky taken after travelling around the world

WOAAAaauuuuuwwwaarrggggggghh :O

That seems even more intense than the composite images from the Gigagalaxy Zoom project, as well as the photographs by Stéphane Guisard. IIRC he compiled an interactive panorama of the night sky, but I think you can zoom in a bit more on this one by Risinger. Remember to press the 'I' and 'O' keys to zoom in and out respectively. Looks like the scroll wheel will work too.

Also check out Guisard's site - Lots of great images, gifs and videos there!


http://astrosurf.com/sguisard/

 

[fierrotlepou]

Nick Risinger has released his composite image of the night sky taken after travelling around the world





He's done a nice interactive version that superimposes the constellations on the image where you can zoom in the full resolution too.

And this is what he used to do it:

That's amazing.

 

[Extollere]

http://astrosurf.com/sguisard/Pagim/SGU-Paranal_pano-1750.swf Dude check this shit out. Full screen panorama from ESO off of Guisard.

Edit: one more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ACPdK-DlVs&feature=player_embedded

Watch in HD, it's awesome to see the shooting stars jet across that crystal clear sky.

 

[Kenka]

http://astrosurf.com/sguisard/Pagim/SGU-Paranal_pano-1750.swf Dude check this shit out. Full screen panorama from ESO off of Guisard.

Edit: one more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ACPdK-DlVs&feature=player_embedded

Watch in HD, it's awesome to see the shooting stars jet across that crystal clear sky.

Holy fucking Heracles. And I am even more surprised at the size of this thread. Night-sky GAF lovers community ? Hell yeah, I am so stepping in. Vintergatan is so superb on these animations.

 

[Extollere]

Holy fucking Heracles. And I am even more surprised at the size of this thread. Night-sky GAF lovers community ? Hell yeah, I am so stepping in. Vintergatan is so superb on these animations.

It's crazy to watch that video, and just realize for a moment that it's the Earth rotating underneath our feet, and the sky we see in motion is actually entirely static and unmoving. It's kinda surreal.

 

[gunther]

http://astrosurf.com/sguisard/Pagim/SGU-Paranal_pano-1750.swf Dude check this shit out. Full screen panorama from ESO off of Guisard.

Edit: one more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ACPdK-DlVs&feature=player_embedded

Watch in HD, it's awesome to see the shooting stars jet across that crystal clear sky.

I been there a couple of times, watched a comet once the sky sure is beatifull!!.

 

[Cromat]

Does the sky really look like that video with the naked eye or is it because the camera is on super-long exposure?
I've been to the desert and while the night sky are incredible when you get away from city lights, it's not even close to what this video and these images show.

It's actually depressingly hard to get completely away from city lights, since roads by definition connect places where people live.

 

[Extollere]

Does the sky really look like that video with the naked eye or is it because the camera is on super-long exposure?
I've been to the desert and while the night sky are incredible when you get away from city lights, it's not even close to what this video and these images show.

It's actually depressingly hard to get completely away from city lights, since roads by definition connect places where people live.

It's likely a bit more clear and visible to the naked human eye in some of those areas (such as where ESO is located) and other photo op areas due to their low humidity and high altitude.

However, the exposures times are still lengthened to capture more detail than you can see with your own eyes. In some of those videos I think they are about 15 to 20 seconds per frame.

 

[Cromat]

So I take it you can't really see these huge colored stars just hanging in the sky right? It seems unreal.

 

[mclaren777]

I'm sure many of you already own Universe Sandbox but, if not, it's on sale right now for just $9.

Steam

Youtube Video

 

[SteveWinwood]

I'm sure many of you already own Universe Sandbox but, if not, it's on sale right now for just $9.

Just bought it. Super excited. I had a game that looked like a super basic version of this something like 14 years ago. Thanks for letting me know about it. Had it been around long before the steam version cause it says that it was just released yesterday.

 

[mclaren777]

Always happy to help a fellow Twins fan.

 

[Escape Goat]

Here are some photos of a "smoking gun" of a supernova explosion. White dwarf went nova, blew away a huge portion of its companion star in the process.

Full article can be found here.