• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Space: The Final Frontier

S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Cromat said:
So I take it you can't really see these huge colored stars just hanging in the sky right? It seems unreal.
Click to expand...
If its dark enough, yes. Colors take concentration to discern but they're there. Best night skies are clear moonless nights. Best I have seen personally is in the Yucatan
 
M

Maklershed

Member
Teh Hamburglar said:
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.

8MDxr.jpg
Click to expand...
This is incredible.

Unrelated: Anyone here have the star walk app?
 
Melchiah

Melchiah

Member
Super-Civilizations Might Live Off Black Holes:
http://news.discovery.com/space/sup...ve-off-black-holes-110430.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1 (video inside)

The sad unplugging of the Allen Telescope Array due to lack of funding brings a screeching halt, at least temporarily, to the most ambitious search for "hello" radio transmissions from E.T.

But perhaps it's time to simply think far outside of the box regarding our preconceptions of how to find extraterrestrial civilizations, says Clement Vidal of the Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. And, the most advanced aliens may be the easiest to find.

ANALYSIS: Cosmic Rebirth Encoded in Background Radiation?

Vidal's reasoning: The universe is so old there have to be far-advanced civilizations out there, billions of years more evolved than us. They have to be doing super-human engineering feats that are recognizable across intergalactic space. "Super-human" might also mean that the most advanced life-forms could very likely be post-biological. They have evolved far beyond being creatures of flesh and blood, as described in Arthur C. Clarke's "2001:A Space Odyssey."
Click to expand...

More in the article.
 
S

Sax Russel

Banned
65_years.png


Mouseover alt text: "The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision."

-_-
 
wolfmat

wolfmat

Confirmed Asshole
He's just making shit up in that graph, so … yeah. If you would've projected like that in the 1940s (or in 1969, for that matter), there would be other ridiculous outcomes. Let's see how this all goes down and then make some smart remarks about it, shall we?
 
W

Walshicus

Member
wolfmat said:
He's just making shit up in that graph, so … yeah. If you would've projected like that in the 1940s (or in 1969, for that matter), there would be other ridiculous outcomes. Let's see how this all goes down and then make some smart remarks about it, shall we?
Click to expand...
I've not the time to check, but what do you mean "making shit up"?
 
M

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
wolfmat said:
He's just making shit up in that graph, so … yeah.
Click to expand...

I believe the data is likely to reflect actual numbers based on people landing on the moon, those people dying, and when those people might be likely to die (the latter, sure, probably made up).

The point (with the assumption we won't place a human on another world any time soon due to funding and projects being pulled) is that he is making a statement that without a vision and sustained investment, we aren't getting off this rock despite a brief flirtation with the concept.


If you would've projected like that in the 1940s (or in 1969, for that matter), there would be other ridiculous outcomes.
Click to expand...

Many projections from 1969 or even 1940 predicted many more "living humans that have walked on another world" by now. Heck, we were supposed to have colonised the moon by now.
 
wolfmat

wolfmat

Confirmed Asshole
Mario said:
I believe the data is likely to reflect actual numbers based on people landing on the moon, those people dying, and when those people might be likely to die (the latter, sure, probably made up).
Click to expand...
I got that part.
Mario said:
The point (with the assumption we won't place a human on another world any time soon due to funding and projects being pulled) is that he is making a statement that without a vision and sustained investment, we aren't getting off this rock despite a brief flirtation with the concept.
Click to expand...
This is what I'm not happy with. Anything might happen in the next 30 years. I wouldn't expect much happening in the next 10 in terms of landing on another body, so I won't contest the graph up to like 2020. But the next 30 are anybody's guess. It's not like spacefaring is an isolated endeavor, removed from society and its ups and downs.

Many projections from 1969 or even 1940 predicted many more "living humans that have walked on another world" by now. Heck, we were supposed to have colonised the moon by now.
Click to expand...
That is why I was referring to those.
 
D

Dead Man

Member
wolfmat said:
I got that part.

This is what I'm not happy with. Anything might happen in the next 30 years. I wouldn't expect much happening in the next 10 in terms of landing on another body, so I won't contest the graph up to like 2020. But the next 30 are anybody's guess. It's not like spacefaring is an isolated endeavor, removed from society and its ups and downs.


That is why I was referring to those.
Click to expand...
I think you may have missed that that was exactly his point. Without a change, that is what will happen. If the current trend continues, that is where we will be. That is all he is saying, not that it is impossible that there will be another manned landing programme.
 
wolfmat

wolfmat

Confirmed Asshole
Dead Man said:
I think you may have missed that that was exactly his point. Without a change, that is what will happen. If the current trend continues, that is where we will be. That is all he is saying, not that it is impossible that there will be another manned landing programme.
Click to expand...
I don't think "anything's possible" is to be read out of the graph, but it's not really interesting what I think about it if he got his message with the "we need another vision" thing across to everyone else.
Anyway, now that Osama's dead, the US can rekindle the NASA flame with ex-Laden-related money… right? Revive the Allen Telescope Array while you're at it, pretty please :(
 
mclaren777

mclaren777

Member
RankoSD said:
It's a shame to watch this documentary in YT 360p resolution, people need to see this in HD with Alec Baldwin as a narrator who did a 10 times better job than this Sean Pertwee "reading to a kid before sleep" voice.
Click to expand...
Is it available through Netflix?
 
G

GONz

Member
Teh Hamburglar said:
Meathook galaxy!

http://i.imgur.com/IPAwO.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]

That's a real beauty! I went around the Hubble website and found a huge close-up on its core (click on the pic for full size)
[URL=http://imgur.com/73SQs?full][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/73SQsl.jpg[/URL]
Click to expand...
 
T

TOP SHOTTA

Member
I couldn't decide whether to put this in the "stupid questions that don't deserve their own thread" thread, but I think the audience here might be able to handle these two things that have been bugging me for a few weeks. Seriously actually bugging me.

1) Have you ever seen water, liquid water, floating in microgravity (which is measured as 1 MILLIONTH of the gravity of standing on 1g earth) as a blob or set of blobs.

To me, this is such an insane concept.

Anyway, say you were in orbit, weightless, and have opened a container that contained water. You opened it so carefully that it bonded and stayed still.

If you managed to stick a tiny straw into it, and blew air into it, what would the bubble do? Would it stay right there as another blob? Would it somehow try to exit the water?

And then this - a REAL stretch of the imagination...
Are there ANY situations where you could imagine liquid water existing in space? I know it would need a heat source and something to regulate some of the pressures to prevent boiling too soon... I just can't get that concept out of my head. Imagine it. Anyone care to think about that with me - liquid water in a zone close to a star or other heat source?
 
S

Scrow

Still Tagged Accordingly
awesomeapproved said:
Anyway, say you were in orbit, weightless, and have opened a container that contained water. You opened it so carefully that it bonded and stayed still.

If you managed to stick a tiny straw into it, and blew air into it, what would the bubble do? Would it stay right there as another blob? Would it somehow try to exit the water?
Click to expand...
making a guess here, but i believe the air bubbles would just float around in the ball of water, gently moving around inside. bubbles that bump into each other would merge to make a bigger bubble. if the bubble of air came to the surface it would escape into the surrounding atmosphere and the water ball would reform to account for the loss of volume.

awesomeapproved said:
And then this - a REAL stretch of the imagination...
Are there ANY situations where you could imagine liquid water existing in space? I know it would need a heat source and something to regulate some of the pressures to prevent boiling too soon... I just can't get that concept out of my head. Imagine it. Anyone care to think about that with me - liquid water in a zone close to a star or other heat source?
Click to expand...
even with a heat source, i don't think liquid water can exist in space. the vacuum of space would make it disperse wouldn't it?

need a real scientist to confirm, but i think that's what would happen.
 
T

TOP SHOTTA

Member
Scrow said:
making a guess here, but i believe the air bubbles would just float around in the ball of water, gently moving around inside. bubbles that bump into each other would merge to make a bigger bubble. if the bubble of air came to the surface it would escape into the surrounding atmosphere and the water ball would reform to account for the loss of volume.


even with a heat source, i don't think liquid water can exist in space. the vacuum of space would make it disperse wouldn't it?

need a real scientist to confirm, but i think that's what would happen.
Click to expand...
Hey thanks for the response. Appreciate it.
I guess you're right about a scientist, but I don't think issue 1 is all that complex. I like challenging stuff like this. The second question would be so odd that a scientist's take on it would be close to what you or I could gues, presuming we know about water going straight from liquid to crystals - snow even. As for question 2, the more I thought about it the more I thought it would be possible.

Liquid water in space... I am not sure but I think I am on the right path. I study space a lot and wrote to Dr. Pamela Gay who hosts Astronomycast (podcast, awesome). Her answer to just about everything is "well we don't know" and then goes on a 5 minute breakdown of everything involved, and basically humbly shows that she knows the answer and not in a snotty way. She is amazingly good at dumbing some of the concepts of the solar system, galaxies etc. Maybe my question will air.

I know the temp can make the boiling point go bonkers because of the low pressure (low pressure = low boiling point (freeze temp)). And in this idea I stated that there was something, even a low decay orbit around a HUGE planet, anything to regulate pressure. In space it would flash boil instantly. That we do know because we've been shooting urine into space for a long time. And we've watched it closely.
 
Forsete

Forsete

Member
Does anyone remember the BBC (I think) docudrama where they followed a manned flight to Mars? The docudrama was made to be as realistic as possible taking into account all the hazards that could happen.

It was aired about 3 years ago.

I wonder if its out on Brew-Rey.
 
U

UnluckyKate

Member
Hey, I just saw this picture of the possible ocean Mars once has:

RTEmagicP_mars1_10_txdam21862_25e429.jpg


I still can't believe how awesome it is. Anyone has it in better quality/rez ? (or any lookalike scifi pic of red/ocean planet ?)
 
S

Sirius

Member
E

Escape Goat

Member
Mars is pretty ugly even while terraformed. Nothing beats the deep blue/white/greens of Earth.

Having never seen another habitable planet, I hope they are all as beautiful as ours.

soShZ.jpg
 
E

Extollere

Sucks at poetry
Teh Hamburglar said:
Mars is pretty ugly even while terraformed. Nothing beats the deep blue/white/greens of Earth.

Having never seen another habitable planet, I hope they are all as beautiful as ours.
Click to expand...

haha, those are just concept images, who knows how awesome it would look if it were habitable... but man, just thinking about that blows my mind. Imagine a solar system where two habitable planets are essentially back to back like neighbors. Imagine getting in a ship and hopping from one planet, and back to the other as needs see fit.
 
M

McNei1y

Member
Forsete said:
Does anyone remember the BBC (I think) docudrama where they followed a manned flight to Mars? The docudrama was made to be as realistic as possible taking into account all the hazards that could happen.

It was aired about 3 years ago.

I wonder if its out on Brew-Rey.
Click to expand...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2A_Juv213s

I can't find the video but I recall seeing this video to Yeasayers - 2080... Pretty fitting IMO.
 
N

Naked Snake

Member
Teh Hamburglar said:
Mars is pretty ugly even while terraformed. Nothing beats the deep blue/white/greens of Earth.

Having never seen another habitable planet, I hope they are all as beautiful as ours.

soShZ.jpg
Click to expand...

They are only "blue/white/green" to you (because you're human) :p

Color doesn't really exist. It's just your brain's rendition of a photon's wavelength (and only a tiny portion of the wavelength spectrum). In other words, your opinion of the beauty of Earth's colors is naturally biased, and was coded into you by evolution. (I think?)

With that said, I'm with you 100%. I don't think there is a more beautiful sight than the Earth from space. Just looking at it (in For All Man Kind) brought me to tears.
 
D

Deku

Banned
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/05/haumea-ice/

haumea-dwarf-planet-ice-shine.jpg

A thin shell of ice formed by a continuous cycle of heating and freezing gives Haumea, a distant dwarf planet discovered in 2004, its distinctive glimmer in deep space.
Click to expand...


Astronomers knew Haumea had a frosty coating, but they didn’t know it was made of fresh, highly organized crystals instead of old, amorphous glass-like ice.

“Since solar radiation constantly destroys the crystalline structure of ice on the surface, energy sources are required to keep it organized,” said planetary scientist Benoit Carry of the European Space Agency in a press release May 12. The findings have been accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Named after the Hawaiian goddess of childbirth, the rocky, football-shaped Haumea is one-tenth the size of Earth and about 43 times farther from the sun, located beyond Pluto in the Kuiper belt.

By analyzing sunlight bouncing off Haumea’s surface with the Very Large Telescope in Chile, Carry and other astronomers calculated that its surface ice is constantly replenished. They think heat from radioactive elements, combined with gravitational kneading from its two tiny satellite bodies Hi’iaka and Namaka, melts ice on Haumea’s surface. It soon refreezes, resulting in a perpetual cycle of icy renewal.

Another area of fascination for astronomers is a dark, reddish spot on Haumea’s surface. Irradiated minerals or organic matter may cause the discoloration.

Astronomer Pedro Lacerda of Queen’s University in Belfast said in the press release that it may be an especially rich source of crystalline water ice, a fountain for Haumea.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Starfield Shattered Space |OT| Is that the Great Serpent or are you just happy to see me?
2 3 4 5 6
257
11K
dmaul1114 replied
DF - Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth: PS5 Pro vs PS5 - A Vast Improvement At 60FPS
9 10 11 12 13
649
28K
PaintTinJr replied
Destiny 2: The Final Shape | Review Thread
Analysis Review 2
58
3K
Warnen replied
Sonic Frontiers Final Previews
48
3K
Whitecrow replied
  • Poll
(Somewhat) How Not To Retrospective: The Nintendo 64 Chronicles (Sakhura Baguette)
Opinion Analysis Retro
23
2K
Katajx replied
Top Bottom