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[Zapages]

I guess Beast Wars Transformers were right with the two moons.

Earth might have two moons:

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-08/earth-may-have-had-two-primordial-moons-combined-one

 

[Melchiah]

Don't you people read what's posted right above you?

 

[Scrow]

Don't you people read what's posted right above you?

what do you mean "you people"?

 

[antonz]

and I die a little on the inside posting this

 

[Melchiah]

what do you mean "you people"?

=D

 

[Naked Snake]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14391929

Our moon is a girl?

 

[UrbanRats]

Our moon is a girl?

The principal modern English adjective pertaining to the Moon is lunar, derived from the Latin Luna. Another less common adjective is selenic, derived from the Ancient Greek Selene (Σελήν&#951, from which the prefix "seleno-" (as in selenography) is derived.[10]

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

 

[derFeef]

I read that moon thing a while back somewhere else. Pretty amazing if true.

Speaking of which, I took my telescope with me some days ago but because I live in a city now, I can't really use it. It sucks... I miss watching galaxies and nebulas :/

 

[TheOMan]

Nobody watching the live announcement on Mars from Nasa today?

http://spaceflightnow.com/live/

 

[fierrotlepou]

Nobody watching the live announcement on Mars from Nasa today?

http://spaceflightnow.com/live/

Can't watch right now. What is it about?

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

Can't watch right now. What is it about?

hirise images, showing possibly flowing water on mars

 

[derFeef]

They are ON Mars?

 

[Insane Metal]

Possible LIQUID water on Mars! Amazing!

Edit

DAMN take a look at this!

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/pia14472.html

 

[derFeef]

Amazing, I love Mars.

 

[Kyaw]

Will this possibly make them think about sending man to Mars?

 

[fierrotlepou]

Wow. Start funding this shit, world.

 

[Corky]

Wow, how on earth were those pictures taken? Talk about detail. I am, speechless.

 

[a176]

Wow, how on earth were those pictures taken? Talk about detail. I am, speechless.

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/

 

[innervision961]

Wow, how on earth were those pictures taken? Talk about detail. I am, speechless.

They weren't, they were taken on mars! Duh dum tssss!

(this is amazing news, send me! I volunteer!)

 

[Zzoram]

I wonder if any microbes thrive in that liquid water during the time that it flows, and then sporulate during the dry season to survive it. It is certainly possible bioloigcally, it's just a question of whether or not it's actually happening.

 

[Angry Fork]

I could rage on and on about the space program but I'll just say I still don't get why they're so opposed to a 1 way trip to Mars. I'm sure there are people that would do it. Send them there, let them build shit get things together and then later on we can go back for them if everything goes well. I remember reading that the 1 way mission was like 75% less than the cost of a round trip.

 

[Zzoram]

I could rage on and on about the space program but I'll just say I still don't get why they're so opposed to a 1 way trip to Mars. I'm sure there are people that would do it. Send them there, let them build shit get things together and then later on we can go back for them if everything goes well. I remember reading that the 1 way mission was like 75% less than the cost of a round trip.

Too many things can go wrong. We haven't mastered the creation of an enclosed self-sustaining ecoystem yet, so they wouldn't be able to just live in a dome with plants indefinately until the next shuttle with supplies and new technology arrived. They would likely just use up their supplies and die on Mars.

Until we develop better self-sustaining enclosed ecosystems, something that's being figured out in domes on Earth, their trip would likely be a death sentence and for little gain. If we just wait until we figure out a way they could live on Mars for years without being resupplied, it would be worth the effort, and we could spend the intermediate time working on new terraforming technologies to use to make Mars more hospitable.

 

[wolfmat]

There's the water / oxygen issue as well; you can't easily take so much water with you that osmosis-based recycling is enough over years, and you can't recycle oxygen at all, so what you take with you is what you have, period. Edit: Same for nitrogen, basically.

 

[jiggle]

http://www.deadline.com/2011/08/fox...-produced-by-seth-macfarlane-for-2013-launch/

Fox Orders 13-Episode Sequel To Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' Docu-Series With Seth MacFarlane Producing For 2013 Launch

Fox has greenlighted Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey, a 13-part docu-series from Family Guy creator MacFarlane and late Sagan's original collaborators – his widow, writer/producer Ann Druyan and astrophysicist Steven Soter. Envisioned as a successor to the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning original 13-part program, which was hosted by Sagan, the new Cosmos series will be hosted by renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

 

[Clevinger]

Fox Orders 13-Episode Sequel To Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' Docu-Series With Seth MacFarlane Producing For 2013 Launch

I don't think I've ever been so excited and then disappointed by a sentence before.

 

[Neverender]

I want to be excited about this, but I don't have much faith that it will be done well.

 

[XMonkey]

Some space programming beats no space programming, I guess. I've always wanted something like Cosmos but with all the new information we've learned since the original. Sagan had that perfect balance of fact and philosophy, really made it more timeless than almost all other science series'.

 

[fierrotlepou]

How can this be bad? Neil deGrasse Tyson is hosting the show. The others are just producing...

 

[Kud Dukan]

How can this be bad? Neil deGrasse Tyson is hosting the show. The others are just producing...

This. When I first heard the announcement I was like "Really? Cosmos without Sagan?". Then I read that Neil DeGrasse Tyson would be hosting and I was like "Bring on more Cosmos!!".

 

[Corky]

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/

Wow so these images are from a satellite orbiting mars?! Badass. Go science.

 

[Teknoman]

Whats going on the livestream now?

 

[jambo]

I don't think I've ever been so excited and then disappointed by a sentence before.

You missed the most important sentence

the new Cosmos series will be hosted by renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

 

[Fernando Rocker]

I love space... I really do.

I love these pics and scientific progress... but we will never going to find life outside Earth. Never. Why? Because there is no life out there.

 

[UrbanRats]

Yay, i love Neil deGrasse Tyson.

I love space... I really do.

I love these pics and scientific progress... but we will never going to find life outside Earth. Never. Why? Because there is no life out there.

Really? Care to show me the reasoning behind this assumption?

 

[jambo]

I love space... I really do.

I love these pics and scientific progress... but we will never going to find life outside Earth. Never. Why? Because there is no life out there.

Why not? That's a rather definitive statement.

 

[McNei1y]

I love space... I really do.

I love these pics and scientific progress... but we will never going to find life outside Earth. Never. Why? Because there is no life out there.

what? I understand opinions and such but it seems like you're declaring this as fact. I would say keep an open mind about it. I mean out of all the millions and millions of stars in a single galaxy, there has to be a chance another one of those stars is orbited by a planet with the relatively similar featuers that gave it a chance for life.

 

[jambo]

Juno is about to launch, 4 minutes to launch

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

 

[Lucky Forward]

Lately I've been watching some of Neil deGrasse Tyson's Nova programs on Netflix, and although I'm sure he's a fine scientist, I don't think much of him as a host. He's warm and engaging, but his narration is too slow-paced, almost like he's trying to explain science to slow pupils, or people who've never heard of this stuff before.

BTW, I joined Netflix Instant in mid-May and I was glad to see Cosmos was available because I haven't seen it since it originally aired. But I didn't get to it right away, and at the end of May it was no longer available. I didn't even know they pulled programs like that.

 

[heyf00L]

This is often called the earth rise, but wouldn't the earth be (nearly) stationary in the Moon's sky? The moon always faces the earth so the earth wouldn't move around much. In fact, if you're on the near-side of the moon, the earth will always be in the sky somewhere.
The earth would go through phases, but only as the moon revolves (so something like 28 days for a phase cycle).

 

[Deku]

Wow so these images are from a satellite orbiting mars?! Badass. Go science.

The big news is that they have visual evidence of something flowing down the slopes during the summer months.

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/sim/images/science_aug/Newton_IRB_A.ORth-enh-crop1_leg.gif

 

[HephalumpsAndWoozles]

I love space... I really do.

I love these pics and scientific progress... but we will never going to find life outside Earth. Never. Why? Because there is no life out there.

Theyre already here.

 

[Lucky Forward]

This is often called the earth rise, but wouldn't the earth be (nearly) stationary in the Moon's sky? The moon always faces the earth so the earth wouldn't move around much. In fact, if you're on the near-side of the moon, the earth will always be in the sky somewhere.
The earth would go through phases, but only as the moon revolves (so something like 28 days for a phase cycle).

Wow, I'd never thought about that before, but I guess you're right. But the earthrise photo was taken from orbit by Apollo 8, so from the astronauts perspective, the earth appeared to rise above the lunar horizon as they came around from the far side of the moon.

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

Earthrise is the name given to NASA image AS8-14-2383, taken by astronaut William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission, the first manned voyage to orbit the Moon.

Initially, before Anders found a suitable 70mm color film, mission commander Frank Borman took a black-and-white photo of the scene, with the Earth's terminator touching the horizon. The land mass position and cloud patterns in this image are the same as those of the color Earthrise photo.

The photograph was taken from lunar orbit on December 24, 1968 with a Hasselblad camera. An audio recording of the event is available with transcription which allows the event to be followed closely – excerpt:

Borman: Oh my God! Look at that picture over there! Here's the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty.
Anders: Hey, don't take that, it's not scheduled.
Borman: (laughing) You got a color film, Jim?
Anders: Hand me that roll of color quick, will you...

 

[Zzoram]

I love space... I really do.

I love these pics and scientific progress... but we will never going to find life outside Earth. Never. Why? Because there is no life out there.

We haven't even looked everywhere in our solar system. There are 9 sextillion stars in the universe, (9x10^21), it would be foolish to say definitely that no life exists beyond Earth.

To put that in scale, 1 trillion is 1x10^12.

 

[Takuya]

We haven't even looked everywhere in our solar system. There are 9 sextillion stars in the universe, (9x10^21), it would be foolish to say definitely that no life exists beyond Earth.

To put that in scale, 1 trillion is 1x10^12.

It's possible though. But any type of life? I'd say there's a good chance that it's a 'common' occurrence in the Universe, but speaking of intelligent life? There may be the possibility that we are alone in that department.

 

[Scrow]

I love space... I really do.

I love these pics and scientific progress... but we will never going to find life outside Earth. Never. Why? Because there is no life out there.

until we explore every star and every planet and moon in each system, we can't say that for sure.

 

[McNei1y]

It's possible though. But any type of life? I'd say there's a good chance that it's a 'common' occurrence in the Universe, but speaking of intelligent life? There may be the possibility that we are alone in that department.

I still wouldn't rule out intelligent life though. I feel like with evolution anythings possible.

 

[Takuya]

I still wouldn't rule out intelligent life though. I feel like with evolution anythings possible.

I wouldn't rule it out, but it's also possible that no matter how much and how far we look, we might not find any intelligent life. I mean, it's like such a small probability, but hey, if there's a probability it's bound to happen.

 

[McNei1y]

I wouldn't rule it out, but it's also possible that no matter how much and how far we look, we might not find any intelligent life. I mean, it's like such a small probability, but hey, if there's a probability it's bound to happen.

Yeah. Its a bummer that we won't know this anytime soon (probably) unless some alien race contacts earth/invades us. Mass Effect spoiled me.

 

[HephalumpsAndWoozles]

I wouldn't rule it out, but it's also possible that no matter how much and how far we look, we might not find any intelligent life. I mean, it's like such a small probability, but hey, if there's a probability it's bound to happen.

I wonder what the probability of intelligent life forming in the universe.

This proposition means that it would only occur once. We already know that intelligent life can and does exist.

Probability wise, is it not much more of a stretch to say something like this can or will happen once rather than multiple times, considering all the variables in the universe.

Edit: We only know of one place in the universe right now that is capable of harboring life as we know it. So in every place we have looked capable of sustaining life as we know it, we have found it.

Id say a 1:1 probability is a pretty good point to start at being open minded about the possibility of other life out there. Id say chances are very good considering all that we know now.

 

[MisterAnderson]

I wouldn't rule it out, but it's also possible that no matter how much and how far we look, we might not find any intelligent life. I mean, it's like such a small probability, but hey, if there's a probability it's bound to happen.

You're looking at it wrong. The probability of there being life and intelligent life, from a statistical point of view is quite high. The probability of us actually finding it, is quite low. But given how much time we have as a species (assuming we don't kill ourselves in the next few hundred years) it could happen.