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Space: The Final Frontier

C

cjdunn

Member
Astronomers discover planet made of diamond

(Reuters) - Astronomers have spotted an exotic planet that seems to be made of diamond racing around a tiny star in our galactic backyard.

The new planet is far denser than any other known so far and consists largely of carbon. Because it is so dense, scientists calculate the carbon must be crystalline, so a large part of this strange world will effectively be diamond.
Click to expand...

600full-diamonds-are-forever-screenshot.jpg
 
T

Teknoman

Member
This might be of interest:

Space Engine OT

"a free space simulation software that lets you explore the universe in three dimensions, starting from planet Earth to the most distant galaxies. Areas of the known universe are represented using actual astronomical data, while regions uncharted by human astronomy are generated procedurally. Millions of galaxies, trillions of stars, countless planets!"

Examples from screenshots i've taken via fraps:

jfSmrGucPKBP8.jpg


Had no idea Jupiter had a faint set of rings.

jbzhrPUi5Qb1dw.jpg


j0qYMXoi5R1aj.jpg


Also search for Mass Effect - Uncharted Worlds. Listening to that while looking through the universe makes it that much better. Mouse scroll wheel controls the speed at which you travel manually. Orbits,atmospheric clouds, and rings are animated (you have to get pretty close though).
 
B

Blue Ninja

Member
Teknoman said:
Also search for Mass Effect - Uncharted Worlds. Listening to that while looking through the universe makes it that much better. Mouse scroll wheel controls the speed at which you travel manually. Orbits,atmospheric clouds, and rings are animated (you have to get pretty close though).
Click to expand...
Another good one is New Worlds from the ME2 soundtrack.

I'm going to check that program out. Looks too awesome.
 
T

Teknoman

Member
Just make sure to set LOD to 1. Any more than that isnt really that noticeable apparently, and makes the program more prone to crashing. Oh and thanks for the track name on ME2, couldnt think of that version's name.
 
X

xelios

Universal Access can be found under System Preferences
This might be of interest:

Space Engine OT

Also search for Mass Effect - Uncharted Worlds. Listening to that while looking through the universe makes it that much better.
Click to expand...

It's a cool program even with the random generation. Eve Online tracks are my favorite for exploring space to.


Theme of the Universe
It's Full of Stars
Below the Asteroids
Borderlines

etc.

Some of them take a minute or two to develop, but the feeling of being alone in the vastness of space ultimately hits you at one point or another.
 
I

Izayoi

Banned
Woah at that footage of Uranus. Amazing what an amateur photographer can do these days.

Thanks a ton for the Space Engine link as well, holy shit.
 
L

leroidys

Member
Can you guys recommend me any movies on youtube/netflix/hulu whatever on space/physics/nature of the universe? I'm looking to watch some recent stuff to get my mind blown'd. Preferably something in depth, not just "OMG STRNG THEERY IS CRAZAY" platitudes.
 
E

Escape Goat

Member
Here is a pic from the probe Juno which is 6 million miles away. It spun around and took a picture of Earth. Juno is set to get super close, closer than any probe before, to study Jupiter and to try to determine Jupiter's origin.

jPmiS.jpg
 
N

Naked Snake

Member
From this video I learned that the Earth's:

Rotation speed = 456.1 m/s
Orbital speed = 29.783 km/s

Why do both seem relatively very slow to me? If I had to intuitively guess the speeds I'd have came up with much larger numbers. Feels strange, caveman brain fail.
 
H

Hootie

Member
Teh Hamburglar said:
jPmiS.jpg
Click to expand...

Just like every other picture of earth from millions of miles away, its a great way of humbling the human race. While I think we are an incredible product of nature, we don't mean shit to the rest of the Universe.

Yet.
 
GTP_Daverytimes

GTP_Daverytimes

Member
Hootie said:
Just like every other picture of earth from millions of miles away, its a great way of humbling the human race. While I think we are an incredible product of nature, we don't mean shit to the rest of the Universe.

Yet.
Click to expand...


We will never mean shit. The best we can do in the next 500 million years is send someone outside of our galaxy.
 
H

Hootie

Member
GTP_Daverytimes said:
We will never mean shit. The best we can do in the next 500 million years is send someone outside of our galaxy.
Click to expand...

I think humanity can start doing some big things in 500 million years, just look what we've done in the past couple of millenia. I have no expertise on the subject but I'd like to think that once we've colonized and begin harvesting resources on a large scale from our solar system and are able to travel to/colonize other systems it'll all be downhill from there. Getting to that point, however, is the quandary we find ourselves in now.

I suppose technically we will never mean shit just because that's the nature of the Universe as we assume it empirically is (that being without reason or purpose), but from a human standpoint I think we can eventually earn our right to exist in the Universe, which we certainly haven't done yet.

And there are also many other variables. The supposed "singularity", biological immortality, fusion power, using antimatter as fuel etc. are all possible game changers in the long run. Whether any of them come to fruition is up in the air at this point, but again I'd like to think that we won't fuck things up too bad.
 
H

Hootie

Member
Naked Snake said:
Even if we "don't fuck things up too bad", the universe could kill us without warning before we ever reach Type 2 status.
Click to expand...

Well, that's why we need to be doing this stuff faster than we are right now. If we had our priorities straight just think of where we could be.

The longer we stay idle on Earth, the higher the chance of one of those freak event happening. If we are able to survive long enough to colonize multiple star systems, the long term survival of humanity will be much much higher.
 
P

Prez

Member
I have a question: why do stars look like this from a certain distance?

ZsXjQ.jpg


What causes those 4 dense beams of light that make a cross shape?
 
R

Ranvier

Member
Hootie said:
I think humanity can start doing some big things in 500 million years.
And there are also many other variables. The supposed "singularity", biological immortality, fusion power, using antimatter as fuel etc. are all possible game changers in the long run.
Click to expand...


While I really hope this is the case and despite how much I wish these things could happen in our lifetime, do you guys think we are reaching a plateau as far as technology goes? Sure we have been increasing relatively in terms of our tech but we are still bound by the laws of physics and there are certain things that can't be overcome.

Take energy storage as an example, while we have gotten slightly better batteries over the years this still remains a problem. Its not that we can't think of better ways to store energy but rather, we are limited by the chemistry of it.

When thinking about traveling light-years and colonizing other planets it seems to me that there are some barriers we will never break now matter how old our species gets to be.

The idea of us being forever stuck on our little rock in this quiet little corner of the galaxy is quite depressing to me.
 
X

xelios

Universal Access can be found under System Preferences
Hootie said:
If we are able to survive long enough to colonize multiple star systems, the long term survival of humanity will be much much higher.
Click to expand...


I believe it will never happen regardless of how long we survive. It's just fantasy in my opinion, no matter how nice it sounds.

I do believe there are many other life forms in the universe though.
 
E

Escape Goat

Member
not just stars but light. People have the starburst effect with night vision a lot of the time. I guess it has to do with the way our eyes capture light.
 
Smiles and Cries

Smiles and Cries

Member
Hootie said:
Well, that's why we need to be doing this stuff faster than we are right now. If we had our priorities straight just think of where we could be.

The longer we stay idle on Earth, the higher the chance of one of those freak event happening. If we are able to survive long enough to colonize multiple star systems, the long term survival of humanity will be much much higher.
Click to expand...

There is no real motivation to do this. We are selfish and we think only within our lifespan. Some of us do not even think of leaving things better for our children.

I'm afraid we will never find any real motivation to set a priority towards this. Unless we start mining the Moon, Venus and Mars for profit and greed 500 years from now.

Or maybe religion dies out in 200 years and we start having a global culture of Science?
 
P

Prez

Member
Smiles and Cries said:
Or maybe religion dies out in 200 years and we start having a global culture of Science?
Click to expand...

Ugh that would be quite awful. Let's just stick with actual culture and art.
 
H

Hootie

Member
Damnit you people are so pessimistic.

Maybe I'm just thinking too optimistically. I dunno. Like I said, I have no expertise on the subject so it's all just wild speculation on my part.
 
F

Fine Ham Abounds

Member
Stabbie said:
I have a question: why do stars look like this from a certain distance?

ZsXjQ.jpg


What causes those 4 dense beams of light that make a cross shape?
Click to expand...

http://spacetelescope.org/about/faq/

Why do stars have a cross-shaped distortion in most Hubble images? Why do galaxies not?
The cross shape visible on bright objects (such as stars) in Hubble images is a form of distortion that is visible in all telescopes that use a mirror rather than a lens to focus light rays. The crosses, known as diffraction spikes, are caused by the light’s path being disturbed slightly as it passes by the cross-shaped struts that support the telescope’s secondary mirror.

It is only noticeable for bright objects where a lot of light is concentrated on one spot, such as stars. Darker, more spread-out objects like nebulae or galaxies do not show visible levels of this distortion.
Click to expand...
 
I

Izayoi

Banned
Hootie said:
Damnit you people are so pessimistic.

Maybe I'm just thinking too optimistically. I dunno. Like I said, I have no expertise on the subject so it's all just wild speculation on my part.
Click to expand...
Chances are extremely high that we will kill ourselves off long before we even leave our solar system.

I really doubt that the human race will ever colonize anything off-world.
 
D

derFeef

Member
Stabbie said:
I have a question: why do stars look like this from a certain distance?

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

What causes those 4 dense beams of light that make a cross shape?
Click to expand...
With a newton telescope you get this strokes because the second (smaller) mirror is placed in the middle of a cross-shaped mount. The light brakes at that and you are getting that effect on the pictures or when viewing. With a refractor (lenses) for example, you are not getting that effect.
 
N

Naked Snake

Member
I remember the first time I saw that photo of Saturn in one of my friend's copies of National Geographic. For a long time I had a very hard time believing it was real. Looks computer generated.

Majestic.
 
I

Izayoi

Banned
Maklershed said:
I thought this was cool .. pictures of the lunar landing equipment and rover tracks left on the moon from the 60s

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14813043
Click to expand...
BUT THE MOON LANDINGS WERE FAKED, DIDN'T YOU KNOW?

Darkgran said:
http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad300/Darkgran/mw-630-saturn-cassini.jpg[img]

Saturn taken by NASA's Cassini robotic orbiter. High Res picture at link.

[url="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/nasa-cassini-orbiter-snaps-unbelievable-picture-saturn-144133480.html"]http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technolo...144133480.html[/url][/quote]
Gorgeous. One of my favorite space pictures of all time.
Click to expand...
 
F

fanboi

Banned
Cool!

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/212586/20110912/50-new-planets-super-earths.htm

Astronomers Discover 50 New Planets said:
Fifty new planets, including 16 "Super Earths" have been discovered, which means there are now officially more than 600 alien planets in the universe.

The scientists who made the discovery used the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) at the European Southern Observatory's location in La Silla, Chile.

HARPS is also known in the ESO as "The Planet Hunter."

"Among these are many rocky planets not much heavier than the Earth," the ESO said on its Web site, referring to the 16 so-called "Super Earths." "One of them in particular seems to orbit in the habitable zone around its star."

Scientists anticipate the number will become higher after planet-candidates are confirmed to be planets. There are more than 1,200 candidates that were discovered by NASA's Kepler space observatory in California, SPACE.com reported.

"The next big milestone should be 1,000," chief scientist of NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California Wesley Traub told SPACE.com. "We are learning that there are so many planets out there, and many stars have multiple planets around then, that it's just a question of time until we get to that 1,000 mark of confirmed planets."
Click to expand...
 
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