Author Topic: Space exploration thread - Unexpected Rapid Disassembly in the launch area. (Read 313993 times)

Recently I bought a new eyepiece and Barlow for my telescope. Thus far, I've used them for lunar observations, but early this morning I saw Jupiter shining very brightly in the sky and took the scope out in my backyard. Whilst the planet "only" appeared like a bright white disc, I saw something that made me go "Wow" to myself: 4 of Jupiter's moons. That was the first time I have seen them and it was incredibly cool.

WillG.LFC · « **Reply #1607 on:** February 4, 2016, 01:32:36 pm »

Yeah i enjoy seeing the moons just as much as jupiter. Really gives you a sense of its size and that the star in the sky is an actual planet

farawayred · « **Reply #1608 on:** February 4, 2016, 02:56:00 pm »

You guys are probably getting ready for the planet alignment this February:
http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury

Set up your telescopes in a dark corner of the country, wherever you are, and enjoy!

FiSh77 · « **Reply #1609 on:** February 4, 2016, 03:51:36 pm »

Quote from: farawayred on February 4, 2016, 02:56:00 pm

You guys are probably getting ready for the planet alignment this February:
http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury

Set up your telescopes in a dark corner of the country, wherever you are, and enjoy!

can't remember the last time we had clear skies around here, i've been keeping an eye out on the planets for the last couple of months as i knew all the naked eye planets were coming into alignment and was looking forward to the first week or so of january when saturn overtook venus, unfortunately it's been pretty grim here so not seen much at all

Red Beret · « **Reply #1610 on:** February 4, 2016, 08:40:41 pm »

One of the things I'm looking forward to in the US is the campsites and the chance of some really dark summer skies. I wont be taking binoculars with me or anything but I should have a great chance for a bit of naked eye astronomy and seeing the Milky Way.

Quote from: Groundskeeper Willie on February 4, 2016, 09:41:24 am

Recently I bought a new eyepiece and Barlow for my telescope. Thus far, I've used them for lunar observations, but early this morning I saw Jupiter shining very brightly in the sky and took the scope out in my backyard. Whilst the planet "only" appeared like a bright white disc, I saw something that made me go "Wow" to myself: 4 of Jupiter's moons. That was the first time I have seen them and it was incredibly cool.

If you can resolve the moons you should be able to see some of the major cloud bands on Jupiter's surface. Keep looking!

KERRYKOP · « **Reply #1611 on:** February 4, 2016, 11:53:16 pm »

Quote from: farawayred on January 22, 2016, 08:23:49 pm

Just came across a picture of Tim Peake during a space walk:

Who's going to be the first astronaut to whip their cock out in space? The final frontier.

WillG.LFC · « **Reply #1612 on:** February 5, 2016, 07:41:12 am »

Spock = space cock

Groundskeeper Willie · « **Reply #1613 on:** February 5, 2016, 01:15:52 pm »

Quote from: Red Beret on February 4, 2016, 08:40:41 pm

One of the things I'm looking forward to in the US is the campsites and the chance of some really dark summer skies. I wont be taking binoculars with me or anything but I should have a great chance for a bit of naked eye astronomy and seeing the Milky Way.

If you can resolve the moons you should be able to see some of the major cloud bands on Jupiter's surface. Keep looking!

I will. I've been told by few people that you need to look for a longer time than just a minute or two and keep looking at it, as you might get different results different times. Thanks.

Art Vandelay · « **Reply #1614 on:** February 6, 2016, 10:33:55 am »

RIP Edgar Mitchell. Sad to think that in a few years time there will no longer be any men that had walked on the surface of the moon still alive....

red1977 · « **Reply #1615 on:** February 8, 2016, 11:14:26 pm »

Not so much space exploration, however its a cool vid of what it would be like leaving the sun and travelling out through the solar system at the speed of light. Considering the speed of light can go round the earth 7 times in one second it makes you think how massive the solar system is. then again if you consider that the milky way is 100.000 light years across.....!!!!!

Riding Light - Traversing the Solar System at the speed of light:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AAU_btBN7s

farawayred · « **Reply #1616 on:** February 9, 2016, 12:34:03 am »

^^^ How disappointing... If they had allocated the time for a full-sized movie, we would have seen Saturn...

Awesome, mate, thanks for posting!

WillG.LFC · « **Reply #1617 on:** February 9, 2016, 11:48:05 pm »

Announcement on thursday about gravitational waves apparently

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #1618 on:** February 11, 2016, 06:13:43 am »

Quote from: WillG.LFC on February 9, 2016, 11:48:05 pm

Announcement on thursday about gravitational waves apparently

Yep, Krauss has been tweeting about it. The final piece in Einstein's theory of relativity.

Andy @ Allerton! · « **Reply #1619 on:** February 11, 2016, 11:58:09 am »

Quote from: Red Beret on February 4, 2016, 08:40:41 pm

One of the things I'm looking forward to in the US is the campsites and the chance of some really dark summer skies. I wont be taking binoculars with me or anything but I should have a great chance for a bit of naked eye astronomy and seeing the Milky Way.

If you can resolve the moons you should be able to see some of the major cloud bands on Jupiter's surface. Keep looking!

Best I've seen the Milky Way was on a beach in Cuba.

When you can see it properly, it's one of the best sights there is.

Andy @ Allerton! · « **Reply #1620 on:** February 11, 2016, 11:58:37 am »

Quote from: WillG.LFC on February 9, 2016, 11:48:05 pm

Announcement on thursday about gravitational waves apparently

Heavy, heavy, heavy!

Banquo's Ghost · « **Reply #1621 on:** February 11, 2016, 01:24:02 pm »

Quote from: Koala @ Allerton on February 11, 2016, 11:58:09 am

Best I've seen the Milky Way was on a beach in Cuba.

When you can see it properly, it's one of the best sights there is.

True. I once looked at the night sky for hours lying in the bridge of a boat moored just off the Patagonian coast. It was really cold, the air was utterly still and clear, and not a light within three hundred miles. Unimaginable numbers of stars.

I found myself crying with awe. It was a transcendent moment.

Edit: It's now confirmed: gravitational waves have been detected.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35524440

Quote

"The fact that we are sitting here on Earth feeling the actual fabric of the Universe stretch and compress slightly due to the merger of black holes that occurred just over a billion years ago - I think that's phenomenal."

Andy @ Allerton! · « **Reply #1622 on:** February 11, 2016, 04:49:06 pm »

Quote from: Banquo's Ghost on February 11, 2016, 01:24:02 pm

True. I once looked at the night sky for hours lying in the bridge of a boat moored just off the Patagonian coast. It was really cold, the air was utterly still and clear, and not a light within three hundred miles. Unimaginable numbers of stars.

I found myself crying with awe. It was a transcendent moment.

Edit: It's now confirmed: gravitational waves have been detected.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35524440

Amazing news that. Hopefully we'll find some advances out of this.

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #1623 on:** February 11, 2016, 05:36:33 pm »

LIGO Detects Gravitational Waves from Merging Black Holes
Illustration Credit: LIGO, NSF, Aurore Simonnet (Sonoma State U.)

Explanation: Gravitational radiation has been directly detected. The first-ever detection was made by both facilities of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in Washington and Louisiana simultaneously last September. After numerous consistency checks, the resulting 5-sigma discovery was published today. The measured gravitational waves match those expected from two large black holes merging after a death spiral in a distant galaxy, with the resulting new black hole momentarily vibrating in a rapid ringdown. A phenomenon predicted by Einstein, the historic discovery confirms a cornerstone of humanity's understanding of gravity and basic physics. It is also the most direct detection of black holes ever. The featured illustration depicts the two merging black holes with the signal strength of the two detectors over 0.3 seconds superimposed across the bottom. Expected future detections by Advanced LIGO and other gravitational wave detectors may not only confirm the spectacular nature of this measurement but hold tremendous promise of giving humanity a new way to see and explore our universe.

farawayred · « **Reply #1624 on:** February 11, 2016, 06:04:49 pm »

Here is a bit more on the topic from Caltech:

Gravitational Waves Detected 100 Years After Einstein's Prediction
http://www.caltech.edu/gwave

(I don't know why they would put Hodgson's picture in the article, but...)

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #1625 on:** February 11, 2016, 06:13:50 pm »

Quote from: farawayred on February 11, 2016, 06:04:49 pm

(I don't know why they would put Hodgson's picture in the article, but...)

Mr Mingebag Squid · « **Reply #1626 on:** February 12, 2016, 11:06:05 am »

Quote from: Koala @ Allerton on February 11, 2016, 04:49:06 pm

Amazing news that. Hopefully we'll find some advances out of this.

Was watching this on the news last night - and my first thought was awesome - then my second was, well what does it actually mean? Is it going to lead to anything? Can we expect vast new sciency things from this?

Andy @ Allerton! · « **Reply #1627 on:** February 12, 2016, 04:30:57 pm »

Quote from: Mr Mingebag Squid on February 12, 2016, 11:06:05 am

Was watching this on the news last night - and my first thought was awesome - then my second was, well what does it actually mean? Is it going to lead to anything? Can we expect vast new sciency things from this?

The most obvious advances are detection of things we can't detect at the moment..

For example, we started with light - looking through optical instruments, but then we found that light wasn't the whole story, so we started searching using things like radio telescopes and as time went on we have moved through the electromagnetic spectrum to observe and advance our knowledge of the Universe.

Now that we *KNOW* we can detect gravity waves and, in fact, they are happening all around, that gives us the possibility that we can use them to view the things in the universe that don't conform to commonly understood forms of energy or matter (Dark Energy, Dark Matter) and also let us 'look' further back into the Universes past as we are stuck in two ways - the sphere of observable light (The time it took to get from anywhere to earth and the age of the Universe) and also the fact that in the early days, there wasn't any light - it was effectively opaque.

The fact that these things are happening all the time and multiple sites could pick up the waves around the planet at (more or less) the same time mean that they can be harnessed, observed and then used to make ever more sophisticated ways of viewing the cosmos.

Who knows what they can teach us and what we can learn?

Red Beret · « **Reply #1628 on:** February 12, 2016, 06:44:59 pm »

A step towards warp drive.

farawayred · « **Reply #1629 on:** February 13, 2016, 02:59:34 am »

There are couple of direct advantages of the gravity wave detection. The ability to see things is the major one, as pointed above. Think about it this way - we can now detect black holes merging. This is done with 4km "gravity telescope". What if we look with a 1000km "gravity telescope", will we see stars interacting, planets revolving around, dark matter we never knew existed?

NASA has a mission concept for a gravitational observatory in space. At least we won't need vacuum maintenance, which is a major thing on Earth. It's done with formation flying of three spacecraft at *pick a distance*. Major advantage is the you can change your lens (distance between them) and you can turn around in a different direction. Or use four spacecraft in a cube edge formation, than you have 3D cover. But formation flying in that positioning accuracy is easier said than done. So is interferometry in space. If selected, a mission like that will develop technologies that we don't even think about. Did you know that high speed dentist drill bearings are a technology that came from the shuttle program? Infrared thermometers at the doctors office are also from the space program. There are many others that we use every day.

farawayred · « **Reply #1630 on:** February 13, 2016, 06:58:54 am »

RIP Philae... The end of a great endeavor.

Ground control bids farewell to Philae comet lander
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35559503

Twelfth Man · « **Reply #1631 on:** February 13, 2016, 07:12:49 am »

Quote from: farawayred on February 13, 2016, 02:59:34 am

There are couple of direct advantages of the gravity wave detection. The ability to see things is the major one, as pointed above. Think about it this way - we can now detect black holes merging. This is done with 4km "gravity telescope". What if we look with a 1000km "gravity telescope", will we see stars interacting, planets revolving around, dark matter we never knew existed?

NASA has a mission concept for a gravitational observatory in space. At least we won't need vacuum maintenance, which is a major thing on Earth. It's done with formation flying of three spacecraft at *pick a distance*. Major advantage is the you can change your lens (distance between them) and you can turn around in a different direction. Or use four spacecraft in a cube edge formation, than you have 3D cover. But formation flying in that positioning accuracy is easier said than done. So is interferometry in space. If selected, a mission like that will develop technologies that we don't even think about. Did you know that high speed dentist drill bearings are a technology that came from the shuttle program? Infrared thermometers at the doctors office are also from the space program. There are many others that we use every day.

So do the Europeans: https://www.elisascience.org/articles/elisa-mission/elisa-mission-gravitational-universe

BTW some theoretical physicists think Einstein's space/time theory is a goner because it cannot reconcile gravity at the Plank scale (quantum level). This will be the last prediction from Einstein's theories. The step now facing physics will be to modify or scrapping it entirely in favour of something that can incorporate gravity at the quantum level. That does not mean General Relativity is wrong, merely that it breaks down at certain scales, in the same way Newton's theory of gravity works on solar scales.

More on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pup3s86oJXU&list=PLcM-gF4XiX--4E4e1tHRjTlJHhSUcNe7n&index=39

Andy @ Allerton! · « **Reply #1632 on:** February 13, 2016, 10:02:00 am »

Quote from: Twelfth Man on February 13, 2016, 07:12:49 am

So do the Europeans: https://www.elisascience.org/articles/elisa-mission/elisa-mission-gravitational-universe

BTW some theoretical physicists think Einstein's space/time theory is a goner because it cannot reconcile gravity at the Plank scale (quantum level). This will be the last prediction from Einstein's theories. The step now facing physics will be to modify or scrapping it entirely in favour of something that can incorporate gravity at the quantum level. That does not mean General Relativity is wrong, merely that it breaks down at certain scales, in the same way Newton's theory of gravity works on solar scales.

More on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pup3s86oJXU&list=PLcM-gF4XiX--4E4e1tHRjTlJHhSUcNe7n&index=39

Star Trek had Gravitons so they must be real

Andy @ Allerton! · « **Reply #1633 on:** February 13, 2016, 11:52:54 am »

We need to get onto the moon and establish a base. Any deep space exploration craft are going to come from the moon and the asteroids - you can build any kind of structure you like in space and you don't need to spend shitloads to get it up the well and a very modest amount of constant acceleration could yield some impressive speeds.

farawayred · « **Reply #1634 on:** February 13, 2016, 05:58:45 pm »

Quote from: Koala @ Allerton on February 13, 2016, 11:52:54 am

We need to get onto the moon and establish a base. Any deep space exploration craft are going to come from the moon and the asteroids - you can build any kind of structure you like in space and you don't need to spend shitloads to get it up the well and a very modest amount of constant acceleration could yield some impressive speeds.

The problem with a lunar base is not just technical, but also very political. I'm sure that China and Russia will only approach the issue with peaceful purposes in mind...

farawayred · « **Reply #1635 on:** February 13, 2016, 07:03:51 pm »

Quote from: Twelfth Man on February 13, 2016, 07:12:49 am

So do the Europeans: https://www.elisascience.org/articles/elisa-mission/elisa-mission-gravitational-universe

BTW some theoretical physicists think Einstein's space/time theory is a goner because it cannot reconcile gravity at the Plank scale (quantum level). This will be the last prediction from Einstein's theories. The step now facing physics will be to modify or scrapping it entirely in favour of something that can incorporate gravity at the quantum level. That does not mean General Relativity is wrong, merely that it breaks down at certain scales, in the same way Newton's theory of gravity works on solar scales.

More on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pup3s86oJXU&list=PLcM-gF4XiX--4E4e1tHRjTlJHhSUcNe7n&index=39

Thanks for posting the Nima Arkani-Hamed link, fascinating!

I actually think that there is a consensus that gravity theory can be reconciled with quantum theory, and Nima said that too when comparing the gravitational effects versus electrostatic repulsion force of electrons. Plus, a formalism already exists to derive the existence of gravitons from the field of the Higgs boson (and it's known partners W+, W- and Z0). This is not too conceptually different from the photons being the carriers of electromagnetic field. There may be other particles heavier than the Higgs boson, for which the collider will look, and that will change the nature of the theory and the gravitons.

But yes, the space-time concept will have to go eventually, or be augmented to allow us to look in the past near the Big Bang time.

Flinstone · « **Reply #1636 on:** February 14, 2016, 01:57:49 am »

Quote from: farawayred on February 13, 2016, 05:58:45 pm

The problem with a lunar base is not just technical, but also very political. I'm sure that China and Russia will only approach the issue with peaceful purposes in mind...

As opposed to the Western world which has such a benevolent history outside and inside it's borders?

I would argue Space is the one area which is highly apolitical. If it is beneficial, we will see it happen sooner or later.

farawayred · « **Reply #1637 on:** February 14, 2016, 05:50:24 am »

Quote from: Flinstone on February 14, 2016, 01:57:49 am

As opposed to the Western world which has such a benevolent history outside and inside it's borders?

I would argue Space is the one area which is highly apolitical. If it is beneficial, we will see it happen sooner or later.

I'd agree with the first part, didn't mean to sound too Americanized, the US messes up too when unopposed.

But the second part is an area of major contention. Why do you think the Chinese blew up the satellite? Not a military application? Why do you think North Korea wants to launch a rocket, for peace purposes? Not that the Russians and the Americans don't already have the capability well developed...

There is a reason why the space treaty was signed. The US detonated a nuke in space early on, and the results were quite interesting. If the same thing happens now, we'd seize to perceive reality as we do now. The technology we are so used to will likely be gone in a short time. Apart from radiation that kills electronics (think satellite control), one of the major consequences is that the atmosphere is heated significantly, it expands, and increases the density and thereby the drag in low Earth orbit (LEO) where most of the satellites are orbiting. This happens with little solar wind, let alone with a nuke burst right there. The satellite fuel is a small amount, and is carefully planned to suffice for orbit correction throughout its mission. The increased drag requires a significant amount of fuel; some would have it, some won't. Satellites would start dropping sooner rather than later. Even the GPS system in MEO will be affected. So would spy satellites in polar orbits.

The Gulleysucker · « **Reply #1638 on:** February 14, 2016, 10:37:47 pm »

So, had a good view down here in the SW UK of the ISS pass over tonight at around 6.45pm.
Following just shortly behind on what appeared to be the same orbit, there was another fainter object that then seemed to overtake the ISS.
I checked NASA for ISS re-supply missions but I can't find any currently listed that match.
Not sure if it was something at either a higher altitude (and obviously going faster) or something at a lower altitude climbing up to join or perhaps descending to re-enter.
Anyone any info on what else might be up there on that ISS orbit path tonight?

Buggy Eyes Alfredo · « **Reply #1639 on:** February 15, 2016, 06:25:29 am »

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft was launched on February 2010 and became operational in April of 2010. When it left it had enough fuel to last ten years. The scientists are receiving valuable data and they just released this time-lapse video of the Sun from Jan. 1, 2015 to Jan. 28, 2016.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/8MImmQvqCSg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/8MImmQvqCSg</a>