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bloody cheapskate scientists.
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Also, a lot of things in space are only visible on a photo when you have a really long exposure time.. I guess a galaxy looks rather boring if you look at it 'real time'. Not even close to the bright, wonderful images you find in astronomy books.. or do they? |
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some are in true color (visible wavelength) some are in x-rays (non visible to humans) so they assigne colors to the ends of the xray spectrum so you can see the structure some are in infrared which gives a "gray" tonal image so they assigne colors to the different spctra of difrerent elements some are in gamma rays. (non visible to human eyes) some are in radio waves (non visible) etc it is not arbitrary |
Quite right, although it's almost a shame. I had a vision of all the boffin tech dudes at NASA suddenly stopping work and getting the crayons out.
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that is their creative outlet! the crayons! |
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The elaborator is in the house! ;) |
fo sheeeeezie!
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Comet to Make Brief Flyby
By Rory Sweeney The Times Leader 01/15/07 9:23 AM PT Comet McNaught, an unusually bright comet, will be visible from various vantage points on Earth as it flies by, but amateur astronomers will have to get their timing right to catch a glimpse of it. It will be visible only in the minutes just after the sun sets because of its close proximity to the sun. The amateur astronomy community is abuzz about the coming of perhaps the brightest comet in 30 years. Under the right conditions, comet McNaught, discovered by R.H. McNaught in August, will be visible as a "fuzzy ball with a tail coming off of it" for the next few days just after the sun sets in the western sky, Kristi Concannon, a physics and astronomy professor at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., said Saturday. "It will be just above the horizon and just right of where the sun sets," she said, but warned to be punctual. "Because it's so close to the sun, it's not going to be visible at night." After that, it will be lost in the glare of the sun for a week or so while it orbits around and then will be visible again for a while in the minutes before sunrise, she said. Comets visible to the naked eye come around about once a decade, she said. The last one, comet Hale-Bopp, caused ripples of excitement beyond the sky-watching community when it was visible for months in 1996 and 1997. Brighter than comet Hale-Bopp, comet McNaught currently matches the magnitude of comet West, which flashed across the sky in 1975. Stargazers anticipate the orbit of comet McNaught around the sun will only enhance its visibility. "What we're hoping is that when it comes back around the sun, it will have released more gas and it could potentially be brighter," bright enough to be visible during the day, Concannon said. Won't Reveal Much The event, while spectacular, holds little promise of advancing our understanding of what "are in essence dirty snowballs" from an icy band of leftover material from the forming of the solar system orbiting beyond Pluto. The material is occasionally "perturbed" into a solar-system-spanning orbit around our sun. "It's not that common for a comet to be bright enough to be seen during the day, but it has happened before," she said. "For whatever reason or another, this one appears to be releasing a lot of gas." |
Intriguing story:
Dwarf planet 'becoming a comet' By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News 2003 EL61 is a large, dense, rugby-ball-shaped hunk of rock with a fast rotation rate. Professor Mike Brown has calculated that the object could be due a close encounter with the planet Neptune. If so, Neptune's gravity could catapult it into the inner Solar System as a short-period comet. "If you came back in two million years, EL61 could well be a comet," said Professor Brown, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. "When it becomes a comet, it will be the brightest we will ever see." 2003 EL61 is a large object; it is as big as Pluto along its longest dimension. It is one of the largest of a swarm of icy objects that inhabit a region of the outer Solar System known as the Kuiper Belt. But it is extremely unusual: spinning on its axis every four hours, it has developed an elongated shape. 2003 EL61 is apparently composed of rock with just a thin veneer of water-ice covering its surface. Other Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) contain much more water-ice. Professor Brown's computer simulations show that the object is on a very unstable orbit and set for a close encounter with Neptune. The eighth planet's gravitational force could either sling the icy rock ball into the inner Solar System as a comet, out into the distant Oort Cloud region, or even into interstellar space. Orbits of Kuiper Belt Objects tend to be very stable, but the region is thought to be a reservoir for short-period comets. Occasionally, some of these objects must get tossed inward to become the fizzing lumps of ice and dust that criss-cross our cosmic neighbourhood. Mike Brown and his colleagues have come up with a scenario to explain 2003 EL61's physical characteristics and behaviour. About 4.5 billion years ago, the object that became 2003 EL61 was a ball, half composed of ice and half of rock - like Pluto - and about the same size as Pluto. Some time early in its history, it was smacked, edge on, by another large KBO. This broke off much of 2003 EL61's icy mantle, which coalesced to form several satellites. As expected, the satellites seem to be composed of very pure water-ice. Professor Brown suggested that some of 2003 EL61's mantle may already have made it into the inner Solar System as cometary material. The oblique impact also caused 2003 EL61 to spin rapidly. This rapid rotation elongated 2003 EL61 into the rugby ball shape we see today. "It's a bit like the story of Mercury," Professor Brown explained. "Mercury got hit by a large object early in the Solar System. It left mostly a big iron core, with a little bit of rock on the outside. This is mostly a rock core with a little bit of ice on the outside." Mike Brown outlined details of his work during a plenary lecture at the recent American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. |
Pretty neat Sebastian!
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html Awesome stuff^ Look at this SPACE BUBBLE!  |
Hints of huge water reservoirs on Mars
* 19:00 25 January 2007 * NewScientist.com news service * David Shiga Mars is losing little water to space, according to new research, so much of its ancient abundance may still be hidden beneath the surface. Dried up riverbeds and other evidence imply that Mars once had enough water to fill a global ocean more than 600 metres deep, together with a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide that kept the planet warm enough for the water to be liquid. But the planet is now very dry and has a thin atmosphere. Some scientists have proposed that the Red Planet lost its water and CO2 to space as the solar wind stripped molecules from the top of the planet's atmosphere. Measurements by Russia's Phobos-2 probe to Mars in 1989 hinted that the loss was quite rapid. Now the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft has revealed that the rate of loss is much lower. Stas Barabash of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics in Kiruna led a team that used data from Mars Express's ASPERA-3 instrument (Analyzer of Space Plasmas and Energetic Atoms). Its measurements suggest the whole planet loses only about 20 grams per second of oxygen and CO2 to space, only about 1% of the rate inferred from Phobos-2 data. If this rate has held steady over Mars's history, it would have removed just a few centimetres of water, and a thousandth of the original CO2. Either some other process removed the water and CO2 or they are still present and hidden somewhere on Mars, probably underground, Barabash says. "We are talking about huge amounts of water," he told New Scientist. "To store it somewhere requires a really big, huge reservoir." Barabash is not sure what form this reservoir – or reservoirs – would take, but he points to findings from NASA's now lost Mars Global Surveyor (MGS). This data provided evidence that water had gushed down slopes on Mars in recent years, possibly originating from beneath the surface (see Water flows on Mars before our very eyes). "So there might be some possibilities for water existing in liquid form even now," he says. "If water is there, I think it will put all ideas about human missions to Mars on a completely different level," he says. "It's not only water to support [astronauts], but also a potential fuel." Hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel can be produced from water. However, the researchers point out that other mechanisms might have removed water and CO2 from Mars, such as asteroid and comet impacts. Or the solar wind might have sheared off of whole chunks of atmosphere rather than individual molecules. Another possibility is suggested by Mars atmosphere expert David Brain at the University of California in Berkeley, US. He points out that magnetic storms might boost the rate at which the solar wind strips molecules from the atmosphere. "We believe that solar storms were frequent and more intense early on in the solar system's history," he told New Scientist. Even so, Brain thinks that some of Mars's ancient water and CO2 is still stored in hidden reservoirs. |
Moon to blush red during total lunar eclipse
The Moon will blush red as it passes through Earth's shadow in a total lunar eclipse on Saturday. From most locations on Earth, at least part of the 6-hour eclipse will be visible if skies are clear. The Earth's shadow will completely cover the Moon during the most dramatic phase, which will last a little more than an hour – from 2244 to 2357 GMT. (You can find out the conversion between GMT and your local time here. Scroll to the bottom to find out what GMT is currently.) If you could watch the eclipse from the surface of the Moon, your surroundings would grow dark as the Sun disappears behind Earth. But the ground would still be lit by an eerie red glow. Looking up, you would see the source of this light: a glowing red ring around Earth. The red ring is due to sunlight being refracted through the Earth's atmosphere – essentially, the combined glow of all the world's sunrises and sunsets. It is the reason why the Moon is not black but reddish during a total lunar eclipse. Dust and clouds The brightness of the eclipsed Moon can vary greatly from eclipse to eclipse. It depends on the amount of dust and clouds in Earth's atmosphere, since these can block some of the refracted sunlight. The deepest part of the eclipse, when the Moon is completely covered by Earth's shadow, will be visible from all of Europe, Africa, and in Asia westward of central China. It will also be visible in central and eastern North America and all of South America. From most locations, the Moon will be up for at least part of the eclipse (scroll down for a map of where it will be visible). The eclipse will not be observable at all in a swath of the Pacific Ocean stretching from northwestern Canada to eastern Australia. Deep shadow One edge of the Moon's face will begin to subtly darken as the eclipse begins at 2018 GMT. The eclipse will be more obvious after 2130, when the Moon begins to enter into the deepest part of Earth's shadow. The most spectacular part of the eclipse lasts from 2244 to 2357 GMT, when the Moon is entirely in the deepest part of Earth's shadow. By 0111 GMT on Sunday, the Moon will have left this deep shadow, but will continue to be slightly shaded until 0223 GMT. Lunar eclipses are much more common than solar eclipses. This is because the Earth is a bigger object, so it casts a bigger shadow that more easily covers the Moon than vice versa. As many as three lunar eclipses, including partial eclipses, can happen per year. The last total lunar eclipse was on 28 October 2004. The next one will occur on 28 August 2007. |
every internet name I use is something strung together from random words on APOD.
R.I.P. Hubble Telescope. :( I <3 Mars. this looks a lot like Oklahoma (but not as flat)...  |
Rally site of Mars ships in darkness Site them truth right in front of their kids Your bound to see a world filled of hatred…and miss, Man the point of things… know your wrong.. Oh the point is that, their money cover all of it In search of life, you can see their money conquer all of it See them sparks blazing in the nighttime See them buying prospects in the moon See them dancing upon them silver spoons yeah See them who pay hardships upon him Lord See them brighter than the morning star (this was a song about the futility of scientists searching in space for life and the building blocks of life when life is all around us HERE, on earth, where we live....) I just watched some shit on Nova about this last night. It was disturbing to say the least. NASA can receive a cell phone strength radio signal from SATURN quicker then I CAN CATCH A BUS IN LONG BEACH! look out for big brother children. |
NASA is way too underfunded to be much of a big brother. they are more like a younger step brother that was adopted.
PS: nice sig. praise H.I.M. |
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its not NASA that is big brother, its that big brother gives NASA the technology to pick up such a small radio transmission from over 1 billion kilometers, aside from the futility of astronomers spending so much time and $$$ looking up in space, more then likely as a distraction from the fucked up situation that exists on the earth.... |
outer space rules.
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i want them to look MORE into space. and i want them to have more money. WASHINGTON, Mar. 6, 2007(AP) NASA officials say the space agency is capable of finding nearly all the asteroids that might pose a devastating hit to Earth, but there isn't enough money to pay for the task so it won't get done. The cost to find at least 90 percent of the 20,000 potentially hazardous asteroids and comets by 2020 would be about $1 billion, according to a report NASA will release later this week. The report was previewed Monday at a Planetary Defense Conference in Washington. Congress in 2005 asked NASA to come up with a plan to track most killer asteroids and propose how to deflect the potentially catastrophic ones. "We know what to do, we just don't have the money," said Simon "Pete" Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center. These are asteroids that are bigger than 460 feet in diameter _ slightly smaller than the Superdome in New Orleans. They are a threat even if they don't hit Earth because if they explode while close enough _ an event caused by heating in both the rock and the atmosphere _ the devastation from the shockwaves is still immense. The explosion alone could have with the power of 100 million tons of dynamite, enough to devastate an entire state, such as Maryland, they said. The agency is already tracking bigger objects, at least 3,300 feet in diameter, that could wipe out most life on Earth, much like what is theorized to have happened to dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But even that search, which has spotted 769 asteroids and comets _ none of which is on course to hit Earth _ is behind schedule. It's supposed to be complete by the end of next year. NASA needs to do more to locate other smaller, but still potentially dangerous space bodies. While an Italian observatory is doing some work, the United States is the only government with an asteroid-tracking program, NASA said. One solution would be to build a new ground telescope solely for the asteroid hunt, and piggyback that use with other agencies' telescopes for a total of $800 million. Another would be to launch a space infrared telescope that could do the job faster for $1.1 billion. But NASA program scientist Lindley Johnson said NASA and the White House called both those choices too costly. A cheaper option would be to simply piggyback on other agencies' telescopes, a cost of about $300 million, also rejected, Johnson said. "The decision of the agency is we just can't do anything about it right now," he added. Earth got a scare in 2004, when initial readings suggested an 885-foot asteroid called 99942 Apophis seemed to have a chance of hitting Earth in 2029. But more observations showed that wouldn't happen. Scientists say there is a 1-in-45,000 chance that it could hit in 2036. They think it would mostly likely strike the Pacific Ocean, which would cause a tsunami on the U.S. West Coast the size of the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean wave. John Logsdon, space policy director at George Washington University, said a stepped-up search for such asteroids is needed. "You can't deflect them if you can't find them," Logsdon said. "And we can't find things that can cause massive damage." ___ |
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quoted for the muthafuckin' truth. throughout earth's ages, the species that have survived catastrophe were those that were able to adapt. more often than not, these were also the ones that migrated. solve earth's problems? not likely. it's way too fucked. evacuation is our only long-term hope. barring that, having the ability to anticipate and possibly react to a potential epoch-ending event is a no-brainer. a little big brother paranoia is a good thing; too much and you cripple yrself. |
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sometimes peoples priorities are more half baked then even mine! |
you should read up on dark matter.
quite interesting. Billions and billions of galaxies. |
Have you ever wondered what a solar eclipse would look like from space? The STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) has just sent back its view (awe-inspiring video included). It has also sent back some gorgeous pictures of our sun (and the McNaught Comet). For more media, check out the other galleries (including some 3D images). For more about the project, see NASA's STEREO homepage. Be sure to also stop by the Johns Hopkins University STEREO Page, where you can download a mission guide (pdf), view animations, watch a video of the launch, or even make your own papercraft STEREO model (pdf). You can also learn more in six minute segments with their series of short educational videos.
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this video is fucking amazing. Thank you so much
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It's like Google Maps...for space. Wikisky is a draggable, zoomable, web-based star map. And if you click on a star or other object, it brings up a page with all the information you could want on it, including recent articles and astrophotos that contain that object. And it does lots more. Go explore.
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I can see my home from there!
that's a seriously cool site mr. 2600. from Science News Weekly: Radar reveals signs of seas on Titan Newly discovered features that appear to be hydrocarbon seas on Saturn's moon Titan are at least 10 times as large as any such features previously imaged there. Recent radar observations of Titan's north pole taken with the Cassini spacecraft show that one of the putative oceans is larger than any of North America's Great Lakes. The features' darkness in radar images indicates smooth surfaces and their outlines resemble shorelines. Scientists contend that the bodies are probably made of liquid ethane or methane. Methane is abundant in Titan's thick atmosphere and cylces between the moon's atmosphere and rigid surface, much as water cycles on Earth. Some of the features are large enough for Cassini's visible and infrared mapping spectrometer to perform a key test in the next year or two, when the sun climbs higher over Titan, says Cassini researcher Jonathan Lunine of the University of Arizon in Tucson. With stronger solar illumination, the instrument could obtain spectra indicating whehter the bodies are indeed compsed of liquid hydrocarbons. "We couldn't do that with the other lakes previously discerned by Cassini's radar because those areas were too small" Lunine adds. Cassini took the radar images during a Feb. 22 flyby, and NASA release them on March 13. [yay transcription] |
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wow, amazing saturn photo. looks so surreal....
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Staring at the sun. YouTube video of solar flares, made from images captured by the SOHO satellite. Yes, there is more.
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staring at the sun!!!!!
I love outer space. thanks for keeping this thread stocked with great space info and images |
This life-like movie sequence captures Saturn's rings during a ring plane crossing--which Cassini makes twice per orbit--from the spacecraft's point of view. The movie begins with a view of the sunlit side of the rings. As the spacecraft speeds from south to north, the rings appear to tilt downward and collapse to a thin plane, and then open again to reveal the un-illuminated side of the ring plane, where sunlight filters through only dimly.The Great Crossing -- The Movie (7 MB) posted by y2karl |
Martian Sunsets
Viking I - Chryse Planitia  Spirit - Gusev Crater  |
This is a great thread.
I'm quite into the odds and ends of outer space myself, and have been ever since I first heard Sun Ra's "Space Is the Place". A recent thing I enjoy pondering is that, if one was to travel to our closest off galaxy, Andromeda, and look through an extremely powerful telescope allowing them to see all the details of our earth, they being 2 million light years away, would see primitive man walking earth. Two million years after their death. From the most local galaxy. 'Tis amazing. |
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oh man have you seen that movie? insane! one of my favorites--ever. |
Mars Has Cave Networks, New Photos Suggest
Scott Norris for National Geographic News March 21, 2007 Seven circular pits on the surface of Mars appear to be openings to underground caverns, researchers have announced. The discovery of potential caves is exciting, the scientists said, because such underground formations may be the most promising places to look for signs of life.  Researchers were able to peer into the openings from far above, using visual and infrared imaging instruments aboard the Mars orbiter Odyssey. No bottom is visible in six of the chambers. In the seventh, a section of cave floor illuminated by direct sunlight suggests a minimum depth of about 425 feet (130 meters). Thermal scans helped establish that the holes are probably "skylight" openings to an underground cave system. Each skylight is 330 to 820 feet (100 to 250 meters) across. A research team presented the discovery at a meeting of the Lunar and Planetary Institute last week in Houston. Phil Christensen, of Arizona State University in Tempe, heads the thermal imaging project on Odyssey. He noted that temperatures at the openings remained more constant than at surrounding areas exposed to Mars' bitter nighttime temperatures. "These pits stay relatively warm at night," Christensen said. "That suggests we're looking down into a cavern that is trapping daytime heat." To an observer on the Martian surface, he added, "it would be a pretty spectacular view. You could stand on the edge and look in, but I'm not sure you could see the bottom." Pits and Tubes The openings are scattered across several hundred kilometers on the side of Mars' second highest mountain, known as Arsia Mons, near Valles Marineris. Others lie on the mountain's lower flanks, where conditions may be more hospitable for life. The surface of Mars is strewn with craters from meteor impacts and depressions formed by the collapse of underground chambers formed by flowing lava, the experts said. Similar "collapse pits" and lava tubes with skylight openings are found in volcanic cave systems on Earth, in places such as Hawaii, the team pointed out. The Martian caves may be similar in structure to Hawaii's lava tubes, Christensen said, albeit on a larger scale. Smaller skylights may also be present, he added. Odyssey's thermal imager can only detect openings larger than about 330 feet (100 meters) across. New details may come soon from additional imaging, the researchers said, as well as from the use of the high-resolution camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Shelter From the Storm In addition to insulation from cold temperatures, Mars' caverns may provide shelter from the barrages of dust, ultraviolet radiation, charged particles, and small meteorites that whip the planet's surface. Some researchers have suggested that Martian caverns in low-lying areas could hold reservoirs of water, which would make the existence of microbial life much more likely. (Read related story: "Mars Has Liquid Water, New Photos Suggest" [December 6, 2006].) At the elevations where the caves are located, the presence of water or ice is doubtful, the Odyssey scientists said. But there remains an intriguing possibility of ongoing volcanic and hydrothermal activity in the region. Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University headed a recent study of potential Martian hydrothermal sites including Arsia Mons. "If there is still volcanic activity at or near the [cave] sites, the chances for life are much higher," he said. "Hydrothermal water and associated nutrient-containing compounds could be released periodically and sustain life." Whatever secrets the newfound caves may hold, they are likely to remain mysterious for some time. The caves' location makes them difficult if not impossible to reach with robotic rovers, the scientists said. |
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Experts to Discuss U.S. Space Plan
Back to the Moon? Push on to Mars? Visit an asteroid? At Stanford University on Tuesday, 50 space experts and advocates from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, industry, academia and advocacy groups are gathering to ask whether the United States is on the right track in its plans to reach the Moon by 2020, build a long-term lunar base there and eventually send humans to Mars. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/science/space/12space.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=space+exploration&st=ny t&oref=slogin |
space fucking rocks.
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you mean the asteroid fucking belt? |
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