Space Stuff

It seems they overestimated the amount of dark matter in the Andromeda Galaxy and our 2 galaxies are about the same size.

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FluffyMcDeath said:
That's an old video. We are now well past the peak of cycle 24. Looks like their chart is circa 2012. Cycle 24 was a pretty anaemic cycle, and 25 is expected to be weaker yet.
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yes, the Solar Storm explanation video is 2012, the solar flare hit today, should be a light show this evening
 
Oxygen ions may be an easy-to-track sign of life on exoplanets
Depending, of course, on whether anything but life can generate a lot of oxygen.
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The search for extraterrestrial life is fairly synonymous with the search for life as we know it. We're just not that imaginative—when looking for other planets that could host life, we don’t know what to look for, exactly, if not Earth-like conditions. Everything we know about life comes from life on Earth.

But conditions that clearly favor life here—liquid water, surface oxygen, ozone in the stratosphere, possibly a magnetic field—may not necessarily be prerequisites for its development elsewhere. Conversely, their presence does not guarantee life, either. So what can we look for that's an indication of life?
 
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Robert said:
True but that payload generated a lot more publicity than a lump of concrete - or CO2 rock - would have.

I initially thought the Tesla was a stupid idea and thought he should have opened it to universities to send up cube sats or some such, given they tend to be cheap (relatively) so the risk of them never getting to orbit wouldn't be as big a deal.

Then I saw it. It looked cool. I changed my mind.
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Made me think of the opening scene of Heavy Metal

Definately over the top, definately 'Murica, definately too cool :cool::cool::cool::cool:
 
Speelgoedmannetje said:
Definately over the top, definately 'Murica, definately too cool
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While Elon Musk is sending Tesla cars out to space as space junk, NASA can't even pull off a Mock Mars Mission right here on Earth.

Mock Mars Mission Suspended Due to Crewmember Accident

A crewmember of the mock Mars mission HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) VI was admitted to the hospital yesterday morning (Feb. 19) after a minor accident, just a few days after the Hawaii-based simulation began.

According to safety protocols, the three remaining crewmembers have left the dome habitat, and the eight-month mission will be put on hold until an inspection and investigation have been completed, representatives for the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which operates the NASA-funded mission, said in a statement. The injured crewmember was admitted to the Hilo Medical Center and was held for a few hours for observation, they added, but further medical information cannot be provided without the crewmember's permission.

University of Hawaii spokesperson Dan Meisenzahl told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he was unsure how long it would take for the mission to resume and that more information may be available later in the week.

Sigh.....
 
redrumloa said:
While Elon Musk is sending Tesla cars out to space as space junk, NASA can't even pull off a Mock Mars Mission right here on Earth.

Mock Mars Mission Suspended Due to Crewmember Accident

A crewmember of the mock Mars mission HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) VI was admitted to the hospital yesterday morning (Feb. 19) after a minor accident, just a few days after the Hawaii-based simulation began.

According to safety protocols, the three remaining crewmembers have left the dome habitat, and the eight-month mission will be put on hold until an inspection and investigation have been completed, representatives for the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which operates the NASA-funded mission, said in a statement. The injured crewmember was admitted to the Hilo Medical Center and was held for a few hours for observation, they added, but further medical information cannot be provided without the crewmember's permission.

University of Hawaii spokesperson Dan Meisenzahl told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he was unsure how long it would take for the mission to resume and that more information may be available later in the week.

Sigh.....
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Phthpthp. NASA is just so paranoid about the littlest thing ever since they blew up seven astronauts on live TV. Very few details as to what a "minor" accident might be. Perhaps what they need to do is turn this mission over to the producers of "Survivor", get the science done and make a buck at the same time.
 
Euro Space Agency probe begins search for guff gas on Mars
Do we mean methane? You're darn tootin'
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The European Space Agency's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) is to conduct its final aerobraking manoeuvre this evening prior to starting its mission of sniffing for Martian methane.

TGO should finally settle into its proper orbit tonight, 400km above the red planet. It was launched nearly two years ago aboard a Russian Proton rocket, along with the Schiaparelli lander (which created its own crater on the surface of Mars in October 2016).

The aerobraking technique uses tiny amounts of atmospheric drag on the orbiter’s 17.5m solar panels to adjust the orbit and carry out some bonus science on the dynamics of the Martian atmosphere. It is the first time ESA has attempted to use aerobraking as the primary method to get into a science orbit around a planetary body, although the technique is not entirely novel, having been used by NASA for missions such as Mars Global Surveyor and Magellan.
 
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The World's Luckiest Photographer May Have Proved Astrophysicists Right

On a September night in Argentina, amateur astronomer Victor Buso took his camera outside, mounted it on a 16-inch telescope and trained it on a spiral galaxy some 80 million light-years from Earth. Buso was just trying to test out his new camera.

While photographing the NGC 613 galaxy over the course of about an hour, Buso inadvertently captured several images of a star moving through the first visible stages of a supernova — the explosive (and visibly bright) death of a supermassive star. In one photo, the space below the spiral galaxy looked seemingly empty. In the next, a bright blast of light had appeared.

the chances of randomly catching a star going supernova are about 1 in 10 million, at best.
 
metalman said:
It's human nature to solve puzzles
Planet Earth has essentially been broadcasting its presence since radio broadcasts began. Considering the vastness of the Universe, if the message came from Proxima Centauri , the latency between messages would be 8.4 years

Considering our experience with the Internet, the message would be either a cat meme , a letter from a long lost Nigerian relative who died and left you billions of credits in a Proxima Centauri bank, or tentacle porn
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Are we too late? Any life on 'Earth-like' planet Proxima b may have been wiped out by a massive solar flare last year



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