Space Thread

[Jez 0]

Something for the Aussies members to look out for tonight-

A smile that will light up the night sky

December 1, 2008 - 10:55AM

THE world may be facing its worst economic turmoil in decades, but the heavens are about to smile on Australia.A rare cosmic alignment tonight will produce a smiling face - or an emoticon, depending on your generation - high over the country.

From soon after 8pm until just before 11pm the planets Venus and Jupiter will stare down from the western sky like two brilliant eyes. Directly below, the crescent moon will form a happy mouth.

"I think it will be very spectacular," Sydney Observatory's astronomer, Nick Lomb, said. "The three brightest objects in the night sky will all be in the same patch of the sky."

As the night draws on, Dr Lomb predicted, "the smiley face" - with Venus playing the left eye and giant Jupiter the right - "will improve and become a little more compact".

To the superstitious, unusual astronomical apparitions were often seen as omens. While Dr Lomb said he did not believe in such things, he noted that Monday's smiling face will appear on the eve of the next Reserve Bank's meeting at which it will consider interest rates.

"There was an upside-down sad face visible on the morning of April 23, 1998," he recalled. That day's Herald was dominated by news of conflict on Australia's waterfront, protests against child-care costs, big rises in bank fees and executions in Rwanda.

Dr Lomb urged people to attempt to photograph tonight's heavenly show, which will not smile on the US or Europe.

"It should be very easy to take a photograph with a digital camera and a tripod. Use a one-, two- or three-second exposure and, of course, no flash."

However the cosmic cheeriness will be a fleeting affair. Another smiley face will not grin over Australia until the early hours of July 21, 2036.

Sydney Observatory will stay open for tonight's show, allowing people to stare back through telescopes and glimpse Jupiter's moons, Venus's gibbous shape and lunar craters.

[freaky2 1]

Something for the Aussies members to look out for tonight-

A smile that will light up the night sky

December 1, 2008 - 10:55AM

THE world may be facing its worst economic turmoil in decades, but the heavens are about to smile on Australia.A rare cosmic alignment tonight will produce a smiling face - or an emoticon, depending on your generation - high over the country.

From soon after 8pm until just before 11pm the planets Venus and Jupiter will stare down from the western sky like two brilliant eyes. Directly below, the crescent moon will form a happy mouth.

"I think it will be very spectacular," Sydney Observatory's astronomer, Nick Lomb, said. "The three brightest objects in the night sky will all be in the same patch of the sky."

As the night draws on, Dr Lomb predicted, "the smiley face" - with Venus playing the left eye and giant Jupiter the right - "will improve and become a little more compact".

To the superstitious, unusual astronomical apparitions were often seen as omens. While Dr Lomb said he did not believe in such things, he noted that Monday's smiling face will appear on the eve of the next Reserve Bank's meeting at which it will consider interest rates.

"There was an upside-down sad face visible on the morning of April 23, 1998," he recalled. That day's Herald was dominated by news of conflict on Australia's waterfront, protests against child-care costs, big rises in bank fees and executions in Rwanda.

Dr Lomb urged people to attempt to photograph tonight's heavenly show, which will not smile on the US or Europe.

"It should be very easy to take a photograph with a digital camera and a tripod. Use a one-, two- or three-second exposure and, of course, no flash."

However the cosmic cheeriness will be a fleeting affair. Another smiley face will not grin over Australia until the early hours of July 21, 2036.

Sydney Observatory will stay open for tonight's show, allowing people to stare back through telescopes and glimpse Jupiter's moons, Venus's gibbous shape and lunar craters.

Cool! My grandma would love it, and I got interested in stuff like that from her as well... will have to take a look at the pictures

[Rainmaster 7]

I like space, personal space that is. Sometimes, when I'm bored, I go on this forum. But other times when I'm extremely bored I borrow Microsoft's telescope to look at some pictures of pretty bright things in space. You would probably find similar things if you typed 'space images' into Google Image Search or downloaded the program yourself or became me.

Oh and of course the space elevator idea is pretty cool, but they should make it a lift on the way up and a giant slide on the way down.

Top thread making Jez

[Quiet One 15]

I like space, personal space that is. Sometimes, when I'm bored, I go on this forum. But other times when I'm extremely bored I borrow Microsoft's telescope to look at some pictures of pretty bright things in space. You would probably find similar things if you typed 'space images' into Google Image Search or downloaded the program yourself or became me.

Oh and of course the space elevator idea is pretty cool, but they should make it a lift on the way up and a giant slide on the way down.

Top thread making Jez

Where the hell have you been?

And why aren't you still there instead of polluting this forum?

[Max Mosley 2]

Oh and of course the space elevator idea is pretty cool, but they should make it a lift on the way up and a giant slide on the way down.

Top thread making Jez

And yes, it was a good thread, Jez. Welcome back, George.

[monza gorilla 1]

Space elevator? That reeks of Arthur.

[dribbler 6]

The one with the body guard married to Rula Lenska? Or the one who makes shoes?

[monza gorilla 1]

Dudley Moore. Or cat food.

[Rainmaster 7]

Where the hell have you been?

And why aren't you still there instead of polluting this forum?

Oh I've been preparing for the winter...and I missed arguing with people

And yes, it was a good thread, Jez. Welcome back, George.

Thank you

[Medilloni 6]

The one with the body guard married to Rula Lenska? Or the one who makes shoes?

Dudley Moore. Or cat food.

Dressing gown and towel? I can't get the The Vagina Monologues out of my mind for some reason. Or have I caught the wrong lift?

[Jez 0]

I like space, personal space that is. Sometimes, when I'm bored, I go on this forum. But other times when I'm extremely bored I borrow Microsoft's telescope to look at some pictures of pretty bright things in space. You would probably find similar things if you typed 'space images' into Google Image Search or downloaded the program yourself or became me.

Oh and of course the space elevator idea is pretty cool, but they should make it a lift on the way up and a giant slide on the way down.

Top thread making Jez

Space pole dancing! from 'her' to eternity! How about it science?

Good to see you around George

[Jez 0]

Cool! My grandma would love it, and I got interested in stuff like that from her as well... will have to take a look at the pictures

Yeah, I didn't hear much about it the next day. There was too much cloud cover on the night from where I was to see anything...

I'll try hunt down some pics!

[Jez 0]

Some Mars news. Don't get too excited.

Nasa delays its next Mars mission

MSL is Nasa's next rover mission to the Red Planet

The US space agency (Nasa) has delayed the launch of its Mars Science Laboratory rover mission.

MSL was scheduled to fly next year, but the mission has been dogged by testing and hardware problems.

The rover's launch would now be postponed until late 2011, agency officials said.

The mission is using innovative technologies to explore whether microbial life could ever have existed on the Red Planet.

The delay could add $400m to the price tag, which is likely to top $2bn.

"Trying for '09 would require us to assume too much risk, more than I think is appropriate for a flagship mission," said Nasa's administrator Michael Griffin. Trying for 2009 would require us to assume too much risk - more than I think is appropriate for a flagship mission

Michael Griffin, Nasa

The launch date was changed following an assessment by the mission's scientists and engineers of the progress it has made in the past three months.

"Despite exhaustive work in multiple shifts by a dedicated team, the progress in recent weeks has not come fast enough on solving technical challenges and pulling hardware together," said Charles Elachi, director of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, US.

"The right and smart course now for a successful mission is to launch in 2011."

Technology hurdles

MSL will use novel technologies to adjust its flight while descending through the Martian atmosphere, and to set the rover on the surface by lowering it on a tether from a hovering platform.

It is engineered to drive longer distances over rougher terrain than previous rovers and contains a science payload 10 times the mass of instruments on Nasa's Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers.

"Up to this point, efforts have focused on launching next year, both to begin the exciting science and because the delay will increase taxpayers' investment in the mission," said Doug McCuistion, director of Nasa's Mars exploration programme.

"However, we've reached the point where we can not condense the schedule further without compromising vital testing."

Engineers have struggled with the development of MSL's complex actuators - the motors that drive and turn the rover's wheels, and operate its robotic arm.

The window for a 2009 launch ends in late October. The relative positions of Earth and Mars are favourable for flights to the Red Planet only a few weeks every two years.

The next launch opportunity after 2009 is in 2011. The window in 2011 runs through October to December.

Joining forces

Dr Ed Weiler, chief scientist at Nasa, announced he had held discussions with the European Space Agency (Esa) about conducting joint missions to Mars in future. He said the cost of such missions meant collaboration was inevitable.

Dr Weiler told reporters that preliminary discussions with his opposite number at Esa, David Southwood, had led to an informal agreement that in future they would adopt a joint architecture for all missions to the Red Planet. Europe and the US could now make ExoMars a joint mission

Both agencies are likely to combine their efforts in the early 2020s to return rocks from Mars for study in Earth laboratories.

Europe has already made a decision to delay the launch of its own Mars rover, ExoMars, from 2013 to 2016.

Dr Weiler said there was a possibility this mission could also now become a joint venture with Nasa even though ExoMars is quite advanced in its design.

"We had a very short discussion yesterday on some ideas on how we could work together on ExoMars. They are literally at the viewgraph stage at this point in time, and I think we both learned not to make too many plans based on Powerpoints," said Dr Weiler.

"It is going to take some real scientists and engineers getting together and working that out. But is there a possibility it could become a joint mission? Absolutely. And we're certainly open to it and would welcome it."

At its Ministerial Council meeting last week, Esa said it was actively seeking the participation of both the US and Russia on ExoMars as a means of limiting the mission's 1.2bn-euro cost.

David Southwood told the BBC that international cooperation at Mars was the only way forward. "This is big," he said. "Ed and I can set the grand plan, but we need our people to get together to work out the detail. Give us six months and we'll have an announcement."

[Medilloni 6]

Something for the Aussies members to look out for tonight-

A smile that will light up the night sky

December 1, 2008 - 10:55AM

THE world may be facing its worst economic turmoil in decades, but the heavens are about to smile on Australia.A rare cosmic alignment tonight will produce a smiling face - or an emoticon, depending on your generation - high over the country.

From soon after 8pm until just before 11pm the planets Venus and Jupiter will stare down from the western sky like two brilliant eyes. Directly below, the crescent moon will form a happy mouth.

"I think it will be very spectacular," Sydney Observatory's astronomer, Nick Lomb, said. "The three brightest objects in the night sky will all be in the same patch of the sky."

As the night draws on, Dr Lomb predicted, "the smiley face" - with Venus playing the left eye and giant Jupiter the right - "will improve and become a little more compact".

To the superstitious, unusual astronomical apparitions were often seen as omens. While Dr Lomb said he did not believe in such things, he noted that Monday's smiling face will appear on the eve of the next Reserve Bank's meeting at which it will consider interest rates.

"There was an upside-down sad face visible on the morning of April 23, 1998," he recalled. That day's Herald was dominated by news of conflict on Australia's waterfront, protests against child-care costs, big rises in bank fees and executions in Rwanda.

Dr Lomb urged people to attempt to photograph tonight's heavenly show, which will not smile on the US or Europe.

"It should be very easy to take a photograph with a digital camera and a tripod. Use a one-, two- or three-second exposure and, of course, no flash."

However the cosmic cheeriness will be a fleeting affair. Another smiley face will not grin over Australia until the early hours of July 21, 2036.

Sydney Observatory will stay open for tonight's show, allowing people to stare back through telescopes and glimpse Jupiter's moons, Venus's gibbous shape and lunar craters.

Not sure if you got a pic Jez, so here you go, the smiley face: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7759146.stm

According to the article, seems it was visible from Euroland?

EDIT: Click on the 'see your pictures' link under the main image - some great photo's.

[Jez 0]

Thanks Meds. Indeed, great smiley pics!

[Jez 0]

Space thread bump!!

Mars rovers roll on to five years

The rovers keep on rolling across the dusty surface

The US space agency's (Nasa) Mars rovers are celebrating a remarkable five years on the Red Planet.

The first robot, named Spirit, landed on 3 January, 2004, followed by its twin, Opportunity, 21 days later.

It was hoped the robots would work for at least three months; but their longevity in the freezing Martian conditions has surprised everyone.

The rovers' data has revealed much about the history of water at Mars' equator billions of years ago.

"These rovers are incredibly resilient considering the extreme environment the hardware experiences every day," said John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity at Nasa's Jet Propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"We realise that a major rover component on either vehicle could fail at any time and end a mission with no advance notice, but on the other hand, we could accomplish the equivalent duration of four more prime missions on each rover in the year ahead."

Together, the rovers have driven more than 20km, and returned more than 36 gigabytes of data. This has included a quarter of a million images.

Spirit is exploring a 150km-wide bowl-shaped depression known as Gusev Crater. It has found an abundance of rocks and soils bearing evidence of extensive exposure to water.

Opportunity is on the other side of the planet, in a flat region known as Meridiani Planum. Some of the rocks seen by Opportunity were once "drenched" in water

Its data has shown conclusively that Mars sustained liquid water on its surface. The sedimentary rocks at its study location were laid down under gently flowing surface water.

The rovers are now showing some serious signs of wear and tear.

Spirit has to drive backwards everywhere it goes because of a jammed wheel; and Opportunity's robotic arm has a glitch in a shoulder joint because of a broken electrical wire.

There have been times also when the vehicles have been dangerously short on power because of the dust covering on their solar panels. The vehicles continue to return breathtaking panoramas

When Spirit and Opportunity do eventually fail, Nasa will have to wait awhile for its next surface mission.

It recently delayed this year's planned launch to 2011 of a much more capable vehicle, known as the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). The rover project has been beset by technical and budgetary problems.

The decision was taken not long after Europe also put back its rover venture known as ExoMars. Officials cited cost concerns.

It is likely all surface missions in future for Nasa and the European Space Agency will be joint affairs because of the high cost of getting spacecraft down on to the planet.

Nasa lost contact with its static Phoenix lander in November. It was operating in much more difficult conditions at a high-latitude location. The rovers succeeded where some other missions failed

[Max Mosley 2]

Proving that there was water on Mars is interesting. It could be really important to understanding how life arose on Earth.

[Medilloni 6]

Proving that there was water on Mars is interesting. It could be really important to understanding how life arose on Earth.

Sheesh, Muzza, always looking for the scientific answer.

It's pretty straightforward dude...remember the apple? The one the blonde guy with the six-pack got from the bee-atch that did the pole dancing thang with the snake?

Er, doh, it wasn't an apple.

It was a really juicy pair, and from there we all sprang. That's how life 'arose', it was 'roused'. And still is. Life is a stiffy. Cool

Fcuk the water, now if they find some pear or apple tree roots, then we're in for a hell of a thread

Edit: I was going to mention something about a snake shedding its skin and condoms, but Mrs Meds was looking over my shoulder.........

[Medilloni 6]

Here you go Jez, thought you'd like this...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7870562.stm

I bet this goes down like a lead ballon with some though:

"It's a process of quantifying our ignorance," said Duncan Forgan, the University of Edinburgh researcher who carried out the work.

Number of alien worlds quantified

Intelligent civilisations are out there and there could be thousands of them, according to an Edinburgh scientist.

The discovery of more than 330 planets outside our solar system in recent years has helped refine the number of life forms that are likely to exist.

The current research estimates that there are at least 361 intelligent civilisations in our Galaxy and possibly as many as 38,000.

The work is reported in the International Journal of Astrobiology.

Even with the higher of the two estimates, however, it is not very likely that contact could be established with alien worlds.

While researchers often come up with overall estimates of the likelihood of intelligent life in the universe, it is a process fraught with guesswork; recent guesses put the number anywhere between a million and less than one.

"It's a process of quantifying our ignorance," said Duncan Forgan, the University of Edinburgh researcher who carried out the work.

In his new approach, Mr Forgan simulated a galaxy much like our own, allowing it to develop solar systems based on what is now known from the existence of so-called exoplanets in our galactic neighbourhood.

These simulated alien worlds were then subjected to a number of different scenarios.

The first assumed that it is difficult for life to be formed but easy for it to evolve, and suggested there were 361 intelligent civilisations in the galaxy.

A second scenario assumed life was easily formed but struggled to develop intelligence. Under these conditions, 31,513 other forms of life were estimated to exist.

The final scenario examined the possibility that life could be passed from one planet to another during asteroid collisions - a popular theory for how life arose here on Earth.

That approach gave a result of some 37,964 intelligent civilisations in existence.

Form and function

While far-flung planets may reduce uncertainty in how many Earth-like planets there are, some variables in the estimate will remain guesses.

For example, the time from a planet's formation to the first sparks of life, or from there to the first intelligent civilisations, are large variables in the overall estimate.

For those, Mr Forgan says, we will have to continue to assume Earth is an average case.

"It is important to realise that the picture we've built up is still incomplete," said Mr Forgan.

"Even if alien life forms do exist, we may not necessarily be able to make contact with them, and we have no idea what form they would take.

"Life on other planets may be as varied as life on Earth and we cannot predict what intelligent life on other planets would look like or how they might behave."

If you visit the bbc site, the comments below the article are a larf.......

[Max Mosley 2]

I saw a beautiful halo around the Moon last night. Exactly like this one from Germany:

Apparently it's caused by light being refracted as it encounters ice crystals found in some types of clouds.

[Grabthaw the Hammerslayer 4]

I saw a beautiful halo around the Moon last night. Exactly like this one from Germany:

Exactly??? wow that is amazing, you mean it had the same house and trees there as well?? What are the odds of that??

(sorry Muzza, just pulling yer leg )

[Oli 1]

recent guesses put the number anywhere between a million and less than one.

Less than one? That's a bit cynical.

[mikathegreat2 2]

Meh, happens all the time!

[Medilloni 6]

Less than one? That's a bit cynical.

Less than one planet, or less than one alien? Moving on, how would we react if we met less than one alien?

I have given this less than some thought, and I think less than it would look like this:

[Oli 1]

Less than one planet, or less than one alien? Moving on, how would we react if we met less than one alien?

I have given this less than some thought, and I think less than it would look like this:

I was referring to the allusion that there could be less than one intelligent civilization in the galaxy. I would have hoped that it was an oversight not to say less than one OTHER intelligent civilization.