Astronomy / The Universe

[Dawnrazor]

6 hours ago, ri Alban said:

I jumped of my roof, to see if I could fly. It would have been a success, if I hadn't hit the ground. Aya!

If at first you don't succeed..........then sky diving probably isn't for you.

[ri Alban]

6 hours ago, Dawnrazor said:

If at first you don't succeed..........then sky diving probably isn't for you.

[Cade]

Livestream boys are one minivan down

Edited April 22, 2023 by Cade

[Unknown user]

50 minutes ago, Cade said:

Livestream boys are one minivan down

 

As long as they cheered and proclaimed it a success, all good! 😁

[Cade]

 

[Cade]

 

[JFK-1]

I can vaguely remember this, I remember Patrick Moore being involved but not James Burke. I was in primary school at the time where the teachers had talked about it for days. It was a moment of global unity as everyone watched and waited while the drama played out over several days. All rooting for them to make it.

 

There were fears the heat shield had been damaged when an oxygen explosion occurred, there was no way to check it. And as it turned out they went through the longest period of blackout any Apollo mission had experienced.

 

Though one factor in that was when mission control are thinking okay they should be out of blackout now but getting no reply from them, the astronauts could actually hear them but were afraid to respond. They were extremely low on power and feared if I use that radio it might drain the last spark we need to deploy the parachutes. This is BBC coverage.

 

Apollo 13 re-entry and splashdown as seen live on BBC tv

 

 

[JFK-1]

ISS to be deorbited in 2031, 400 tons coming in over the Pacific could be quite a sight especially if it comes in at night.

 

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230502-a-fiery-end-how-the-iss-will-end-its-life-in-orbit

[Cade]

I still think it's a shame that they're deciding to de-orbit the ISS.

 

Many people would rather have it boosted into a higher parking orbit and left as a museum, as the largest space station ever built and a testament to international co-operation.

 

Or even sold to a private concern as a hotel or something.

[JFK-1]

Astronomers have discovered what they believe to be the largest explosion ever detected.

 

The explosion is more than 10 times brighter than any recorded exploding star - known as a supernova.

 

So far it has lasted more than three years, much longer than most supernovae which are usually only visibly bright for a few months.

 

Full article

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65571309

[JFK-1]

There's a new BBC future article I will post a link to discussing rocket failure rates including of course the  SpaceX Starship failure. Apparently overall rocket failure rates have been increasing and are currently around 4% while every year the number of total launches is continually increasing.

 

Though in defence of starship's failure they also say this. "Starship One's failure on its first flight is not out of the ordinary - nearly one-in-two first flights goes wrong"

 

The article is titled 'What are the odds of a successful space launch?'

 

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230518-what-are-the-odds-of-a-successful-space-launch  

[Cade]

The rising number of failures is mostly rocket tests.

There are many, many private companies involved in the space industry these days and they're responsible for most of the "failures".

NASA takes forever (and TONS of money) to design, test and launch a new orbital delivery system but you can be fairly certain it'll be reliable and work first time.

Private firms don't have the luxury of being government agencies and cannot afford to sink billions and years into developing a new rocket.

SpaceX in particular believe in rapid testing (to destruction) and rapid iteration on their products.

They don't care if 8 rockets blow up during development, as it teaches them where the weaknesses are. 

Falcon 9 had lots of failures before they dialled it in and now it's one of the most reliable and most used orbital delivery systems in the whole world.

Smaller companies have technical problems as they don't have the same resources as the big boys, so their failures are just down to trying to do things on the cheap , or they're trying a new methodology that nobody has tried before. Sometimes it doesn't work.

SpaceX's Starship was already obsolete as the ones currently on the assembly line have several improvements and upgrades.

Sometimes they disassemble and recycle rockets that become obsolete without launching them but this time they decided to launch this one anyway just to see what happened.

[Cade]

To avoid being sued and to make Jeff Bezos shut up, NASA has awarded Blue Origin a contract for a moon lander for the 3rd manned flight to the moon, scheduled for some time after 2026.

 

Amazing, considering that his dildo-rockets haven't even gotten into space yet.

All he has produced is a very expensive 10 minute fairground ride.

[henrysmithsgloves]

Going by his delivery service, probably end up landing on Venus 🤔

Edited May 20, 2023 by henrysmithsgloves

[Bigsmak]

11 hours ago, henrysmithsgloves said:

Going by his delivery service, probably end up landing on Venus 🤔

 

Or they might say they got to the moon but no one was in.... 

[henrysmithsgloves]

2 hours ago, Bigsmak said:

 

Or they might say they got to the moon but no one was in.... 

😂😂 With a photo of course 😁

[superjack]

28 minutes ago, henrysmithsgloves said:

😂😂 With a photo of course 😁

But the photo will be of a neighbours moon, probably europa. 

[henrysmithsgloves]

2 hours ago, superjack said:

But the photo will be of a neighbours moon, probably europa. 

🤣

[PortyJambo]

4 hours ago, superjack said:

But the photo will be of a neighbours moon, probably europa. 

But they'll leave the astronauts in a safe place, chucked over the other side of Europa's moon...

[Portable Badger]

18 hours ago, henrysmithsgloves said:

Going by his delivery service, probably end up landing on Venus 🤔

Hope someone’s in to sign for it !!

[henrysmithsgloves]

29 minutes ago, Portable Badger said:

Hope someone’s in to sign for it !!

🤣

[henrysmithsgloves]

37 minutes ago, PortyJambo said:

But they'll leave the astronauts in a safe place, chucked over the other side of Europa's moon...

🤣

[JFK-1]

This is an amazing piece of Artemis 1 launch footage. I don't know exactly how far back they are but there's a big crowd around all waiting for it. It's night and suddenly this huge flash lights the sky but no sound. The light is actually climbing before the sound begins to reach them.

 

I have set it to begin just seconds before the lift-off.

 

 

 

 

[henrysmithsgloves]

 

[JFK-1]

How private companies are aiming for the stars | DW Documentary

 

Billionaires are setting their sights on outer space. Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos are all sending rockets, people and technology to the stars. Other entrepreneurs around the world also want to join this new contest. Who’ll win the race?

China is also jostling for dominance in space. And when NASA ended rocket launches for financial reasons in 2011, this cleared the way for private companies to compete over a huge future business sector that includes space tourism, satellite operations and raw material extraction. Companies such as Space X, Blue Origin, Axiom Space and many more have already staked their claim to this highly lucrative space market.

More than 50 years after the moon landings, entrepreneurial spirit and scientific progress have rekindled humankind’s dream of conquering space. An extraterrestrial design hotel is already in the planning phase; space raw material mining trials are underway. But state-sponsored space exploration is still indispensable.

The science documentary "New Space Race" gained exclusive access to the German Aerospace Center’s Moon-analog mission "ARCHES" on Mount Etna in Sicily. Using the landscape here as a substitute for the Moon, research teams run trials for crewed missions to space using robots.

 

It’s already clear that if humans are going to land on other planets one day, the success of scientific endeavors such as this one is crucial. Also clear: The new space race has begun.

 

 

[henrysmithsgloves]

1 hour ago, JFK-1 said:

How private companies are aiming for the stars | DW Documentary

 

Billionaires are setting their sights on outer space. Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos are all sending rockets, people and technology to the stars. Other entrepreneurs around the world also want to join this new contest. Who’ll win the race?

China is also jostling for dominance in space. And when NASA ended rocket launches for financial reasons in 2011, this cleared the way for private companies to compete over a huge future business sector that includes space tourism, satellite operations and raw material extraction. Companies such as Space X, Blue Origin, Axiom Space and many more have already staked their claim to this highly lucrative space market.

More than 50 years after the moon landings, entrepreneurial spirit and scientific progress have rekindled humankind’s dream of conquering space. An extraterrestrial design hotel is already in the planning phase; space raw material mining trials are underway. But state-sponsored space exploration is still indispensable.

The science documentary "New Space Race" gained exclusive access to the German Aerospace Center’s Moon-analog mission "ARCHES" on Mount Etna in Sicily. Using the landscape here as a substitute for the Moon, research teams run trials for crewed missions to space using robots.

 

It’s already clear that if humans are going to land on other planets one day, the success of scientific endeavors such as this one is crucial. Also clear: The new space race has begun.

 

 

It's getting like a script for a James bond movie 😳

[Cade]

Maybe it'll not destroy the pad next time it takes off, eh?

 

 

[henrysmithsgloves]

24 minutes ago, Cade said:

Maybe it'll not destroy the pad next time it takes off, eh?

 

 

Could do with that after a night on the Guinness 😃

[JFK-1]

6 hours ago, Cade said:

Maybe it'll not destroy the pad next time it takes off, eh?

 

 

 

Well I guess we would hope so, sort of funny to have a reusable rocket that didn't have a reusable launch pad. Plus that shit firing all over the place last time was insane. Chunks feet across that could have destroyed it right there on the pad.

[Cade]

Another static test firing done, this time with the new water deluge system in place.

Nae bits and bobs flying all over the place this time.

Just steam.

 

 

[JFK-1]

Some fascinating stuff coming out of Chicago just posted in the last few hours. Getting closer to the discovery of a fifth force, find it and it's a game changer that could revolutionise our physics.

 

Scientists at Fermilab close in on fifth force of nature

 

Scientists near Chicago say they may be getting closer to discovering the existence of a new force of nature.

They have found more evidence that sub-atomic particles, called muons, are not behaving in the way predicted by the current theory of sub-atomic physics.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66407099

[Cade]

Possible 2nd Starship test launch as early as Aug 31st.

 

[JFK-1]

The Russians can't get anything right these days. Their spacecraft smashed into the moon, classic comment from their explanations.

 

"The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,"

 

Oh those Russians.

 

Russia's Luna-25 smashes into moon in failure

 

Full article https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russias-moon-mission-falters-after-problem-entering-pre-landing-orbit-2023-08-20/

 

 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by JFK-1

[JFK-1]

I think this was a stupid time for Russia to even attempt that, maybe a sign of desperation, desperate for a success at something, anything. So they took a chance and messed up, now they're going to look even worse if the Indian craft manages to land which is scheduled for Wednesday.

 

Still love this.

 

 "The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,"

[Cade]

The Russian Special Landing Operation went exactly as planned.

 

[Cade]

 

[PortyJambo]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66670705

"It's like a celestial pearl necklace"

[JFK-1]

Vaguely remember when SN 1987A went boom, partly because of how it was first seen which wasn't by telescope.

 

True story, an astronomer steps outside for a smoke, standing looking at the sky and suddenly thinks WTF is that, that should not be there, raised the alarm around the world.

They should be hiring people to stand outside having a fag watching the sky for interlopers.  

[JFK-1]

Tantalising sign of possible life on faraway world

 

Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope may have discovered tentative evidence of a sign of life on a faraway planet.

 

It may have detected a molecule called dimethyl sulphide (DMS). On Earth, at least, this is only produced by life.

 

The researchers stress that the detection on the planet 120 light years away is "not robust" and more data is needed to confirm its presence.

 

Full article

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66786611

[JFK-1]

Osiris-Rex: Nasa awaits fiery return of asteroid Bennu samples

 

A seven-year mission to study what has been described as the most dangerous rock in the Solar System is about to reach its dramatic conclusion.

 

The Osiris-Rex spacecraft is bringing home the "soil" samples it grabbed from the surface of asteroid Bennu. These dusty materials will be dropped off by the Nasa probe as it sweeps past the Earth on Sunday.

 

They'll be tucked inside a capsule to protect them from a fiery descent to the US State of Utah.

 

Scientists expect the samples' chemistry to reveal new information about the formation of the planets 4.5 billion years ago, and possibly even to give insights into how life got started on our world.

 

Full BBC article

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66893661

[Lone Striker]

This was repeated on BBC2 last night - the amazing feat  of building and sending the Juno spacecraft to Jupiter (the largest planet in the Solar System by several magnitudes), and the astonishing information it sent back.     I found it mind-blowing actually.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bfdjgp/horizon-2018-5-jupiter-revealed

 

 

[Lone Striker]

On 01/09/2023 at 11:03, PortyJambo said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66670705

"It's like a celestial pearl necklace"

 

 

Hang on - that Inner Ejecta keyhole thingy ....... looks like our late Monarch got there first ?

 

 

[JFK-1]

Scientists have made a key discovery about antimatter - a mysterious substance which was plentiful when the Universe began.

 

Antimatter is the opposite of matter, from which stars and planets are made. Both were created in equal amounts in the Big Bang which formed our Universe. While matter is everywhere, though, its opposite is now fiendishly hard to find.

 

The latest study has discovered the two respond to gravity in the same way. For years, physicists have been scrambling to discover their differences and similarities, to explain how the Universe arose.

 

Discovering that antimatter rose in response to gravity, instead of falling would have blown apart what we know about physics.

 

They've now confirmed for the first time that atoms of antimatter fall downwards. But far from being a scientific dead end this opens the doors to new experiments and theories. Does it fall at the same speed, for example?

 

FULL BBC ARTICLE

Edited September 28, 2023 by JFK-1

[maroonlegions]

On 30/03/2023 at 17:53, Gizmo said:

Of course this is nothing new at all, no idea why you seized upon it as a "well, well" as if it's a eureka moment. Did you digest this and understand the implications at all regarding relativity or did you just ignorantly grab it as some sort of gotcha? We know and long known this concept - the equations for geo-spatial triangulation have to incorpate an adjustment for GPS to take into account that the clocks on the satelittes we use for triangulation are moving faster than those in our receivers on earth. There's nothing useful for us if we did fly off in a very fast rocket and returned having aged less than our friends or family, it's not the kind of time-travel I suspect you were hoping for (leaping instantly into the past or future).

PS your link is going to some old bloke's page on boomer-book and not that blog. Here is the rather old video: 
 

 

Fecking hell. You have a history of seizing on my posts..Some from a ignorant prescriptive too.

You sound angry. Interesting to note that you have not seized on other posts of mine on this thread about possible life on other planets that are classed in their habitual zones around their suns/stars..    

 

 

Still stands though that time travel could very well be possible, but you knew that anyway that my post was on the topic of this thread. Strange man..

 

Oh and tell me when you have to have a masters degree in physics to post on this thread. Eureka moments can come from those who are not adverse or knowledgeable as you.

 

You personal wee snidely remarks remain though.     

[maroonlegions]

The picture entitled "Andromeda, Unexpected" came top in this weeks Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition , it was taken by amateur astronomers Marcel Drechsler, Xavier Strottner and Yann Sainty using a Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 telescope , it's the one to get judging by that picture.

Not only did they image Andromeda they also fortuitously caught a plasma arc of ionized oxygen gas shadowing the Galaxy which was unexpected hence the picture's name , the ark was only discovered earlier this year.
 

Not only did they image Andromeda they also fortuitously caught a plasma arc of ionized oxygen gas shadowing the Galaxy which was unexpected hence the picture's name , the ark was only discovered earlier this year.

 

 

 

Within one of the most observed and photographed areas in the night sky, the amateur astronomers captured a blue arc of ionized oxygen gas that was only discovered earlier this year. Scientists are now investigating the arc, dubbed Strottner-Drechsler-Sainty Object 1 (SDSO-1), as it could be the largest type of structure near to Earth.
www.astronomy.com...

 

 

[Ulysses]

5 hours ago, maroonlegions said:

Fecking hell. You have a history of seizing on my posts..

 

Wow.  You were so pissed off with his post that you **checks notes** waited six months to post a reply to it.

 

Or maybe you posted it 3 minutes before he posted his and then chucked your device off for a spin around some heavy-duty gravitational objects, hence the time drag.    

[Gizmo]

19 hours ago, maroonlegions said:

Fecking hell. You have a history of seizing on my posts..Some from a ignorant prescriptive too.

You sound angry. Interesting to note that you have not seized on other posts of mine on this thread about possible life on other planets that are classed in their habitual zones around their suns/stars..    

 

 

Still stands though that time travel could very well be possible, but you knew that anyway that my post was on the topic of this thread. Strange man..

 

Oh and tell me when you have to have a masters degree in physics to post on this thread. Eureka moments can come from those who are not adverse or knowledgeable as you.

 

You personal wee snidely remarks remain though.     

Are you saying you have a master's degree in Physics? 
 

14 hours ago, Ulysses said:

 

Wow.  You were so pissed off with his post that you **checks notes** waited six months to post a reply to it.

 

Or maybe you posted it 3 minutes before he posted his and then chucked your device off for a spin around some heavy-duty gravitational objects, hence the time drag.    

Time dilation is a bitch. 

[JFK-1]

On 28/09/2023 at 10:56, maroonlegions said:

Oh and tell me when you have to have a masters degree in physics to post on this thread.

 

You don't, but I expect having one might impress some which is why I will post this new video published just a matter of hours ago. Presented by Brian Cox a well known physicist who has worked at the LHC.

Here he goes through various ideas for 'the great silence' then gives his own opinion which is uncannily like one I proposed just a few posts or so ago. I don't have a physics degree yet I came to the same conclusion he did. Perhaps simply because I read actual proven science. Like he does.

 

 

[JFK-1]

Not interstellar aliens before anyone get's excited, but I would agree with this assessment, posted by the BBC just an hour ago.

 

Why finding alien life in Universe is now 'only a matter of time'

 

Many astronomers are no longer asking whether there is life elsewhere in the Universe. The question on their minds is instead: when will we find it? Many are optimistic of detecting life signs on a faraway world within our lifetimes - possibly in the next few years.

And one scientist, leading a mission to Jupiter, goes as far as saying it would be "surprising" if there was no life on one of the planet's icy moons. Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recently detected tantalising hints at life on a planet outside our Solar System - and it has many more worlds in its sights.

Numerous missions that are either underway or about to begin mark a new space race for the biggest scientific discovery of all time "We live in an infinite Universe, with infinite stars and planets. And it's been obvious to many of us that we can't be the only intelligent life out there," says Prof Catherine Heymans, Scotland's Astronomer Royal.

"We now have the technology and the capability to answer the question of whether we are alone in the cosmos."

 

FULL BBC ARTICLE

[Ulysses]

^^^^

For as long as I can remember, I've believed it was likely that life, including intelligent life, exists out there somewhere.  I've never seen evidence of it, and until I do I wouldn't be so daft as to say it definitely exists, but I'd be pleased if that evidence were found.