Astronomy / The Universe

[J.T.F.Robertson]

16 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

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

 

Infinite universe(s), followed by infinite stars and even more infinity in the planet department. Now if anyone even considers we are/were the only sentient life form, they, as the auld saying goes, need their heids looked. That especially applies to those who really should know better.

 

Fine, I sincerely doubt they've ever made it here but "infinite" means fekin infinite, endless with endless life forms. (of one kind or another)

[JFK-1]

1 hour ago, J.T.F.Robertson said:

 

Infinite universe(s), followed by infinite stars and even more infinity in the planet department. Now if anyone even considers we are/were the only sentient life form, they, as the auld saying goes, need their heids looked. That especially applies to those who really should know better.

 

Fine, I sincerely doubt they've ever made it here but "infinite" means fekin infinite, endless with endless life forms. (of one kind or another)

 

 

I don't think anyone disputes there may be or have been other intelligent life forms in the universe, what most including me would conclude is if it ever exists it's extremely rare. So rare the chances of it overlapping in the vastness of space/time may be remote. Such life forms may very occasionally come and go, but never meet.

[Lone Striker]

Stunning JWST images of Orion M42 belt.  Possible evidence that  stars are being formed in pairs. 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66974738

 

 

[hughesie27]

 

[maroonlegions]

The team’s results were accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The team now intends to conduct follow-up research with the telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) spectrograph that they hope will further validate their findings and provide new insights into the environmental conditions on K2-18 b.

 

Further investigation is ongoing ,so its a waiting game.  Exciting times indeed.

 

 

 

Quote;

 

"A new investigation with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope into K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, has revealed the presence of carbon-bearing molecules including methane and carbon dioxide. Webb’s discovery adds to recent studies suggesting that K2-18 b could be a Hycean exoplanet, one which has the potential to possess a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and a water ocean-covered surface."

 

 

 

News Source:

• www.nasa.gov

 

Down load the full resolution , uncompressed version and supporting visuals from NASAs space telescope institute  below;

 

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2023/139/01H9RF0CCN4MZYDG56Q7K33WQV  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[maroonlegions]

On 30/09/2023 at 03:22, JFK-1 said:

 

 

I don't think anyone disputes there may be or have been other intelligent life forms in the universe, what most including me would conclude is if it ever exists it's extremely rare. So rare the chances of it overlapping in the vastness of space/time may be remote. Such life forms may very occasionally come and go, but never meet.

Extremely rare.

 

Nope.

 

And there is also the possibility of parallel universes.  Not beyond the realms of  possibility  that highly advanced intelligence's  have mastered time and space travel. We are a relativity new species, barely out the caves in relation to time scales and our evolution.

 

Terra forming and even  advanced teck  that  can harvest  energy from its suns/ start.

 

 

 

 

 

Science goes on what it understands at its present time. There will be so much more twists and turns.           

 

 

[will-i-am-a-jambo]

5 hours ago, maroonlegions said:

Extremely rare.

 

Nope.

 

And there is also the possibility of parallel universes.  Not beyond the realms of  possibility  that highly advanced intelligence's  have mastered time and space travel. We are a relativity new species, barely out the caves in relation to time scales and our evolution.

 

Terra forming and even  advanced teck  that  can harvest  energy from its suns/ start.

 

 

 

 

 

Science goes on what it understands at its present time. There will be so much more twists and turns.           

 

 

Totally agree re the aliens might be so advanced they wouldn't even bother contacting us or they may even be behind in technological advances.

 

So many factors involved in creating intelligent life for example for humans to exist it relied on 2-3 or maybe more extinction events to happen such as the dinosaurs being wiped out. 

[Cade]

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
― Arthur C. Clarke

 

 

[Ulysses]

OFFS, there's already a thread for deluded cuckoo bananapants sci-fi space invaders bollox.  It'd be nice to keep this one somewhere a little closer to actual ****ing science.   

[Mikey1874]

[henrysmithsgloves]

2 hours ago, Mikey1874 said:

Musk has it marked down as his new holiday home🧐

[Gizmo]

On 04/10/2023 at 18:56, maroonlegions said:

Extremely rare.

 

Nope.

 

And there is also the possibility of parallel universes.  Not beyond the realms of  possibility  that highly advanced intelligence's  have mastered time and space travel. We are a relativity new species, barely out the caves in relation to time scales and our evolution.

 

Terra forming and even  advanced teck  that  can harvest  energy from its suns/ start.

 

 

 

 

 

Science goes on what it understands at its present time. There will be so much more twists and turns.           

 

 

 

Have you, (humour me everyone), considered that genotypes take 360 million years to double in complexity, thus working backward from the complexity of our genotype - life on Earth had to exist 10 billion years ago before the 4.5 billion-year-old earth existed.

This could mean that the initial genotypes were created - perhaps when early massive stars spewed out their contents after reaching unsustainable fusion reactions as these stars die much quicker than red dwarf stars. The minerals and elements coalesced in abundant water in the early Univers before surviving in ice, possibly on comets that seeded planets.

Earth is a water planet in the Goldilocks zone of a single star (binary systems are much more common and far more problematic to life on a planet), protected by a giant planet in Jupiter (its sheer size is possibly due to it being a failed star), the kuiper belt, the planet having a molten iron core which generates a protective magnetosphere, the collision which produced the earth's moon leaving behind critical minerals needed for life to develop and, possibly, this planet still needed to be seeded by a comet at the right point in its evolution.

 

Add all of those factors - and likely many more, that had to exist, some in order, and add in the time for genotypes to increase to the required complexity. Life, complex intelligent life that is, may be far, far rarer than a rudimentary calculation of potential life-supporting exoplanets would suggest. 
 

Citation: genotype law

Edited October 18, 2023 by Gizmo

[henrysmithsgloves]

14 minutes ago, Gizmo said:

 

Have you, (humour me everyone), considered that genotypes take 360 million years to double in complexity, thus working backward from the complexity of our genotype - life on Earth had to exist 10 billion years ago before the 4.5 billion-year-old earth existed.

This could mean that the initial genotypes were created - perhaps when early massive stars spewed out their contents after reaching unsustainable fusion reactions as these stars die much quicker than red dwarf stars. The minerals and elements coalesced in abundant water in the early Univers before surviving in ice, possibly on comets that seeded planets.

Earth is a water planet in the Goldilocks zone of a single star (binary systems are much more common and far more problematic to life on a planet), protected by a giant planet in Jupiter (its sheer size is possibly due to it being a failed star), the kuiper belt, the planet having a molten iron core which generates a protective magnetosphere, the collision which produced the earth's moon leaving behind critical minerals needed for life to develop and, possibly, this planet still needed to be seeded by a comet at the right point in its evolution.

 

Add all of those factors - and likely many more, that had to exist, some in order, and add in the time for genotypes to increase to the required complexity. Life, complex intelligent life that is, may be far, far rarer than a rudimentary calculation of potential life-supporting exoplanets would suggest. 
 

Citation: genotype law

 

[Cade]

SpaceX have been granted a launch license covering the dates 13th-18th November for another possible Starship launch.

 

 

[Cade]

November 17th for Starship's next launch.

 

 

[Cade]

Launch pushed back to Saturday.

[Cade]

 

[Ked]

On 05/10/2023 at 02:03, Ulysses said:

OFFS, there's already a thread for deluded cuckoo bananapants sci-fi space invaders bollox.  It'd be nice to keep this one somewhere a little closer to actual ****ing science.   

You're fekin terrible on this subject 😅

[Cade]

Took off perfectly.

Didn't destroy the launchpad this time.

All 33 booster engines worked.

Passed through max-Q.

Separated perfectly.

All 6 of the 2nd stage engines worked.

Booster blew up on the way back down.

2nd stage made it to space and got close to orbital velocity.

2nd stage may have also blown up on the way down.

Automatic flight termination systems triggered both detonations after loss of vehicle control.

 

Much better result than most people predicted.

 

 

 

[redjambo]

3 minutes ago, Cade said:

Took off perfectly.

Didn't destroy the launchpad this time.

All 33 booster engines worked.

Passed through max-Q.

Separated perfectly.

All 6 of the 2nd stage engines worked.

Booster blew up on the way back down.

2nd stage made it to space and got close to orbital velocity.

2nd stage may have also blown up on the way down.

Automatic flight termination systems triggered both detonations after loss of vehicle control.

 

Much better result than most people predicted.

 

 

 

 

Better yes, but it would have been nice if the live feed commentators had admitted that the 2nd stage had blown up (the light caused by the explosion was visible in the feed, certainly to me). Instead they glossed around it as if nothing had happened. Failure doesn't need to be sugar coated. Also loved the expression used by one of the commentators for the heavy booster rocket, saying that it had undergone a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" - I think you'll find it blew up.

[Gizmo]

@johnkrausphotos

[Cade]

18 minutes ago, redjambo said:

 

Better yes, but it would have been nice if the live feed commentators had admitted that the 2nd stage had blown up (the light caused by the explosion was visible in the feed, certainly to me). Instead they glossed around it as if nothing had happened. Failure doesn't need to be sugar coated. Also loved the expression used by one of the commentators for the heavy booster rocket, saying that it had undergone a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" - I think you'll find it blew up.

Commentators often get things wrong in the heat of the moment, they're watching about 8 different camera angles and keeping an eye on chat feeds and information coming from space x directly all at the same time.

They miss stuff all the time but work out the sequence of events later.

[redjambo]

8 minutes ago, Cade said:

Commentators often get things wrong in the heat of the moment, they're watching about 8 different camera angles and keeping an eye on chat feeds and information coming from space x directly all at the same time.

They miss stuff all the time but work out the sequence of events later.

 

Probably, but imo they were scared of calling it, both of getting it wrong and also of getting the heave-ho if they were too negative, or in fact showed any negativity at all about the flight, even if they were stating the truth. I'd rather see an honest genuine approach from SpaceX than this US-typical cheerleading approach they take. It was obvious that the second stage had blown up, or been blown up, but all the viewers were left not knowing exactly what had happened. At no single point did the commentators say that there was even a suspicion of a possibility that the second stage had blown up. It's like parents sugar-coating the world for their young children. Surprisingly, the vast majority of us can actually cope with being told that the rocket went kaboom.

Edited November 18, 2023 by redjambo

[Cade]

That channel is independent and self funded, they're not SpaceX employees.

Just space fans.

 

[Cade]

 

[hughesie27]

4 hours ago, redjambo said:

 

Probably, but imo they were scared of calling it, both of getting it wrong and also of getting the heave-ho if they were too negative, or in fact showed any negativity at all about the flight, even if they were stating the truth. I'd rather see an honest genuine approach from SpaceX than this US-typical cheerleading approach they take. It was obvious that the second stage had blown up, or been blown up, but all the viewers were left not knowing exactly what had happened. At no single point did the commentators say that there was even a suspicion of a possibility that the second stage had blown up. It's like parents sugar-coating the world for their young children. Surprisingly, the vast majority of us can actually cope with being told that the rocket went kaboom.

The feed I was watching theybsaid before it even took off that if it cleared the tower that was going to be considered a "Win". 

[Ulysses]

7 hours ago, Ked said:

You're fekin terrible on this subject 😅

 

It took you 43 days to complain, so it can't be all that bad.

[redjambo]

5 hours ago, Cade said:

That channel is independent and self funded, they're not SpaceX employees.

Just space fans.

 

I watched the live feed on the SpaceX site.

[redjambo]

1 hour ago, hughesie27 said:

The feed I was watching theybsaid before it even took off that if it cleared the tower that was going to be considered a "Win". 

 

Absolutely. And it *was* a win. But when things went awry, they simply lifted up the carpet and swept the debris under it. The second stage blew up and they couldn't even bring themselves to admit it on their own live feed, just silence from the commentators and an end to the feed rather than filling everyone in on what had happened. It's that sort of "not being able to face the truth" mentality that can hold back scientific development and exploration.

[Cade]

1 hour ago, redjambo said:

 

I watched the live feed on the SpaceX site.

 

Ah right.

Then yes, they are foam-at-the-mouth screaming morons.

[Cade]

 

[ƒιѕнρℓαρѕ]

"Rapid unscheduled disassembly"

 

I'm going to remember that for the next derby, we owe those wonkers

[Cade]

Pretty decent examination of the events by Scott Manley

 

 

 

[Lone Striker]

This is an interesting analogy involving a maths question on an American student paper (which everyone got wrong) and the difference between a Solar year and a Sidereal year for measuring time.

 

 

 

[Cade]

NASA's unmanned moon lander, launched on a Vulcan Centaur rocket on the 8th Jan 2024 has suffered a "critical loss of propellant" and will therefor not be going to the moon.

Soon after reaching orbit the transfer craft was unable to angle its solar panels towards the sun.

That problem was fixed but now a much more serious one has been revealed.

 

This was the first launch of the Vulcan Centaur and the rocket itself worked perfectly.

The issues are with the payload.

 

The lander has, as part of its cargo, ashes from several famous persons, including Star Trek cast members and an Apollo astronaut. 

 

Edited January 8, 2024 by Cade

[hughesie27]

23 minutes ago, Cade said:

NASA's unmanned moon lander, launched on a Vulcan Centaur rocket on the 8th Jan 2024 has suffered a "critical loss of propellant" and will therefor not be going to the moon.

Soon after reaching orbit the transfer craft was unable to angle its solar panels towards the sun.

That problem was fixed but now a much more serious one has been revealed.

 

This was the first launch of the Vulcan Centaur and the rocket itself worked perfectly.

The issues are with the payload.

 

The lander has, as part of its cargo, ashes from several famous persons, including Star Trek cast members and an Apollo astronaut. 

 

So is it just going to fall back to earth?

[Cade]

15 minutes ago, hughesie27 said:

So is it just going to fall back to earth?

 

Nah it's not in orbit, it's a bit further out.

They're trying to figure out how to change the mission directives to still actually achieve something out of this.

[Cade]

The stricken Peregrine moon landed will burn up in Earth's atmosphere sometime today after NASA and Astrobotic engineers failed to come up with a plan for doing a different mission with the small amount of fuel that remained.

 

 

Edited January 18, 2024 by Cade

[hughesie27]

12 minutes ago, Cade said:

The stricken Peregrine moon landed will burn up in Earth's atmosphere sometime today after NASA and Astrobotic engineers failed to come up with a plan for doing a different mission with the small amount of fuel that remained.

 

 

Wouldn't just leaving it to float out into space have been better? Especially if there were human remains on board. Much better way to be remembered that being cremated. Again.

[Cade]

It's not really by choice; the orbit it's in was going to drag it back here eventually and they didn't have enough fuel to push it anywhere else.

All they could do was manoeuvre it so that it burned up over a large ocean.

[ri Alban]

Just aswell no-one was on board/aboard. 

[FWJ]

On 30/09/2023 at 02:15, J.T.F.Robertson said:

 

Infinite universe(s), followed by infinite stars and even more infinity in the planet department. Now if anyone even considers we are/were the only sentient life form, they, as the auld saying goes, need their heids looked. That especially applies to those who really should know better.

 

Fine, I sincerely doubt they've ever made it here but "infinite" means fekin infinite, endless with endless life forms. (of one kind or another)

Sorry this is a bit late but it’s disappointing that a scientist - an astronomer at that - is so loose with the term ‘infinite’.

Infinite and inconceivably large are different things.

Edited January 19, 2024 by FWJ

[Cade]

Japan's wee moon lander made it to the moon and touched down!

 

However, it fell over and now can't extend its solar panels and the battery is running out.

[Greedy Jambo]

2 hours ago, Cade said:

Japan's wee moon lander made it to the moon and touched down!

 

However, it fell over and now can't extend its solar panels and the battery is running out.

 

Fell over 😂 

How Naive.

[Greedy Jambo]

Here's a photo of the indian moon landing 🤣

Straight from the commodore 64 .

 

[henrysmithsgloves]

A big ring of galaxies 😆

[Cade]

 

[Cade]

After having made it's 72nd flight on Mars, the Ingenuity helicopter drone has failed to make contact with the Perseverance rover.

Contact was lost shortly before it made its landing manoeuvre.

 

 

Edited January 20, 2024 by Cade

[Cade]

Contact with the Ingenuity Mars copter re-established!

 

[Ulysses]

37 minutes ago, Cade said:

Contact with the Ingenuity Mars copter re-established!

 

 

Is it functioning?