Astrophysics and Cosmology - Discuss the Universe here

[area51drone]

NASA releases info on instruments which will be aboard mid-2020's mission to Europa.  (Some interesting stuff, but doesn't look like any cool ice-burrowing probes will be amongst them.)

Next up on EnterpriseMission.com

"Ice penetrating radar reveals stunning new images"

[area51drone]

New Horizons is closing in on Pluto.  Closest flyby is on July 14.  Cool times

I can't help but think how great it is that we live in a time when discoveries like this are made, but it makes me sad to think that we can't just go get on a bus to pluto if you know what I mean.    Hopefully our great great grandchildren will get to.   I wish I believed in reincarnation.

BTW, there hasn't been much chatter about Ceres.   I guess it's just a big rock with a bunch of craters on it, other than the bright spots... 



Yeah.. a "mysterious world full of possibilities..."   :

[zeebo]

I can't help but think how great it is that we live in a time when discoveries like this are made, but it makes me sad to think that we can't just go get on a bus to pluto if you know what I mean.    Hopefully our great great grandchildren will get to. ...

I know how you feel. I do believe that, if our species does not self-destruct, which is a big "if", then we absolutely will extend our reach into the solar system.  Colonies on Mars, space station hotels around Saturn, deep-water probes on Europa, asteroid mining, etc. are all doable in the next few centuries.  However, really we are just witnessing the first tentative steps, and will miss out on what will be a grand adventure.

And the next leap, from our system to the nearest stars, just seems basically out-of-reach.  In spite of all the great scifi stories, fantasies of wormhole subways and FTL drives etc. just seem crazy.  The only hope perhaps is giant ark ships where our descendents travel either in multi-generaltional habitats or possibly in deep freeze out into interstellar space.  Or maybe we send robots/nanobots.

The distances and times involved are so vast as to just make it all seem like daydreaming, which sucks since the little we know of other systems, e.g. all the weird exoplanets out there, makes it all so tantalizing to explore.

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

...BTW, there hasn't been much chatter about Ceres.   I guess it's just a big rock with a bunch of craters on it, other than the bright spots... 
...

Major Ed Dames says it's just outgassing.  Hoagland says it's artificial because it has 100% luminosity.  I think it's time for a C2C round table discussion to get this thing sorted out!

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

I know how you feel. I do believe that, if our species does not self-destruct, which is a big "if", then we absolutely will extend our reach into the solar system.  Colonies on Mars, space station hotels around Saturn, deep-water probes on Europa, asteroid mining, etc. are all doable in the next few centuries.  However, really we are just witnessing the first tentative steps, and will miss out on what will be a grand adventure.

And the next leap, from our system to the nearest stars, just seems basically out-of-reach.  In spite of all the great scifi stories, fantasies of wormhole subways and FTL drives etc. just seem crazy.  The only hope perhaps is giant ark ships where our descendents travel either in multi-generaltional habitats or possibly in deep freeze out into interstellar space.  Or maybe we send robots/nanobots.

The distances and times involved are so vast as to just make it all seem like daydreaming, which sucks since the little we know of other systems, e.g. all the weird exoplanets out there, makes it all so tantalizing to explore.

In the 1990s, NASA administrator Dan Goldin said he wanted to send a probe to Alpha Centauri within the next 25 years so that someday school children could see close-up photos of another solar system.  What ever happened to that?

[zeebo]

In the 1990s, NASA administrator Dan Goldin said he wanted to send a probe to Alpha Centauri within the next 25 years so that someday school children could see close-up photos of another solar system.  What ever happened to that?

Wouldn't it take like tens of thousands of yrs. to get there?  I mean cool idea but even for slow gov't programs that's a bit of a stretch.   

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

Wouldn't it take like tens of thousands of yrs. to get there?  I mean cool idea but even for slow gov't programs that's a bit of a stretch.   

Just to show I'm not crazy, I quote from "Centauri Dreams:  Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration," Paul Glister (2004).

On July 3, 1997, as the Pathfinder spacecraft neared its touchdown on Mars, NASA administrator Daniel S. Goldin told agency science chief Wes Huntress and assembled reporters that building a robotic probe that could reach another star would now be a goal for NASA..

I remember watching that conference on NASA TV.  That's what I was basing my post on, though he might have said 50 years instead of 25.  I think he said 25.

'We have to set goals so tough it hurts -- that it drives technology -- in semicondoctors, materials, simulation, propulsion.'

...

Taken off guard, many NASA scientists embraced Goldin's goal while acknowledging the immensity of the task.  As research began to come together, the agency formed the Interstellar Probe Science and Technology Definition Team (IPSTDT) that assembled at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena for a preliminary meeting in February of 1999.  Later that year, Goldin made it clear that the stars might require entirely new thinking.

and an abstract for a paper from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center:

The NASA Administrator, Dan Goldin, has given us the challenge to literally "Reach for the Stars" by requesting an Interstellar Mission. The star that has been chosen for the design reference mission is Alpha Centauri, located at a distance of 4.3 light years from Earth. As an additional enticement for this mission, the discovery of four newly formed solar systems was announced in May of 1998. In July of 1998, a NASA/AIAA Interstellar Mission Workshop was held at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California to develop the Interstellar Mission roadmap including a set of precursor missions, and to examine advanced propulsion concepts to enable these missions. This paper outlines the Interstellar Mission, related Precursor Interstellar Missions, and the advanced propulsion research and technology development activities being conducted to support these missions.

[zeebo]

Just to show I'm not crazy, I quote from "Centauri Dreams:  Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration," Paul Glister (2004).
...

This actually sounds like it could have been worthwhile, particularly the idea that it might have triggered scienctific/tech developments in various areas. 

... the agency formed the Interstellar Probe Science and Technology Definition Team (IPSTDT) ...

This is just cool that it ever existed at all.

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

This actually sounds like it could have been worthwhile, particularly the idea that it might have triggered scienctific/tech developments in various areas. 

This is just cool that it ever existed at all.

I know right?  Sometimes leadership change is good for shaking things up and creating new ideas, but sometimes it sucks when old ideas are abandoned.

[area51drone]

It seems foolish that we're not just pouring money into interstellar exploration.  We already know that all the bodies in our solar system cannot sustain life with of course the exception of Mars with some kind of mechanical support infrastructure.   We *have* to be looking elsewhere for a new planet to live on, eventually.   And we should be looking for our brethren out in the vast ocean of space.    The only way to make this happen is to invest in the research.  No one is going to build a ship or engine that will take us there without some massively funded large projects.

[PB the Deplorable]

http://www.space.com/29559-pluto-moons-weird-orbit-chaos.html



Pluto's moons are even stranger and more intriguing than scientists imagined, a new study reveals.

The Pluto system consists of four tiny satellites â€" Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx â€" orbiting a "binary planet" comprised of Pluto and its largest moon Charon, which, at 750 miles (1,207 kilometers) in diameter, is nearly half as wide as the dwarf planet itself.

This binary setup has profoundly influenced the orbits of the four small moons, injecting chaos into their movements...

"It's a very strange place to live in if you are orbiting a binary planet," lead author Mark Showalter, of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, California, told Space.com...



But there is also quite a bit of chaos in the Pluto system, imparted by the complex and shifting gravitational field of the Pluto-Charon binary.

For instance, Showalter and Hamilton found that Nix and Hydra exhibit chaotic rather than synchronous rotation, meaning they don't always keep the same side facing Pluto-Charon â€" and that it's very tough to predict their rotational movement. (Nearly every other moon in the solar system, including Earth's, is a synchronous rotator.)

"If you lived on Nix, you would not know if the sun is coming up tomorrow; it is that extreme," Showalter said, adding that models suggest that Styx and Kerberos are chaotic rotators as well. "You'd have days where the sun rises in the east and sets in the north."

Such findings could help researchers better understand the many alien planets that orbit binary stars, researchers said.

"We are learning that chaos may be a common trait of binary systems," Hamilton said. "It might even have consequences for life on planets orbiting binary stars."

[cosmic hobo]

I love this thread. I wish I could contribute.

[zeebo]

I remember hearing about this a few months ago, but I don't think it was mentioned here yet.

An alien star passed through our Solar System just 70,000 years ago, astronomers have discovered.  No other star is known to have approached this close to us.  An international team of researchers says it came five times closer than our current nearest neighbour - Proxima Centauri.  The object, a red dwarf known as Scholz's star, cruised through the outer reaches of the Solar System - a region known as the Oort Cloud. Scholz's star was not alone; it was accompanied on its travels by an object known as a brown dwarf. These are essentially failed stars that lacked the necessary mass to get fusion going in their cores.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31519875

[area51drone]

I remember hearing about this a few months ago, but I don't think it was mentioned here yet.

An alien star passed through our Solar System just 70,000 years ago, astronomers have discovered.  No other star is known to have approached this close to us.  An international team of researchers says it came five times closer than our current nearest neighbour - Proxima Centauri.  The object, a red dwarf known as Scholz's star, cruised through the outer reaches of the Solar System - a region known as the Oort Cloud. Scholz's star was not alone; it was accompanied on its travels by an object known as a brown dwarf. These are essentially failed stars that lacked the necessary mass to get fusion going in their cores.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31519875

Interesting.  Makes you wonder what kind of damage it did to all the snowballs and asteroids out there.   

[zeebo]

Interesting.  Makes you wonder what kind of damage it did to all the snowballs and asteroids out there.

Here's something hard to get my mind around about the Oort Cloud.  It starts at around 5,000 AU (the mean distance of Earth from the sun), which is already way way out there, and it's outer boundary is at about 100,000 AU .. which is half the distance to our nearest star, Proxima Centauri.   

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

Here's something hard to get my mind around about the Oort Cloud.  It starts at around 5,000 AU (the mean distance of Earth from the sun), which is already way way out there, and it's outer boundary is at about 100,000 AU .. which is half the distance to our nearest star, Proxima Centauri.   

Wow, I didn't think it went quite that far.

[zeebo]

Wow, I didn't think it went quite that far.

That's what they theorize anyway.  Btw apparently Voyager 1 won't get to the inner edge for another 300 yrs.

[area51drone]

That's what they theorize anyway.  Btw apparently Voyager 1 won't get to the inner edge for another 300 yrs.

So much for Star Trek The Motion Picture.

[SciFiAuthor]

Here's something hard to get my mind around about the Oort Cloud.  It starts at around 5,000 AU (the mean distance of Earth from the sun), which is already way way out there, and it's outer boundary is at about 100,000 AU .. which is half the distance to our nearest star, Proxima Centauri.   

Which makes you wonder. If the centauri system also has an oort cloud, then it could mean that the two systems touch and possibly exchange material.

[onan]

Which makes you wonder. If the centauri system also has an oort cloud, then it could mean that the two systems touch and possibly exchange material.

Fuck, another boarder we need to shut down.

[Catsmile]

Fuck, another boarder we need to shut down.

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

Which makes you wonder. If the centauri system also has an oort cloud, then it could mean that the two systems touch and possibly exchange material.

Kind of like two earthworms slithering past each other in the soil, both of which excrete a mucus casing about themselves and then pass seminal fluid into it, which is then picked up by the reproductive organ of the other hermaphroditic worm?

It sounds beautiful!

[SciFiAuthor]

Kind of like two earthworms slithering past each other in the soil, both of which excrete a mucus casing about themselves and then pass seminal fluid into it, which is then picked up by the reproductive organ of the other hermaphroditic worm?

It sounds beautiful!

Yeah, that's it in a nutshell!

[SciFiAuthor]

In the 1990s, NASA administrator Dan Goldin said he wanted to send a probe to Alpha Centauri within the next 25 years so that someday school children could see close-up photos of another solar system.  What ever happened to that?

I knew Dan Goldin and as I recall they were looking at laser sail technology that would have potentially achieved up to 50% the speed of light. Kind of a sad figure, Goldin. He was/is a true visionary but got mired badly in budget problems that forced him to cut funding to key areas such as space probes (several of which failed supposedly as a result). Also the Columbia disaster commission sort of cast a bad light on him in their final report. The end result is that he's now just a regular research scientist instead of a university president like most of the other NASA administrators went on to do.

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

This was on the C2C website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=226&v=rENyyRwxpHo

I've never seen such a clear representation of large scale structures in the Universe.

[Stellar]

I will be paying attention.

10 days from now X4 Solar Flare!  After a flip of a magnetic field on the Sun a Year 6 month's and 23 days the sun's finale fire work show closes with a bang!
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/01/06/sun-magnetic-field-polarity-reverse/4306845/



After about year from a flip Magnetic Flux builds

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

10 days from now X4 Solar Flare!  After a flip of a magnetic field on the Sun a Year 6 month's and 23 days the sun's finale fire work show closes with a bang!
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/01/06/sun-magnetic-field-polarity-reverse/4306845/

Aww man that's my old avatar.  I feel... violated.

Joking aside, interesting observations Stellar.

[zeebo]

This was on the C2C website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=226&v=rENyyRwxpHo

I've never seen such a clear representation of large scale structures in the Universe.

Looks like they're a little behind in lifting our material from this thread.   

http://bellgab.com/index.php/topic,4908.msg293326.html#msg293326

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

Looks like they're a little behind in lifting our material from this thread.   

http://bellgab.com/index.php/topic,4908.msg293326.html#msg293326

Oh nice, sorry.

[Camazotz Automat]

Comet lander Philae receives solar energy and wakes up.

And, I'm assuming, with one hell of an ICEE headache/hangover.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/14/world/philae-comet-lander-found/