The Thread about the Universe, Astronomy, and Similar Cool Stuff

[LA Ute]

I am not trained in astronomy but I do love to think about the solar system, the universe, and other such things. So I am starting a thread on all that -- because I can, by golly!

Here's today's entry, from the NBC News Cosmic Log:

Will our universe end in a 'big slurp'? Higgs-like particle suggests it might (http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/18/17006552-will-our-universe-end-in-a-big-slurp-higgs-like-particle-suggests-it-might?lite)


“It may be that the universe we live in is inherently unstable. At some point, billions of years from now, it’s all going to be wiped out.”

He said the parameters for our universe, including the Higgs mass value as well as the mass of another subatomic particle known as the top quark, suggest that we’re just at the edge of stability, in a “metastable” state. Physicists have been contemplating such a possibility for more than 30 years. Back in 1982, physicists Michael Turner and Frank Wilczek wrote in Nature that “without warning, a bubble of true vacuum could nucleate somewhere in the universe and move outwards at the speed of light, and before we realized what swept by us our protons would decay away.”

Lykken put it slightly differently: “The universe wants to be in a different state, so eventually to realize that, a little bubble of what you might think of as an alternate universe will appear somewhere, and it will spread out and destroy us.”


That alternate universe would be “much more boring,” Lykken said. Which led him to ask a philosophical question: “Why do we live in a universe that’s just on the edge of stability?” He wondered whether a universe has to be near the danger zone to produce galaxies, stars, planets … and life.


Even Hill found it interesting that the parameters of particle physics put our universe right along the critical line. “That’s something new, which we didn’t know before, and which leads some of us to that there’s something else coming,” Hill said.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I'm in the middle of a twelve-lecture series on the Hubble Space Telescope by a Northwestern astrophysics prof and it's been fascinating. The most recent lecture was on supernovae, and the details are mindboggling. Betelgeuse, the brightest star in the Orion constellation, is expected to blow up imminently (in astronomical terms at least, although that could be anytime in the next 150,000 years). When it does, the resulting supernova will be ten times brighter than the moon and we'll be able to read outside at night.

Since I'm only 60, I figure I've got a great shot at seeing this. Can't wait.

http://www.cougarstadium.com/images/smilies_custom/snacking.gif

[LA Ute]

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt318/lowellbrown/sombrero.jpg

This is the Sombrero Galaxy, 28 million light years from Earth. I am told this was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The galaxy is officially called M104, has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.

In other words, if you traveled at the speed of light for 50,000 years, you could cross this galaxy from one end to the other. :eek: Of course, that would be after the 28 million light years it took you to get to the edge of the galaxy.

This photo is the skin on my iPhone.

[LA Ute]

here are more Hubble photos:

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt318/lowellbrown/ConeNebula.jpg

This is the Cone Nebula. The part pictured here is 2.5 light years in length (the equivalent of 23 million return trips to the Moon).

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt318/lowellbrown/merginggalaxies.jpg

From 114 million light years away, these are the swirling cores of two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in the distant Canis Major constellation. Merging galaxies - now there is a concept!

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt318/lowellbrown/TrifidNebula.jpg

Astronomers call this a 'stellar nursery', 9,000 light years from here, where new stars are being born. Another heavy concept!

[GarthUte]

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt318/lowellbrown/sombrero.jpg

This is the Sombrero Galaxy, 28 million light years from Earth. I am told this was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The galaxy is officially called M104, has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.

In other words, if you traveled at the speed of light for 50,000 years, you could cross this galaxy from one end to the other. :eek: Of course, that would be after the 28 million light years it took you to get to the edge of the galaxy.

This photo is the skin on my iPhone.

I like to make the numbers seem even bigger by reminding folks that one light year is about 6 trillion miles.

[GarthUte]

LA, those are some incredible photos, which makes me wonder if the Hubble telescope is the most impressive piece of technology that has come around in my lifetime. I can't think of anything else as impressive.

[GarthUte]

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/512542main_old-object-670.jpg

The very, very dim galaxy in this photo is called UDFj-39546284 and is the most distant galaxy ever seen. According to the folks at NASA, the light from that galaxy traveled for 13.2 billion years before it reached Hubble. (The estimated age of the universe is 13.7 billion years.) It's a small galaxy, approximately 1/100th the size of the Milky Way.

[FMCoug]

LA, those are some incredible photos, which makes me wonder if the Hubble telescope is the most impressive piece of technology that has come around in my lifetime. I can't think of anything else as impressive.

I tend to agree. It's pretty incredible what they have done and the images they get. The coolest part is the in place repair to the mirrors they do.

All this makes me want to weep for the state of our space program right now.

[GarthUte]

I tend to agree. It's pretty incredible what they have done and the images they get. The coolest part is the in place repair to the mirrors they do.

All this makes me want to weep for the state of our space program right now.

Agreed about the state of our space program right now. The US has definitely lost it's superiority in that area.

[IdahoUteTroutHead]

I still think there are men on the moon......

[Hadrian]

If anyone is interested: every Wednesday night at the U they have "star parties" that are free and open to the public. They basically open up the telescopes and point them at stars, planets, galaxies, and the moon. Salt Lake City is doesn't exactly offer optimum light conditions, but it's still worth a visit.

I don't think they do it during the winter though.

[PaloAltoCougar]

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt318/lowellbrown/sombrero.jpg

This is the Sombrero Galaxy, 28 million light years from Earth. I am told this was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The galaxy is officially called M104, has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.

In other words, if you traveled at the speed of light for 50,000 years, you could cross this galaxy from one end to the other. :eek: Of course, that would be after the 28 million light years it took you to get to the edge of the galaxy.

This photo is the skin on my iPhone.

Coincidentally, the lecture I watched this evening was about galaxies generally and the Sombrero in particular, with a lengthy discussion of that photo. One interesting tidbit is that the Sombrero, which at 28-29 million light years away from ours, is very close relative to the entire universe. And yet if Earth were equidistant between the two galaxies, the night sky would always be pitch black, as stars or galaxies would be visible only with the aid of a telescope. Facts like these, along with the idea that there are many billions of galaxies (and that's all we're aware of), makes recall Moses' conclusion after he was given a tour of the universe, "Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed."

[OrangeUte]

Coincidentally, the lecture I watched this evening was about galaxies generally and the Sombrero in particular, with a lengthy discussion of that photo. One interesting tidbit is that the Sombrero, which at 28-29 million light years away from ours, is very close relative to the entire universe. And yet if Earth were equidistant between the two galaxies, the night sky would always be pitch black, as stars or galaxies would be visible only with the aid of a telescope. Facts like these, along with the idea that there are many billions of galaxies (and that's all we're aware of), makes recall Moses' conclusion after he was given a tour of the universe, "Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed."

PAC - is this a podcast? It sounds fascinating!

[chrisrenrut]

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt318/lowellbrown/sombrero.jpg

This is the Sombrero Galaxy, 28 million light years from Earth. I am told this was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The galaxy is officially called M104, has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.

In other words, if you traveled at the speed of light for 50,000 years, you could cross this galaxy from one end to the other. :eek: Of course, that would be after the 28 million light years it took you to get to the edge of the galaxy.

This photo is the skin on my iPhone.

I have to keep reminding myself that the Hubble is capturing images of what these galaxies and formations looked like millions of years ago. The supernova PAC referred to actually happened thousands or millions or years ago, we are just waiting for the light particles of the event to reach the earth.

[hardcoreUTE]

LA, those are some incredible photos, which makes me wonder if the Hubble telescope is the most impressive piece of technology that has come around in my lifetime. I can't think of anything else as impressive.

Absolutely stunning images from Hubble. The fact it was almost the most impressive blunder of all time is equally impressive.

The only things I can think of that are as impressive as the Hubble Telescope would be the Kepler Telescope, out there finding all these new planetary bodies and trying to find the ones in the habitable zones (http://kepler.nasa.gov/), the Large Hadron Collider which has lead to the discovery of the Higgs-Boson, and the 2 Voyger missions which both are now outside our solar system (http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/)

I'll be sad when we stop getting images from Hubble.

[PaloAltoCougar]

PAC - is this a podcast? It sounds fascinating!

It's a two-DVD series (Experiencing Hubble: Understanding the Greatest Images of the Universe) from The Great Courses. It was a special offer ($9.95), and it's certainly worth every penny. But now I get near-daily emails suggesting other courses. I may get really smart.

[concerned]

If anyone is interested: every Wednesday night at the U they have "star parties" that are free and open to the public. They basically open up the telescopes and point them at stars, planets, galaxies, and the moon. Salt Lake City is doesn't exactly offer optimum light conditions, but it's still worth a visit.

I don't think they do it during the winter though.

You remind me that there used to be an observatory on the corner of University St./Virginia St. and 1st south when I was a kid. It was around the corner from my grandmother's house on Butler Ave. Or am I hallucinating?

[Hadrian]

You remind me that there used to be an observatory on the corner of University St./Virginia St. and 1st south when I was a kid. It was around the corner from my grandmother's house on Butler Ave. Or am I hallucinating?
I don't know about any former observatory directly on the corner of University and 1st, but the physics building with the current observatory is very near to it. The physics building is probably close to a hundred years old, so it might be the same building you're thinking of.

[U-Ute]

http://htwins.net/scale2/

I don't know what's freakier, the size of the universe, or the size of the Japanese Spider Crab.

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[SavaUte]

It's a two-DVD series (Experiencing Hubble: Understanding the Greatest Images of the Universe) from The Great Courses. It was a special offer ($9.95), and it's certainly worth every penny. But now I get near-daily emails suggesting other courses. I may get really smart.


You interested in making your money back after you finish them?

On a side note, are there any astro-photographers here? I'm just getting started in that. I'll try to dig up some milky way photos I took in the Uintas last summer

[Tacoma Ute]

Best non-sports thread ever! I love this stuff!

[San Diego Ute Fan]

I've always been a fan of space exploration and astronomy. Here's a very short video that gives some perspective on things. I'm sure many of you have seen this or something similar to it, but if you haven't seen it... Definitely worth two minutes:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58fs5yI8K9I

[SavaUte]

Just dug up my favorite photo I've taken. This was up in the Uintas last summer. My understanding of it all and knowledge of my equipment is getting much better, so I'm hoping to get improved results this summer.

For now:

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd65/thebigzwatson/8-12-2012%20astro/DSC05962_zpsd942f9b0.jpg
Camera: Sony A65
Lens: Minolta AF 28 2.8 @ 2.8
13 sec
12800 ISO

[LA Ute]

I've always been a fan of space exploration and astronomy. Here's a very short video that gives some perspective on things. I'm sure many of you have seen this or something similar to it, but if you haven't seen it... Definitely worth two minutes:

Wow. Thanks for that.

[Expat]

If you like these, I suggest that you download the Star Walk app for your smart phone. Amazing photos like those below, and a really cool "live" guide to the night sky, as well as astrology data. I've gotten a lot more use out of it that I thought I would.

[San Diego Ute Fan]

Just dug up my favorite photo I've taken. This was up in the Uintas last summer. My understanding of it all and knowledge of my equipment is getting much better, so I'm hoping to get improved results this summer.

For now:

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd65/thebigzwatson/8-12-2012%20astro/DSC05962_zpsd942f9b0.jpg
Camera: Sony A65
Lens: Minolta AF 28 2.8 @ 2.8
13 sec
12800 ISO

Nice photo. There's nothing like getting a clear view of the night sky while camping in wilderness areas. Beautiful.

[U-Ute]

Just dug up my favorite photo I've taken. This was up in the Uintas last summer. My understanding of it all and knowledge of my equipment is getting much better, so I'm hoping to get improved results this summer.

Camera: Sony A65
Lens: Minolta AF 28 2.8 @ 2.8
13 sec
12800 ISO

Fantastic shot.

We upgraded from the Canon Rebel XTi to the T4i for Christmas. Looking forward to testing it out this summer.

[San Diego Ute Fan]

Go full screen HD for this if you can. Note the lightning storms and Aurora Borealis. At 1:00, watch for Orion rising in the sky. Am I a nerd if I love this stuff?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7SoQK1G7Y0&list=FL7NigbQiFKDtD5-7ZX5_36A

[LA Ute]

Go full screen HD for this if you can. Note the lightning storms and Aurora Borealis. At 1:00, watch for Orion rising in the sky. Am I a nerd if I love this stuff?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7SoQK1G7Y0&list=FL7NigbQiFKDtD5-7ZX5_36A

If so, you have lots of company, including me.

[Switzerland]

Interesting subject. I recently learned if the size of our solar system were equal to a US quarter- and that means Neptune's orbit, not the Kuiper belt or any dwarf planets- than the Milky Way's diameter would be roughly 1200 miles. Also, if the center of the Milky Way were downtown SLC, our solar system would be roughly located in Reno.

It's mind-boggling how far the Hubble can capture.

[Hadrian]

Am I the only one who thinks this would be really cool if it happens?
http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17107085-comet-just-might-hit-mars-in-2014?lite

[Jarid in Cedar]

Am I the only one who thinks this would be really cool if it happens?
http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17107085-comet-just-might-hit-mars-in-2014?lite

I want to see it happen. What a spectacular sight and memory that would be.

[GarthUte]

I want to see it happen. What a spectacular sight and memory that would be.

Agreed. I wonder if any of the rovers up there would be able to capture some footage should it happen.

[Hadrian]

Agreed. I wonder if any of the rovers up there would be able to capture some footage should it happen.
It would depend on where the comet actually hits the planet. If it impacts more than a few hundred miles away, I doubt the rover could see much. However, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter might be able to take some amazing pictures.

[LA Ute]

Maybe not everyone is so excited about a comet hitting Mars.

http://outdoornebraska.ne.gov/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/mars-rover-10.jpg

[Tacoma Ute]

Am I the only one who thinks this would be really cool if it happens?
http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17107085-comet-just-might-hit-mars-in-2014?lite

I would love it so long as it did not damage the rovers up there. I would love to see a comet or asteroid or comet slam into the moon though.

[LA Ute]

This is fun to contemplate: (http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2013/02/comet-headed-mars)


There is a lot of ice frozen into the Martian crust. The heat of an enormous impact would melt a huge amount of it. If, as some believe, there are microbes living deep under the Martian surface, such a burst of warm, wet conditions over a substantial chunk of the planet would give them a brief chance to thrive at and close to the surface before the planet refroze. It’s not obvious how to observe such exciting developments, but there are surely already people at NASA and elsewhere giving thought to the matter. And they will have time. Parts of the surface and subsurface in the impact region, if there is an impact, will stay warm for decades.

[San Diego Ute Fan]

Tonight is the best night to view a comet in the West sky just after dusk.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/03/comet-puts-on-a-light-show.html

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[SavaUte]

It is VERY hard to see with the naked eye unless you know exactly where to look, so pay attention to the location relative to the moon (about 4.5 moons to the left) if you want to see it. Binoculars will make it easier

[GarthUte]

It is VERY hard to see with the naked eye unless you know exactly where to look, so pay attention to the location relative to the moon (about 4.5 moons to the left) if you want to see it. Binoculars will make it easier

Thanks for the info about where to look.

Dang, I really wish I had a lens for some decent astrophotography.

[SavaUte]

For astrophotography, what I find to be best are wide and fast primes. I'm trying to get a hold of a guy here locally that has a 24 1.8 that would be excellent for something like this. I guess if you're doing smaller objects you'll want a bitter lens, but be sure it is fast because the bigger focal length, the shorter your exposure can be without an equitorial mount

[PaloAltoCougar]

Thanks for the info about where to look.

Dang, I really wish I had a lens for some decent astrophotography.

Note that each night it will appear farther north than it did the night before.

http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/20/35/63/4316383/7/628x471.jpg

[LA Ute]

"Gold rush" in space? A look at asteroids' potential for wealth, destruction (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57575043/gold-rush-in-space-a-look-at-asteroids-potential-for-wealth-destruction/)
"Private capitalists are saying, 'If NASA won't fund this thing, why not private enterprise?' If they get a piece of the action, that's going to be on the table as well, whether or not entrepreneurs can see a gold rush in outer space.

"But right now, they don't have enough money to launch the mining endeavors. "Everyone is passing the tin cup right now asking for funds," Kaku said.


"So right now, many have their eye on the skies, including former Congressman Bart Gordon, a lobbyist for Planetary Resources -- one of the companies that eventually wants to mine asteroids for rare metals. Gordon says there are lots of asteroids trained on Earth: 'There are about 10,000 near-Earth asteroids that we're monitoring,' he said, 'And we assume there about a million more that we're not monitoring.'"

[LA Ute]

Will NASA Announce Plans to Snag an Asteroid and Fly It to Earth? (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/03/nasa-asteroid-plans/)


When the Obama administration’s 2014 federal budget gets released in early April, it might include a curious item: a $100 million request for NASA to conduct a mission to capture an asteroid and bring it back to Earth.

This idea comes from an article published March 28 in Aviation Week and Space Technology, which reports on the space industry. The plan would identify a small asteroid, grab it with a robotic spacecraft, and tug it to the vicinity of our planet, perhaps somewhere near the moon. Such a mission was the subject of a two-day meeting of scientists and engineers at Caltech organized by the Keck Institute for Space Studies in 2011....

[LA Ute]

Early galaxy formed stars at blistering pace (http://http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-starburst-galaxy-20130418,0,5094648.story)


Scientists discover the earliest known starburst galaxy, which made stars more than 1,000 times faster than our Milky Way. They are surprised that a galaxy that early could make stars so rapidly.

Peering deep into the universe, scientists have discovered the earliest known starburst galaxy — a revved-up stellar factory popping out stars thousands of times faster than the Milky Way.

The find, described in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature, could help alter scientists' understanding of the early evolution of galaxies and larger structures in the universe.

The galaxy, named HFLS 3, existed about 880 million years after the big bang, when the universe was about 6% of its current age, astronomers say. And it's churning out stars with sun-sized mass at the incredible rate of roughly 2,900 per year.

A typical starburst galaxy may produce the equivalent of hundreds of suns per year, scientists said. The Milky Way, by comparison, creates about two suns annually....

[GarthUte]

Early galaxy formed stars at blistering pace (http://http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-starburst-galaxy-20130418,0,5094648.story)

That galaxy was obviously not a union shop.

[DrumNFeather]

http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-sees-distant-planets-seem-ideal-life-181302534.html


NASA's planet-hunting telescope has discovered two planets that seem like ideal places for some sort of life to flourish. And they are just the right size and in just the right place.One is toasty, the other nippy.
The distant duo are the best candidates for habitable planets that astronomers have found so far, saidWilliam Borucki, the chief scientist for NASA's Kepler telescope. And it's got astronomers thinking that similar planets that are just about right for life — "Goldilocks planets" — might be common in the universe.

The planets are slightly wider than Earth, but not too big. Kepler-62-e is a bit balmy, like a Hawaiian world and Kepler-62-f is a bit frosty, more Alaskan, Borucki said.
The pair is 1,200 light-years away; a light-year is almost 6 trillion miles.
"This is the first one where I'm thinking 'Huh, Kepler-62-f really might have life on it'," said study co-author David Charbonneau of Harvard. "This is a very important barrier that's been crossed. Why wouldn't it have life?"
To make it warm enough for life the planet would need greenhouse gas trapping its star's heat because the star only gives off one-fifth the energy of our sun, but that's something that is likely to happen, Borucki said.
Both planets are tantalizing. The dozens of researchers who co-authored the study disagree on which one is better suited to life. Lisa Kaltenegger of the Max Planck Institute of Astronomy in Germany likes Kepler-62-e more because it's closer to the star and is warmer. She said it is probably "like Washington in May."
That planet is so close it may need clouds to cool off and it's more likely to be an all-water world, unlike any other in our solar system, Kaltenegger said. Astronomers cannot confirm that either planet has water, but based on other research, it's a good assumption, she said.
The planets circle a star that is 7 billion years old — about 2.5 billion years older than our sun. Kepler spots the planets as they go between Earth and their star ever so slightly, reducing the light from the star.
"If there's life at all on those planets, it must be very advanced" evolutionarily because the planets are so old, said Borucki.
On a watery planet, oceans are prime spots for life, including flying fish that could evolve into birds, Borucki said. And on the rocky planet, with a heavier gravity than Earth, life might look a tad different, he said.

[LA Ute]

Moon's water may have come from Earth-bound meteorites (http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-moon-water-20130510,0,3895364.story?track=lat-email-healthreport)
The source of the moon's internal water may be meteorites that bombarded ancient Earth, not comets, as had been theorized, say researchers who studied lunar rocks from two Apollo missions....

[LA Ute]

The Hunt for Alien Megastructures (http://io9.com/the-hunt-for-alien-megastructures-509777337)


Vast structures, constructed on astronomical scales by advanced civilisations, is what the field of astroengineering is all about. This, admittedly, sounds audacious – and for the human race right now, it is. For us, astroengineering is still very much the realm of thought experiments, theoretical calculations, and science fiction. So it may be surprising to know that certain astronomers have made some quite serious attempts to look for astroengineered artifacts around other stars. With telescopes becoming ever more sensitive, and images being taken of exoplanets, the idea is starting to captivate imaginations once more.

[DanielLaRusso]

Here's an interactive map and the 100,000 stars nearest to our own (http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/stars/).

[LA Ute]

Elderly suns rip their closest planets to shreds (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23663-elderly-suns-rip-their-closest-planets-to-shreds.html)



Old stars make rude hosts. A survey of ageing stars offers some of the first direct evidence that these cantankerous elders often rip their nearest planets to shreds.

Planet-hunting surveys have found many sun-like stars with hot Jupiters (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21784-astrophile-hot-jupiters-oust-their-siblings.html), giant worlds that orbit their stars closer than Mercury orbits the sun. However, hot Jupiters are rarely found around older stars called subgiants, which have burned through their fuel and puffed up to several times their original size. This is widely thought to be because the puffy stars were up to twice the mass of the sun when they were younger, and that might have influenced where their planets formed.

To help test this notion, Kevin Schlaufman (http://www.kevinschlaufman.com/) and Joshua Winn of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tracked the positions of 142 planet-hosting stars in our galaxy. Stars are born in clusters which disperse as they age. More massive stars burn out faster, so their elderly populations are usually found closer together....

But the team found that subgiants with planets are more spread out, so are older than expected, meaning that the stars were probably about the mass of our sun in their youth.

[LA Ute]

A Quantum of Solace

Timeless Questions About the Universe (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/science/space/timeless-questions-about-the-universe.html?ref=science&_r=1&)

A good read if you're in the mood to ponder.

[GarthUte]

Wow. As a friend on facebook said, this is a great time to be alive when things like this are out there (http://www.space.com/21928-alien-planet-blue-color-revealed.html?cmpid=514630).

[LA Ute]

This has been around for a few days - the Cassini Spacecraft returned this photo of the Earth and Moon from more than 900 million miles away:

664

[LA Ute]

Forty Years Ago, A Cosmonaut Experienced What Can Only Be Described as 'Hell' (http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-01/forty-years-ago-cosmonaut-experienced-what-can-only-be-described-hell)Interesting read.

[jrj84105]

This is fun to contemplate: (http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2013/02/comet-headed-mars)

Stupid questions here:
Wouldn't the heat and pressure from such an impact vaporize a lot of the water? Would other materials be transformed into a gaseous state? If so, would Mars at least transiently have an atmosphere and maybe take quite a while to cool off and return back to its current state? Like I said, pretty stupid questions.

[SoCalCoug]

There was a great article in the most recent National Geographic about the origin of the solar system. It appears to have been far more violent than previously thought. It had a great discussion about how the gravitational pulls of all of the planets led to a far less orderly solar system creation. Earth may, in fact, have had two moons in the beginning, but they collided and became the moon as we know it. Scientists think as many as 70 asteroids comparable to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs may has struck the earth during the 2-billion year bombardment period.

[LA Ute]

Stupid questions here:
Wouldn't the heat and pressure from such an impact vaporize a lot of the water? Would other materials be transformed into a gaseous state? If so, would Mars at least transiently have an atmosphere and maybe take quite a while to cool off and return back to its current state? Like I said, pretty stupid questions.

Not stupid. It's fun to wonder about such things.


There was a great article in the most recent National Geographic about the origin of the solar system. It appears to have been far more violent than previously thought. It had a great discussion about how the gravitational pulls of all of the planets led to a far less orderly solar system creation. Earth may, in fact, have had two moons in the beginning, but they collided and became the moon as we know it. Scientists think as many as 70 asteroids comparable to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs may has struck the earth during the 2-billion year bombardment period.

That would have been one heck of a fireworks show if it could be compressed by time-lapse.

[LA Ute]

The Case for Alien Life

Only one planet has been proven to support life: our own. But with at least 11 billion Earth-sized words in our galaxy orbiting in their stars' habitable zones, plus new evidence of strange kinds of life that thrive in extreme environments, the odds that we are not alone are improving.



Read more: The Case for Alien Life - Popular Mechanics (http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/deep/the-case-for-alien-life-15756398#ixzz2bFBRxjxU)

[LA Ute]

We may all be Martians: New research supports theory that life started on Mars (http://phys.org/news/2013-08-martians-theory-life-mars.html)


Professor Steven Benner will tell geochemists gathering today (Thursday 29 Aug) at the annual Goldschmidt conference that an oxidized mineral form of the element molybdenum, which may have been crucial to the origin of life, could only have been available on the surface of Mars and not on Earth. "In addition", said Professor Benner "recent studies show that these conditions, suitable for the origin of life, may still exist on Mars."


"It's only when molybdenum becomes highly oxidized that it is able to influence how early life formed," explains Professor Benner, from The Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology in the USA. "This form of molybdenum couldn't have been available on Earth at the time life first began, because three billion years ago the surface of the Earth had very little oxygen, but Mars did. It's yet another piece of evidence which makes it more likely life came to Earth on a Martian meteorite, rather than starting on this planet."


The research Professor Benner will present at the Goldschmidt conference tackles two of the paradoxes which make it difficult for scientists to understand how life could have started on Earth.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-08-martians-theory-life-mars.html#jCp

[LA Ute]

Did a hyper-black hole spawn the Universe? (http://www.nature.com/news/did-a-hyper-black-hole-spawn-the-universe-1.13743)
Big Bang was mirage from collapsing higher-dimensional star, theorists propose.




It could be time to bid the Big Bang bye-bye. Cosmologists have speculated that the Universe formed from the debris ejected when a four-dimensional star collapsed into a black hole — a scenario that would help to explain why the cosmos seems to be so uniform in all directions.


The standard Big Bang model tells us that the Universe exploded out of an infinitely dense point, or singularity. But nobody knows what would have triggered this outburst: the known laws of physics cannot tell us what happened at that moment.


“For all physicists know, dragons could have come flying out of the singularity,” says Niayesh Afshordi, an astrophysicist at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada.


It is also difficult to explain how a violent Big Bang would have left behind a Universe that has an almost completely uniform temperature, because there does not seem to have been enough time since the birth of the cosmos for it to have reached temperature equilibrium.


To most cosmologists, the most plausible explanation for that uniformity is that, soon after the beginning of time, some unknown form of energy made the young Universe inflate at a rate that was faster than the speed of light. That way, a small patch with roughly uniform temperature would have stretched into the vast cosmos we see today. But Afshordi notes that “the Big Bang was so chaotic, it’s not clear there would have been even a small homogenous patch for inflation to start working on”.



I have no agenda here (just to calm down SU). Just posting interesting stuff, no matter which theory is supported or questioned.

[LA Ute]

This is how the most famous photo of all time was taken:

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/this-is-how-the-most-famous-photo-of-all-time-was-taken-1487282719/@jesusdiaz

[LA Ute]

Is the Universe made of Math?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-the-universe-made-of-math-excerpt

[Homer Crimson]

I'm so confused... http://rt.com/news/space-evidence-universe-hologram-195/ but... http://www.universetoday.com/107172/why-our-universe-is-not-a-hologram/

[LA Ute]

After Ten Years on Mars, Here Are the Most Beautiful Photos Taken by the Rovers

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/amazing-photos-10-years-rovers-mars-180948019/#ixzz2qXSbVoF7

[LA Ute]

Watching this is a perspective-expanding experience:

The Known Universe, by the American Museum of Natural History



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U#t=369

[LA Ute]

This is another perspective-expanding experience. Seriously, take 4 minutes and watch it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAVjF_7ensg

[DrumNFeather]

This is another perspective-expanding experience. Seriously, take 4 minutes and watch it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAVjF_7ensg

That was really cool.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2

[DrumNFeather]

http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/__u3G.2I3B_YHsoWe9WHGA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTc5MztweW9mZj0wO3E9Nz U7dz01MjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/News/BGR_News/bhmxljmigaaqwai.jpg

http://news.yahoo.com/every-single-satellite-orbiting-earth-single-image-171639687.html

[LA Ute]

http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/__u3G.2I3B_YHsoWe9WHGA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTc5MztweW9mZj0wO3E9Nz U7dz01MjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/News/BGR_News/bhmxljmigaaqwai.jpg

http://news.yahoo.com/every-single-satellite-orbiting-earth-single-image-171639687.html

Wow.

[LA Ute]

Water on Earth and the solar system is older than our sun (http://www.techtimes.com/articles/16533/20140926/water-on-earth-and-solar-system-is-older-than-our-suns.htm)

Much of the life processes on Earth depend on the sun, so it comes as a surprise to many when new research findings suggest that some of the water in the Earth's oceans is actually older than the solar system's sun. The discovery could have implications on understanding how planetary systems form....

[Scratch]

Water on Earth and the solar system is older than our sun (http://www.techtimes.com/articles/16533/20140926/water-on-earth-and-solar-system-is-older-than-our-suns.htm)



That water must have come along with the dinosaur bones from other planets.

[Scorcho]

That water must have come along with the dinosaur bones from other planets.


:rofl: well played.

_______________________

About 15 Years ago, my Catholic Sister-in-Law got tracted out by some missionaries. She's polite, mentions that her Sister is LDS and they start visiting.

Shortly, after their visit my wife gets the phone call, "why don't you guys believe in dinosaurs ?"

Thank you Elders ... :swear:

[LA Ute]

That water must have come along with the dinosaur bones from other planets.

Look, stop mocking me. It's been revealed to me that Adam and Eve came here in a space ship. You could know this too if you'd just be more humble.

[DrumNFeather]

http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-spacecraft-approaching-dwarf-planet-ceres-163731951.html

[LA Ute]

This is impressive:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udAL48P5NJU#t=23

[Switzerland]

Andromeda is the nearest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. To put things in perspective, if the orbit of Neptune were the size of a $0.25 cent quarter, the nearest star (Proxima Centauri) would be 371.6 feet away, the nearest Black Hole (V4641 Sgr) would be 26.5 miles away, the Milky Way would be 1,200 miles across, and the nearest point of Andromeda would be 41,340 miles away.

[LA Ute]

The Paradoxes That Threaten To Tear Modern Cosmology Apart (https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/the-paradoxes-that-threaten-to-tear-modern-cosmology-apart-d334a7fcfdb6)Some simple observations about the universe seem to contradict basic physics. Solving these paradoxes could change the way we think about the cosmos

[DrumNFeather]

http://youtu.be/gF9UlTYR5d0

[DrumNFeather]

http://www.businessinsider.com/mars-opportunity-rover-journey-captured-in-a-time-lapse-2015-7

[Rocker Ute]

http://www.businessinsider.com/mars-opportunity-rover-journey-captured-in-a-time-lapse-2015-7

Now if they could just make a water heater that lasted 11 years. Cool stuff.

[Dwight Schr-Ute]

This was cool. http://www.universetoday.com/82013/international-space-station-on-the-moon/

[Rocker Ute]

A few weeks ago while down in St George I took my kids out into the desert away from any city lights to look at the stars. I had downloaded the Sky Guide app which lets you point your phone at something and figure out what it is. One of the highlights was seeing the ISS pass from horizon to horizon.

If you are a person like me who knows little about the constellations or what not that app is fantastic. You point it to where you are looking, click on what you are interested in and it gives you all the facts, or in the case of constellations the mythology behind them. Really amazing.

[LA Ute]

Astronomers discover our long-lost 'solar twin'

http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2015/07/astronomers-discover-our-long-lost-solar-twin

[LA Ute]

NASA Mission Discovers 'Older, Bigger Cousin' to Earth
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/nasas-kepler-space-telescope-discovers-new-planet-n397141?cid=sm_fb

[LA Ute]

Scientists discover 12 new potential Earth-like planetshttp://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/07/23/scientists-discover-12-new-potential-earth-like-planets/?tid=sm_fb

1508

[DrumNFeather]

Possible 9th planet found in our solar system: http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_29408753/scientists-good-evidence-9th-planet-solar-system

[LA Ute]

How to View Five Planets Aligning in a Celestial Spectacle (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/20/science/space/five-planets-align-mars-jupiter-mercury-saturn-venus.html?mwrsm=Facebook&_r=0)

1764

Five planets paraded across the dawn sky early Wednesday in a rare celestial spectacle set to repeat every morning until late next month.

Headlining the planetary performance are Mercury (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/mercury_planet/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier), Venus, Mars (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/mars_planet/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier), Saturn and Jupiter (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/jupiter_planet/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier). It is the first time in more than a decade that the fab five are simultaneously visible to the naked eye, according to Jason Kendall, who is on the board of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York (http://www.aaa.org/).

[Applejack]

Man, this makes astronomy look weak. How can you miss a 9th planet for hundreds of years? It's like if biology discovered a 5th base pair in DNA. Throw in the Pluto downgrade, and I'm not sure anyone over in the physics department isn't just making stuff up.
Watch your dirty, math mouth!

[NorthwestUteFan]

That new planet is enormous. But isn't it extremely far away? As I recall it's solar year is around 15,000 earth years. (For reference, Neptune's year is ~165 earth years)

And Pluto had it's chance. There are a number of objects larger than Pluto that also orbit the sun, but are not considered planets.

[NorthwestUteFan]

I agree, it is exciting to see new discoveries like this (although it is more similar to finding a new mansion, 10 times bigger than your house, hidden behind the shrubbery at the edge of your property.


The Hubble Deep Field picture from a few years ago was an absolute revelation, as it shows thousands of galaxies in a spot that was previously thought to be empty space.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/Hubble_Extreme_Deep_Field_%28full_resolution%29.pn g/688px-Hubble_Extreme_Deep_Field_%28full_resolution%29.pn g

[U-Ute]

Man, this makes astronomy look weak. How can you miss a 9th planet for hundreds of years? It's like if biology discovered a 5th base pair in DNA. Throw in the Pluto downgrade, and I'm not sure anyone over in the physics department isn't just making stuff up.

Wait until it turns out Dr Bob ate a greasy burger and it was just a spot of grease on the lens.

[U-Ute]

Gravitational waves detected.

http://news.mit.edu/2016/ligo-first-detection-gravitational-waves-0211

[LA Ute]

Interest news about the Milky Way:

http://astronomynow.com/2016/07/20/x-marks-the-spot-at-the-centre-of-the-milky-way/

[LA Ute]

Not really astronomy, just really interesting:

What Is the Earliest Evidence for Life on Earth?

http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2016/08/the_earliest_evidence_for_life_on_earth.html

(This has nothing to do with religion.)

[DrumNFeather]

A possible earth 2.0 just 4.25 light years away?

http://www.space.com/33780-could-proxima-centauri-be-our-interstellar-getaway.html

[U-Ute]

A possible earth 2.0 just 4.25 light years away?

http://www.space.com/33780-could-proxima-centauri-be-our-interstellar-getaway.html


Getting there may problematic.

What could go wrong at 20% of the speed of light?

http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/08/could-breakthrough-starshots-ships-survive-the-trip/

[DrumNFeather]

Elon Musk lays out his plan for colonizing to Mars and saving mankind:

http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-mars-speech-transcript-2016-9/#-1

[chrisrenrut]

I think a pretty cool demonstration of gravity fits here:


https://youtu.be/E43-CfukEgs

[DrumNFeather]

Discovery of new planets that could sustain life: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-telescope-reveals-largest-batch-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around

[chrisrenrut]

Cool picture of northern Utah from the International Space Station. Looking from the north by northwest, taken in October 2017.

2339

[Rocker Ute]

Cool picture of northern Utah from the International Space Station. Looking from the north by northwest, taken in October 2017.

2339

I can see my house.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sullyute]

Bear lake and the Uintah mountains look cool


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[U-Ute]

I can see my house.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Damnit. I blinked.

When is the next photo?

[Dwight Schr-Ute]

Bear lake and the Uintah mountains look cool


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

it always shocks me to see aerials of the Great Salt Lake to see the chemical differences between Farmington Bay and the rest of the lake.

[concerned]

I can see my house.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Heck, I can see me. I cant remember if I was waving or flippin' the bird.

[LA Ute]

Heck, I can see me. I cant remember if I was waving or flippin' the bird.

Isn’t that a copy of Mother Jones magazine you’re waving?

[tooblue]

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6964

The Super-Earth that Came Home for Dinner

"It might be lingering bashfully on the icy outer edges of our solar system, hiding in the dark, but subtly pulling strings behind the scenes: stretching out the orbits of distant bodies, perhaps even tilting the entire solar system to one side ... Breadcrumb number three: Computer simulations of the solar system with Planet Nine included show there should be more objects tilted with respect to the solar plane. In fact, the tilt would be on the order of 90 degrees, as if the plane of the solar system and these objects formed an "X" when viewed edge-on. Sure enough, Brown realized that five such objects already known to astronomers fill the bill."

[Scratch]

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6964

The Super-Earth that Came Home for Dinner

"It might be lingering bashfully on the icy outer edges of our solar system, hiding in the dark, but subtly pulling strings behind the scenes: stretching out the orbits of distant bodies, perhaps even tilting the entire solar system to one side ... Breadcrumb number three: Computer simulations of the solar system with Planet Nine included show there should be more objects tilted with respect to the solar plane. In fact, the tilt would be on the order of 90 degrees, as if the plane of the solar system and these objects formed an "X" when viewed edge-on. Sure enough, Brown realized that five such objects already known to astronomers fill the bill."

It seems crazy to me that with all of the space discoveries and advances that have been made over the last few decades that it could be possible that there is another big planet out there that has yet to be formally discovered, but it sure looks like that's the case.