The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

[allBthere]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

I feel like all these things people see in the sky are easily explainable. In the past, maybe it was a meteor or a star or something.

Nowadays, it could be a plane, satellite, drone, who knows.

But those real secret ones, despite what has been said, I think it's really just secret/spy planes. Obviously if you could identify it, it wouldn't be a secret/it wouldn't still be flying. WW3, IF/when it happens, we'll definitely see what some countries have been doing for the last X decades.

Aliens do exist, but like I said in the past, I think its ridiculous to think they're basically shaped similar to humans, communicate similar to us, have similar styled tech just more advanced, and require environments known to earth life to survive.

I'm not sure, I think of course they could look like us. There are some who think our species was 'helped along' or even spawned by them. I guess it's like promethius if you've seen that where they travel to visit the 'original humans'.

Anything is possible and it's also possible that intelligence, speach etc have a natural evolution of being bipedal and so on. On the flip side I wouldn't rule out other shapes and the unimaginable as well.

I love this stuff btw, it's so fascinating to think about.

[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

I'm not sure, I think of course they could look like us. There are some who think our species was 'helped along' or even spawned by them. I guess it's like promethius if you've seen that where they travel to visit the 'original humans'.

Anything is possible and it's also possible that intelligence, speach etc have a natural evolution of being bipedal and so on. On the flip side I wouldn't rule out other shapes and the unimaginable as well.

I love this stuff btw, it's so fascinating to think about.

I've heard astrobiologists and astrophysicists say that aliens would probably be similar to us depending on the level of gravity their planet has.

If they have heavy gravity, they would be shorter and wider, and low gravity would be taller and skinnier. That's just a general interpretation.

But I've also heard some of them say they would most likely look very different.

I guess we are talking about the dominant intelligent species on their planet. Sentient beings who can think and use tools like us.

I can only imagine what their flora and fauna would look like. With all the different types of animals on our planet, imagine the same on theirs.

Just by what we know about our own sun, G-type yellow dwarf, and when we apply that to other types of stars like for example the M-type red dwarf Proxima Centuri, if it's planet, Proxima b, had life on it, the flora would most likely be a darker, deep reds and purples, or even darker. This is due to getting less sunlight and plants produce chlorophyll based on the visible light they don't reflect. Which is green on our planet because our Sun's peak wavelength is green. This would be a different color on a red dwarf's planet because their peak wavelength is in the reddish purplish spectrum.

[Majingir]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

I skimmed the article, but basically, all I took away from a news story I read is that something could happen with the sun over the next decade which could lead to the internet being knocked out worldwide.

Basically turning the world into yet another global disaster movie.

Sounds like the odds of it happening are at best 12% or something like that, but you never know, and the way the last 2 years have gone, should anyone ever doubt the craziest of predictions anymore?

[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

James Webb delayed again. Was supposed to launch on Halloween. Now December 18th. Lets see if it actually happens.

[BurghFan]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

I skimmed the article, but basically, all I took away from a news story I read is that something could happen with the sun over the next decade which could lead to the internet being knocked out worldwide.

Basically turning the world into yet another global disaster movie.

Sounds like the odds of it happening are at best 12% or something like that, but you never know, and the way the last 2 years have gone, should anyone ever doubt the craziest of predictions anymore?

Solar maximum and an extremely powerful coronal mass ejection/solar flare aimed directly at Earth?

[Jolly Roger]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

I mean, global supplies/shipping has been effed for nearly 2 years now, why not go without the internet for a bit as well? At this rate we'll all be living Oregon Trail style in 10 years. Could be fun.

[slickdtc]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

Honestly, the world needs a timeout from the Internet. The Sun gonna son us.

[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

Imagine telling your grandkids, yeah, I was alive both pre and post internet.

[slickdtc]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

And those kids couldn’t even look it up to see if we were telling the truth. [emoji23]

[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

After over 20 years in development, and years of launch delays, the James Webb Telescope has launched successfully.

It's not all good yet though. Tons of things have to go right as it get to it's permanent orbit, Lagrange 2. If everything goes well, we will make discoveries we never thought possible in our lifetimes. So let's hope for the best.

Here's a cool YouTube channel to track it if you want.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6Nr4brjx-ds" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[slickdtc]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

That thing was pushed a million times then I see a little blurb oh yeah it’s up there now. What!! Will be interesting what we learn from this thing.

[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

JWST successfully tensioned it's sun shield Tuesday.

Basically gigantic tin foil thick shield had to be stretched to the size of a tennis court and have perfect tension to where it's as close to ripping as possible.

Many see this as the most critical point of the mission. So this was huge.

[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

Secondary mirror deployed successfully.

Port side primary mirror unfolded successfully.

Starboard side tomorrow. If that goes well, they just need to adjust the 18 mirror segments to tune the picture and it will be fully operational. Amazing feat of engineering.

Almost there.

Mirror fully deployed!!!!

[Master Live 013]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

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[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

This was one of the most complicated things in engineering we have ever attempted. Over 400 pieces of equipment needed to work perfectly for this to not be a 10 Billion dollar piece of space junk.

And what's even better, the launch went so well that they didn't need to make as many course corrections as they thought, so the telescope can now be functional way past it's original 5 year window. Some saying now it could work for nearly 20 years. The things we are about to discover will no doubt change what we know about the universe.