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

[mestevo]

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

SpaceX announced all their Mars plans today.

In 2018 they'll send their first Dragon capsule to Mars, and do it again in 2020. Inside of 10 years they could be launching a vehicle larger than the Saturn 5, twice. Once to put a craft into orbit and then again to launch a craft to refuel the already launched vehicle. Then the first craft heads to Mars.

Things don't always go smoothly though, I expect this to be more of a 20 year milestone.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0qo78R_yYFA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

They want to have a very deliberate cadance and regularity to the missions. Mars is close enough for this baout every 26 months, so they envision launching a fleet of ships to all transit there at some point (he mentioned 'like Battlestar Galactica's fleet'). In the end though, he wants there to always be a rocket to Mars launching 'soon' and for us to truly become a multi-planet species.

He explained that because they are using propulsion and not wings that require a runway or parachutes that require atmosphere, this approach works for pretty much anywhere in the solar system. They'd need to just set up refueling platforms. He said it would even work on Earth to a degree, you could get from say a floating platform off of New York to anywhere in the world in 25 minutes.

[Dave_S]

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

I have a telescope I unfortunately have to sell.

Not looking to sell it here, want it working flawless when I sell it.

Any advice getting the view finder aligned to the telescope?

It's hard to do cause I'm only 6'1" and the telescope is tall.

It's a MEADE LXD55 10″ SCHMIDT-NEWTONIAN WITH UHTC

[ANDROMADA 1]

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

Why would the earth being flat come back? Talk about a conspiracy theory.

Cause, if its on youtube.....Its proof....

[ANDROMADA 1]

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

I have discovered what is in outer space.


We are...

[BurghFan]

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

Astronomers Claim to Find Messages from 234 Alien Civilizations

Don't have time to read the whole thing right now. It greatly grinds my gears when I find an interesting news story only to find that it is a video only forcing me to search the web for a write-up, but that's for another thread.

[PVarck31]

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

Astronomers Claim to Find Messages from 234 Alien Civilizations

Don't have time to read the whole thing right now. It greatly grinds my gears when I find an interesting news story only to find that it is a video only forcing me to search the web for a write-up, but that's for another thread.

This is interesting. This coming a day after Brian Cox said there are probably no aliens, at least not anymore. Which I find to be absurd. But that's for another discussion.

If you look at the numbers it seems to add up with how many Earth like planets there are in our galaxy based on the amount of stars they looked at.

This is obviously an extraordinary claim, so we will see how much more evidence they can gather.

[Jr.]

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

This is interesting. This coming a day after Brian Cox said there are probably no aliens, at least not anymore. Which I find to be absurd. But that's for another discussion.

If you look at the numbers it seems to add up with how many Earth like planets there are in our galaxy based on the amount of stars they looked at.

This is obviously an extraordinary claim, so we will see how much more evidence they can gather.

A friend of mine said that he read somewhere that one of the signals came from the same star system or something as the unexplained "megastructure" that's blocking out that particular system's star-light.

I haven't been able to find anything on that, but that would be quite the story if that's the case.

I'm going to keep this story in mind and try to check on updates every few months to see if anything comes out of it.

[mestevo]

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

This has already been largely dismissed, unfortunately.

The international SETI community has established a 0 to 10 scale for quantifying detections of phenomena
that may indicate the existence of advanced life beyond the Earth called the “Rio Scale.” The BSRC team
assesses the Borra-Trottier result to currently be a 0 or 1 (None/Insignificant) on this scale. If the signal were
to be confirmed with another independent telescope, its significance would rise, though an exhaustive
analysis of other possible explanations, including instrumental phenomena, must be performed before
supporting the hypothesis that artificially generated pulses are responsible for the claimed signal.

[Jr.]

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

This has already been largely dismissed, unfortunately.

The international SETI community has established a 0 to 10 scale for quantifying detections of phenomena
that may indicate the existence of advanced life beyond the Earth called the “Rio Scale.” The BSRC team
assesses the Borra-Trottier result to currently be a 0 or 1 (None/Insignificant) on this scale. If the signal were
to be confirmed with another independent telescope, its significance would rise, though an exhaustive
analysis of other possible explanations, including instrumental phenomena, must be performed before
supporting the hypothesis that artificially generated pulses are responsible for the claimed signal.

I wouldn't call that dismissing it. I think it's just being cautious. It's nothing, until it's something.

[Mabster]

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

Is this the right place to mention the largest supermoon in most 70 years happening tomorrow morning?

[PVarck31]

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

Is this the right place to mention the largest supermoon in most 70 years happening tomorrow morning?

Yes it is. It was amazing at dusk tonight.

[Mabster]

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

It's dusk here now and yea it's bright! Even being in the middle of a dense city. Bright as a street light.

[RockinDaMike]

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

I thought it was gonna be noticeably bigger but it looked the same but way brighter and detailed.

[Jr.]

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

This is pretty awesome

http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-are-about-to-switch-on-the-first-telescope-that-could-photograph-a-black-hole-s-event-horizon?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Branded%2520Content&utm_campaign=ScienceDump

That's because black holes, as their name implies, are very, very dark. They're so massive that they irreversibly consume everything that crosses their event horizon, including light, making them impossible to photograph. But that could be about to change, when a new telescope network switches on in April this year.
Called the Event Horizon Telescope, the new device is made up of a network of radio receivers located across the planet, including at the South Pole, in the US, Chile, and the French alps.
The network will be switched on between 5 and 14 April, and the results will put Einstein's theory of general relativity through its paces like never before.

...

"In April we're going to make the observations that we think have the first real chance of bringing a black hole's event horizon into focus."

[Jr.]

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

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4406618/Scientists-reveal-image-dark-matter-bridge.html

Scientists have captured the world’s first image of the elusive dark matter ‘bridge’ that connects galaxies across the universe.

While it’s been thought that such a ‘cosmic web’ exists, it has remained unobservable – until now.

The composite image combines observations of more than 23,000 galaxy pairs, revealing a bridge of dark matter filament in the spaces between.