1235 replies to this topic

[Raklian]

Watch this video to see astronauts on ISS open the Dragon's hatch for the first time.

http://www.nasa.gov/...ia_id=144640081

Edited by Raklian, 26 May 2012 - 03:57 PM.

[wjfox]

I added this yesterday, probably my favourite image on the entire timeline.

[Craven]

I like it but I dunno if it's practicaly possible to reach such resoluton with optical telscopes. Wouldn't it require absud device lke - 1km^2 mirror in space? JWST shows that scientists are leaning towards infrared rather than optical. I must admt it's a shame - it's optical Hubble pics (mostly) that spark human imagination.

[Tumaini12]

JWST shows that scientists are leaning towards infrared rather than optical. I must admt it's a shame - it's optical Hubble pics (mostly) that spark human imagination.

Infrared images can be show many of the same details as optical ones - just not colour as human vision perceives it. H
However - and maybe I'm being ignorant here - it seems to me that since IR wavelengths are longer than visual light, it should require a larger mirror for the same resolution. So why is the JWST infrared-based?

[eacao]

Infrared images can be show many of the same details as optical ones - just not colour as human vision perceives it. H
However - and maybe I'm being ignorant here - it seems to me that since IR wavelengths are longer than visual light, it should require a larger mirror for the same resolution. So why is the JWST infrared-based?

Visible light is largely obscured by space debris. While space is a nearly perfect vacuum, it isn't. Visible light is largely absorbed while longer wavelengths are able to pass through. That is why the square kilometer array and Arecibo array operate on radio waves.

[eacao]

I like it but I dunno if it's practicaly possible to reach such resoluton with optical telscopes. Wouldn't it require absud device lke - 1km^2 mirror in space? JWST shows that scientists are leaning towards infrared rather than optical. I must admt it's a shame - it's optical Hubble pics (mostly) that spark human imagination.

The raw images are imperceptible to the human eye, but it can be easily converted to visible light by enhancing the image for a shorter wavelength. And the resolution benefit is very perceptible.

[eacao]

Our civilization will never let this planet die, ever.

Nah. We're making damn sure we do it ourselves.
"At the end of the day, it's how you do your work, not what you do."

[wjfox]

Really interesting article here.

---

Let's mine asteroids — for science and profit

The commercial dream of trawling space for valuable minerals could bring enormous benefits to a wide range of sciences, argues Martin Elvis.

http://www.nature.co...-profit-1.10733

[Logically Irrational]

SpaceX's Dragon splashes down, ending historic space mission

http://cosmiclog.msn...c-space-mission

SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule parachuted to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean today, ending the first-ever commercial mission to the International Space Station.

The 19-foot-long (6-meter-long), gumdrop-shaped Dragon made history last week as the first U.S. craft to reach the orbital station since last year's retirement of the space shuttle fleet, and it made history today as the first commercial craft to return a shipment from orbit.

The billionare founder of California-based SpaceX, Elon Musk, reported the Dragon's return in aTwitter tweet: "Splashdown successful!!"

[Waterboy2go]

http://mars-one.com

[Craven]

http://mars-one.com

Just 11 years. No way.

[wjfox]

http://mars-one.com

Hope this happens - but 2023 seems ridiculously optimistic!

[tornado64]

Well in 11 years could happen a lot, but end of 20s seems more realistic. But it's nice to see people working on it.

[Raklian]

http://mars-one.com

Hope this happens - but 2023 seems ridiculously optimistic!

That is why they are called visionaries!

Look at SpaceX and they say they plan to put humans on Mars in the very near future. The timing is impeccable, isn't it?

[Craven]

I've just read suggestion that Mars One could be a scam. Nothing solid though.

[Raklian]

SpaceX is listed as one of Mars One's suppliers. To some, it might give this enterprise some credibility, however we have yet to see SpaceX confirm this.

[mic of orion]

I added this yesterday, probably my favourite image on the entire timeline.

2010, 2050, but i get it, 5 thing



Milky Way Galaxy Doomed to Head-On Crash with Andromeda

http://www.space.com...eda-hubble.html




Four billion years from now, the Milky Way galaxy as we know it will cease to exist.

Our Milky Way is bound for a head-on collision with the similar-sized Andromeda galaxy, researchers announced today (May 31). Over time, the huge galactic smashup will create an entirely new hybrid galaxy, one likely bearing an elliptical shape rather than the Milky Way's trademark spiral-armed disk.

"We do know of other galaxies in the local universe around us that are in the process of colliding and merging," Roeland van der Marel, of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, told reporters today. "However, what makes the future merger of the Andromeda galaxy and the Milky Way so special is that it will happen to us."

Astronomers have long known that the Milky Way and Andromeda, which is also known as M31, are barrelling toward one another at a speed of about 250,000 mph (400,000 kph). They have also long suspected that the two galaxies may slam into each other billions of years down the road. [Milky Way Slams Into Andromeda (Artist Images)]

However, such discussions of the future galactic crash have always remained somewhat speculative, because no one had managed to measure Andromeda's sideways motion — a key component of that galaxy's path through space.

But that's no longer the case.

Van der Marel and his colleagues used NASA's Hubble space telescope to repeatedly observe select regions of Andromeda over a seven-year period. They were able to measure the galaxy's sideways (or tangential) motion, and they found that Andromeda and the Milky Way are indeed bound for a direct hit.

"The Andromeda galaxy is heading straight in our direction," van der Marel said. "The galaxies will collide, and they will merge together to form one new galaxy." He and his colleagues also created a video simulation of the Milky Way crash into Andromeda.

That merger, van der Marel added, begins in 4 billion years and will be complete by about 6 billion years from now.


A future cosmic crash




Such a dramatic event has never occurred in the long history of our Milky Way, which likely began taking shape about 13.5 billion years ago.

"The Milky Way has had, probably, quite a lot of small, minor mergers," said Rosemary Wyse of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who was not affiliated with the new study. "But this major merger will be unprecedented."

The merger poses no real danger of destroying Earth or our solar system, researchers said. The stretches of empty space separating the stars in the two galaxies will remain vast, making any collisions or serious perturbations unlikely.

However, our solar system will likely get booted out to a different position in the new galaxy, which some astronomers have dubbed the "Milkomeda galaxy." Simulations show that we'll probably occupy a spot much farther from the galactic core than we do today, researchers said.

A new night sky

And the collision will change our night sky dramatically. If any humans are still around 3.75 billion years from now, they'll see Andromeda fill their field of view as it sidles up next to our own Milky Way. For the next few billion years after that, stargazers will be spellbound by the merger, which will trigger intense bouts of star formation.

Finally, by about 7 billion years from now, the bright core of the elliptical Milkomeda galaxy will dominate the night sky, researchers said. (The odds of viewing this sight, at least from Earth, are pretty slim, since the sun is predicted to bloat into a huge red giant 5 or 6 billion years from now.)

In its 22-year history, Hubble has revolutionized the way humanity views the cosmos. The new finding is another step in that process, researchers said.

"What's really exciting about the current measurements is, it's not about historical astronomy; it's not about looking back in time, understanding the expansion of the universe," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate and a former astronaut who flew on three space shuttle missions that repaired Hubble .

"It's looking forward in time, which is another very human story," Grunsfeld added. "We like to know about our past — where did we come from? We very much like to know where we're going."

[Logically Irrational]

[Time_Traveller]

Space Shuttle at Sea: Enterprise Sails for NYC's Intrepid

NASA's space shuttle Enterprise launched on a voyage yesterday going where no space shuttle has gone before: New Jersey.

The space agency's original prototype orbiter, Enterprise is scheduled to arrive at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on the west side of Manhattan on Tuesday (June 5). Leaving Sunday from New York's John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport where it was delivered atop a jumbo jet in late April, the shuttle was barged to Bayonne, N.J., as a layover on its way up the Hudson River.




From http://www.space.com...c-intrepid.html

Edited by Time_Traveller, 04 June 2012 - 09:34 AM.

[Time_Traveller]

Venus to put on Sun spectacular

Planet Venus is set to move across the face of the Sun as viewed from Earth.

The more than six-and-a-half-hour transit, which starts just after 22:00 GMT (23:00 BST) on Tuesday is a very rare astronomical phenomenon that will not be witnessed again until 2117.





See Video at http://www.bbc.co.uk...onment-17745366