Author Topic: NASA and current Astronomy  (Read 23473 times)

240 is Back

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 102396
  • Complete website for only $300- www.300website.com
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #25 on: February 16, 2015, 10:01:07 PM »
The planet known as Kepler-7b would be a horrible one in which Arnold Schwarzenegger took 5th at the 1980 Mr. Olympia show.

Andy Griffin

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 6620
  • I know my own name, bitch.
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #26 on: February 17, 2015, 12:44:16 PM »
I dated a girl in high school who eventually went to work for NASA, but she died.

She had a stinky pussy.

~

Gregzs

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 17373
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #27 on: July 25, 2015, 12:09:35 PM »
http://nerdist.com/heres-new-horizons-stunning-last-photo-of-pluto/

On July 14th, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft completed a mission nearly a decade in the making and made a flyby of Pluto. It revealed Pluto’s beating heart and icy veins; it’s moon Charon has a space Mordor. But just seven hours after this historic meeting, New Horizons was a million miles away on the dark side of the dwarf planet.

Lucky, it took a picture to say goodbye.

This lovely, back-lit picture was taken by New Horizons around midnight EDT on July 15th from 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers) away. Not only is it beautiful, it’s informative. It shows Pluto’s “hazy” atmosphere extending 80 miles (130 kilometers) up from the surface. That’s several times higher than NASA scientists expected.

“My jaw was on the ground when I saw this first image of an alien atmosphere in the Kuiper Belt,” said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in a press release. “It reminds us that exploration brings us more than just incredible discoveries — it brings incredible beauty.”

The hazy look comes from the breakdown of methane in Pluto’s atmosphere. This breakdown allows for the formation of larger hydrocarbon gases — gases made of longer chains of hydrogen and carbon — that subsequently sink closer to Pluto’s surface and become frozen particles, which make up the layers of haze. When ultraviolet radiation from the Sun breaks down these hazes, tholins, or dark hydrocarbons, form and bestow the Plutonian land with a reddish color.

It was a surprise when Pluto’s hazes were found so far from the surface. So much so in fact that scientists aren’t quite sure what is going on; they will need new models of Pluto to explain it. Over the next year, New Horizons will send back the rest of the data it gathered flying by the king of the Kuiper Belt, and there are sure to be more surprises in store for us.





Gregzs

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 17373
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #28 on: July 25, 2015, 09:08:33 PM »
http://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/guy-older-cousin?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BuzzFeed+724&utm_content=BuzzFeed+724+CID_fab683004de46f0f4bf52de63c5da593&utm_source=BuzzFeed%20Newsletters&utm_term=and%20they%20said%20its%20basically%20Earths%20bigger%20and%20older%20cousin#4ldqpit

NASA Has Found Earth’s “Bigger, Older Cousin”

Scientists say the discovery “brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0.”

The planet, called “Kepler-452b,” was found during NASA’s Kepler mission.


Scientists say the planet is unique because it is the smallest planet found so far that is both in the so-called habitable zone and orbits around a sun that is similar to our own.

In simpler terms, Kepler-452b and its sun more closely resemble our planet and sun than any other planet NASA has found.

“This exciting result brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0,” NASA’s John Grunsfeld said in a press release.


Kepler-452b is 60% bigger than our planet, and has a slightly longer, 385-day orbit around its sun.


It is also older than Earth by about 1.5 billion years. Scientists say they consider the planet to be Earth’s “older, bigger cousin.”

“It’s awe-inspiring to consider that this planet has spent 6 billion years in the habitable zone of its star; longer than Earth,” NASA’s Jon Jenkins said. “That’s substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet.”

But if there is another species living on the planet, it will take us a while to reach them. Kepler-452b is 1,400 light-years away from Earth.


Gregzs

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 17373
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #29 on: July 27, 2015, 09:22:42 PM »
Scientists Find Something Very Bizarre Behind Pluto

http://www.iflscience.com/space/plutos-atmosphere-being-stripped-away-sun-and-forming-comet-tail

Pluto has a tail!

The path of New Horizons as it flew past Pluto on July 14 took it directly into the dwarf planet's shadow, and while this provided a fascinating opportunity to see its atmosphere lit up by the Sun, it also allowed the spacecraft to see the effects of solar wind on Pluto.

What New Horizons found is that the atmosphere is being stripped away by the solar wind, creating a huge region of cold and dense ionized gas that extends tens of thousands of miles beyond Pluto. This essentially creates a “hole” or cavity in the surrounding solar wind, which was detected between 77,000 and 109,000 kilometers (48,000 and 68,000 miles) behind Pluto.

It is mostly composed of nitrogen ions, which form a plasma tail, although scientists aren’t yet sure what shape or size this tail is. It resembles the gaseous ion tails of comets, which extend far behind the icy rocks as they travel through the Solar System.

“This is just a first tantalizing look at Pluto’s plasma environment,” said co-investigator Fran Bagenal from the University of Colorado, Boulder, who leads the New Horizons Particles and Plasma team, in a statement.

“We’ll be getting more data in August, which we can combine with the Alice and Rex atmospheric measurements to pin down the rate at which Pluto is losing its atmosphere. Once we know that, we’ll be able to answer outstanding questions about the evolution of Pluto’s atmosphere and surface and determine to what extent Pluto’s solar wind interaction is like that of Mars.”

As mentioned by Bagenal, this tail is interesting because similar plasma tails have been found at Mars and Venus. Nitrogen ions had also been found in front of Pluto before the flyby by the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) on New Horizons, indicating that the atmosphere was being lost in all directions.

Working out the atmospheric loss rate of Pluto could be crucial in understanding how the dwarf planet has evolved over time, and what sort of world it is today. With more data expected next month, we can only wait and see what more surprises this distant world has in store for us.

Gregzs

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 17373
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #30 on: October 20, 2015, 09:34:13 PM »
Don't Miss The Orionid Meteor Shower Tonight

Get the coffee on and the deck chairs out – the Orionid meteor shower will be at its peak this week.

The Orionid meteor shower is an event that happens around this time every year when Earth crosses paths with a debris stream from the Halley’s Comet. This year, the peak of activity is expected to be just before sunrise on Thursday 22 October, when Earth travels through the densest part of this debris stream. However, there should be activity throughout the night of Wednesday 21 October.

“The Orionids will probably show weaker activity than usual this year,” said Bill Cooke of the NASA Meteoroid Environments Office at Marshall Space Flight Center, in a statement. However, he added that we should expect to see about 12 meteors per hour. The dark sky won’t just be, hopefully, full of meteors – the night will also be an awesome opportunity to see Jupiter, Venus, the “Dog Star” Sirius and constellations such as Orion, Gemini, and Taurus.

Despite their poetically named alias, meteors are not actually “shooting stars.” The Orionid meteors are pieces of debris left behind by Halley’s Comet which have slammed into our atmosphere at about 66 kilometers (41 miles) per second. Halley’s Comet is a comet visible from Earth every 75-76 years, which was last seen in 1986 and won't be seen again until 2061.

In case you miss this one, more cosmic fireworks are expected on November 18 when the Leonids meteor shower peaks.

http://www.iflscience.com/space/annual-orionid-meteor-shower-will-hit-skies-wednesday-night

absfabs

  • Getbig III
  • ***
  • Posts: 636
Re: NASA creates first Cloud map of Exoplanet
« Reply #31 on: October 22, 2015, 06:51:18 PM »
Lost Wiggs tribe could be living there  ;D

hebrews?

Gregzs

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 17373
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #32 on: April 30, 2016, 01:45:44 PM »

Gregzs

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 17373
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #33 on: July 16, 2020, 04:11:02 PM »
Watch Comet Neowise Rise With The Dawn In This Stunning Time-Lapse Video

Many of you have been on comet watch as C/2020 F3, better known as Comet Neowise, has been putting on quite the sky show recently. However, for those of you not inclined to get up pre-dawn to catch a glimpse, have we got the video for you.

Not only do you get to see the comet in all its glory, but you also get to watch it rising above Earth with the Sun, thanks to spectacular footage from the International Space Station (ISS) that UK-based graphic artist Seán Doran has edited into a beautiful time-lapse video.

Discovered back in March, the comet has been visible to the naked eye for most of July, having survived its trip around the Sun on July 3, and now it's making its way towards Earth on its way out of the Solar System, giving photographers the chance to snap some pictures of a lifetime.

Astronauts aboard the ISS take hundreds of photos as they look down on Earth, sharing with us the spectacular views from their unique position and uploading them to a NASA image archive. Doran, who regularly processes NASA space imagery, edited the photographs into a time-lapse image sequence and converted it into a real-time video.

Sharing the video on twitter, Doran wrote: “Grab a cold beverage, turn off the lights, get undressed, get comfortable, and pop this on the big TV.”

We highly recommend doing just that (but in case you're in a hurry, the comet appears at 3.17).



The comet isn’t the only phenomenon captured in these images. The video also features a beautiful green airglow as the Sun rises and noctilucent, or “night-shining,” clouds.

An airglow is the natural “glow” of Earth’s atmosphere as Sunlight interacts with the molecules in the atmosphere. Nightglow, which shines brightest in green, is caused by Sunlight depositing energy into the atmosphere during the day, which is transferred to oxygen molecules. This extra energy causes the molecules to rip apart, forming individual oxygen atoms. When they eventually recombine, it releases energy in the form of light. Noctilucent clouds, however, glow blue, caused by the Sunlight bouncing off the ice particles in the upper atmosphere.

These views are incredible to us back on Earth, but if you're wondering if they get a bit old hat if you live on the ISS, the answer is no, space can still blow astronauts away. Speaking to The New York Times' The Daily Podcast from the ISS last week, astronaut Bob Behnken described being excited at seeing such an awesome sight and being able to share it.

"Right before the Sun came up, that comet became visible during that short period of time when it was still close to the Sun, but the Sun was still hidden by the Earth," Behnken said.

"It was just an awesome sight to be able to see, and something that we try to capture. In the few moments that we do have to look out the window, we try to... capture the exciting things that we can see to try to share our view with the folks back home, the folks that are still down on Earth, and just try to give them an appreciation for just how beautiful our planet is and how important it is that we do our best to take care of it."

https://www.iflscience.com/space/watch-comet-neowise-rise-with-the-dawn-in-this-stunning-timelapse-video/?fbclid=IwAR2BN2xHSxvEI7385F6pYtUik5PIwmQbTmpRI9EXhMtLRV0Z-4I382Qr3uQ

Gregzs

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 17373
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #34 on: December 04, 2020, 05:45:17 PM »
Watch the Devastating Moment of the Arecibo Telescope's Collapse

Astronomers and space enthusiasts around the world are still mourning the loss of Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory, which collapsed on Tuesday after its instrument platform fell and crashed through the telescope dish.

Drone footage of Arecibo’s devastating collapse, released on Thursday by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which owns the observatory, reveals the horrible moment when the main cables holding up the suspended platform snapped in short succession.

The enormous 900-ton structure plunged down into the beloved dish that has spent decades capturing radio waves from objects in outer space and scanning the skies for signs of intelligent alien life. While the observatory was left in ruin by the platform’s fall, fortunately nobody at the site was injured.

“The Arecibo 305-meter telescope has been part of our NSF Science family for approximately 50 years, and we will miss it,” said Ralph Gaume, director of NSF’s Division of Astronomical Sciences, in a press conference on Thursday. “NSF felt that the Arecibo telescope had a bright future, with many impressive science results yet to come.”

These plans, along with so many other hopes for Arecibo, were dashed by two cable breaks, one in August and a second in November, that tore through the dish and destabilized the entire structure, leading to its collapse on Tuesday. 

It’s not clear what the future of Arecibo will be, but NSF is optimistic that its visitor’s center and the LIDAR facility could remain in operation once the site has been cleared of hazards. But Gaume said it was too soon to say whether the giant reflector dish and its instrument platform will ever be rebuilt and revived.

“The collapse just occurred Tuesday morning and we need a full accounting of how stable the site is,” he said. “That's our immediate focus [going] forward.”



https://www.vice.com/en/article/4adax9/watch-the-devastating-moment-of-the-arecibo-telescopes-collapse?utm_content=1607054408&utm_medium=social&utm_source=VICE_facebook&fbclid=IwAR3hb2toC13zLT-Y2UxJ5yLnzBuI3XpPKqZdeFBtWwp2d9gKAH3pOFyM4wc

IroNat

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 32863
  • Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #35 on: December 05, 2020, 05:09:15 AM »
Obviously a serious lack of maintenance.

Gregzs

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 17373
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #36 on: May 13, 2021, 05:36:06 PM »

Gregzs

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 17373
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #37 on: May 01, 2022, 05:02:09 PM »


Due to the earth's natural wobble, the night sky actually has shifted so that the standard constellations are all about a month off.

The Main Reason No One Should Trust Astrology
Exploiting our tendency to buy into generic descriptions.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/darwins-subterranean-world/202108/the-main-reason-no-one-should-trust-astrology?utm_source=FacebookPost&utm_medium=FBPost&utm_campaign=FBPost&fbclid=IwAR1P0BRPxoP0rYgJ5jiUbY0zUxbEwoFoybtnlBcFaOkFdibbs5rcKczlDho

sync pulse

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 5604
  • Only be sure always to call it please, 'research'
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #38 on: May 02, 2022, 10:10:17 AM »
Astrology developed because the early astronomers could tell when spring actually started and were not fooled by early unseasonable warm fronts.

Therefore astronomers could foretell the future...

illuminati

  • Competitors II
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 20548
  • The Strongest Shall Survive.- - Lest we Forget.
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #39 on: May 02, 2022, 02:33:37 PM »
🤔 Interesting

liberty

  • Competitors II
  • Getbig IV
  • *****
  • Posts: 2871
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #40 on: May 08, 2022, 10:22:31 AM »
Just for the record.....THIS is the next BIG thing in Astronomy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope
First images coming this July
Probably mind blowing

Humble Narcissist

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 27492
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #41 on: May 13, 2022, 02:16:37 AM »
I dated a girl in high school who eventually went to work for NASA, but she died.

She had a stinky pussy.
It really stinks now.

liberty

  • Competitors II
  • Getbig IV
  • *****
  • Posts: 2871
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #42 on: July 11, 2022, 10:54:45 AM »

liberty

  • Competitors II
  • Getbig IV
  • *****
  • Posts: 2871
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #43 on: July 11, 2022, 11:02:12 AM »
The first image and only image released today is being unveiled by The Teleprompter King at 5pm
All the rest tomorrow 7/12 10:30 am EST

Humble Narcissist

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 27492
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #44 on: July 11, 2022, 11:04:50 AM »
Probably just CGI like the rest of NASA's photos.

liberty

  • Competitors II
  • Getbig IV
  • *****
  • Posts: 2871
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #45 on: July 11, 2022, 11:28:42 AM »
Can watch pant shitter unveil the first image on NASA TV today at 5pm EST
https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

liberty

  • Competitors II
  • Getbig IV
  • *****
  • Posts: 2871
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #46 on: July 11, 2022, 01:49:01 PM »

Gregzs

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 17373
  • Getbig!
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #47 on: July 16, 2022, 07:55:16 PM »
The Webb's First Four (actually 7) Images Explained


Taffin

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 15649
  • Training out my gay penor...
Re: NASA and current Astronomy
« Reply #48 on: July 18, 2022, 10:12:49 AM »
Nice and simple comparison site - with sliders between Hubble and Webb takes of the same images 8)

If you're reading this on a decent monitor or TV, remember to enlarge and zoom too - not sure it'll have the same kind've impact on a phone ;D

https://www.webbcompare.com/index.html
T