RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Deep Topics The Space Thread

Quadrantid Meteors and Aurora from the Air
Credit: Jeremie Vaubaillon et al., Caltech, NASA
Explanation: Where do meteor showers originate? To help answer this question, astronomers studied in some detail the Quadrantid meteor shower that occurred over this past weekend. In particular, astronomers with specialized cameras flew as part of the Quadrantid's Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign (MAC) aboard a NASA DC-8 aircraft above northern Canada over the past few days and studied the Quadrantid meteor shower in unprecedented detail. Pictured above is a composite image combining many short exposures. Visible in the image are the tail of the airplane reflecting a red beacon on the left, green aurora most prominent on the image right, and numerous meteor streaks throughout. Preliminary indications are that the meteor stream is quite stable in time but variable in meteor abundance. Over 100 meteors per hour were visible at the peak from the MAC aircraft. Meteor data from around the world will continue to be analyzed to try to verify Peter Jenniskens's recent hypothesis that minor planet 2003 EH1 is an intermittently active comet and the parent body of the annual Quadrantid meteor shower.

Welcome to the all new Space Thread Mark II

Here is a photo of galaxy M51.

Awesome sight, isn't it?

i actually believe, if given the oportunity, that jerry would kill me if i tried to ruin this thread...

Heh

I'm watching Cosmos on The Science Chanel right now...

Sagan is talking about the Tanguska event in Siberia, in June, 1909, where a comet exploded over a large, wooded area. An entire forrest was flattened.

Comet Shoemaker - Levy smacked into Jupiter in summer 1994. Several large chunks
of the asteroid, which broke up upon contact with the giant planet's gravity left huge impact marks on Jupiter's surface that were visible for months!

An asteroid the size of a football field is currently headed for Mars.

It is only a matter of time before Earth suffers such an impact. It has happened before. It will happen again.

Fortunately, we have technology that can deflect such an asteroid.

Even a few inches difference in the cours of such can save Earth.

He'll fuck you up dude.

Why the fascination with space. There aint nothin out there we can live on.

Well, Lothar, if we establish self sustaining colonies on the moon, Mars and the moons of the outer planets, we will help ensure the survival of mankind, should a comet or asteroid hit and devastate the Earth.

Also, we can mine Helium 3 from the Moon.

This element can power the Earth for a thousand years, and do it far more efficiently than anything we have now can do.

until we polute and destroy those other planets just like this one...

Sadly, K-nut, you are right. It is the very heart of man's nature to destroy his environment.

Maybe, we will survive our own nature, and, evolve into a species that will create and nurture, rather than be a destroyer...

Mankind leaving a trail of destruction throughout the cosmos.

Yeah! Fuck humans!

I own the book.

Very cool beardsy.........this is a site jeff loves to go to that has some really cool pictures!

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html



Mountains of Creation
Credit: Lori Allen (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) et al., JPL-Caltech, NASA
Explanation: This fantastic skyscape lies at the eastern edge of giant stellar nursery W5, about 7,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. An infrared view from the Spitzer Space Telescope, it features interstellar clouds of cold gas and dust sculpted by winds and radiation from a hot, massive star outside the picture (just above and to the right). Still swaddled within the cosmic clouds, newborn stars are revealed by Spitzer's penetrating gaze, their formation also triggered by the massive star. Fittingly dubbed "Mountains of Creation", these interstellar clouds are about 10 times the size of the analogous Pillars of Creation in M16, made famous in a 1995 Hubble Space Telescope view. W5 is also known as IC 1848 and together with IC 1805 it is part of a complex region popularly dubbed the Heart and Soul Nebulae. The Spitzer image spans about 70 light-years at the distance of W5.

Astronomy news for this week:

Astronomers now say that the asteroid that was going to hit Mars is no longer going to collide with the red planet.

This is a relief for the teams that are controlling and guiding the two Mars rovers, Spirit and opportunity, as they will no longer be in jeaopardy.

January 19, 2008, was two years since New Horizons probe to Pluto was launched.
It has a scheduled arrival date at Pluto in July, 2015.

The Messenger Probe had arrived at and made it's first pass at the planet Mercury. Pics can be sen at Astronomy pic of the day, the link to which Doog has provided in his APOD thread, which you really ought to check out if you have not.


Messenger will rendezvous with Mercury a few more times before it settles
into orbit around the closest planet to our sun.

Mercury's Horizon from MESSENGER
Credit: MESSENGER Teams, JHU APL, NASA
Explanation: What would it look like to fly past Mercury? Just such an adventure was experienced last week by the MESSENGER spacecraft during its first flyby of the strange moon-like world nearest the Sun. Pictured above is the limb of Mercury seen by MESSENGER upon approach, from about 1 1/2 Earth diameters away. Visible on the hot and barren planet are many craters, many appeared to be more shallow than similarly sized craters on the Moon. The comparatively high gravity of Mercury helps flatten tall structures like high crater walls. MESSENGER was able to take over 1,000 images of Mercury which will be beamed back to Earth for planetary geologists to study. The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft is scheduled to fly past Mercury twice more before firing its thrusters to enter orbit in 2011.

I am locking this topic down; if anyone wants to post in it, just pm me, and I will unlock it so you can post in here.

I will post in this thread at least once a week. It will remain active, but it will be locked.

I hope that those of you who have read and enjoyed this thread will continue to do so.

Asteroid Will Swing By Earth, but Won't Stop

By ALICIA CHANG, AP
8 hours ago
LOS ANGELES — An asteroid at least 500 feet long will make a rare close pass by Earth next week, but there is no chance of an impact, scientists reported Thursday.

The object, known as 2007 TU24, is expected to whiz by Earth on Tuesday with its closest approach at 334,000 miles, or about 1.4 times the distance of Earth to the moon.

The nighttime encounter should be bright enough for medium-sized telescopes to get a glimpse, said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which tracks potentially dangerous space rocks.

However, next week's asteroid pass "has no chance of hitting, or affecting, Earth," Yeomans said.

An actual collision of a similar-sized object with Earth occurs on average every 37,000 years.

Spotted last October by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, 2007 TU24 is estimated to be between 500 feet and 2,000 feet long. The next time an asteroid this size will fly this close to Earth will be in 2027.

Scientists plan to point the Goldstone radar telescope in California and the Arecibo radar telescope in Puerto Rico at the asteroid and observe its path before and after its closest approach to Earth. Researchers will use instruments to measure its rotation and composition.

The 2007 TU24 rendezvous comes a day before another asteroid is projected to pass close to Mars.

Scientists have effectively ruled out a collision between the Red Planet and the asteroid 2007 WD5, estimating it will pass at a distance of more than 16,000 miles from the Martian surface. Initial observations of the Mars-bound asteroid put the odds of an impact at 1 in 25, but scientists later dropped the odds to 1 in 10,000.

___

On the Net:

Near Earth Object Program: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/

Unlocked. In seeking to protect this thread, I also locked out the ones who truly love space as I do.

Protect it from what? Something interesting?

I take issue with that. There are all sorts of people on this planet who respect nature and wish to try to live as much in harmony with the planet as possible.

And then there are some that think it's their birthright to buy a snowmobile or an ATV and kill, trample on, pave over, and destroy that which they find pretty and natural and alive.

It's a type of individual and not necessarily "human nature" and thus easily dismissible and excusable.

"Something interesting" would exclude you, then...

also it proves your a fascist and it ruins your "good guy" image the morons fall for...

No. My "good guy" image is intact.


I locked this thread down to prevent a recurrance of pointless spam, after the original space thread had been destroyed.

You locked this thread because you're a worthless hack of a moderator.

oh it's true!

and the stuff i said too!

And you are an angry, immature cunt who thinks she ought to be able to get away with whatever she wants.

Grow the fuck up and take responsibility for your actions.

You have become everything you hate, Jerry. May God damn you.