The Official Space and Astronomy Thread v. Well, this is weird.

[Chino]

Well that made me depressed.

Why is that? If anything at all, I think the person who gets to witness the Halley's Comet TWICE in a life time is blessed! Cheer up, people. 

I interpreted it as the people who would appreciate Halley's Comet have died off and there's no one left who has any desire to watch it anymore.

[BlobVanDam]

Well that made me depressed.

Why is that? If anything at all, I think the person who gets to witness the Halley's Comet TWICE in a life time is blessed! Cheer up, people. 

I interpreted it as the people who would appreciate Halley's Comet have died off and there's no one left who has any desire to watch it anymore.

I think it was only referring to the one person, and contrasting how short our lives are compared to the vastness of space and time.

[Azyiu]

Well that made me depressed.

Why is that? If anything at all, I think the person who gets to witness the Halley's Comet TWICE in a life time is blessed! Cheer up, people. 

I interpreted it as the people who would appreciate Halley's Comet have died off and there's no one left who has any desire to watch it anymore.

I think it was only referring to the one person, and contrasting how short our lives are compared to the vastness of space and time.

And that is why I think for those who witness such event not once but twice or more in a life time are remarkable and blessed. I don't know, maybe I am just a glass half full kind of person, I don't view that picture in a sad way whatsoever. 

[puppyonacid]

Are there any theoretical physicists here? I have a question concerning relativity.

[wasteland]

Well that made me depressed.

Why is that? If anything at all, I think the person who gets to witness the Halley's Comet TWICE in a life time is blessed! Cheer up, people. 

Well, I'm in the generation that will need to live somewhat long to see the comet even once. I was born just a couple of years after 86's disappointing run.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Well that made me depressed.

Why is that? If anything at all, I think the person who gets to witness the Halley's Comet TWICE in a life time is blessed! Cheer up, people. 

I interpreted it as the people who would appreciate Halley's Comet have died off and there's no one left who has any desire to watch it anymore.

I think it was only referring to the one person, and contrasting how short our lives are compared to the vastness of space and time.

Yea that's what I felt. He had a remarkable life no doubts about that but the fact that we humans have such a short life span compared to events in the universe makes me atleast feel a little sad and slightly melancholy.
Yes you should live life to the fullest and celeberate the things you have instead of the things you don't have but still....
I can't help and wonder that alot of astronomers must feel sad at some point in their life that they're not gonna be able to witness alot of those things they're most passionate about during their short life span.

[wasteland]

I will be sad if:

- I don't see a galactic supernova within my lifetime
- A Great Comet in my lifetime without having to move to the southern fucking hemisphere
- We devise methods to pinpoint habitable planets with greater accuracy and confidence


By the way Blob, did you see the Great Comet of 2007? It made quite a show that year down under.

[BlobVanDam]

By the way Blob, did you see the Great Comet of 2007? It made quite a show that year down under.

I don't think so. I don't even recall hearing about it, but from photos it looks like it was one heck of a sight.  What a shame to have missed that.

[wasteland]

By the way Blob, did you see the Great Comet of 2007? It made quite a show that year down under.

I don't think so. I don't even recall hearing about it, but from photos it looks like it was one heck of a sight.  What a shame to have missed that.

I saw it one day right after sunset, plunging into the horizon, and it was still Pre-Perihelium, that is to saz before the show. You missed indeed the show of a lifetime, that's been called as one of the most beautiful comets of the last century, if not the most beautiful.

[Big Hath]

I will be sad if:

- We devise methods to pinpoint habitable planets with greater accuracy and confidence

you will be sad if we devise methods to pinpoint habitable planets with accuracy and confidence?

[Orbert]

Yeah, I see that as a good thing.  It might not help us a lot now, but in the future, it will help us find planets which (a) if inhabited, will be most likely to have life forms similar to our own, and (b) if uninhabited, will be the best choices to colonize when our species is ready to do that.

[wasteland]

I will be sad if:

- We devise methods to pinpoint habitable planets with greater accuracy and confidence

you will be sad if we devise methods to pinpoint habitable planets with accuracy and confidence?

Quite the opposite, in fact! The don't was clearly abridged by a roaming black hole.

[Azyiu]

This is unreal! Astronomers found an ancient star 'Methuselah', which appears to be older than the universe!

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/08/astronomers-find-ancient-star-methuselah_n_2834999.html

[Sketchy]

That's pretty damn cool.

[Kotowboy]

Good News, Everyone!  Astronomers found an ancient star 'Methuselah', which appears to be older than the universe!

Totes read that in Farnsworh's voice.

[wasteland]

Early results. Move along people, there's nothing interesting here that won't be toned down to normality within the next few years

[gmillerdrake]

This is unreal! Astronomers found an ancient star 'Methuselah', which appears to be older than the universe!

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/08/astronomers-find-ancient-star-methuselah_n_2834999.html

I don't understand how they can gather information from a star that far away, and 'age' it, just from the light it gives off? It's remarkable.....but at the same time to me it seems they can say whatever the heck they want because 99.99% of the population wouldn't know any different anyway.

[wasteland]

This is unreal! Astronomers found an ancient star 'Methuselah', which appears to be older than the universe!

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/08/astronomers-find-ancient-star-methuselah_n_2834999.html

I don't understand how they can gather information from a star that far away, and 'age' it, just from the light it gives off? It's remarkable.....but at the same time to me it seems they can say whatever the heck they want because 99.99% of the population wouldn't know any different anyway.

The star is actually pretty close and yes, you can take a guess at a star's age just looking at it, much like with humans. The fact is, it's really very difficult, especially for lone stars like that one. It's very easy to misjudge one hint, or to apply an incomplete theory outside the range where it's proved effective and  consistent

[Orbert]

If it's older than the universe, yet part of it, then I think it more likely that something is wrong with the way they've been calculating the ages of things, rather than some kind of temporal paradox.

[gmillerdrake]

If it's older than the universe, yet part of it, then I think it more likely that something is wrong with the way they've been calculating the ages of things, rather than some kind of temporal paradox.

Great Scott!!!

[Sketchy]

News just in: stars come with time machines.

[aprilethereal]

Following this thread now

[Orbert]

If it's older than the universe, yet part of it, then I think it more likely that something is wrong with the way they've been calculating the ages of things, rather than some kind of temporal paradox.

Great Scott!!!

[Big Hath]

News just in: stars come with time machines.

flux capacitor . . . fluxing.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

This is unreal! Astronomers found an ancient star 'Methuselah', which appears to be older than the universe!

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/08/astronomers-find-ancient-star-methuselah_n_2834999.html

That's pretty awesome and it's even inside our own galaxy! 

[Azyiu]

If it's older than the universe, yet part of it, then I think it more likely that something is wrong with the way they've been calculating the ages of things, rather than some kind of temporal paradox.

Exactly. Plus, there is a margin of error of about 800 million years or so in the way scentists calculate age of stars anyway. With all factors being considered, this star might have formed just around the same time when our unverse was formed as well. I guess what I am trying to say is, regardless of the result at the end, this is still an interesting news. And I thought early stars were formed much "later" than that.

[BlackInk]

And I thought early stars were formed much "later" than that.

I was also under the impression that the first generation of stars was gone by now. These were some interesting news.

[wasteland]

And I thought early stars were formed much "later" than that.

I was also under the impression that the first generation of stars was gone by now. These were some interesting news.

I think it's fairly certain that the level of metallicity of that stars, while very low, are incompatible with the metal abundance predicted for Population III (first generation) stars. Hence, that's a very very old Pupulation II star.

[Chino]

[jasc15]

This is unreal! Astronomers found an ancient star 'Methuselah', which appears to be older than the universe!

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/08/astronomers-find-ancient-star-methuselah_n_2834999.html

I don't understand how they can gather information from a star that far away, and 'age' it, just from the light it gives off? It's remarkable.....but at the same time to me it seems they can say whatever the heck they want because 99.99% of the population wouldn't know any different anyway.

yeah, but the great thing about science is that if you talk nonsense, someone in that 0.01% will call you out on it quick.

[Chino]

I really really want to watch SpaceX's new Grasshopper video, but my work's network blocks it It flew for over a minute this time, and it not only hovered, but it moved 328 feet to the side and back before landing back on it's launch pad! So cool!!

[chknptpie]

I had no idea what you were talking about, so I looked it up
https://www.space.com/22379-spacex-grasshopper-rocket-sideways-flight-video.html

pretty amazing

[Chino]

I had no idea what you were talking about, so I looked it up
https://www.space.com/22379-spacex-grasshopper-rocket-sideways-flight-video.html

pretty amazing

That video actually worked on my network. Thank you so much !!!!! 

[chknptpie]

yay google! lol

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

We have known it for some time but it's now official that Voyager 1 has left our Solar system and entered interstellar space.

https://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/12/tech/innovation/voyager-solar-system/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Really astounding when you think that a man made objective have travelled so far in space.

Nasa AmA:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1m9wke/were_scientists_and_engineers_on_nasas_voyager/