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

[Chino]

Didn't we get an audio recording from V1 like two years ago?

[BlobVanDam]

If it's anything likeworking on a COBOL legacy system, I feel bad for them 

They'd have been very lucky to get a higher level language like that. They programmed those things in assembly code. They had to interface with custom hardware and had to make full use of the limited resources.

[El Barto]

I think both Voyagers are still sending data. VOY1 has cleared the heliosphere, making it interstellar, and VOY2 is right at the edge of the heliosheath.

[Kotowboy]

Crazy idea : One of our Voyager probes goes into a black hole - gets spat out and returned to Earth in the past - 50 years before it was launched.

It is still transmitting data.

We receive this Data and assume it is an alien craft.

[cramx3]

Crazy idea : One of our Voyager probes goes into a black hole - gets spat out and returned to Earth in the past - 50 years before it was launched.

It is still transmitting data.

We receive this Data and assume it is an alien craft.

Interstellar

[BlackInk]

[Chino]

Crazy idea : One of our Voyager probes goes into a black hole - gets spat out and returned to Earth in the past - 50 years before it was launched.

It is still transmitting data.

We receive this Data and assume it is an alien craft.

It would arrive in the future. I think.

[rumborak]

If it's anything likeworking on a COBOL legacy system, I feel bad for them 

They'd have been very lucky to get a higher level language like that. They programmed those things in assembly code. They had to interface with custom hardware and had to make full use of the limited resources.

Here's an absolutely excellent podcast on the matter:

https://omegataupodcast.net/2015/03/167-the-apollo-guidance-computer/

[cramx3]

Crazy idea : One of our Voyager probes goes into a black hole - gets spat out and returned to Earth in the past - 50 years before it was launched.

It is still transmitting data.

We receive this Data and assume it is an alien craft.

It would arrive in the future. I think.

It would go in the future from our current timeline, but its possible it still goes in the past relative to the Earth timeline when it comes back due to time moving slower in the black hole relative to earth.

[Implode]

I don't think so. Time can compress and stretch, but it can't run backwards...at least as far as us understanding travel within our own dimension/universe. 

[cramx3]

Agreed, I am not saying that.  I am saying its can be using the "compressed" time so that when it comes back to earth it is actually 50 years behind the current earth time.  As in the probe is gone for 30 years but the earth has gone for 50 years making it 20 years in the past when it comes back to earth, but its all in the future relative to now.

There is no way according to physics laws that we know of for something to leave earth today and come back in the past like kotowboy was saying.

[BlackInk]

And it wouldn't be able to send signals forward in time. Not to mention the black hole would probably shred it to atom sized pieces before it could even pass through in the first place.

[cramx3]

It is fun to think about though.  I took AP physics in high school and after the AP exam there was still a month of school left so the physics teacher gave us lessons on Einstein's Theory of Relativity which was one of the most interesting things I had learned.  I don't remember lots of it, but always thought the concept of relative time was super interesting.

[jasc15]

Closeup of 11,000 foot mountains.

[Kotowboy]

Crazy idea : One of our Voyager probes goes into a black hole - gets spat out and returned to Earth in the past - 50 years before it was launched.

It is still transmitting data.

We receive this Data and assume it is an alien craft.

Interstellar

It's more like Star Trek TMP if anything.

[cramx3]

Crazy idea : One of our Voyager probes goes into a black hole - gets spat out and returned to Earth in the past - 50 years before it was launched.

It is still transmitting data.

We receive this Data and assume it is an alien craft.

Interstellar

It's more like Star Trek TMP if anything.

Did you see interstellar? What you described is very similar to what happens in that movie.

[Chino]

Pluto has just gotten very interesting. I don't think even the top astronomers at NASA predicted such a fresh surface and mountains of that magnitude.

[Kotowboy]

Crazy idea : One of our Voyager probes goes into a black hole - gets spat out and returned to Earth in the past - 50 years before it was launched.

It is still transmitting data.

We receive this Data and assume it is an alien craft.

Interstellar

It's more like Star Trek TMP if anything.

Did you see interstellar? What you described is very similar to what happens in that movie.

There's no voyager probe. There's no time travel. There's a black hole. That's it.

[cramx3]

Did you watch the ending?  When he goes into the black hole he is able to go back in time... he is the "ghost" that was communicating with his daughter in the beginning of the movie.  You are right there is no voyager probe, but the idea of transmitting data in the past and that data being interpreted as an alien (or Ghost) is exactly what I am talking about.

[Kotowboy]

He enters a fifth dimensional tesseract - which is every point in time at once.

He's outside linear time. He doesn't go back in time.

[cramx3]

He enters a fifth dimensional tesseract - which is every point in time at once.

He's outside linear time. He doesn't go back in time.

Yes, but he is able to send a signal back to earth in the past and communicate with his daughter who initially interprets it as a ghost.  Which is similar to
 

Crazy idea : One of our Voyager probes goes into a black hole - gets spat out and returned to Earth in the past - 50 years before it was launched.

It is still transmitting data.

We receive this Data and assume it is an alien craft.

Which was my point all along, I thought what you stated was very similar to what happens in the movie.

[Kotowboy]

I still think it's basically TMP

[cramx3]

I haven't seen that so I cant compare ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[cramx3]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/searching-et-hawking-look-extraterrestrial-life-121322284.html

That seems interesting, as well as this:

It includes a "listening" program — the effort to analyze vast amounts of radio signals in search of signs of life — and a "messaging" program that will include $1 million in prizes for digital messages that best represent the planet Earth.

The messages will not be sent, however, in part because some scientists — including Hawking — fear messages sent into space could possibly spur aggressive actions by alien races.

[Chino]

Just pledged $21 to this.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smithsonian/reboot-the-suit-bring-back-neil-armstrongs-spacesu?ref=nav_search

Neil Armstrong's spacesuit – like most of the spacesuits in the Museum’s collection – is currently being stored in a climate-controlled collections storage area that is not accessible to the public.

You may be surprised to learn that spacesuits are among the most fragile artifacts in the Museum’s collection. The Apollo suits were made to take astronauts to the Moon and back safely -- not to last hundreds of years in a museum.

Isn't the Smithsonian federally funded? Good question! Federal appropriations provide the foundation of the Smithsonian's operating budget and support core functions, such as building operations and maintenance, research, and safeguarding the collections. Projects like Reboot the Suit aren’t covered by our federal appropriations, which means we can only undertake them if we can fund them some other way. In other words, we won’t be able to do this project without the participation of Kickstarter backers.

I'm really curious to see how well this does. More than $60k has been raised since this morning. I won't be surprised if the $500k is shattered. It makes me wonder what else could be crowd sourced in terms of space and exploration.

[rumborak]

https://i.imgur.com/PGwwOBR.gifv

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/searching-et-hawking-look-extraterrestrial-life-121322284.html

That seems interesting, as well as this:

It includes a "listening" program — the effort to analyze vast amounts of radio signals in search of signs of life — and a "messaging" program that will include $1 million in prizes for digital messages that best represent the planet Earth.

The messages will not be sent, however, in part because some scientists — including Hawking — fear messages sent into space could possibly spur aggressive actions by alien races.

Sounds interesting.

Here's the trailer:

Breakthrough Initiatives

[El Barto]

Just pledged $21 to this.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smithsonian/reboot-the-suit-bring-back-neil-armstrongs-spacesu?ref=nav_search

Neil Armstrong's spacesuit – like most of the spacesuits in the Museum’s collection – is currently being stored in a climate-controlled collections storage area that is not accessible to the public.

You may be surprised to learn that spacesuits are among the most fragile artifacts in the Museum’s collection. The Apollo suits were made to take astronauts to the Moon and back safely -- not to last hundreds of years in a museum.

Isn't the Smithsonian federally funded? Good question! Federal appropriations provide the foundation of the Smithsonian's operating budget and support core functions, such as building operations and maintenance, research, and safeguarding the collections. Projects like Reboot the Suit aren’t covered by our federal appropriations, which means we can only undertake them if we can fund them some other way. In other words, we won’t be able to do this project without the participation of Kickstarter backers.

I'm really curious to see how well this does. More than $60k has been raised since this morning. I won't be surprised if the $500k is shattered. It makes me wonder what else could be crowd sourced in terms of space and exploration.

They've got a couple on display already. I remember that they're pretty filthy. I guess they're just taking extra care of Armstrong's.

[Chino]

They have others from the first moon landing?

[wasteland]

A fine three-tailed comet gracing the southern skies right now!

[jasc15]

How does a comet get 3 tails?  My understanding is that since the sun heats up the comet, its debris forms a tail facing away from the sun.  Could the earth and moon (or other body) be having a similar effect creating 2 other tails?

[Kotowboy]

Every so often I have to stop and remind myself that we *LIVE* on an enormous floating ball of rock and water - flying at 1,000 mph around a gargantuan ball of fire in an infinite void surrounded by other gigantic spherical bodies.

Just stop and think about that for a second.

That's FACT.

I think we're all so used to it being true that we don't really stop to truly consider it often enough.

[Chino]

I stop and think about it about every half hour or so.

Also, the Earth rotates at the equator at around 1000 mph, but the Earth itself is moving at like 18.5 miles per seconds around the sun.

[cramx3]

Every so often I have to stop and remind myself that we *LIVE* on an enormous floating ball of rock and water - flying at 1,000 mph around a gargantuan ball of fire in an infinite void surrounded by other gigantic spherical bodies.

Just stop and think about that for a second.

That's FACT.

I think we're all so used to it being true that we don't really stop to truly consider it often enough.

This is why I love laying on my hammock staring at the stars.  I think about this a lot.

[BlackInk]

Every so often I have to stop and remind myself that we *LIVE* on an enormous floating ball of rock and water - flying at 1,000 mph around a gargantuan ball of fire in an infinite void surrounded by other gigantic spherical bodies.

Well, the sun isn't fire but whatever 

EDIT: Or is it? I've often thought about that. The sun isn't anything burning, it's fusion of hydrogen, creating plasma. But what is the flame of something burning made of? I mean the actual flame? I haven't done any research here, but I've always assumed that the flame itself is plasma. Anyone here know for sure?