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

[Kotowboy]

It's a big ball of gas - much like most of DTF

[Chino]

Fire is an oxidizing chemical reaction that releases heat and light. The actual flames that you see moving and glowing when something is burning are simply gas that is still reacting and giving off light. Plasmas are gases in which a good fraction of the molecules are ionized. Ordinary flames ionize enough molecules to be noticeable, but not as many as some of the much hotter things that we usually call plasmas.

[Implode]

Thank you. 

[Kotowboy]

Fine whatever.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

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.

I usually have a epiphany from time to time especially during warm summer days laying down and frying myself when I realize that the heat I feel on my body is actually from that distant star up in the sky that we call the Sun, it's been there up in the sky my whole life but it also been there for every living creature that has ever walk on this planet we call Earth. Even though I hate to say it most of my life I have taken that for granted. It's a really weird thing when you think about it, the heat you feel every summer is from that planet 149,597,870,700 meters from Earth.

The other epiphany I usually have but alot less unfortunately is seeing the Milky Way arms stretching out across the sky on a clear night. Light polution destroys that for me every night sadly. The first time I saw the actual arms was a real eyeopener for me.

[CDrice]

The other epiphany I usually have but alot less unfortunately is seeing the Milky Way arms stretching out across the sky on a clear night. Light polution destroys that for me every night sadly. The first time I saw the actual arms was a real eyeopener for me.

I seem to recall a story of a city where the power went down one night so Milky Way became visible. However part of the population freaked out and called the police because they thought something wrong was going on in the sky...

Unfortunately I never saw the Milky Way myself, but I probably would stand in awe for a while if I were to.

[cramx3]

The other epiphany I usually have but alot less unfortunately is seeing the Milky Way arms stretching out across the sky on a clear night. Light polution destroys that for me every night sadly. The first time I saw the actual arms was a real eyeopener for me.

I seem to recall a story of a city where the power went down one night so Milky Way became visible. However part of the population freaked out and called the police because they thought something wrong was going on in the sky...

Unfortunately I never saw the Milky Way myself, but I probably would stand in awe for a while if I were to.

Was this LA?  I heard this story as well.  Kind of funny, kind of sad.

[CDrice]

The other epiphany I usually have but alot less unfortunately is seeing the Milky Way arms stretching out across the sky on a clear night. Light polution destroys that for me every night sadly. The first time I saw the actual arms was a real eyeopener for me.

I seem to recall a story of a city where the power went down one night so Milky Way became visible. However part of the population freaked out and called the police because they thought something wrong was going on in the sky...

Unfortunately I never saw the Milky Way myself, but I probably would stand in awe for a while if I were to.

Was this LA?  I heard this story as well.  Kind of funny, kind of sad.

I red that story a few years ago so I don't exactly remember where it was, but I think it was somewhere in the United States. I mean, where else would people react that way? (just kidding)

[TioJorge]

Every time I think about light pollution and what people in the city (or even close...including myself) are missing I get depressed. Even though I'm no aficionado or anything, I still have a pretty nice telescope and very often go out back and gaze up. It is THE wonder. Shame that many people don't care too much about it. I always feel like this mofo when I look at it, even when I'm stone-cold sober: Mmm, space.

[Xanthul]

Unfortunately I never saw the Milky Way myself, but I probably would stand in awe for a while if I were to.

I remember the first time I saw it... we were driving through some hills at night and one of the passengers dropped something under the front seat so we stopped the car to let him look for it. I took the chance to step out of the car just to stretch my legs a bit and when I looked up I was totally amazed... we were in the middle of nowhere, there were no streetlights, homes or anything else providing artificial light in a radius of a few miles and the sky was absolutely clear, no clouds in sight. I've never seen the milky way as clear as that night, hopefully some day I will get the chance to see it again because I honestly think it might be the single greatest sight you can ever see in person (cue "you're a virgin" joke).

[cramx3]

Every time I think about light pollution and what people in the city (or even close...including myself) are missing I get depressed. Even though I'm no aficionado or anything, I still have a pretty nice telescope and very often go out back and gaze up. It is THE wonder. Shame that many people don't care too much about it. I always feel like this mofo when I look at it, even when I'm stone-cold sober: Mmm, space.

I live in a populated area of NJ, not far from NYC and in my backyard I can see the big stars, but that's it.  If I drive out to PA, I can see soooo much more.  It's amazing, and it is depressing that I can't see that every night where I live.

[TioJorge]

I can see pretty well on a nice night, I live in a fairly rural area and there's no tall buildings or anything around for a while. Even so, when out in the true wilderness, it's still amazing to notice how much of a difference even just a TINY amount of lights can do to hinder the view.

[Implode]

I mean, where else would people react that way? (just kidding)

As a US citizen, I think you're right. Though to be honest, I almost don't buy the story because I find it unlikely that anyone would even care enough to look at the sky close enough to notice the difference. 

[Chino]

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

Up to $240K and climbing! It really maked me happy to see so many people give their own money to causes like this.

[Chino]

Entertaining read.

https://www.popsci.com/colonizing-moon-may-be-90-percent-cheaper-we-thought

Returning humans to the moon could cost 90 percent less than expected, bringing estimated costs down from $100 billion to $10 billion. That's something that NASA could afford on its current deep space human spaceflight budget.
“A factor of ten reduction in cost changes everything,” said Mark Hopkins, executive committee chair of the National Space Society, in a press release.
The study, released today, was conducted by the National Space Society and the Space Frontier Foundation—two non-profit organizations that advocate building human settlements beyond Earth—and it was reviewed by an independent team of former NASA executives, astronauts, and space policy experts.

[gmillerdrake]

I'm assuming a moon colony isn't meant for 'just a place to populate' with "normal" people. It'd be primarily scientific/research based? Test ideas for long term facilities for future exploration of Mars..other planets? Just curious as to how this would benefit us? I think it's an awesome idea and would love to see it in my lifetime....just wondering out loud 'what' it is exactly we can accomplish?

[Orbert]

I'm curious about that, but also why we originally thought it would cost a certain amount, but now realize that it would really be only about 1/10 of that.  I realize that they're all rough estimates anyway, but what changed?  When did they realize that they were off by a factor of 10, and why?

[gmillerdrake]

I'm curious about that, but also why we originally thought it would cost a certain amount, but now realize that it would really be only about 1/10 of that.  I realize that they're all rough estimates anyway, but what changed?  When did they realize that they were off by a factor of 10, and why?

Maybe a re-evaluation of available technologies now vs when they originally planned it?

[El Barto]

I'm assuming a moon colony isn't meant for 'just a place to populate' with "normal" people. It'd be primarily scientific/research based? Test ideas for long term facilities for future exploration of Mars..other planets? Just curious as to how this would benefit us? I think it's an awesome idea and would love to see it in my lifetime....just wondering out loud 'what' it is exactly we can accomplish?

As is so often the case, the way to look at is isn't just how will it benefit us. If it has one thing that's good, in this case I'd go with a platform for further space exploration, then you can justify it and begin to reap numerous rewards and benefits that were completely unforeseen. A wonderful aspect of research for the last 2000 years is that it invariably yields far more than what you expect. In the effort to make such a thing possible, tons of research, development and creation will occur. That's the real prize.

[gmillerdrake]

I'm assuming a moon colony isn't meant for 'just a place to populate' with "normal" people. It'd be primarily scientific/research based? Test ideas for long term facilities for future exploration of Mars..other planets? Just curious as to how this would benefit us? I think it's an awesome idea and would love to see it in my lifetime....just wondering out loud 'what' it is exactly we can accomplish?

As is so often the case, the way to look at is isn't just how will it benefit us. If it has one thing that's good, in this case I'd go with a platform for further space exploration, then you can justify it and begin to reap numerous rewards and benefits that were completely unforeseen. A wonderful aspect of research for the last 2000 years is that it invariably yields far more than what you expect. In the effort to make such a thing possible, tons of research, development and creation will occur. That's the real prize.

It sure would be neat to see....I hope I live long enough to see something like this or a man/woman walk on Mars.

[Orbert]

I'm curious about that, but also why we originally thought it would cost a certain amount, but now realize that it would really be only about 1/10 of that.  I realize that they're all rough estimates anyway, but what changed?  When did they realize that they were off by a factor of 10, and why?

Maybe a re-evaluation of available technologies now vs when they originally planned it?

That makes sense.

[Chino]

I'm curious about that, but also why we originally thought it would cost a certain amount, but now realize that it would really be only about 1/10 of that.  I realize that they're all rough estimates anyway, but what changed?  When did they realize that they were off by a factor of 10, and why?

Maybe a re-evaluation of available technologies now vs when they originally planned it?

That makes sense.

We also have a better understanding of what makes the moon up. We can mine stuff and sell it back on Earth. Getting there probably isn't 90% cheaper today, but that cost can be offset by the economic gains back home. I think.

[El Barto]

I'm curious about that, but also why we originally thought it would cost a certain amount, but now realize that it would really be only about 1/10 of that.  I realize that they're all rough estimates anyway, but what changed?  When did they realize that they were off by a factor of 10, and why?

Maybe a re-evaluation of available technologies now vs when they originally planned it?

That makes sense.

We also have a better understanding of what makes the moon up. We can mine stuff and sell it back on Earth. Getting there probably isn't 90% cheaper today, but that cost can be offset by the economic gains back home. I think.

Assuming you could work out lunar mineral rights with the other space faring nations, I doubt you'd get much support for strip-mining the thing. Republicans don't own it yet.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

NASA will host a news teleconference on thursday and IFLS had this title "NASA Has A "Huge Announcement" To Make on their site which got my attention but on jpl.nasa.gov they kind of toned it down either way they did have the following line:

Today, and thousands of discoveries later, astronomers are on the cusp of finding something people have dreamed about for thousands of years -- another Earth.

I'm looking forward to what kind of planets they have found.

[Chino]

NASA will host a news teleconference on thursday and IFLS had this title "NASA Has A "Huge Announcement" To Make on their site which got my attention but on jpl.nasa.gov they kind of toned it down either way they did have the following line:

Today, and thousands of discoveries later, astronomers are on the cusp of finding something people have dreamed about for thousands of years -- another Earth.

I'm looking forward to what kind of planets they have found.

I'm trying to not get too excited. I'm sure all we are going to get is something along the lines of "the data indicates that this planet has liquid water on the surface and might be very much like Earth in terms of weather and temperature. There is a chance this world can harbor life". We're probably just going to get possible confirmation for something that we all know to be true anyway. Once we return a radio signal from another world, or bring back photo of the dark side of a planet covered in lights, I'll get really excited.

[El Barto]

Yup. It seems they're discovering Earthlike or "Goldilocks" planets all the time. Not sure why this one is special. Moreover, it'll be a billion light years away, so just knowing it's there won't mean much.

[Chino]

Yup. It seems they're discovering Earthlike or "Goldilocks" planets all the time. Not sure why this one is special. Moreover, it'll be a billion light years away, so just knowing it's there won't mean much.

Those are my feelings as well. Part of me thinks (hopes) it might be something more though seeing as planets being found in the goldilocks zone are pretty common these days.

As for the billion lightyears away thing... at least we'd have a definitive target to focus our radio telescopes and other instruments on.

[BlobVanDam]

Yup. It seems they're discovering Earthlike or "Goldilocks" planets all the time. Not sure why this one is special. Moreover, it'll be a billion light years away, so just knowing it's there won't mean much.

With the distance to even the nearest solar systems, these kinds of announcements don't excite me much, as it's mostly trivial until we can do something about it. It's great if it gives us a target, but I don't like the odds. Give me proof there's life on that planet, and then you're talking.

[jammindude]

Absolutely loved this article....and relevant to this discussion.

https://qz.com/452452/where-are-all-the-aliens/

[Chino]

Absolutely loved this article....and relevant to this discussion.

https://qz.com/452452/where-are-all-the-aliens/

Thanks for sharing that.

[Calvin6s]

Absolutely loved this article....and relevant to this discussion.

https://qz.com/452452/where-are-all-the-aliens/

Possibility 7) We are receiving contact from other intelligent life, but the government is hiding it.The more I learn about the topic, the more this seems like an idiotic theory, but I had to mention it because it’s talked about so much.

[Chino]

Absolutely loved this article....and relevant to this discussion.

https://qz.com/452452/where-are-all-the-aliens/

Possibility 7) We are receiving contact from other intelligent life, but the government is hiding it.The more I learn about the topic, the more this seems like an idiotic theory, but I had to mention it because it’s talked about so much.

There is absolutely no way the government could keep that a secret. Someone would leak that for sure. Hundreds of people at NASA would know about it and they are too passionate at what they do to not say anything. They'd happily go to jail to get that truth out there.

[gmillerdrake]

Absolutely loved this article....and relevant to this discussion.

https://qz.com/452452/where-are-all-the-aliens/

Thanks for sharing that.

Yeah....that was very fascinating.

[jasc15]

That was a good read. Even though I know about Fermi's paradox, there were some very good thought experiments that I hadn't heard before.  Of course, none of it is scientific since there is no data to support any of the assumptions, but it does follow sound logic.

[Calvin6s]

There is absolutely no way the government could keep that a secret. Someone would leak that for sure. Hundreds of people at NASA would know about it and they are too passionate at what they do to not say anything. They'd happily go to jail to get that truth out there.

That's why we need cop cams.  So those alien traffic tickets can be put up on YouTube.

Perhaps the government can somehow keep it a secret.  But that's probably one billionth as likely as we are all just an alien computer simulation.