where did the crackpot idea that water on earth came from comets come from? How big were these comets that transported all the water to the world.
Indeed life from comets.
What a crock. It's a laughable conjecture when you stop and think about it.
Yes thinking some fantasy sky fairy did it all in 6 days makes such more sense doesn't it?
If you actually put your brain in gear and put your sky fairy book down you will find that the Earth was subject to heavy bombardment, where do you think elements like gold came from? Your god?
They can test the comet and compare the water in a comet to that of water on the Earth, it's called science and is superior to praying to a fantasy god.
Laura Kuenssberg presenter on BBC News night has just said to Buzz Aldrin "Do you think that America is doing enough now? In your time they were so far ahead of everywhere else in terms of space exploration, what now?"
Why do they employ journalists who can't even be arsed to do the slightest bit of research before wasting an opportunity to ask questions of one the giants of our time?
Of course Russia beat America to just about every milestone in space exploration apart from the one goal of placing a man on the moon.
Laura Kuenssberg presenter on BBC News night has just said to Buzz Aldrin "Do you think that America is doing enough now? In your time they were so far ahead of everywhere else in terms of space exploration, what now?"
Why do they employ journalists who can't even be arsed to do the slightest bit of research before wasting an opportunity to ask questions of one the giants of our time?
Of course Russia beat America to just about every milestone in space exploration apart from the one goal of placing a man on the moon.
Awful. But then most journalists, even the TV science correspondents, are utterly ludicrous and ignorant.
where did the crackpot idea that water on earth came from comets come from? How big were these comets that transported all the water to the world.
It's called the 'Late Heavy Bombardment' (LHB), and happened around 3.8 to 4.2 billion yrs ago.
As for size - comet nuclei are often miles across - and during the LHB, we are talking about 20,000+ mountain-sized* chunks of... 'mostly-ice'.
*As well as a few much bigger ones, and many, many more than 20,000 smaller ones.
I saw a YouTube video today about the supercluster of galaxies that contains the Milky Way, dubbed "Laniakea", Hawaiian for "immeasurable heaven". The visualization of the data is fascinating in itself, as is the sheer scale of the survey. Here's the link to the original article on Nature.com containing the video. (You know, so I seem more studious than someone who just watched it on YouTube, like. ;-))
NASA's New Horizons Probe has successfully come out of hibernation in preparation for its Pluto Encounter next Summer. It is now at such a vast distance from the Earth that it takes almost 4 1/2 hours for the signal to reach NASA.
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory's drill.
"This temporary increase in methane -- sharply up and then back down -- tells us there must be some relatively localized source," said Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, a member of the Curiosity rover science team. "There are many possible sources, biological or non-biological, such as interaction of water and rock."
... was pretty much the msn sensationalist headline yesterday. >:(
Didn't Viking find something similar?
This is much more exciting. If there was surface water for that length of time we should be looking for fossils in those sediments!
Observations by NASA’s Curiosity Rover indicate Mars' Mount Sharp was built by sediments deposited in a large lake bed over tens of millions of years. This suggests ancient Mars maintained a climate that could have produced long-lasting lakes at many locations on the Red Planet.
"If our hypothesis for Mount Sharp holds up, it challenges the notion that warm and wet conditions were transient, local, or only underground on Mars,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. “A more radical explanation is that Mars' ancient, thicker atmosphere raised temperatures above freezing globally, but so far we don't know how the atmosphere did that."
But then of course there would be the question of which comets that water came from...
Laura Kuenssberg presenter on BBC News night has just said to Buzz Aldrin "Do you think that America is doing enough now? In your time they were so far ahead of everywhere else in terms of space exploration, what now?"
Why do they employ journalists who can't even be arsed to do the slightest bit of research before wasting an opportunity to ask questions of one the giants of our time?
Of course Russia beat America to just about every milestone in space exploration apart from the one goal of placing a man on the moon.
Finally saw Comet Lovejoy late last night. Just about visible in town conditions with 10x50 binoculars, down and to the right of The Pleiades. It will be climbing even higher over the next few days, but not due to brighten much more, I believe.
Zubrin's Mars Direct plan is brilliantly described. It's been over 15 years since I read it though. I wonder how new technology has affected it, and how things might be done slightly differently.
I expect that everybody on this thread knows about National Geographic's Space/Tech news archive - but if you do not it goes back to mid 2009 and there are always some really beautiful images on there - just scroll down to find something that interests you.
Mysterious Planet X May Really Lurk Undiscovered in Our Solar System
At least two planets larger than Earth likely lurk in the dark depths of space far beyond Pluto, just waiting to be discovered, a new analysis of the orbits of "extreme trans-Neptunian objects" (ETNOs) suggests.
Researchers studied 13 ETNOs — frigid bodies such as the dwarf planet Sedna that cruise around the sun at great distances in elliptical paths.
Theory predicts a certain set of details for ETNO orbits, study team members said. For example, they should have a semi-major axis, or average distance from the sun, of about 150 astronomical units (AU). (1 AU is the distance from Earth to the sun — roughly 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers.) These orbits should also have an inclination, relative to the plane of the solar system, of almost 0 degrees, among other characteristics.
But the actual orbits of the 13 ETNOs are quite different, with semi-major axes ranging from 150 to 525 AU and average inclinations of about 20 degrees.
Mike Brown, the discoverer of Eris (might have been the 10th Pluto-sized planet of things had turned out differently) has gone on record that he thinks that there are bodies out there in the far reaches of the solar system that are the size of Mercury and Mars. That'll open up a whole can of proverbial worms again! In the meantime, I recommend Mike Brown's book How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming.
Finally saw Comet Lovejoy late last night. Just about visible in town conditions with 10x50 binoculars, down and to the right of The Pleiades. It will be climbing even higher over the next few days, but not due to brighten much more, I believe.
Been watching it on and off for a coupla weeks now, through various optics, from 10x50 binocs right up to a 10" telescope.
It's a fairly easy naked-eye object if you can get to an out-of-town dark site - Last time I saw it (Friday night) I reckoned it to be about 4th magnitude. It was right beside delta Arietis (mag 4.3) and a tad brighter than it.
Best visuals have been through 20x80 binocs - a telescope tends to magnify it too much.
A friend of mine got this image of it when we were up at our regular dark site, last Monday night (12th) http://s12.postimg.org/e0f2hbw59/Lovejoy_Q2.jpg
80mm f/6.9 refractor, Canon DSLR, 3 mins @ iso800
Comments
Yes thinking some fantasy sky fairy did it all in 6 days makes such more sense doesn't it?
If you actually put your brain in gear and put your sky fairy book down you will find that the Earth was subject to heavy bombardment, where do you think elements like gold came from? Your god?
They can test the comet and compare the water in a comet to that of water on the Earth, it's called science and is superior to praying to a fantasy god.
Why do they employ journalists who can't even be arsed to do the slightest bit of research before wasting an opportunity to ask questions of one the giants of our time?
Of course Russia beat America to just about every milestone in space exploration apart from the one goal of placing a man on the moon.
Awful. But then most journalists, even the TV science correspondents, are utterly ludicrous and ignorant.
Have you ever stopped to think about anything in your adult life?
Doesn't sound like it.
It's called the 'Late Heavy Bombardment' (LHB), and happened around 3.8 to 4.2 billion yrs ago.
As for size - comet nuclei are often miles across - and during the LHB, we are talking about 20,000+ mountain-sized* chunks of... 'mostly-ice'.
*As well as a few much bigger ones, and many, many more than 20,000 smaller ones.
And that's why you cling to the Velikovsky garbage.
http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons/on-plutos-doorstep-new-horizons-spacecraft-awakens-for-encounter/#.VIPVAWO9aSo
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4413
Didn't Viking find something similar?
This is much more exciting. If there was surface water for that length of time we should be looking for fossils in those sediments!
But then of course there would be the question of which comets that water came from...
Are other people finding this?
Iwow, I was just trying to get on that site too. Not working for me either.
Probably hacked by N Korea but do not say that too loudly!
Works fine for me.
http://www.heavens-above.com/
A truly awful presenter.
Henry, there's also a good article on this development here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-new-way-to-reach-mars-safely-anytime-and-on-the-cheap/
It's seems like there's a trade off between time taken and fuel efficiency & mission cost.
I also have two recommended reads in respect of missions to Mars:-
Factual: Robert Zubrin's The Case for Mars
Fiction: Andy Weir's The Martian (a cracking read!)
Zubrin's Mars Direct plan is brilliantly described. It's been over 15 years since I read it though. I wonder how new technology has affected it, and how things might be done slightly differently.
Anyway, I second that recommendation.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/archives/space-and-tech/
http://www.space.com/28284-planet-x-worlds-beyond-pluto.html?adbid=10152587953806466&adbpl=fb&adbpr=17610706465&cmpid=514630_20150116_38927567
Mike Brown, the discoverer of Eris (might have been the 10th Pluto-sized planet of things had turned out differently) has gone on record that he thinks that there are bodies out there in the far reaches of the solar system that are the size of Mercury and Mars. That'll open up a whole can of proverbial worms again! In the meantime, I recommend Mike Brown's book How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming.
It's a fairly easy naked-eye object if you can get to an out-of-town dark site - Last time I saw it (Friday night) I reckoned it to be about 4th magnitude. It was right beside delta Arietis (mag 4.3) and a tad brighter than it.
Best visuals have been through 20x80 binocs - a telescope tends to magnify it too much.
A friend of mine got this image of it when we were up at our regular dark site, last Monday night (12th)
http://s12.postimg.org/e0f2hbw59/Lovejoy_Q2.jpg
80mm f/6.9 refractor, Canon DSLR, 3 mins @ iso800