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Old 13-11-2014, 19:36
TelevisionUser
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New Horizons Update

Preparations are starting for the Pluto encounter next summer, its now 2.9 Billion Miles from earth and just 162 Million miles from Pluto.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/20141113.php
I'm very pleased with the coverage of the Rosetta mission and, in 2015, l hope that a similar level of attention is given to both the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the equally groundbreaking Dawn mission to that other dwarf planet, Ceres (see http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/da.../#.VGUHao_R7zo, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_%28spacecraft%29 & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_%28dwarf_planet%29).
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Old 13-11-2014, 20:51
Keyser_Soze1
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I'm very pleased with the coverage of the Rosetta mission and, in 2015, l hope that a similar level of attention is given to both the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the equally groundbreaking Dawn mission to that other dwarf planet, Ceres (see http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/da.../#.VGUHao_R7zo, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_%28spacecraft%29 & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_%28dwarf_planet%29).
Indeed - this is humanity at it's very best but I do often feel that I have been born far too early in the story.

Just imagine the incredible wonders that await us in the millennia to come as science continues it's triumphant march forward.
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Old 13-11-2014, 22:31
gemma-the-husky
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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.
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Old 13-11-2014, 22:42
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Indeed - this is humanity at it's very best but I do often feel that I have been born far too early in the story.

Just imagine the incredible wonders that await us in the millennia to come as science continues it's triumphant march forward.
I don't know about that. We've got another interesting year ahead plus there's all the discoveries that the Hubble Space Telescope has produced. You'll probably see humans return to the Moon and venture to Mars* within your lifetime (although it might be an idea to steer clear of Neptune ).

*For entertainment purposes only, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7tJw...VTvM68j4ewyyUA
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Old 13-11-2014, 22:58
Rodney McKay
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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.
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Old 13-11-2014, 23:04
SaturnV
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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.
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Old 13-11-2014, 23:27
Kapellmeister
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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.
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Old 13-11-2014, 23:46
Big Boy Barry
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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.
Have you ever stopped to think about anything in your adult life?

Doesn't sound like it.
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Old 14-11-2014, 00:13
Carlos_dfc
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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.
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Old 14-11-2014, 00:45
njp
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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.
We can tell at once that you haven't stopped and thought about it at all.

And that's why you cling to the Velikovsky garbage.
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Old 14-11-2014, 00:50
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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. )
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Old 07-12-2014, 09:48
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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.

http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons/on-p.../#.VIPVAWO9aSo
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Old 17-12-2014, 08:15
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Some amazing news from the Curiosity rover on Mars

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4413

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."
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Old 17-12-2014, 12:38
RobinOfLoxley
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Biological????!!!!! It's Life on Mars!
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Old 17-12-2014, 14:34
atg
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Biological????!!!!! It's Life on Mars!
... 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...
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Old 23-12-2014, 13:37
HenryGarten
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Heavens Above appears not to be working.

Are other people finding this?
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Old 23-12-2014, 14:20
BeethovensPiano
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Heavens Above appears not to be working.

Are other people finding this?
Iwow, I was just trying to get on that site too. Not working for me either.
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Old 23-12-2014, 14:24
HenryGarten
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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!
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Old 23-12-2014, 14:33
BeethovensPiano
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Probably hacked by N Korea but do not say that too loudly!
sssshhhhhhhhhhhh
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Old 23-12-2014, 23:27
WhatJoeThinks
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Heavens Above appears not to be working.

Are other people finding this?
Works fine for me.

http://www.heavens-above.com/
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Old 24-12-2014, 00:55
HenryGarten
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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.
A truly awful presenter.
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Old 26-12-2014, 11:42
HenryGarten
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Going to Mars made cheaper and easier. See new route to Mars....
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Old 26-12-2014, 20:52
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Going to Mars made cheaper and easier. See new route to Mars....


Henry, there's also a good article on this development here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...-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!)
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Old 17-01-2015, 09:09
albertd
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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.
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Old 18-01-2015, 03:50
WhatJoeThinks
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Henry, there's also a good article on this development here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...-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.
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