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Old 30-05-2016, 22:05
Keyser_Soze1
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Old 07-06-2016, 18:23
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How would you react if alien life was ever discovered?

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scienc...ife-180959286/

Just what are the mysterious flashes in the sky called fast radio bursts?

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160...rom-deep-space
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Old 07-06-2016, 18:48
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How would you react if alien life was ever discovered?
Meh, told you so.
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Old 07-06-2016, 19:28
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Old 07-06-2016, 19:45
archiver
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How would you react if alien life was ever discovered?
Depends. Do they pray?
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Old 11-06-2016, 12:05
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How would you react if alien life was ever discovered?
Depends on the details. If it's Kepler finding, in the spectrum of a distant planet, a chemical imbalance that requires organic life to sustain, well, good, but there's not much we can do with it. And frankly I think it's pretty much inevitable something like this will happen, and probably fairly soon.

If it is extra-terrestrial bacteria found within the solar system, then that's a lot more exciting (although also quite likely in my view). My first question would be, does it use the same DNA encoding as us? If yes, then that makes me think we might have the same origin and it isn't really alien. If we find more than one way to be alive than that would make me very happy.

If it's an alien message from outer space, then that's a bigger deal because it implies intelligence. I think this is much less likely. We've been doing SETI for decades, so if it was going to happen, it would have happened already. I'd be excited, but also scared. The next step is to decode it. How I'd react then partly depends on what it says.

Aliens landing here is even less likely. There are so many possible scenarios here (I read a lot of SF) that I'd need more details before reacting. Peaceful or war-like, one craft or many, where did they come from, what's their technology like?
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Old 13-06-2016, 20:17
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Depends on the details. If it's Kepler finding, in the spectrum of a distant planet, a chemical imbalance that requires organic life to sustain, well, good, but there's not much we can do with it. And frankly I think it's pretty much inevitable something like this will happen, and probably fairly soon.

If it is extra-terrestrial bacteria found within the solar system, then that's a lot more exciting (although also quite likely in my view). My first question would be, does it use the same DNA encoding as us? If yes, then that makes me think we might have the same origin and it isn't really alien. If we find more than one way to be alive than that would make me very happy.

If it's an alien message from outer space, then that's a bigger deal because it implies intelligence. I think this is much less likely. We've been doing SETI for decades, so if it was going to happen, it would have happened already. I'd be excited, but also scared. The next step is to decode it. How I'd react then partly depends on what it says.

Aliens landing here is even less likely. There are so many possible scenarios here (I read a lot of SF) that I'd need more details before reacting. Peaceful or war-like, one craft or many, where did they come from, what's their technology like?
A very good post.

Just how big is the Universe?

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160...f-the-universe

An ingenious method that an alien civilisation could use to contact us with lasers.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...-kepler-space/
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Old 14-06-2016, 00:52
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An ingenious method that an alien civilisation could use to contact us with lasers.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...-kepler-space/
An interesting article, but I believe the unknown nature of the rest of the universe, from every viewpoint, would make it unlikely an intelligent species which clawed its way through evolution would advertise its position, unless..

Unless they did it as a trap. A honey pot trap, or maybe they are Venus man traps and they drop their high power lasers around like seedlings.

More likely they'd use the technology to hide their signal imho.
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Old 15-06-2016, 04:13
FIN-MAN
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The world’s biggest, baddest rocket launched Saturday and it was stunning.
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/...gogh-painting/

Delta IV NROL-37 Launch Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR-qOwIf9sY
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Old 15-06-2016, 17:23
atg
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The world’s biggest, baddest rocket launched Saturday and it was stunning.
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/...gogh-painting/

Delta IV NROL-37 Launch Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR-qOwIf9sY
Very impressive. A couple of observations, first of all having asked for a nice clear "go/no go", there's always one rebel show pony who has to say "clear to proceed" instead

More serious observation, this looked different from most, if not all previous launches. The initial burst of flame on ignition didn't seem to be under much force and licked a long way up the vehicle rather than blown out the side by baffles. After that it looked a lot less fiery than usual, apart from some odd looking flames at the fuel tank end of the nozzles, visible at 1:42-1:44.

Is the almost invisible and streamlined nature of the exhaust due to improved efficiency in burning the fuel, or design, or something else?
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Old 15-06-2016, 19:55
Keyser_Soze1
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LIGO has detected gravitational waves for the second time!

http://www.livescience.com/55081-gra...collision.html

http://www.seeker.com/more-gravitati...860493586.html

http://www.wired.com/2016/06/ligo-an...e-observation/
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Old 16-06-2016, 07:07
FIN-MAN
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Very impressive. A couple of observations, first of all having asked for a nice clear "go/no go", there's always one rebel show pony who has to say "clear to proceed" instead

More serious observation, this looked different from most, if not all previous launches. The initial burst of flame on ignition didn't seem to be under much force and licked a long way up the vehicle rather than blown out the side by baffles. After that it looked a lot less fiery than usual, apart from some odd looking flames at the fuel tank end of the nozzles, visible at 1:42-1:44.

Is the almost invisible and streamlined nature of the exhaust due to improved efficiency in burning the fuel, or design, or something else?
I could be mistaken but I believe it is do to the liquid hydrogen/oxygen fuel they use that burns mostly clear.
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Old 16-06-2016, 07:34
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I could be mistaken but I believe it is do to the liquid hydrogen/oxygen fuel they use that burns mostly clear.
I wondered if it was down to the fuel, and then read that it was LH2/LOX. Hydrogen burns with an orange flame though.
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Old 18-06-2016, 00:38
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For anyone interested in Astronomy this site is constantly updated with the latest stories.

http://phys.org/space-news/

The Nasa probe Juno is about to arrive at Jupiter and (hopefully) send images back to Earth in unprecedented detail.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...ace-astronomy/
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Old 18-06-2016, 07:39
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Mr Peake on his way home - wishing him and the other crew a safe journey home
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Old 18-06-2016, 09:58
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Come home safely, Tim. You have done a magnificent job
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Old 18-06-2016, 10:32
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Great pictures of Tim safely back on Earth. Does he never stop smiling?
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Old 18-06-2016, 12:03
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Tim Peake will come back a hero. The things he has done beaming images from the space station on twitter, talking on satellite to schools and doing experiments up there. Seems a really nice bloke with a great smile too.
Need a big parade to welcome him back to england.
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Old 18-06-2016, 12:29
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Tim Peake will come back a hero. The things he has done beaming images from the space station on twitter, talking on satellite to schools and doing experiments up there. Seems a really nice bloke with a great smile too.
Need a big parade to welcome him back to england.
I was waiting for someone to chime in with 'Hero'. He was doing his job FFS.
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Old 18-06-2016, 13:38
mal2pool
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I was waiting for someone to chime in with 'Hero'. He was doing his job FFS.
space walking and risking his life to go up there i couldnt do it. not many could.
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Old 18-06-2016, 21:02
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The world’s biggest, baddest rocket launched Saturday and it was stunning
SpaceX successfully launched two more satellites to GTO. Attempted but failed another ocean landing. It sounds like, either one engine ran out of LOX, or else it failed some other way and the other two engines ran out of LOX trying to compensate. It also sounds like they recovered some of the wreckage this time.

Next SpaceX launch is around 15th July, and is to LEO with a return-to-base landing, which ought to be easier.
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Old 19-06-2016, 20:39
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Blue Origin successfully launched their New Shepard capsule on their booster today, 14:35 UTC, June 19th 2016. This booster has flown for the forth time after successfully landing via landing legs on previous missions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIcJ9Hou2e8

Pretty awesome video.
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Old 19-06-2016, 23:49
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That 100 billion light year across Universe estimate is probably correct and it ties in with other estimates. Incidentally, that report contained a picture of the Arecibo radio telescope which sadly might be axed by short term ignoramuses: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...e-arecibo.html

Originally Posted by FIN-MAN} The world’s biggest, baddest rocket launched Saturday and it was stunning.
[url
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/...gogh-painting/[/url]

Delta IV NROL-37 Launch Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR-qOwIf9sY
That big mutha reminds me of the good ol' Titan III launches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seT2dZ5aKGU

Meanwhile, back on Mars: NASA Mars Orbiters Reveal Seasonal Dust Storm Pattern
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Old 21-06-2016, 23:48
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It's Strawberry Moon time! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36584404

...whereas on Venus, it's electric atmosphere time: http://www.natureworldnews.com/artic...atmosphere.htm

...and on Mars, it's mega Grand Canyon time: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160529.html
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Old 24-06-2016, 20:37
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Two very thought provoking articles on the latest research on Black Holes.

http://www.livescience.com/55179-bla...omed-star.html

http://www.seeker.com/black-hole-ima...878850941.html
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