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Old 25-11-2016, 13:43
PyRoMaNiAc
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120 billion galaxies in the observable universe!
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Old 25-11-2016, 13:58
cobaye22
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(4!)! stars in the universe!
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Old 25-11-2016, 13:59
Andrew1954
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Yeah, I like Kaku-sensei, mostly

Actually, my main gripe against documentaries and presenters is when they dumb-down.

I know there are commercial and educational and target-audience reasons for this

Still, annoying when you are looking forward to a decent documentary and Brian Cox (or Michio Kaku) opens the programme with...

"This is our Sun <points at sky>. It is big and yellow and keeps us warm and the crops growing"
I totally agree. ...... And soooooo slow! Arts or history documentaries assume the audience is interested, intelligent and modrately well informed ..... and capable of following a complex narrative presented at a reasonable pace. For some reason they aim lower for science documentaries. Which is silly when you think about it. There are many people interested in science who are at least as well informed as those who enjoy non-science based documentaries. In fact in many cases they're the same people. I blame the proponderance of arts and media graduates who produce TV documentaries. They assume the audience are people like them who need dumbing down to.
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Old 25-11-2016, 19:47
WhatJoeThinks
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Michio Kaku, on one of those documentaries, said that if all of the stars in the Milky Way were peas there would be enough to fill a stadium. No mention of pea variety or which stadium! Just say, "somewhere between one hundred million and four hundred million stars", and don't patronise me by telling me how may zeroes that is.
You're off by a factor of 1000, you plonker. It's billions, not millions!

Oh wait, that was me...
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Old 25-11-2016, 19:48
WhatJoeThinks
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I totally agree. ...... And soooooo slow! Arts or history documentaries assume the audience is interested, intelligent and modrately well informed ..... and capable of following a complex narrative presented at a reasonable pace. For some reason they aim lower for science documentaries. Which is silly when you think about it. There are many people interested in science who are at least as well informed as those who enjoy non-science based documentaries. In fact in many cases they're the same people. I blame the proponderance of arts and media graduates who produce TV documentaries. They assume the audience are people like them who need dumbing down to.
I couldn't agree more.
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Old 25-11-2016, 19:54
WhatJoeThinks
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120 billion galaxies in the observable universe!
Recent estimates were around 200 billion. This NY Times article published just a few weeks ago claims that there are Two Trillion Galaxies, at the Very Least.
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Old 25-11-2016, 20:36
PyRoMaNiAc
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Recent estimates were around 200 billion. This NY Times article published just a few weeks ago claims that there are Two Trillion Galaxies, at the Very Least.
Amazing really!
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Old 25-11-2016, 21:05
RobinOfLoxley
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You're off by a factor of 1000, you plonker. It's billions, not millions!

Oh wait, that was me...
Careful!

What are billions and trillions? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales

(I use Short Units)

And don't also start me off about people who can't quote temperature in Deg C and Deg F.

Many TV programmes leave you wondering and juggling Darts' Scores in your head


Also, the Hubble mirror $300 million eff-up was originally (Ho-Ho-Ho) attributed to a US-European confusion over Imperial and Metric Units, but later revised to a fleck of paint.
Cos' nobody could be that stupid, could they?
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Old 25-11-2016, 21:38
WhatJoeThinks
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Careful!

What are billions and trillions? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales

(I use Short Units)

And don't also start me off about people who can't quote temperature in Deg C and Deg F.

Many TV programmes leave you wondering and juggling Darts' Scores in your head


Also, the Hubble mirror $300 million eff-up was originally (Ho-Ho-Ho) attributed to a US-European confusion over Imperial and Metric Units, but later revised to a fleck of paint.
Cos' nobody could be that stupid, could they?
I didn't realize that anybody used the long scale these days. Wikipedia says that most countries in continental Europe do!

BiB: Wasn't the failure of Beagle 2 also put down to a mix up with units?
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Old 25-11-2016, 21:47
afcbfan
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I think that was another probe that either burned-up or skimmed off the atmosphere into space. Can't remember which.

Beagle 2 actually made it intact onto the surface, but I think the last of its panels failed to opened preventing communication with home.
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Old 25-11-2016, 22:06
WhatJoeThinks
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I think that was another probe that either burned-up or skimmed off the atmosphere into space. Can't remember which.

Beagle 2 actually made it intact onto the surface, but I think the last of its panels failed to opened preventing communication with home.
You're right. It was the Mars Climate Orbiter.
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Old 26-11-2016, 00:03
RobinOfLoxley
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I didn't realize that anybody used the long scale these days. Wikipedia says that most countries in continental Europe do!

BiB: Wasn't the failure of Beagle 2 also put down to a mix up with units?
Dunno. Europe also uses periods instead of commas and I can't tell the difference between ones and sevens, when handwritten.

Japan has a wacky counting system, they count large numbers in ten thousands (historically)

Also collective nouns for everything

One flat piece of paper
Two round bottles of beer

Bit like our Murder of Crows.

Ask a Japanese person to count Pairs of Spectacles and they will be flummoxed (It's a nice little joke)

Fortunately, they are quite familiar with SI Units
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Old 26-11-2016, 03:10
Turbulence
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Recent estimates were around 200 billion. This NY Times article published just a few weeks ago claims that there are Two Trillion Galaxies, at the Very Least.
Taking astronomer's estimations that the average number of stars per galaxy is around 100 billion, then 2 trillion galaxies could mean our universe has an incredible 200 sextillion stars.
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Old 27-11-2016, 19:08
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I've recently got hooked on the US Cosmology series 'How The Universe Works' which is being aired on the Discovery Science channel every weekday afternoon......

Having checked the episode list I think I've joined somewhere near the end but new ones are still being made........into the 5th series and going on 40 episodes

Watch out for it........it's really good !
In addition to the H2 and National Geographic subscription channels, there can also be good documentaries, including astronomy ones, on free to air channels such as BBC Two & BBC Four, Yesterday, Quest and PBS America.

Taking astronomer's estimations that the average number of stars per galaxy is around 100 billion, then 2 trillion galaxies could mean our universe has an incredible 200 sextillion stars.
I suspect that's still and underestimate by at least an order of magnitude because everyone's still dealing with the observable universe and I suspect that the combination of a better theoretic understanding and the results from the James Webb Space Telescope will bring greater advances in knowledge in this particular area.

And now for some news updates:

Large number of dwarf galaxies discovered in the early universe. A team of researchers, led by University of California, Riverside, astronomers, found for the first time a large population of distant dwarf galaxies that could reveal important details about a productive period of star formation in the universe billions of years ago.

Martian ice deposit holds as much water as Lake Superior. Frozen beneath a region of cracked and pitted plains on Mars lies about as much water as what’s in Lake Superior, largest of the Great Lakes, researchers using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have determined.

^ potentially useful source of water, oxygen and fuel (4H2 + CO2 --> CH4 + 2H2O ) for science missions and eventual colonists.
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Old 30-11-2016, 04:28
spiney2
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Yeah, em drive, might as well call it the harry potter spaceship, nobody has a clue how it works .......
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Old 30-11-2016, 04:30
spiney2
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Travelling the solar system, using witchcraft. I don't recall arthur c clarke writing anything like that .........
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Old 30-11-2016, 05:03
RobinOfLoxley
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The best and most wonderful ways of exploring the Universe exist in our imaginations.

Cheaper than NASA too.
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Old 16-12-2016, 21:32
Keyser_Soze1
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The mysteries of Ceres.

http://www.livescience.com/57228-wat...nt-shadow.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIdSS56Wxzc

http://phys.org/news/2016-12-ice-hid...ers-dwarf.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpWaL7o-UoQ
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Old 21-12-2016, 00:58
WhatJoeThinks
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The Pan-STARRS project has publicly released the world's largest digital sky survey.

Pan-STARRS releases catalogue of 3 billion astronomical sources

The survey took approximately four years to complete, and scanned the sky 12 times in five filters. The data comprise 3 billion separate sources, including stars, galaxies, and various other objects. The immense collection contains 2 petabytes of data, which is equivalent to 40 million four-drawer filing cabinets filled with single-spaced text. All this information had to be properly catalogued so that the astrophysics community can quickly access and exploit the data.
There must be thousands of amateur astronomer types in the world with the expertise to scrutinize these images in a multitude of imaginative ways. I doubt it will be long before somebody spots something interesting. (Link)

Will you be having a go at it?
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Old 29-12-2016, 21:55
Keyser_Soze1
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The year in space and astronomy and do we live in a computer simulation?

It would explain a lot if we are.

http://phys.org/news/2016-12-2016the...astronomy.html

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160...may-not-matter
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Old 03-01-2017, 02:51
WhatJoeThinks
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SpaceX have issued an update about the Falcon 9 that exploded on the launch pad last year: Anomaly Updates.

And here's an explanation by Scott Manley.
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Old Yesterday, 09:33
Dan Fortesque
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Source of mysterious deep space radio wave discovered for the first time

https://www.theguardian.com/science/...MCNEWEML6619I2
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Old Yesterday, 18:27
An Thropologist
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There s a very bright star in sky right now. I am seeing it now at 6.30 pm from the Midlands. almost due south and about a third of the way up from the horizon (to directly overhead).

I think it might be venus but it is very very bright.

Any experts able to confirm, deny , explain why it is brighter than usual.
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Old Yesterday, 18:36
albertd
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I think it might be venus but it is very very bright.
Yes, that is correct.
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