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Old 23-08-2010, 19:48
TelevisionUser
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Wow that that is very interesting.

It reminds me of a certain media personality who was talking about the Voyager enounter with Neptune a few years before it was due. She said "I predict they will find rings around Neptune". Hold on....hadn't someone already done that?
Well, HenryGarten, those stable gravitational neutral points have been put to both scientific and creative use.

For example, the Solar Heliosphere Observatory space probe was placed in the Lagrangian L1 point http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lagrange_points2.svg where it remains today still observing the Sun's behaviour.

In contrast, the Lagrangian L3 point featured in the 1969 film Doppelgänger - Journey to the Far Side of the Sun in which an astronaut finds himself landing back on an alternative Earth that's exactly opposite the "real" Earth on the other side of the Sun.

In real life though there's nothing there in this solar system and most of the cosmic rubble here seems to accumulate in the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points of the different planets.
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Old 23-08-2010, 20:06
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So beautiful !!

0ne day I`ll get to see them in person hopefully
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Old 23-08-2010, 20:12
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Wow that that is very interesting.
I've only recently 'got' Lagrange points clear in my head - it took SF to do it.
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Old 23-08-2010, 20:24
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I've only recently 'got' Lagrange points clear in my head - it took SF to do it.
If it were up to me, KJ44, I'd move Mars and Venus to the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points, so putting them in the ecosphere http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitable_zone, and then I'd terraform them both so there'd be three habitable planets all in a row. However, it might be 20,000AD before things like that actually become possible!

Indeed, British phyicist Freeman Dyson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson has gone on record as saying that an advanced civilisation would start to alter its own solar system to benefit that civilisation:
"One should expect that, within a few thousand years of its entering the stage of industrial development, any intelligent species should be found occupying an artificial biosphere which completely surrounds its parent star".
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Old 25-08-2010, 17:23
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There have now been some 300+ extra solar planets discovered but they've turned out to be mostly large Jupiters some of which have been orbiting close to their home star. That only reflects the current capabilities of Earths detection capabilities and not necessarily the absence of smaller Earth-type worlds.

The discovery reported here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11070991 is interesting because astronomers from the University of Geneva have discovered a solar system with up to 7 planets 127 light years away and that has a similar number of planets as our own one (now 8 as Pluto was demoted to "dwarf planet" status a few years ago).

One of those planets could be as small as 1.4 Earth masses but that remains to be confirmed. One thing is for certain. Over the next few decades, improvements in both ground based and space based telescopes will mean that astronomers will start to increasingly identify Earth sized worlds around other stars.
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Old 25-08-2010, 17:37
HenryGarten
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Exciting news. APOD today is actually a video of star system mentioned in previous post. See http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100825.html
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Old 30-08-2010, 17:19
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One of the consequences of the break up of the old Soviet Union was that the Baikonur cosmodrome ended up in the neighbouring country of Kazakhstan.

Russia still has the use of that facility but only by paying an annual rent of $115 million to the Kazakh government. The Russian government has now decided that they will start to build a new cosmodrome for all their crewed flights in the Amur district of Siberia starting in 2011 with completion in 2018. Thus they will no longer be dependent on launching their spacecraft from foreign territory.

There's more on this story here http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100828/160373457.html and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vostochny_Cosmodrome. The ultimate losers in this will be the Kazakh government as they will lose the rent and all the ancillary money that spent in the Kazakh economy. If only they had chosen to be a little more reasonble with their rent demands then this move would not now be happening.
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Old 12-09-2010, 22:01
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...according to this BBC report here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11218802. lt looks like NASA are intending to launch a new spacecraft that will be able to detect and record the reflection of light, or "glint", from the mirror-like ocean surfaces on worlds orbiting around other stars similar to the one that has been observed on Saturn's moon Titan.

This new space telescope due to be launched in 2014 and it certainly is a new approach to detect potentially habitable planets.
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Old 13-09-2010, 23:56
HenryGarten
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Discovery ready to blast off one last time after nut problem.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11284131
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Old 16-09-2010, 13:24
HenryGarten
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The one you all been waiting for the conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus on 17th September. See http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance/
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Old 16-09-2010, 13:52
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The one you all been waiting for the conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus on 17th September. See http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance/
What a coincidence! I was just about to post on the same subject as I had a look at this last night.

Anybody with binoculars go out and point them at Jupiter. You will see it and one or more of the Galileans, then just above and to the right is Uranus, which looks like nothing more than a starlike point, although slightly green. As a guide the pair are situated between a rhombus shape of 4 stars below to the south, and a W formation on its side above to the north next to λ Piscium (in Pisces). Of course if you have a telescope then this will all be the other way up.

This is the first time I have ever positively identified Uranus, and it will be interesting to follow the pair over the next few weeks.
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Old 16-09-2010, 13:53
HenryGarten
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What a coincidence! I was just about to post on the same subject as I had a look at this last night.

Anybody with binoculars go out and point them at Jupiter. You will see it and one or more of the Galileans, then just above and to the right is Uranus, which looks like nothing more than a starlike point, although slightly green. As a guide the pair are situated between a rhombus shape of 4 stars below to the south, and a W formation on its side above to the north next to λ Piscium (in Pisces). Of course if you have a telescope then this will all be the other way up.

This is the first time I have ever positively identified Uranus, and it will be interesting to follow the pair over the next few weeks.
Great minds think alike.
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Old 16-09-2010, 14:05
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Great minds think alike.
This is what I have always thought.

Naturally, the whole country will now be blanketed in cloud for the next month.
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Old 16-09-2010, 15:41
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This is what I have always thought.

Naturally, the whole country will now be blanketed in cloud for the next month.
It's pretty nice here in the Midlands and looks set to stay clear over night so I may well have a go tonight.
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Old 16-09-2010, 19:22
HenryGarten
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Press conference on results of LRO. See http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/...10/10-080.html
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Old 18-09-2010, 10:56
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Aww. See http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100918.html

Jupiter and Uranus.
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Old 22-09-2010, 22:18
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...according to this news report here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11378762.

Mars' inner moon Phobos had been assumed to be a captured asteriod which is understandable because of Mars' proximity to the asteroid belt. However, it now appears that rock studies have indicated that Phobos could be derived from material that originated on Mars itself.

That would imply some form of impact and re-aggregation similar to the way the Moon formed around the Earth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_impact_hypothesis.

And now for something completely different. Here's a link http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009rtr0 to a BBC World Service documentary, The Alien Equation, about the search for extraterrestrial* life elsewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy. It's an interesting listen and l can recommend it.

*Aside: l dearly wish that 'extraterrestrial' had been spelled 'extraterrestial'. lt would have been easier to pronounce and write down!
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Old 23-09-2010, 08:49
HenryGarten
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Discovery's last trip to the pad. See http://twitpic.com/2qw4sh/full

Best viewed at about 50% in the browser.
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Old 26-09-2010, 10:15
HenryGarten
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A spectactular fireball over New Mexico recently. See http://www.space.com/spacewatch/new-...eo-100924.html
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Old 01-10-2010, 11:17
HenryGarten
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A historic moment. Last SRB moved to VAB.

See http://www.nasanews.com/wp/missions/...-moves-to-vab/
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Old 01-10-2010, 11:56
Assa2
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I hope the shuttle gets a lot of attention as it heads towards retirement. As much of a flawed design as it was it has been an increadible system making space travel quite ordinary and mundane at times (which I think is a good thing and important in the over-all context of widening space travel into the private sector).

I can clearly remember watching the first manned launch on TV back in '81 (after many, many dealys) when I was 6 and that event probably is responsible for my passion for aeronautics and space. The idea of it being retired is as dissappointing as the retirement of Concorde was.
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Old 01-10-2010, 13:23
HenryGarten
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I hope the shuttle gets a lot of attention as it heads towards retirement. As much of a flawed design as it was it has been an increadible system making space travel quite ordinary and mundane at times (which I think is a good thing and important in the over-all context of widening space travel into the private sector).

I can clearly remember watching the first manned launch on TV back in '81 (after many, many dealys) when I was 6 and that event probably is responsible for my passion for aeronautics and space. The idea of it being retired is as dissappointing as the retirement of Concorde was.
Yes 12th April 1981. It was a Sunday. I do not think that there were any unmanned launches of the shuttle. It was manned first time with John Young and Robert Crippen if memory serves me right.

Trivia. If you saw a picture of the first two launches, how would you know it was one of them?
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Old 01-10-2010, 14:26
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Yes 12th April 1981. It was a Sunday. I do not think that there were any unmanned launches of the shuttle. It was manned first time with John Young and Robert Crippen if memory serves me right.
I was thinking of Enterprise's test flights... but they were off the back of that wild 747! I hadn't realised until I just read up on it that Enterprise was supposed to have been the second operations shuttle after Columbia but some re-designs after the maiden flight made that impossible. And that they considered refiting Enterprise after the Challenger disaster but decided to build Endeavour instead.... out of spares!

Trivia. If you saw a picture of the first two launches, how would you know it was one of them?
Trivia answer -
Spoiler
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Old 01-10-2010, 14:36
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Question for the space and astronomy people: can you recommend me a good general, factual book about space travel? A mix of techy stuff and biography would be great, if such a thing exists.

I've looked on Amazon and the books I found all seem to be speculative, astrophysics textbooks, or only relating to certain missions.
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Old 01-10-2010, 14:39
Assa2
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Question for the space and astronomy people: can you recommend me a good general, factual book about space travel? A mix of techy stuff and biography would be great, if such a thing exists.

I've looked on Amazon and the books I found all seem to be speculative, astrophysics textbooks, or only relating to certain missions.
I had a good text book on space technologies back when I was doing a course on that subject at university. Problem is it will be nearly 20 years out of date now! I'll see if I can find it and if it's been updated.
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