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Space and Astronomy Thread
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squack
10-11-2010
Nice interview on the bbc site with Charlie Duke here.

The article is a litte innacurate in that it mentions that he drove the lunar rover and piloted the lunar module which he didn't (but did help in the case of the LM) but the interview is OK.
tiger2000
10-11-2010
Great episode of The Sky at Night this month, manily about the recent comet encounter and a look forward to the Solar and Lunar eclipses at the end of the year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/vy5xg/
TelevisionUser
14-11-2010
Next Tuesday sees the 51st anniversary of the first of the Project Excelsior tests conducted United States Air Force.

In order to improve the safety of flight crews who might have to eject at very high altitude, the United States Air Force started this project to test a parachute system that would allow pilots to eject at high altitude and return safely to Earth.

They did this by transporting a volunteer (the brave Captain Joe Kittinger) to very high altitude on a balloon platform in a presssurised suit and literally getting him to jump off that platform and descend back to Earth.

Captain Joe Kittinger ventured where very few people get to go (astronauts, X-15 pilots, etc.) and there's more about this fascinating project here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excelsior, there's a radio play here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vrxk5#synopsis and video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n2AICdVv3g for your reading, listening and viewing entertainment.

I don't like heights and I don't think I would ever have done anything like this!
HenryGarten
15-11-2010
There is a spacewalk from the ISS right now. See here.
HenryGarten
15-11-2010
There is a nice sight of Jupiter hanging to the left and below the moon tonight.
HenryGarten
15-11-2010
Not such good news. See here.
TelevisionUser
21-11-2010
...according to this report here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11775803.

This is one hell of a bizarre journey. Star and planetary systems from a neighbouring dwarf galaxy have been gravitationally absorbed by our much larger Milky Way Galaxy.

A planet has now been found around one of those stars that originated in that small, foreign galaxy and it's the first planet to be discovered that came from another galaxy. The planet itself is a large "hot Jupiter" close to the parent star and so is unlikely to be an abode of life.

Nevetheless, it is an interesting story because it directly confirms that planet formation occurs in other galaxies. There is further reading below:

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/ea...93342.abstract
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stellar_streams
Amy_S
26-11-2010
Just out of curiosity, what's that very bright object in the sky - as dawn breaks it's still shining brightly to the south and slightly east, and more low in the sky than high?

Edit: it's daylight now and it's still shining like a beacon. Must be a planet?
tiger2000
26-11-2010
Originally Posted by Amy_S:
“Just out of curiosity, what's that very bright object in the sky - as dawn breaks it's still shining brightly to the south and slightly east, and more low in the sky than high?

Edit: it's daylight now and it's still shining like a beacon. Must be a planet?”

The last episode of The Sky at Night said that Jupiter is very bright over the next month or so, so I suspect it may be that.
renard gris
26-11-2010
Originally Posted by Amy_S:
“Just out of curiosity, what's that very bright object in the sky - as dawn breaks it's still shining brightly to the south and slightly east, and more low in the sky than high?

Edit: it's daylight now and it's still shining like a beacon. Must be a planet?”

It's Venus.
Superior
26-11-2010
Originally Posted by tiger2000:
“The last episode of The Sky at Night said that Jupiter is very bright over the next month or so, so I suspect it may be that.”

Jupiter is the really bright one that is out at night in the east/southeast sky. It sinks below the western horizon at about 3-4am I think.

So I would go with other poster. Venus. "The Morning Star"
TelevisionUser
26-11-2010
Originally Posted by renard gris:
“It's Venus.”

Originally Posted by Superior:
“Jupiter is the really bright one that is out at night in the east/southeast sky. It sinks below the western horizon at about 3-4am I think.

So I would go with other poster. Venus. "The Morning Star"”

Yep, in the dawn sky it's almost certainly the hell-planet Venus which you can read about here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus.

Would I go there, no. Would I send global warming sceptics there for a trip to the surface to see how climate change can wreck a planet, yes!
HenryGarten
26-11-2010
Here is a nice picture showing how Venus moves in the evening sky. No doubt a similar one could be done for the morning sky. See Venus Just after sunset.
Carlos_dfc
26-11-2010
Yup - East in the morning - It's Venus
Anyone with binoculars, or a spotter-scope - I'd recommend taking a look.
Venus goes through phases, like the Moon, and is currently a fairly thin crescent - at the moment it is moving sideways away from the Sun (from our viewpoint), while receding from us at the same time, so over the next few months it will gradually shrink as it gets further away, and the crescent will gradually grow, to half, and then to gibbous, as it heads to maximum elongation, then starts to head back in towards, and behind, the Sun.

Around May 10th-15th next year - Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars will all pass within a few degrees of each other, very low to the East just before sunrise
xxtimbo
06-12-2010
found this on the web...

does it look about right ?

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/319...hghhghghhg.jpg
Amy_S
06-12-2010
It would seem it was Venus then eh - thanks everybody. Wikipedia says, "Venus is always brighter than any star", so that ties in with what I saw because it was still shining brightly even in the daylight. That's two planets that I've seen now - Mars and Venus, which is quite exciting in a small-scale kind of way.
HenryGarten
06-12-2010
Originally Posted by Amy_S:
“It would seem it was Venus then eh - thanks everybody. Wikipedia says, "Venus is always brighter than any star", so that ties in with what I saw because it was still shining brightly even in the daylight. That's two planets that I've seen now - Mars and Venus, which is quite exciting in a small-scale kind of way.”

Here was the waning crescent moon near Venus on 2nd December 2010.

It is easy to add Jupiter to that since it is now prominent in the evening sky. The moon will be very close to it on the night of December 13.

There will be a total eclipse of the moon on December 21. Sadly it is near dawn.

See night sky for December 2010
atg
06-12-2010
Originally Posted by Amy_S:
“It would seem it was Venus then eh - thanks everybody. Wikipedia says, "Venus is always brighter than any star", so that ties in with what I saw because it was still shining brightly even in the daylight. That's two planets that I've seen now - Mars and Venus, which is quite exciting in a small-scale kind of way.”

Well you only have to look in the south west after sunset to see Jupiter (or even just before sunset if you know exactly where to look), and, if you look at it through binoculars you get 2 for the price of one in the next few weeks, because Uranus will be very close to it.
HenryGarten
07-12-2010
The slender crescent moon was very striking tonight. 14 days until the total eclipse.
HenryGarten
09-12-2010
The X-37B is back on earth. See this report.
squack
14-12-2010
Looks like Voyager 1 is about to leave our solar system.

The solar wind it is detecting has shifted from 'blowing' outward to sideways.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11988466

Still doing well for a 33 year old spacecraft
raidon04
14-12-2010
Originally Posted by squack:
“Looks like Voyager 1 is about to leave our solar system.

The solar wind it is detecting has shifted from 'blowing' outward to sideways.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11988466

Still doing well for a 33 year old spacecraft ”

A remarkable feat in Human innovation.
Darthchaffinch
15-12-2010
The sky's partially clear in Kent atm- the geminids look GREAT!!! Saw one that seemed to streak 1/4 of the sky!
afcbfan
17-12-2010
The latest project from Galaxy Zoo: http://www.planethunters.org/ You could be the first to discover a new planet.
TelevisionUser
18-12-2010
Originally Posted by afcbfan:
“The latest project from Galaxy Zoo: http://www.planethunters.org/ You could be the first to discover a new planet.”

Quite rightly, afcbfan, you have highlighted the way that many people can now participate in astronomical research.

The active way to do it is to take part in any of the 8 Zooniverse projects here http://www.zooniverse.org/projects including helping to spot solar explosions, galactic mergers, etc.

The passive way to help out is to use your PC's/laptop's spare capacity to help out research projects and there are some that deserve a mention below:

MilkyWay@home is attempting to generate highly accurate three-dimensional dynamic models of stellar streams in the immediate vicinity of our Milky Way galaxy - http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/

Einstein@Home is looking for evidence of continuous gravitational-wave sources, which are expected for instance from some rapidly spinning neutron stars - http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/

Orbit@home aims to optimize the search strategy that telescopes used to find potentially dangerous Near Earth Objects such as asteroids - http://orbit.psi.edu/

SETI@home (the most well-know such project) is analysing radio signals to search for signs of extra terrestrial intelligence - http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

All of the above dozen projects are worthy indeed and if anyone could help out with any of the research projects then that would no doubt be appreciated.

PS If anyone does sign up to any of the above projects, please do post and let us know how you get on.
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