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Space and Astronomy Thread
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The Martian
02-06-2014
There is a new class of planet out there that astronomers are calling the "mega-Earth".

Quote:
“It is an object with a hard surface like our own world but much, much bigger.

The necessity for the new designation follows the discovery of a planet which has a mass some 17 times that of Earth.

Known as Kepler-10c, it orbits a star about 560 light-years away. Scientists described its properties at an American Astronomical Society meeting in Boston.

They confess it is something of a head-scratcher.

Theorists had always thought that any planet that large would pull so much hydrogen on to itself that it would look more like a Neptune or a Jupiter.

"We were very surprised when we realised what we had found," said Xavier Dumusque of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), who led the research team.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27669572

Super interesting article.

Going on holiday abroad would be quite laborious on a planet 17 times larger than ours, especially with our current technology.
atg
03-06-2014
Originally Posted by The Martian:
“[

Going on holiday abroad would be quite laborious on a planet 17 times larger than ours, especially with our current technology.”

One and a half times the density and double the diameter would imply what sort of surface gravity? It's too early in the morning for me for that sort of calculation. The distances wouldn't be all that much of a strain, although perhaps sub orbital flight might make things easier, and of course we don't know the orbital period but if long enough you would get more holidays.
Sea_salt
03-06-2014
Originally Posted by atg:
“One and a half times the density and double the diameter would imply what sort of surface gravity? It's too early in the morning for me for that sort of calculation. The distances wouldn't be all that much of a strain, although perhaps sub orbital flight might make things easier, and of course we don't know the orbital period but if long enough you would get more holidays.”

g is proportional to m and inversely proportional to r-squared. So g(mega-earth) = 17/4 x g(earth) or about 40 m/s/s.

If you plan on flying anywhere it had better be somewhere warm as the luggage allowance will be enough for a pair of shorts, a few t shirts and your duty-frees, assuming the plane can get off the ground at all
Inky Binky
11-06-2014
LINK

Nice article on NASA's warp drive research and a possible Interstellar Starship to go with it. I read a different article about the warp drive research a few months ago and was very surprised that we've come to the stage where it's actually possible - maybe within our lifetime. Amazing.
RobinOfLoxley
11-06-2014
Marcus du Sautoy's on BBC4 tonight at 10.25pm with the 'faster than light particles' story.

I guess that means this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17560379

I hope the documentary has been updated with the correct results and findings.

And I'm sure I've watched it before, but will watch again.
CLL Dodge
20-07-2014
45 years ago today.

A giant leap for mankind.
spiney2
20-07-2014
manned moon landings lasted a much shorter time than the beatles ...... lunar bases got relegated back to "a vision thing" ......
Wuthering
10-08-2014
Supermoon tonight! Looks absolutely beautiful, and it's shining right into my bedroom. I love it.
Wuthering
11-08-2014
Did nobody see the moon last night? It was stunning.
HenryGarten
11-08-2014
Originally Posted by Wuthering:
“Did nobody see the moon last night? It was stunning.”

More stunning than normal?
Waj_100
11-08-2014
Originally Posted by Wuthering:
“Did nobody see the moon last night? It was stunning.”

I wish I could have, but the clouds got in the way

I wanted to take some pictures.
renard gris
11-08-2014
Today is the 15th anniversary of the Total Solar Eclipse of Aug 11, 1999, which crossed part of south-west England.

Historical info:-

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearc...p?Ecl=19990811

http://astro.ukho.gov.uk/eclipse/0411999/

I had booked the train to go down to Cornwall, but decided to cancel due to the poor weather forecast for the SW. So, I stayed at home and watched the partial eclipse instead. Tbh, even though the maximum obscuration was just under 94% (at my location), there wasn't any discernable light change at street level. What I remember most, was that the sky took on a 'watercolour blue' appearance and feel to it.

I still have some video recordings of the news clips and special programmes that took place that day on ITV, BBC and CNN.
Wuthering
11-08-2014
Originally Posted by HenryGarten:
“More stunning than normal?”

Yes.

At one point it was like it was close enough to touch, so big and bright. Just magnificent.
HenryGarten
12-08-2014
Originally Posted by Wuthering:
“Yes.

At one point it was like it was close enough to touch, so big and bright. Just magnificent.”

So you actually watch the moon regular are could see the difference with the human eye?
HenryGarten
12-08-2014
Originally Posted by renard gris:
“Today is the 15th anniversary of the Total Solar Eclipse of Aug 11, 1999, which crossed part of south-west England.

Historical info:-

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearc...p?Ecl=19990811

http://astro.ukho.gov.uk/eclipse/0411999/

I had booked the train to go down to Cornwall, but decided to cancel due to the poor weather forecast for the SW. So, I stayed at home and watched the partial eclipse instead. Tbh, even though the maximum obscuration was just under 94% (at my location), there wasn't any discernable light change at street level. What I remember most, was that the sky took on a 'watercolour blue' appearance and feel to it.

I still have some video recordings of the news clips and special programmes that took place that day on ITV, BBC and CNN.”

Oh thanks. I was in Redruth and all I saw was clouds and birds panicking that it had gone dark.

Yes I often try to explain that there is a huge difference between even a 99% partial and a total.

I was lucky enough to see the "Big one" from Baja on 11 July 1991.
Wuthering
12-08-2014
Originally Posted by HenryGarten:
“So you actually watch the moon regular are could see the difference with the human eye?”

If you mean did the moon look larger and brighter than usual, then yes.
blue eyed guy
12-08-2014
Originally Posted by The Martian:
“There is a new class of planet out there that astronomers are calling the "mega-Earth".



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27669572

Super interesting article.

Going on holiday abroad would be quite laborious on a planet 17 times larger than ours, especially with our current technology.”

I wonder if this big rocky planet is going to be named Melancholia?
TelevisionUser
12-08-2014
Originally Posted by Wuthering:
“Did nobody see the moon last night? It was stunning.”

Yes, the Moon has been relatively bright and large (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/28730727) and it's created some really atmospheric effects and lighting as the recent storm clouds have been moving across it.

On the subject of the Moon, Japanese scientists think that the Moon might still have a tiny molten outer core thanks to gravitational tidal heating (compare Io & Jupiter):

“The previous studies indicated that there is the possibility that a part of the rock at the deepest part inside the lunar mantle may be molten. This research result supports the above possibility since partially molten rock becomes softer,” the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan stated. “This research has proven for the first time that the deepest part of the lunar mantle is soft, based upon the agreement between observation results and the theoretical calculations.”
http://www.universetoday.com/113761/...rmation-study/

More lunar pics & info below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk7h/galleries
https://www.flickr.com/groups/bbcskyatnight
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/arti...es-moon-guides
atg
14-08-2014
Originally Posted by renard gris:
“
I had booked the train to go down to Cornwall, but decided to cancel due to the poor weather forecast for the SW. So, I stayed at home and watched the partial eclipse instead. Tbh, even though the maximum obscuration was just under 94% (at my location), there wasn't any discernable light change at street level. What I remember most, was that the sky took on a 'watercolour blue' appearance and feel to it.”

I went to France and stood under some clouds. Schoolfriends went to Cornwall and found a gap in them.
atg
14-08-2014
Originally Posted by Wuthering:
“If you mean did the moon look larger and brighter than usual, then yes.”

But might that have been the Moon illusion?
Kapellmeister
14-08-2014
Originally Posted by renard gris:
“Today is the 15th anniversary of the Total Solar Eclipse of Aug 11, 1999, which crossed part of south-west England.

Historical info:-

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearc...p?Ecl=19990811

http://astro.ukho.gov.uk/eclipse/0411999/

I had booked the train to go down to Cornwall, but decided to cancel due to the poor weather forecast for the SW. So, I stayed at home and watched the partial eclipse instead. Tbh, even though the maximum obscuration was just under 94% (at my location), there wasn't any discernable light change at street level. What I remember most, was that the sky took on a 'watercolour blue' appearance and feel to it.

I still have some video recordings of the news clips and special programmes that took place that day on ITV, BBC and CNN.”

Is it really 15 years ago?? I was walking on southern Dartmoor at the time. It was cloudy unfortunately but it did go remarkably dark very very quickly. It was uncanny and eerie and something I'll never forget.
balthasar
14-08-2014
Originally Posted by Kapellmeister:
“Is it really 15 years ago?? I was walking on southern Dartmoor at the time. It was cloudy unfortunately but it did go remarkably dark very very quickly. It was uncanny and eerie and something I'll never forget.”

Tempus Fugit,! it seemed to be a rather big event that turned into a damp squib, due to the cloud cover.
TelevisionUser
15-08-2014
It certainly has been a stormy time weather-wise...on Uranus:

A telescope on Earth has spotted huge storms brewing on the planet Uranus. Scientists using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii have recently seen a number of storms develop on the planet. One image, taken on Aug. 5, shows a few bright spots in infrared photos taken of the planet. The bright bits show storms in the planet's atmosphere. A second photo of Uranus, taken on Aug. 6, reveals more bright spots.
http://www.space.com/26794-uranus-gi...ms-photos.html

What is interesting is that now terrestrial telescopes are beginning to rival what the Hubble Space Telescope can see in terms of detail and resolution.
atg
15-08-2014
Originally Posted by TelevisionUser:
“
What is interesting is that now terrestrial telescopes are beginning to rival what the Hubble Space Telescope can see in terms of detail and resolution.”

I felt that this happened some years ago with the development of adaptive and dynamic optics actually, not to mention the computing power applied to the images obtained from ground based telescopes. In fact, given that the Hubble is mostly 1980s technology it is amazing it is still producing much of value.
cmq2
17-08-2014
ESA presser (87min) from last week detailing progress and objectives of Rosetta orbiter at comet 67P: http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Vid...cience_results
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