Official Space is Awesome Thread

[Patw215]

Love this topic. The moon has been so bright the past few nights I was wondering if I could squeeze a few holes in around 2am. Hmmmmm?

[stryper]

Curiosity's view of Mars from the top of Vera Rubin Ridge (elevation 1073 ft, 327 m). Click on the image, and pan for the full panoramic view.

 

 

 

 

Photo: NASA

 

Outstanding!!!

 

Love so many of the stellar images in this thread, but something about a closeup/crisp view of an alien landscape somehow makes space so much more awesome and real for me!

[Argonne69]

The ISS photobombs the super blue Moon.

 

 

[NV825]

Thanks Argonne for contributing great stuff to the thread.

[moegolfer11]

I hope everyone was able to catch the SpaceX Falcon Heavy Test Launch yesterday (with some David Bowie playing of course). I've never gotten chills like that before outside of a sporting event. Truly remarkable, I'm still in awe. We need another space race for the sake of human kind.

[Argonne69]

I hope everyone was able to catch the SpaceX Falcon Heavy Test Launch yesterday (with some David Bowie playing of course). I've never gotten chills like that before outside of a sporting event. Truly remarkable, I'm still in awe. We need another space race for the sake of human kind.

 

The simultaneous landing of the twin boosters was pretty cool.

 

 

Apparently the landing of the core rocket didn't quite go as planned. Only one of three engines needed to land was working, and it "crashed" into the ocean 100 meters from the landing ship at 300 mph. Although it missed the ship, the force of the crash sent a spray of shrapnel that hit the ship.

 

Overall, it was still a fairly successful launch.

[Argonne69]

Starman had a good view on his way to Mars, err, the Asteroid Belt.

 

 

Oh, look. The Earth is flat.

[moegolfer11]

If you haven't watched "The Farthest" a documentary about the Voyager missions, I highly recommend it. To see the crew who worked on the program still get emotional after nearly 40 years is pretty special. Attached is a clip, I can't help but get emotional too thinking of the great vast expanse we have all come to know as outer space.

[thug the bunny]

Our universe, composed of billions of galaxies, is really a quark, and multiple quarks (universes) make up one proton in one atom in another universe trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions bigger than ours, consisting of billions of galaxies. And that universe is one quark making up a subatomic particle that is part of a another larger universe, and on and on... Conversely, if we could 'look' inside a quark in our own spacial dimensions, we would see billions of tiny universes....

 

The universe (not just our neighborhood but the whole shebang) is really a fractal without end. This is the magic of creation.

[moegolfer11]

Our universe, composed of billions of galaxies, is really a quark, and multiple quarks (universes) make up one proton in one atom in another universe trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions bigger than ours, consisting of billions of galaxies. And that universe is one quark making up a subatomic particle that is part of a another larger universe. Conversely, if we could 'look' inside a quark in our own spacial dimensions, we would see billions of tiny universes....

 

The universe (not just our neighborhood but the whole shebang) is really a fractal without end. This is the magic of creation.

 

 

but seriously, It's hard to take yourself or anything so seriously when you put it that way!

[Argonne69]

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Arrat (ALMA) in Chile, and the IRAM 30 meter telescope in Spain, scientists have revealed a new view of the Orion Nebula. The network of gas is organized in thin filaments.

 

 

Image: ESO/H. Drass/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/A. Hascar (ESO)

[Mych]

Love seeing the beauty of space. I'm a NASA contractor, and sometimes when we're neck-deep in the challenges of space it's tough to remember the reasons that we are driven to explore.

[Noke]

Our universe, composed of billions of galaxies, is really a quark, and multiple quarks (universes) make up one proton in one atom in another universe trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions bigger than ours, consisting of billions of galaxies. And that universe is one quark making up a subatomic particle that is part of a another larger universe, and on and on... Conversely, if we could 'look' inside a quark in our own spacial dimensions, we would see billions of tiny universes....

 

The universe (not just our neighborhood but the whole shebang) is really a fractal without end. This is the magic of creation.

 

Of course, science does not know the universe to be 'created', but that doesn't make it any less fascinating!

[Argonne69]

Bummer. The 121-year-old Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wis., will close in October. The University of Chicago facility, located on the shores of Lake Geneva, is often referred to as the birthplace of modern astrophysics. One of its most famous alumni is Edwin Hubble.

 

 

[thug the bunny]

Our universe, composed of billions of galaxies, is really a quark, and multiple quarks (universes) make up one proton in one atom in another universe trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions bigger than ours, consisting of billions of galaxies. And that universe is one quark making up a subatomic particle that is part of a another larger universe, and on and on... Conversely, if we could 'look' inside a quark in our own spacial dimensions, we would see billions of tiny universes....

 

The universe (not just our neighborhood but the whole shebang) is really a fractal without end. This is the magic of creation.

 

Of course, science does not know the universe to be 'created', but that doesn't make it any less fascinating!

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that physicists have observed particles appearing out of nowhere in high energy experiments?

[Noke]

Our universe, composed of billions of galaxies, is really a quark, and multiple quarks (universes) make up one proton in one atom in another universe trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions bigger than ours, consisting of billions of galaxies. And that universe is one quark making up a subatomic particle that is part of a another larger universe, and on and on... Conversely, if we could 'look' inside a quark in our own spacial dimensions, we would see billions of tiny universes....

 

The universe (not just our neighborhood but the whole shebang) is really a fractal without end. This is the magic of creation.

 

Of course, science does not know the universe to be 'created', but that doesn't make it any less fascinating!

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that physicists have observed particles appearing out of nowhere in high energy experiments?

 

Sounds familiar, but the word 'nowhere' is a bit of a misnomer I think.

 

Feel free to PM me if you want about the 'creation' stuff if you want. I don't want to get in trouble here! ?

 

[Argonne69]

The merger of two barred spiral galaxies 350 million light years away.

 

 

Photo: NASA/ESA.

[thug the bunny]

We have only a few billion years before we collide with Andromeda, so we better start getting our sh*t together.

 

I can remember first seeing Andromeda through a bird spotting scope. Breathtaking, you can really sense the deepness of space. Just a few inches to the right of the first angle in the 'W' of Casseopia on a clear winter night.

[moegolfer11]

The beloved physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking has passed away at the age of 76. What an incredible man.

[thug the bunny]

RIP Stephen. Unbelievable how he surpassed life expectancy for ALS by 30+ years. The power of the mind.

[MMB1500]

Hawking is a big loss to humanity for sure. He was an inspiration and a fine role model for future generations.

 

“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”

 

- Stephen Hawking (1942 - 2018)

[MMB1500]

If you haven't watched "The Farthest" a documentary about the Voyager missions, I highly recommend it. To see the crew who worked on the program still get emotional after nearly 40 years is pretty special. Attached is a clip, I can't help but get emotional too thinking of the great vast expanse we have all come to know as outer space.

 

Watching it now. Thanks for the recommendation!

[Argonne69]

M1 - Crab Nebula

 

 

Photo: NASA/ESA (Hubble)

[driverwedge]

If you haven't watched "The Farthest" a documentary about the Voyager missions, I highly recommend it. To see the crew who worked on the program still get emotional after nearly 40 years is pretty special. Attached is a clip, I can't help but get emotional too thinking of the great vast expanse we have all come to know as outer space.

 

Just watched it on Netflix. Very cool!

[Argonne69]

M2 - A globular cluster containing over 150,000 stars located ~37,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Aquarius. The cluster has a diameter of ~150 light-years, and is one of the largest of its kind.

 

 

Photo: NASA/ESA (Hubble)

[thug the bunny]

If you haven't watched "The Farthest" a documentary about the Voyager missions, I highly recommend it. To see the crew who worked on the program still get emotional after nearly 40 years is pretty special. Attached is a clip, I can't help but get emotional too thinking of the great vast expanse we have all come to know as outer space.

 

Watching it now. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

I remember watching that. Very cool stories. Lots of mind blowing details about the outer planets were revealed. Not many people know that there were two voyagers and it was the second one that just barely caught the right slingshot from Jupiter to pass real close Neptune and Uranus before heading out to the Ort cloud and then the Oosphere (did I get those right?).

 

Just watched a good one on the evolution of our galaxy and the earth - accretion of particles to make little rocks, clumping of rocks to make asteroids, etc. The attractive forces gradually went from electrostatic to gravitational as the bodies grew larger. Earth survived the 100M year long period of eat or be eaten between developing planets. Then, the perturbation caused by Jupiter and Saturn switching orbits caused comets and asteroids to come raining in from the outer galaxy, and gave Earth all of its water. That pop Japanese astrophysicist ended by saying 'the next time you drink a glass of water, take a moment to realize you are drinking comet and asteroid juice'.

[Argonne69]

Both Voyager probes were intended to visit Uranus and Neptune. However, at some point NASA decided to have Voyager 1 take a closer look at Saturn's moon Titan. The pass by Titan took it below the south pole of Saturn, and out of the plane of the ecliptic. This meant that it would not be able to intercept Uranus and Neptune.

 

I believe you mean the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. The Kuiper belt stretches from Neptune (30 AU) to ~55 AU. An AU is the distance from the Sun to the Earth, 93 million miles. The dwarf planet Pluto is located in the Kuiper Belt, along with numerous other icy bodies.

 

The Oort cloud is thought to occupy the area ~2000 to 5000 AU from the Sun, and contain possibly trillions of icy objects composed of water, methane, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen cyanide. It's waaaaay out there at 186 billion miles.

[thug the bunny]

Way cool Arg. BTW, that galaxy you can see to the right of Cassiopeia which I mentioned earlier is M2, not Andromeda. I'm just going from my aging memory on this thread...

[Argonne69]

Another globular cluster, M3. This one contains over 500,000 stars. It's 34,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici, above and slightly left of the bight star Arcturus in the Bootes constellation.

 

 

Photo: NASA/ESA (Hubble)

[Argonne69]

M4, a globular cluster in the constellation Scorpius. The cluster is 5,500 light-years away, and contains more than 100,000 stars. Of these, ~40,000 are believed to be white dwarfs, the cores of ancient stars whose outer layers have drifted off into space. The stars are some of the oldest in the universe, 13 billions years old.

 

 

Photo: NASA/ESA (Hubble)