New Discoveries - Extraplanetary, deep space, etc.

Palomar · 2002-11-08 11:09:52

*Mission to Venus is on!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2421665.stm

--Cindy [Venusian by birth]

Palomar · 2002-11-08 11:16:11

The next time I go camping or visit a very dark site I'm going to make a point to observe the zodiacal light. I kept my eyes peeled for the aurora borealis when it was putting on a good show unusually southward but never saw it even though a lot of Texans apparently got a good view of it.

*People in Texas can see the Northern Lights [aurora borealis]?? That's surprising to me; back home in Iowa, we rarely saw it, and on the few occasions when the a.b. was visible, it was very pale.

Around 1990 is the last time I saw Northern Light phenomenon. My sister and I were cruising around toward home after having spent an evening out in a nearby small city. We were on a paved county road; she was driving, and I was looking out the window. Something caught my attention; it was a faint patchy area of sky, pale green, that shimmered into view and then faded, then repeated this shimmering and fading. My sister [totally paranoid and terrified of running into UFOs out in the country -- no kidding] got nervous and asked me what I was looking at. I told her I saw something in the sky. She got upset, but I told her I thought it might be the Northern Lights. She stopped the car, and we stood alongside of the road to watch it. The patch of aurora borealis faded then glowed again, faded then glowed again, kind of like a phantom heartbeat. Very pretty and elegant.

I always enjoy looking at photos of a.b. from the Arctic Circle and Alaska areas -- wow, so intense and beautiful.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2002-11-08 11:29:39

*Wow, THAT sure was a quick decision. The conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2424927.stm

I'm surprised!

--Cindy

P.S.: Why do some of these news agencies call it "Nasa" instead of "NASA"? The latter is the correct form, as each letter is the first in a specific word.

Josh Cryer · 2002-11-08 12:33:01

BAD NASA. BAD!

Don't they ever learn? Once you get into something, you must continue! They obviously stopped because their ?concern? with the conspiracy theorists gave the conspiracy theorists some ?credibility.? NASA is a huge administration, the decision to make the book was probably by someone who is annoyed (if intrigued) by conspiracy theorists. A Bamf, of sorts.

Bamf's don't make good decisions when it comes to interacting with nutcases, I'm afraid. They just fuel the fire (check out the latest TEM update, full of conspiracy garbage).

Palomar · 2002-11-08 15:33:08

BAD NASA. BAD!
Don't they ever learn? Once you get into something, you must continue! They obviously stopped because their ?concern? with the conspiracy theorists gave the conspiracy theorists some ?credibility.? NASA is a huge administration, the decision to make the book was probably by someone who is annoyed (if intrigued) by conspiracy theorists. A Bamf, of sorts.
Bamf's don't make good decisions when it comes to interacting with nutcases, I'm afraid. They just fuel the fire (check out the latest TEM update, full of conspiracy garbage).

*Yeah! I've a good mind to roll up a newspaper and swat them over the head with it, too! :angry:

What, please, are Bamf and TEM? ???

--Cindy

Josh Cryer · 2002-11-08 16:57:33

Haven't you been paying attention to the various conspiracy discussions?

TEM is www.enterprisemission.com - they are people who think the Face on Mars is artificial, and that NASA is doing a huge coverup.

Bamf is an image guy who works on the THEMIS website. He uploads images for NASA. He's not very wise, in that he is intrigued by the TEM people, and he goes to their chatroom nightly. I don't blame him, people like that are very... interesting. Crazy people always are. Also, they're dumb, so it can be fun to correct their misconceptions.

The problem is, Bamf messed up when he told the people in the chatroom certain things. Like how the THEMIS camera couldn't take nightly images of the winter hemisphere because the noise to image ratio would be too high. Well, in fact, quite a few nightly THEMIS images were taken of the winter hemisphere.

Oh no! Bamf ?lied!? Conspiracy! (More like, he was misinformed, o rmore like, he ought not have been so black and white on the issues.)

NASA also tried to image Cydonia twice in one day, in two consecutive orbits. This doesn't bode well with TEM, because they have to know everything NASA does, and anything NASA does without telling everyone expressly when they do it; which means that NASA is covering something up, duh! So now TEM has two little theories that can never be debunked objectively, because it's totally subjective and feeds off of peoples inablity to be rational.

Palomar · 2002-11-09 08:45:50

Hi Josh: Thanks for the explanations. About paying attention to the conspiracy theory discussions: Yes, off and on. However, I do a lot of reading, and not all of it gets retained in Ye Ole Grey Mattre. Just yesterday I forgot the *title* of a book about an 18th-century personage I've been wanting [found later I'd jotted it down on a slip of paper]...so when I'm forgetting things like that, I must be running out of memory bytes in the brain.

Article below about Earth and Mars being closest together in distance in recorded history:

http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl....oration

Josh Cryer · 2002-11-09 11:13:57

Yeah, I've been looking forward to this pass. Mars is going to be brilliant. And the 2003 rover missions are going tobe great, too. 2003 is going to be a great year!

But I know what you mean about memory. I'll be surfing for something, and forget what it was, then I'll spend half an hour trying to remember!

Palomar · 2002-11-09 13:46:33

*Our big, beautiful sun:

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/

Great web site. Check out the "Gallery" section, and be sure to click on the "Caption" of any image which intrigues you; an explanation about the image will come up. If I'd had enough math and physics skills to be a professional astronomer, I'd want to study our very own star.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2002-11-10 17:20:29

*Didn't want to create a new thread, so will place this here; it's not extraplanetary or deep space, but it's "Out Of Africa" and a first for this nation [way to go and welcome to the Space Age!]:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2423283.stm

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2002-11-10 18:25:31

Good for Nigeria!

Improving communications means improving education and the free dissemination of ideas ... and knowledge is power.
The more we know of what's going on, the less chance of being misled and used by unscrupulous groups or individuals.
This is a very promising development for the Nigerian people and I'm very happy for them.

More good news I spotted on TV this morning: The Nigerian leadership has decided to block the Islamic regions of the country from carrying out the executions by stoning of the women convicted of sex-outside-marriage.

Thank God for that!

And it's about bloody time!! :angry:

Palomar · 2002-11-13 12:36:58

*Astronomy Photo of the Day web site [includes comments by professional astronomers]:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

--Cindy

Palomar · 2002-11-14 16:18:27

*I didn't want to start a new thread for this, so I'll put it here: What are the chances of their being aurora borealis type phenomenon on Mars? It has an atmosphere [albeit thin], it definitely gets fed ions from solar flares/winds...

I suppose such phenomenon would have been documented by now; perhaps I've missed it. Just curious. Does anyone know?

--Cindy

Josh Cryer · 2002-11-14 18:34:02

Cindy, the aurora borealis are caused by Earth's magnetic field, and Mars doesn't have one, so nah, you won't see them on Mars.

In other news. Routine monitoring of volcanic activity on Jupiter's moon Io, now possible through advanced adaptive optics on the Keck II telescope in Hawaii, has turned up the largest eruption to date on Io's surface or in the solar system.

Source: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/jupiter-io-02c.html

Palomar · 2002-11-15 09:03:28

*Josh: Thanks for the reply. Sorry to hear it.

Those photos of the Io are fantastic!

New Photos of the Sun are Most Detailed Ever!

http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl....weather

--Cindy [loves the Sun; shine on, baby!]

Palomar · 2002-11-15 13:34:28

*Question for Shaun Barrett -please- !

During what months are the Magellanic Clouds visible at around 9 PM in your southern skies? Very pretty; I'd like to see them myself some day. I'm curious as to what season of the year the Clouds are overhead in Australia.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021109.html

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2002-11-15 20:14:19

Hi Cindy!

In addition to various other faults and crimes of omission, and unlike your good self, I have never made any attempt to study the stars in any detail.
I know very basic stuff, such as the Milky Way, Orion's Belt, and the Southern Cross. But otherwise I just look for meteors occasionally.
If you asked me to identify Jupiter in the night sky, I wouldn't know where to look! And I've never located the constellations either - maybe because I could never understand how the ancients managed to see such creatures in a few points of light (no imagination, I guess! ).
And, worst of all, being mildly colour blind (genetically defective ), I have enormous difficulty in seeing colours in the starlight. So all the stars look pretty much the same whitish colour to me, which makes even finding Mars tricky!! (Oh, the shame of it all! )

If I've ever seen the Magellanic Clouds, I wouldn't have been aware I was looking at them. I was looking at a smudge of light with feint stars embedded in it last week, but I supposed that was the Pleiades - I wasn't sure. Maybe I should buy a star-map and really study it or something!

Apparently, here in Australia the best time to view the Magellanic Clouds is in our spring. i.e. about October.

As I understand it, Cindy, you pay considerably more attention to astronomy than I do. And your knowledge of chile rellenos obviously far outstrips mine too!
One day, when I'm in your neck of the woods, I'm going to call on you to educate me in both subjects!! If you could stand such a dull student.
???

Shaun Barrett · 2002-11-15 21:57:53

While I was net browsing the other day, I came across this interesting site.

Apparently someone's come up with a new type of 'radiation proof' material. Unlike previous types, which only blocked alpha particles, the new one blocks alpha and beta particles, X-rays, and even low level Gamma radiation!!

If it works as advertised, why not line the Hab with it, make the marsonauts' overalls out of it, even line their sleeping accommodation with more of it, and make the blankets out of it too?!!
We might be able to reduce radiation damage to very low levels, thus solving one of the biggest problems with crewed Mars missions.

Palomar · 2002-11-16 08:55:34

Shaun: Hi Cindy!
And, worst of all, being mildly colour blind (genetically defective ), I have enormous difficulty in seeing colours in the starlight. So all the stars look pretty much the same whitish colour to me,

*Actually, most stars look whitish to me as well; perhaps it's the pollution factor. Antares has the reddish cast to it [my favorite star!], as do Arcturus and Aldebaran, but those are about the most "colorful" stars I can think of, sans telescope. So I think your color blindness isn't, as far as naked-eye stargazing goes, that much of a hindrance. To really see the greenish or bluish stars requires, in my experience, a telescope. Try using your *peripheral* vision; it's much more sensitive and may help you detect colors better...of course, I really don't know much about color blindness.

Shaun: which makes even finding Mars tricky!! (Oh, the shame of it all! )

*Mars is reddish. Oh yeah. Last summer it was near Antares, and really stole the show.

Shaun: As I understand it, Cindy, you pay considerably more attention to astronomy than I do. And your knowledge of chile rellenos obviously far outstrips mine too!
One day, when I'm in your neck of the woods, I'm going to call on you to educate me in both subjects!! If you could stand such a dull student.

*Now that'd be cool. You can help grate the cheese for the chile rellenos!

--Cindy

Josh Cryer · 2002-11-16 15:06:45

Wow, this Demron is amazing. It could change everything, if it's as good as it seem! Habs, ships, and suits could be covered in this fabric, it could prove very useful. I'll certainly keep an eye out for it.

And I wouldn't worry about figuring out where Mars is. It will be the brightest thing in the night sky (except for the moon) come next summer. You'll be able to spot it if you're color blind or not!

Palomar · 2002-11-16 16:12:56

*Gorgeous...molten gold! And the dimensions; staggering...I'm tempted to color print this and frame it

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021114.html

--Cindy

P.S.: Josh, you're right about the spectacular display Mars is going to put on in summer 2003; even more dazzling than in summer 2001, which was awesome in its own right. I just hope it's not going to be so close to Antares like last year, and steal all of the attention away from one of my favorite stars!

Phobos · 2002-11-17 01:44:42

Apparently someone's come up with a new type of 'radiation proof' material. Unlike previous types, which only blocked alpha particles, the new one blocks alpha and beta particles, X-rays, and even low level Gamma radiation!!

Does this mean I can go hiking on Europa now? I wish they would have given more information on the fabric. I would like to know how thick and heavy it would be when designed to block everything not to mention what the fabric is made of but I guess you can't give away all of your trade secrets.

Shaun Barrett · 2002-11-17 03:24:23

Many thanks, Cindy, for the magnificent close-ups of our glorious star!!

"Gorgeous...molten gold!'' is absolutely spot on! And, to borrow yet another Cindyism ... "shine on, baby!", YEAH!!

Shaun Barrett · 2002-11-17 03:34:39

Hey, Phobos!

Haven't heard from you in a little while. Good to see you back ol' buddy!
I'm not sure about all this hiking on Europa stuff, though! You'll need to have a quiet word with the material manufacturers first, I think.

Hi Josh!

Thanks for the encouraging words about finding Mars next year. Don't worry, I'll be out looking for it ... colour-blind or not!!

And now, thanks to Cindy, I might even be able to find Antares somewhere in the vicinity, too! Or will it be somewhere different in 6 months?
:0

Phobos · 2002-11-17 15:22:05

Hey, Phobos!
Haven't heard from you in a little while. Good to see you back ol' buddy!
I'm not sure about all this hiking on Europa stuff, though! You'll need to have a quiet word with the material manufacturers first, I think.

Tis good to be back! And it's amazing how Cindy knows where all those stars are. Arcturus, Alderan, etc. Are any of those double stars? I actually broke down and bought an 8" (forgive my hypocrisy for using those units) aperture telescope recently but naturally the clouds always roll in around 4pm! I doubt if I'd be able to find anything with it anyway. The clouds give me an excuse to cover up my glaring ignorance when it comes to finding things.

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Re: New Discoveries - Extraplanetary, deep space, etc.

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