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Post by Leda EmBorr on Jan 20, 2007 3:12:49 GMT -5
It's called the WOW factor... a guy I know wrote an article on that for a popular magazine... I forget which one. A guy in my local astronomy club. It's w"the force" that first hooks you, and keeps hooking you, again and again!
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Post by Leda EmBorr on Jan 21, 2007 19:42:01 GMT -5
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Post by J'aii-Gun Jiinn on Jan 21, 2007 21:42:35 GMT -5
Wow!! that's so COOL I wish I would've seen it! Darn!
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Post by himiko sabbrawrra on Jan 22, 2007 0:56:04 GMT -5
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Post by J'aii-Gun Jiinn on Jan 22, 2007 15:48:47 GMT -5
;)Almost makes me feel like taking a trip
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Post by himiko sabbrawrra on Jan 22, 2007 17:38:41 GMT -5
If I were rich I would
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Post by lazlototh on Jan 23, 2007 19:59:35 GMT -5
This Sunday on the Science Channel: Hawking Drama - a story of the physicist Stephen Hawking at 9pm E/P Looks interesting Also I'd like to add a couple of links Astronomy Now OnlineSPACE.com
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Post by Leda EmBorr on Jan 23, 2007 21:44:04 GMT -5
Cool links Laz, thanks! Astronomy Now is a new one to me! I'll have to mark my calendar for Sunday... wherever I may be... still don't know if I'm going to CA or not.
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Mon-Jas Charan
Message Board Member
"Poena Vigoratus. Pullus cavo vix. Palma , est eternus"
Posts: 2,630
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Post by Mon-Jas Charan on Jan 27, 2007 14:56:58 GMT -5
NASA to Slam Rocket into the Moon (on Purpose)! By Jennifer Heldmann Special to the SETI Institute posted: 25 January 2007 NASA has bold and visionary plans to send humans to the Moon by 2020 where humans will learn to live and work on another planetary body in our Solar System. Sending people to the Moon isn’t easy, though, and there is a lot that we still don’t know about our closest celestial neighbor. That makes it tough to plan a human mission to the Moon because unlike during the Apollo program of the 1960s, this time we are going to the Moon to stay for a longer period of time. The goal is to learn to live and work on the Moon and then take all of the “lessons learned” from this experience so we can then send humans to Mars by 2030. Mars is an incredibly fascinating planet but is much further away from the Earth compared with the Moon, so NASA plans to use the Moon as a “stepping stone” to Mars. Before we can build a lunar base, though, there are a few important decisions regarding the mission architecture that need to be made. One of those decisions involves resource utilization. Should we use the natural resources that are on the Moon to “live off the land”? If so, what are the resources that might be available on the Moon? One idea is that there may be water ice in the permanently shadowed regions near the poles of the Moon. It is VERY cold in these places and ice may be stable there for billions of years. There is tantalizing and somewhat contradictory data regarding the presence of lunar ice from the Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions to the Moon as well as data from the Arecibo radio telescope and numerical modeling efforts. Water could potentially be used by the astronauts for drinking and bathing but can also be broken apart into hydrogen and oxygen which can be used for rocket fuel. NASA really needs to know if there is lunar water that we might be able to use – and to help answer that question, NASA is going to slam a rocket into the Moon! The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will purposely impact the Moon near the pole to kick up a huge plume of material. This will be analyzed for the presence of water and other water-bearing compounds. The LCROSS mission will use the spent Earth departure upper stage (EDUS) of the launch vehicle and a small shepherding satellite to guide the EDUS to the Moon. LCROSS will blast the permanently dark floor of one of the Moon’s polar craters with the EDUS early in 2009 to test the theory that ancient ice lies buried there. The EDUS is essentially the size of a large sport utility vehicle (SUV) and will impact the Moon at over 5,600 miles per hour! This event will excavate a new crater on the Moon the size of 1/3 of a football field and 16 feet deep. The impact will cause an explosion of material from the crater’s surface to create a plume above the lunar surface (reaching to altitudes of over 30 miles) with enough material to fill the space shuttle cargo bay 10 times! Specialized instruments aboard the shepherding spacecraft will analyze this plume for the presence of water (ice and vapor), hydrocarbons and hydrated materials and will relay this data back to Earth. Then the shepherding spacecraft will also impact the Moon to create a second plume. Telescopes all around the world and in space will also be pointed at the LCROSS impacts, each with special instruments to monitor the gigantic lunar plumes of material that are ejected above the lunar surface. The impacts will be so big that you will be able to observe them with reasonable grade amateur telescopes. This exciting mission is being run out of NASA’s Ames Research Center in California in cooperation with its spacecraft and integration partner, Northrup-Grumman. LCROSS represents one of NASA’s first missions in the return to the Moon and will provide valuable precursor information as we plan to return humans to the lunar surface. More information about the LCROSS mission can be found at lcross.arc.nasa.gov/
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Post by lazlototh on Jan 29, 2007 1:58:20 GMT -5
What if a black hole is a quantum particle on a massive scale?
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Mon-Jas Charan
Message Board Member
"Poena Vigoratus. Pullus cavo vix. Palma , est eternus"
Posts: 2,630
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Post by Mon-Jas Charan on Jan 29, 2007 12:10:42 GMT -5
Pluto-bound Craft Nears Jupiter January 24, 2007 by J. Kelly Beatty
Although it's only been in interplanetary space for a year, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is already well on its way to reaching Pluto in July 2015. The probe is heading outward at 43,000 miles per hour, and it'll get an additional 9,000-mph boost when it encounters Jupiter on February 28th.
That flyby will occur 1.4 million miles from the giant planet, far enough away to avoid a strong dose of the lethal charged particles trapped in its magnetosphere but close enough to study the planet and its moons in detail. New Horizons carries seven science instruments, including three imagers, and they'll make observations of the Jovian system through June.
According to Alan Stern, the mission's leader, "We designed the Jupiter encounter to prove out our planning tools, our simulation capabilities, our spacecraft, and our instrument sensors on a real planetary target."
Launched on January 19, 2006, New Horizons will reach Jupiter in just 13 months. That's a faster trip than that made by any of the seven previous spacecraft to visit the giant planet: Pioneers 10 and 11, Voyagers 1 and 2, Ulysses, Galileo, and Cassini. With the exception of Galileo, which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003, all used the planet's gravity to reach other destinations.
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Post by J'aii-Gun Jiinn on Jan 29, 2007 17:24:21 GMT -5
What if a black hole is a quantum particle on a massive scale? There's a great big one in the middle of our galaxy or so they say.Watched on Nova the other night.Very interesting
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Post by lazlototh on Jan 30, 2007 21:06:46 GMT -5
The central black hole in our galaxy is about 3,000,000 solar masses.... It's sort of quiet right now since there's nothing of interest for it to eat. It is believed every galaxy has a central black hole. Here's the NASA website... www.nasa.gov/
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Post by J'aii-Gun Jiinn on Jan 30, 2007 21:47:06 GMT -5
Nice to know,or do we?Like Pandora's box.
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Post by Leda EmBorr on Jan 31, 2007 21:09:53 GMT -5
It just makes sense to me that all galaxies shouls have a black hole.
I just watched the entire Nova series on string theory, called the Elegant Universe. I had read the book before, but the series (3 episodes) is very enjoyable! It's on DVD.
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