The thread for space cadets!

[Winner]

How can a frozen planet be considered to orbit within the habitable zone? Maybe I don't really know what that term specifically refers to.

Well, as it is commonly understood it refers to a zone around the star where liquid water on planetary surfaces is possible under the right conditions.

In our Solar System, three planets are in/at the fringe of the habitable zone: Venus (likely on the inner end of the habitable zone); Earth and Mars (within the habitable zone). However, the specific circumstances concerning the size, physical characteristics and atmospheric composition caused two of the three to be not habitable.

Venus because of its weird rotation and the lack of magnetic field; Mars because it was too small to hold on an atmosphere dense enough to remain habitable for more than a few hundred million years.

So, the fact that a planet orbits within the star's habitable zone doesn't mean that it actually is habitable - it may be a hothouse hell like Venus or frozen desert like Mars, and who knows what else.

 

[peter grimes]

Well, as it is commonly understood it refers to a zone around the star where liquid water on planetary surfaces is possible under the right conditions.

....

So, the fact that a planet orbits within the star's habitable zone doesn't mean that it actually is habitable - it may be a hothouse hell like Venus or frozen desert like Mars, and who knows what else.

But, but, but can't liquid water exist on Jupiter given the right conditions of pressure, temperature, and volume? I'm clearly missing something here. Imma gonna go readin'...

 

[Winner]

But, but, but can't liquid water exist on Jupiter given the right conditions of pressure, temperature, and volume? I'm clearly missing something here. Imma gonna go readin'...

We're speaking of surface water, which implies the existence of a surface

In any case, "habitable zone" does not have an exact definition, and it is not meant to be scientifically precise. It's a sort of a helpful simplification.

 

[Winner]

SpaceX has managed to "land" its lower stage in the ocean.


Link to video.

Also:

 

[Crezth]

Still relevant: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/b...udget-as-far-as-americans-think/#.U15AEvmSwm8

I love the idea that a good number of Americans think NASA hoovers up an enormous quantity of tax dollars.

 

[peter grimes]

To be fair, a few billion dollars is more than some Americans see in a year.

 

[LamaGT]

To be fair, a few billion dollars is more than some Americans see in a year.

True, people just don't realize the costs of running a government, but that doesn't mean that politicians should bow to the will of ignorant people.

 

[El_Machinae]

To be fair, a few billion dollars is more than some Americans see in a year.

Yeah, it's a weird mixture. $50/person per year ain't all that much. But a few billion is a lot.

Some government programs are just spent best as a defined portion of the economy (instead of a defined spending level). So, for example, if there's a military threat, you'll want to spend enough to minimize that threat, whether it's 5% or 50% of the economy. Science, environmental mitigation etc. are commonly 'better invested' as a stable number or ratio, since they're designed to 'grow the pot' then they require more and more total money as time goes on, but this money can be gained through economic growth.

So, a few billion is "a lot". So you're asking the question, "how do we make everyone's lives better if we only have a few billion to spend?"

 

[timtofly]

Stop giving it away to other governments whether directly or indirectly.

 

[peter grimes]

I love the idea that a good number of Americans think NASA hoovers up an enormous quantity of tax dollars.

Even if NASA did Hoover up an enormous quantity, isn't that money spent right here in the USA, paying the salaries of engineers, technicians, researchers, and thousands (millions?) of ancillary support jobs? Like, basically, NOT sending the money to foreign govs, as some people worry

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Although we do pay Russia 20m per ride to the ISS but thats only because congress has been too shortsighted to fund our own program adequately.

 

[timtofly]

I would be happy to see more money spent on the US space program. I am not even worried about giving money away to foreign interest. If we spend more at home, it should not because we collect more money via taxes, but spend less elsewhere and budget what we have wisely.

 

[Samson]

Now THIS looks like a space ship

Inside the SpaceX Dragon V2

 

[Winner]

SpaceX - good marketing makes success twice more likely.

 

[Kaitzilla]

I haven't been keeping up with OT's #1 Thread lately.


The ultimate universe simulation!
2000 years to make on a PC
http://news.discovery.com/space/gal...-simulation-recreates-our-universe-140507.htm

Link to video.

I can only assume on that scale that the explosions are Supernova or Jets from Black Holes pushing out bubbles of matter/gas.


Also, someone is taking pictures of exoplanets this year with a ground-based telescope in Chile.
Shouldn't that be impossible?
http://www.universetoday.com/107854/super-sensitive-camera-captures-a-direct-image-of-an-exoplanet/


The planet in the bottom right is Beta Pictoris b, 63 light years away.

“Some day, there will be an instrument that will look a lot like GPI, on a telescope in space. And the images and spectra that will come out of that instrument will show a little blue dot that is another Earth.”

– Bruce Macintosh, GPI team leader

Shut up and take my money!

 

[peter grimes]

Why do you think it should be impossible? Which physical limits does this exceed?

 

[Kaitzilla]

Why do you think it should be impossible? Which physical limits does this exceed?

Well, I thought only telescopes in space could do such a thing
The atmosphere has dust. And heat wavering making the stars twinkle. And light pollution.
A ground telescope taking a picture of a planet 370 trillion miles away just very much surprised me.

 

[timtofly]

It is an 8m telescope, but the real ability is in the GPI camera that is taking the picture.

In the simulation the "explosions" technically do not spew out gas and matter. Although that "matter" may be what they call dark matter if it did spew out matter. The affects we see are the total of the light waves and gravitational waves as they expand out from the reaction of clusters of light and matter. Theoretically matter cannot be created, but it can be re-arranged.

The sun does that on a daily basis. IMO those large burst of energy we see would be like creating a nuclear bomb of a trillion galaxies with billions of stars and light the fuse. Anything left behind would be the birth of new galaxies and new stars. IMO it would seem that black holes may work like the sun does in a solar system. It is the mega star the galaxy rotates around.

The most interesting thing from the video, is that they demonstrated that the universe did not start at a single point, but it begs to question how we will ever see light from further away than the 14 billion l/y view we have given ourselves? If our window keeps expanding, and humans loose the current knowledge we have, and humans have to start over, they may have a much smaller window than we have now. Could it be that we have always existed in a uniform 14 billion l/y space and it will always seem like it is expanding. but never does? That may fit if we are just a bubble inside or beside another bubble in a multi (bubble) verse.

 

[uppi]

Well, I thought only telescopes in space could do such a thing
The atmosphere has dust. And heat wavering making the stars twinkle. And light pollution.
A ground telescope taking a picture of a planet 370 trillion miles away just very much surprised me.

Adaptive optics and big lasers to create a reference "star" make is possible to correct for the effects of the atmosphere. Once these effects are eliminated, ground based telescopes have an advantage, because you can build them much larger.

 

[Winner]

Have you seen the new Interstellar trailer?


Link to video.

Is it just me, or are they trying to present a semi-accurate picture of a 'warp bubble' at the end? Even with a pit stop at Saturn, presumably to harvest anti-matter from the magnetic field.