In keeping with our ongoing love and fascination with outer space and the universe, we thought we would take a moment and share something amazing that will absolutely blow your mind and melt your brain at the same time…once upon a time scientists pointed the best telescope the Hubble at what appeared to be nothing..and…..were they ever wrong!
This past Saturday November 26 2011, NASA sent into space an Atlas V rocket that carried a payload of a totally Awesome laboratory onboard the Mars rover “Curiosity” whose job it will be to explore the bottom of a 100 mile wide crater that is believed to hold the key to unlocking and discovering the possibilities of life on Mars. Curiosity will spend its time questing for organic life…watch as Curiosity soars to new hieghts as she reaches the vastness of space without a hitch 
If Darth Vader and the Emperor shared an intergalactic condo, being as shady as they are, they would likely make there homestead in the darkest place in space…Hehehe, we will out fox those Jedi rebels yet!…Don’t think so Darth, the jig is up amigo! Earthly Astronomers have now discovered a super dark planet, likely Darth’s secret hideout, though this has not been confirmed as the planet is basically a black hole in space – no really, Darth’s hang out (or TrES-b2) reflects less than 1% of the light from the star that it orbits – it is blacker than black and can barley be seen from space. Earthly scientists are marveled at how it absorbs so much light without giving back – perhaps Darth’s new hangout is entirely made of black coal or some mineral entirely unknown to us – Oh the mysteries of outer space… she is amazing, always keeping us on the edge of our seats, we marvel at your vast incredible greatness Wonder how Darth sees to clean his condo?…..Vader vision?
Strolling through sci.space.news, I came across an article with an enormous storm going across the planet Saturn. A storm that is still going on today that has lasted for months! Check out the amazing image below.
Link to Article >
Follow the link to hear audio as well! Hear Audio
In today’s era of high-tech advancement and achievements with inventions like the electric hybrid car and ultra thin light weight super powerful hand held computer touch screen tablets like the iPad 2, it would and should not come as a surprise to many that our advancements don’t stop within the field of micro-computing, but indeed extend far into the exciting and adventurous unknown realms of space travel as well. In today’s busy worldly age, our media streams from reporters are largely filled with the happening of daily life here on earth and very seldom do we hear anything about the progress being made in the field of space travel. Despite our unawareness, thankfully due to the vision of the people and teams at Virgin Galactic, the goal of eventual commercial space travel for you and me is very much alive and well. Not to discredit the incredibly fantastic exploration missions or technological advancements made by NASA and others who have made it possible to land on the Moon and build the international space station, the teams at Virgin Galactic have only improved and opened up the possibility that the average man may one day be able to travel into space. Using design principles from NASA’s space shuttle designs coupled with new aerodynamic principles in composite design, Virgin Galactic has produced a light -weight space shuttle that can be used over and over with a very quick turn around time and it is capable of soft runway touchdowns just like an airplane. The VSS Enterprise, as it is lovingly named, is able to maintain a solid and stable atmospheric re-entry profile through the use of tail section that is rotated into a upward 65 degree angle to the fuselage after which at around 33,500 feet the pilots rotate the tail back down so that the ship is returned to it’s glider shape and can then glide to finish with a nicely controlled soft touch landing.
On May 4th 2011 the VSS Enterprise completed her first successful test flight of her “feathered” re-entry configuration over the skies of the Mojave Desert in CA., the Pilots Pete Siebold and Clint Nichols climbed to an altitude of 51,500 attached to the aircraft carrier WhitKnight2 and were then released activating the Enterprise’s “feather” configuration and falling near vertical at 15,500 feet/minute for almost one minute and 15 seconds and then at 33,500 the pilots switch the VSS Enterprise back to glide mode and she had a nice smooth soft touchdown on the runway. The test was a complete success and this news only serves to show that commercial space travel is cost viable and possible with a re-usable vehicle like the VSS Enterprise. With 7 flight under her wings since she was commissioned in December 2009, the Enterprise is sure to be seeing the vastness of space very soon… Stay tuned!
A team of planet hunters from the University of California (UC) Santa Cruz, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington has announced the discovery of a planet with three times the mass of Earth orbiting a nearby star at a distance that places it squarely in the middle of the star’s “habitable zone.”
This discovery was the result of more than a decade of observations using the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, one of the world’s largest optical telescopes. The research, sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation, placed the planet in an area where liquid water could exist on the planet’s surface. If confirmed, this would be the most Earth-like exoplanet yet discovered and the first strong case for a potentially habitable one.
To astronomers, a “potentially habitable” planet is one that could sustain life, not necessarily one where humans would thrive. Habitability depends on many factors, but having liquid water and an atmosphere are among the most important.
“Our findings offer a very compelling case for a potentially habitable planet,” said Vogt. “The fact that we were able to detect this planet so quickly and so nearby tells us that planets like this must be really common.”
Is this our ticket to living on different planets? Sounds exciting! You can find the discussion on sci.space.news or read the full article here.
Apparently the UN doesn’t share Stephen Hawking’s view about contact with extra terrestrial life and has appointed Mazlan Othman as the new Space Ambassador. Now I’m not sure what the fine folks in alt.aliens.they-are-here think about this development, but I for one think we need to have our bases covered. Sure its highly unlikely that any species capable of interstellar flight would want to talk to us for any reason beyond strip mining our planet. Sure its less likely now that we’ll be found as radio transmissions are of less power and won’t penetrate as far into space as they had in the past. There is always the chance that if they exist and want to be nice they could be. Besides you could always vote for Kodos if they take over the planet.
Hailing frequencies open – point your browsers and TVs to NASA TV. for the next spacecraft launch and landing as the International Space Station gets a new commander….
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NASA TV TO PROVIDE COVERAGE OF NEXT SOYUZ LANDING, LAUNCH
HOUSTON — The return to Earth of three International Space Station
crew members and the prelaunch activities, launch and docking of the
station’s newest trio of residents will be broadcast on NASA
Television during the next several weeks.
After almost six months aboard the orbital laboratory, Expedition 24
Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov, NASA Flight Engineer Tracy
Caldwell Dyson and Russian Flight Engineer Mikhail Kornienko are
scheduled to land their Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft in southern
Kazakhstan on Sept. 23 (Sept. 24 in Kazakhstan).
Russian cosmonaut and Soyuz Commander Alexander Kaleri, NASA Flight
Engineer Scott Kelly and Russian Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka will
launch aboard the Soyuz TMA-01M on Oct. 7 (Oct. 8 in Kazakhstan) from
the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They will join NASA astronaut
and Expedition 25 Commander Doug Wheelock, NASA Flight Engineer
Shannon Walker and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, who have been
aboard the station since June 18.
The coverage begins with a NASA TV Video File feed at 11 a.m. CDT
Sept. 17. The footage will include the prelaunch news conference with
Kelly, Kaleri and Skripochka at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
in Star City, Russia, and their ceremonial visit to lay flowers at
the Kremlin Wall in Red Square in Moscow.
A change of command ceremony in which Skvortsov will hand over command
of the station to Wheelock will be conducted at 4:05 p.m. Sept. 22.
It will be replayed during NASA TV’s International Space Station
Update at 10 a.m. Sept. 23 and during landing coverage that evening.
The full schedule of the landing, launch and docking coverage that
will air on NASA TV’s public and media channels is (all times are
CDT):
Sept. 17, Friday
11 a.m. — Video File feed of the Expedition 25 prelaunch news
conference at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City and
tour of Red Square in Moscow
Sept. 22, Wednesday
4:05 p.m. — Expedition 24/25 change of command ceremony
Sept. 23, Thursday
4:45 p.m. — Expedition 24 farewells and hatch closure (hatch closure
scheduled at 5:20 p.m.)
8:15 p.m. — Expedition 24 undocking coverage (undocking scheduled at
8:34 p.m.)
10:30 p.m. — Expedition 24 deorbit burn and landing coverage (deorbit
burn scheduled at 11:03 p.m., landing in Kazakhstan scheduled at
11:55 p.m.)
Sept. 24, Friday
1 p.m. — Video File feed of Expedition 24 post-landing activities and
interview with Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson
Sept. 27, Monday
11 a.m. — Video File feed of Expedition 25 farewell activities at the
Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City (recorded Sept. 25)
Oct. 4, Monday
11 a.m. — Video File feed of Expedition 25 prelaunch activities and
Soyuz TMA-01M rocket mating in Baikonur
Oct. 5, Tuesday
11 a.m. — Video File feed of the Expedition 25 Soyuz TMA-01M rollout
to the launch pad in Baikonur
Oct. 6, Wednesday
4 p.m. — Video File feed of the Expedition 25 final prelaunch news
conference and state commission meeting in Baikonur
Oct. 7, Thursday
4:30 p.m. — Video feed of the Expedition 25 crew final prelaunch
activities in Baikonur
5:15 p.m. — Expedition 25 launch coverage (launch scheduled at 6:10
p.m., followed by launch replays)
9 p.m. — Video File feed of the Expedition 25 prelaunch activities,
launch and post-launch interviews
Oct. 9, Saturday
6:30 p.m. — Expedition 25 docking coverage (docking scheduled at 7:01
p.m. followed by the post-docking news conference)
9:30 p.m. — Expedition 25 hatch opening and welcoming ceremony (hatch
opening scheduled at 10:01 p.m., followed by the welcoming ceremony)
Oct. 10, Sunday
12 a.m. — Video File feed of the Expedition 25 docking, hatch opening
and welcoming ceremony
For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For more information about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
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Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a fan of science and the places that it will get us. I agree with Hawking that we need to colonize other planets (can’t keep all the eggs in one basket as it were) especially as we seem to be racing though all the resources we have on this big ball of water and rock we live on. To get to these places will require some hard work and a reliance on a number of people smarter then I to do the number crunching. The physicists will need to work with a number of variables to figure out how to get us from point A to point C without getting crushed to smithereens by an asteroid or consumed by a black hole at point B.
All this being said, people discussing physics are not without some humor or infighting:
Original post~
“I’ve asked this in some of these groups before but didn’t
follow through, so I’m asking again. IMO the speed of light is
constant relative to its *point of emission*. So if an object in
space is moving “at” 1K miles per second (but relative to what?)
and emits light in all directions the light will have a velocity
of 186K miles per second relative to that point in space but the
light moving in the same dirction as the object which emitted it
will have a velocity of 185K miles per second relative to that
object, and light moving in the opposite direction will have a
velocity of 187K miles per second relative to the object.That’s my impression of it so far, but how could we tell what
an object’s velocity is relative to a stationary point in space?
How could we know if anything is “stationary” in space?”
and then a few posts down we have this:
Y.Porat – “see my threads about it”
Inertial – “Don’t bother looking .. porat is full of crap”
dlzc – “He can’t possibly be full of crap. With the frequent expositions of
fecal matter, there has to be some void space.”
Ahh the joys of the spirited discussion. For this and more make sure to check out the sci.physics threads. As for the above discussion I think this picture sums it up best:
I thought this would be of some interest. I never know whats going on out there beyond earth’s atmosphere. Posted by baa… in sci.space.news
Two Small Asteroids to Pass Close by Earth on September 8, 2010
NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office
September 7, 2010
Two asteroids, several meters in diameter and in unrelated orbits, will pass within the Moon’s distance of Earth on Wednesday, September 8th. The Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson Arizona discovered both objects on the morning of September 5 during their routine monitoring of the skies. The Minor Planet Center in Cambridge Massachusetts first received the observations Sunday morning, determined preliminary orbits and concluded that both objects would pass within the distance of the Moon about three days after their discovery. Near Earth asteroid 2010 RX30 is estimated to be 10 to 20 meters in size and will pass within 0.6 lunar distances of Earth (about 248,000 km) at 9:51 Greenwich standard time (5:51 am EDT) Wednesday. The second object, 2010 RF12, estimated to be 6 to 14 meters in size will pass within 0.2 lunar distances (79,000 km) a few hours later at 21:12 Greenwich standard time (5:12 pm EDT). Both objects should be observable near closest approach with moderate sized amateur telescopes. Although neither of these object has a chance of hitting Earth, a ten meter-sized near-Earth asteroid from the undiscovered population of about 50 million would be expected to pass almost daily within a lunar distance, and one might strike Earth’s atmosphere about every ten years on average.
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news169.html