Astronomy and Space

[EACLucifer]

Splodey.

clicky

If it 'splodes for more than 3 years, is it really a 'splodey thing?

even bigga 'splosion

[monkey]

Splodey.

clicky

If it 'splodes for more than 3 years, is it really a 'splodey thing?

That did cross my mind.

But the headine said explosion, and I like writing splodey. Pretty sure the astronomer that I heard on the radio earlier described it as an explosion too.

So when does an explosion stop being an explosion?

[jimbob]

Splodey.

clicky

If it 'splodes for more than 3 years, is it really a 'splodey thing?

even bigga 'splosion

Yup, I think, that 30Bn X the average power of the Sun in a volume of only 100 solar systems is pretty splody. 3 years is not long for an shockwave from an explosion to travel about 5x further than Voyager.

[Pishwish]

NASA's Mars Sample Return mission is is already projected to cost $10 billion (and there are many reasons to think that it will cost much, much more.) linky.

[dyqik]

The NanoGrav collaboration have detected a stochastic background of gravitational waves in the universe, via the variations in the timing of pulses from pulsars.

https://nanograv.org/news/2023Announcement

Which means the Unknown Pleasures album cover is relevant to known cosmology.

[Gfamily]

A quick heads-up that the launch of the ESA Euclid telescope is due to be at 16:11 BST (15:11 UT) today.

It can be watched on the ESA youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyNEAEFh-Cc

There are two primary areas of investigation
- Dark Energy.
- Dark Matter.

[shpalman]

Tom Cardy considers Pluto

[dyqik]

XRISM (x-ray telescope) and SLIM (lunar mission) just launched from Japan.

Currently on intermission until the next maneuver.

https://youtu.be/Ej4ZMp4a2xw

[dyqik]

PS, JAXA has the prettiest launch site.

[dyqik]

I got to see the Nancy Grace Roman space telescope being put together today

[Grumble]

Awesome stuff, what’s that going to do then?

[dyqik]

Awesome stuff, what’s that going to do then?

Optical and infrared telescope with 1000x the field of view of Hubble.

[Grumble]

Awesome stuff, what’s that going to do then?

Optical and infrared telescope with 1000x the field of view of Hubble.

So more of a direct replacement/upgrade for Hubble than Webb was?

[dyqik]

Awesome stuff, what’s that going to do then?

Optical and infrared telescope with 1000x the field of view of Hubble.

So more of a direct replacement/upgrade for Hubble than Webb was?

Sort of, but not completely.

[JQH]

Planned attempt to collect samples from Phobos and return them to Earth.

https://www.space.com/mars-moons-phobos ... rWnS1bgOnM

[dyqik]

I just submitted* a billion dollar proposal to build a space telescope.

* I'm a co-I, and the PI is elsewhere and did the actual submitting.

[Grumble]

I just submitted* a billion dollar proposal to build a space telescope.

* I'm a co-I, and the PI is elsewhere and did the actual submitting.

Good luck! What’s it for?

[discovolante]

I just submitted* a billion dollar proposal to build a space telescope.

* I'm a co-I, and the PI is elsewhere and did the actual submitting.

Pfft, that's only £800,000,000

[Martin Y]

I just submitted* a billion dollar proposal to build a space telescope.

* I'm a co-I, and the PI is elsewhere and did the actual submitting.

Pfft, that's only £800,000,000

I idly wondered, just to put it in perspective, how much that works out at per head for the US. With a bit of rounding it's a very pleasing $ tree fiddy.

[dyqik]

I just submitted* a billion dollar proposal to build a space telescope.

* I'm a co-I, and the PI is elsewhere and did the actual submitting.

Good luck! What’s it for?

A new far-infrared observatory, which would be the only way to observe in this wavelength range in the 2030s. We currently also can't observe in this range at the moment, since SOFIA was shutdown.

[Pishwish]

SpaceX have launched their starship superheavy. Appears successful so far, although the booster blew up shortly after stage separation. Will need to see if starship makes it to Hawaii.

[Pishwish]

Spoke too soon. Looks like the flight termination system activated and bits of starship will be coming down near the Turks and Caicos islands. So it looks like the raptor engines worked (at least up to stage separation), hot staging probably worked, the flight termination systems worked ( assuming they had valid reasons to fire.) It will be interesting to see if the pad took any damage and why both stages were destroyed. It's a shame the heat shield wasn't tested and that there won't be much recovered hardware to examine.

[Gfamily]

This is how it was being done 50 years ago

A Youtube stream (about 30 minutes) on the Apollo Guidance Computer. It goes fast, so you might want to pause and replay bits - but it's an impressive piece of work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-5aT2zSfSA

[dyqik]

Some of youse might be in the right place to see Betelgeuse disappear (well, reduce in brightness by 93%) for ten minutes on Dec 12th. - https://www.asteroidoccultation.com/202 ... _82912.htm

You can bring it back by saying its name three times.

[Gfamily]

A heads-up for this Friday and Saturday night if it's clear, that there may be an exceptional meteor shower from the Andromedids this year.

These are a shower that are associated with Comet Biela, The comet itself broke up in the mid 19th century, but this Friday/Saturday we pass through the path of its passage in 1649 - and this might lead to a shower with several hundred meteors visible per hour. The radiant is in the constellation Andromeda - but the meteors may be sighted anywhere in the sky.

The peak is expected for Saturday, but it might be worth looking for them on the Friday as well. Good luck with the weather.