Astronomy and Space

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tenchboy
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by tenchboy » Wed Sep 02, 2020 9:47 pm

Gfamily wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 9:45 pm
tenchboy wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 9:31 pm
Got a western facing window? Have need to be 'just getting up' in the night? Combine the two, have a peep out to the west around 3 or 4am if you're up and about.
Venus as a morning star* just now is absolutely stunning; shining bright like a miniature moon; no wonder, as Lucifer the light-bringer, it played such a part in the communual psychey in days gone by. It is a major object in the sky and much over-looked: it is nothing short of awesome! Pre-light-polution or out on the moors it must have been utterly magnificent.
I would imagine also - in fact I'm certain, that if you marked its position above the horizon just at sun rise - by so many fingers' width at arms-length - that you would be able to spot it during the day the same distance ahead of the sun.
Lots of cool points on offer there!
Ahem, - east facing window for morning planets
Jupiter and Saturn are good in the west in the evening though.
How strange. Ta.
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Gfamily
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by Gfamily » Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:14 am

There's a possible announcement tomorrow of a suggestion of evidence for life on Venus

An article on EarthSky.org that seems to have jumped the gun on an embargo date, then removed, but was Google Cached,

ETA - almost did an LPM on that one...

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/ ... Oo2mS-amoI
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basementer
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by basementer » Mon Sep 14, 2020 6:26 am

Gfamily wrote:
Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:14 am
There's a possible announcement tomorrow of a suggestion of evidence for life on Venus

An article on EarthSky.org that seems to have jumped the gun on an embargo date, then removed, but was Google Cached,

ETA - almost did an LPM on that one...

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/ ... Oo2mS-amoI
I remember when there was discussion of what might have been microbial remnants on a bit of Mars rock, mid to late 1990s, Terry Pratchett said something close to "I want so much for this to be true that I hope the scientists are trying their hardest to prove that it isn't". I couldn't have phrased it better.
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by shpalman » Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:56 am

Well I did find Phosphine Detected In The Atmosphere of Venus

It wouldn't be such a good sign if phosphine were detected in the atmosphere of my lab.
having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by basementer » Thu Oct 01, 2020 2:14 am

Money is just a substitute for luck anyway. - Tom Siddell

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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by jimbob » Thu Oct 01, 2020 6:40 pm

Ah well, it looks as though the paper about the black hole at the centre of the Earth has been retracted now:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31850126/
Have you considered stupidity as an explanation

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Gfamily
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by Gfamily » Sat Oct 03, 2020 2:10 pm

This probably has more information about Space Mission Operating Systems than you need, but it is an interesting read.
https://arstechnica.com/features/2020/1 ... ne-before/
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by shpalman » Tue Oct 06, 2020 11:41 am

Oh god they gave half the physics Nobel to Penrose.
having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by dyqik » Tue Oct 06, 2020 11:59 am

shpalman wrote:
Tue Oct 06, 2020 11:41 am
Oh god they gave half the physics Nobel to Penrose.
When did he do physics?

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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by Gfamily » Wed Nov 18, 2020 11:04 pm

Early tomorrow evening, if it's clear, you can put extend your arm and your fist can cover over 79% of all the moons in the Solar System.

Spoiler:
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by dyqik » Thu Nov 19, 2020 5:16 pm

The Arecibo Telescope can't be repaired after it's last hurricane damage, and will now be decommissioned.

https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=301674

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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by basementer » Thu Nov 19, 2020 8:11 pm

dyqik wrote:
Thu Nov 19, 2020 5:16 pm
The Arecibo Telescope can't be repaired after it's last hurricane damage, and will now be decommissioned.

https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=301674
What a shame.
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by tenchboy » Thu Nov 19, 2020 10:22 pm

with a 900-ton instrument platform hanging 450 feet above
900 tons! that's 30 centurion tanks worth!
(And wiki concurs)
In the pics it looks like two open girder cradles -some large stage lighting gantries- with the technical gubbinry hanging below, wouldn't have said it was more than ten tons.
Them's some cables and pylons!
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by Gfamily » Tue Dec 01, 2020 4:37 pm

dyqik wrote:
Thu Nov 19, 2020 5:16 pm
The Arecibo Telescope can't be repaired after it's last hurricane damage, and will now be decommissioned.

https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=301674
The entire 900tonne instrument platform has now collapsed through the dish

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/12 ... collapsed/

Images
https://www.noticel.com/galeria/2020120 ... e-arecibo/
My avatar was a scientific result that was later found to be 'mistaken' - I rarely claim to be 100% correct
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
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Gfamily
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by Gfamily » Thu Dec 03, 2020 6:40 pm

Gfamily wrote:
Tue Dec 01, 2020 4:37 pm
dyqik wrote:
Thu Nov 19, 2020 5:16 pm
The Arecibo Telescope can't be repaired after it's last hurricane damage, and will now be decommissioned.

https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=301674
The entire 900tonne instrument platform has now collapsed through the dish
Captured on video - static camera followed by a Drone that was inspecting the platform at the time.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1334540065201012737
My avatar was a scientific result that was later found to be 'mistaken' - I rarely claim to be 100% correct
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!

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basementer
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by basementer » Thu Dec 03, 2020 6:47 pm

Gfamily wrote:
Thu Dec 03, 2020 6:40 pm
Gfamily wrote:
Tue Dec 01, 2020 4:37 pm
dyqik wrote:
Thu Nov 19, 2020 5:16 pm
The Arecibo Telescope can't be repaired after it's last hurricane damage, and will now be decommissioned.

https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=301674
The entire 900tonne instrument platform has now collapsed through the dish
Captured on video - static camera followed by a Drone that was inspecting the platform at the time.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1334540065201012737
Someone in the comments had a similar thought to me - this is like having the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse caught on film, it's going to be studied for generations.
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by dyqik » Thu Dec 03, 2020 6:58 pm

basementer wrote:
Thu Dec 03, 2020 6:47 pm
Gfamily wrote:
Thu Dec 03, 2020 6:40 pm
Gfamily wrote:
Tue Dec 01, 2020 4:37 pm


The entire 900tonne instrument platform has now collapsed through the dish
Captured on video - static camera followed by a Drone that was inspecting the platform at the time.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1334540065201012737
Someone in the comments had a similar thought to me - this is like having the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse caught on film, it's going to be studied for generations.
Hmm, I don't think this has anything like the same impact. The Tacoma Narrows bridge was a somewhat unforeseen risk that engineers missed, while this is pretty much what engineers predicted, and why the decision was made to not to attempt to repair the telescope.

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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by basementer » Thu Dec 03, 2020 7:14 pm

Both of them document the sequence in which components successively fail. It's not the sort of experiment that one can ethically carry out at this scale so having footage of the collapse is going to be valuable.
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by dyqik » Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:27 pm

basementer wrote:
Thu Dec 03, 2020 7:14 pm
Both of them document the sequence in which components successively fail. It's not the sort of experiment that one can ethically carry out at this scale so having footage of the collapse is going to be valuable.
True, that's definitely useful. But I doubt this will make it into undergraduate physics lectures in the way that Tacoma Narrows illustrates driven resonant systems.

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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by bolo » Thu Dec 03, 2020 10:01 pm

I knew a guy who was an engineer on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. He worked on the design of the piers, which he proudly said were the only bit that didn't fall down. He was an interesting guy. MrsBolo and I met at his retirement party, in 1998, when he was 92. His family had fled Russia during the revolution, ending up in Shanghai. Then he came to the U.S. for university and had a long career here in civil engineering as an academic and consultant and ... some other stuff. Full of stories.

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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by Boustrophedon » Thu Dec 03, 2020 11:55 pm

Video of the collapse including drone footage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3AASKr ... l=MDxmedia
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by dyqik » Sat Dec 05, 2020 6:53 pm

ISS footage of Hayabusa 2 asteroid sample return capsule reentering the atmosphere.

https://twitter.com/girlandkat/status/1 ... 45859?s=19

A helicopter is currently homing in on its beacon to recover it.

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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by basementer » Sun Dec 06, 2020 6:23 am

:ugeek:
dyqik wrote:
Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:27 pm
basementer wrote:
Thu Dec 03, 2020 7:14 pm
Both of them document the sequence in which components successively fail. It's not the sort of experiment that one can ethically carry out at this scale so having footage of the collapse is going to be valuable.
True, that's definitely useful. But I doubt this will make it into undergraduate physics lectures in the way that Tacoma Narrows illustrates driven resonant systems.
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by lpm » Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:54 pm

BOOM! Did it mean to do that at the end?
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Re: Astronomy and Space

Post by Gfamily » Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:59 pm

It's an X Space rocket
My avatar was a scientific result that was later found to be 'mistaken' - I rarely claim to be 100% correct
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
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