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Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2020 9:47 pm
by tenchboy
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.
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:14 am
by Gfamily
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
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 6:26 am
by basementer
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.
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:56 am
by shpalman
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.
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 2:14 am
by basementer
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 6:40 pm
by jimbob
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/
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 2:10 pm
by Gfamily
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/
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2020 11:41 am
by shpalman
Oh god they gave half the physics Nobel to Penrose.
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2020 11:59 am
by dyqik
shpalman wrote: ↑Tue Oct 06, 2020 11:41 am
Oh god they gave half the physics Nobel to Penrose.
When did he do physics?
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2020 11:04 pm
by Gfamily
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 5:16 pm
by dyqik
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
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 8:11 pm
by basementer
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 10:22 pm
by tenchboy
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!
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2020 4:37 pm
by Gfamily
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 6:40 pm
by Gfamily
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
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 6:47 pm
by basementer
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.
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 6:58 pm
by dyqik
basementer wrote: ↑Thu Dec 03, 2020 6:47 pm
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.
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 7:14 pm
by basementer
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.
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:27 pm
by dyqik
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.
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 10:01 pm
by bolo
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.
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 11:55 pm
by Boustrophedon
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2020 6:53 pm
by dyqik
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.
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2020 6:23 am
by basementer
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.
I concede. You have a point, and, if we eventually meet, a pint.
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:54 pm
by lpm
BOOM! Did it mean to do that at the end?
Re: Astronomy and Space
Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:59 pm
by Gfamily
It's an X Space rocket