The night sky

[GrahamZA]

Something NeoN and I both share is our love of You are not allowed to view links.Register or Login

Astronomy

. It's the study of the stars and celestial bodies.

I'm a bit sad as here in Cape Town our night sky is darker than the days of 56K. Alright that was a bad analogy, but you see what I'm getting at.

Does anyone else share this?

[NeoN]

Awesome thread!

Been a fan of astronomy for ages now (can't recall when the passion was 1st ignited ). I recall playing at the thought of studying Astronomy, but it's only taught at WITS (and not UJ, where I studied) and soon gave up any real hopes of that actually happening.

With CG in movies/series/games only getting better each year, my love for astronomy grows stronger and stronger (referring ofc to astronomical/celestial material). ^^

Was thinking of getting a telescope at one stage too, but with none of my friends interested (and not knowing anyone who was), that also fell to the way side. :/

Anyway, still been reading up awesome articles thanks to Graham - been neglecting 'em space websites since I started work tho (used to visit 'em daily at the uni).

Final words...
This'll be the perfect place to share news-links on anything stellar, so don't be shy.

[GrahamZA]

Been a fan of astronomy for ages now (can't recall when the passion was 1st ignited ). I recall playing at the thought of studying Astronomy, but it's only taught at WITS (and not UJ, where I studied) and soon gave up any real hopes of that actually happening.

It was an idea I had as well, but didn't do it.

With CG in movies/series/games only getting better each year, my love for astronomy grows stronger and stronger (referring ofc to astronomical/celestial material). ^^

You should try EVE Online. While the game is poop, exploring space is a blast - and it's gorgeous!

Was thinking of getting a telescope at one stage too, but with none of my friends interested (and not knowing anyone who was), that also fell to the way side. :/

Again, same my side. Would still love one but it's useless in CT.

Anyway, still been reading up awesome articles thanks to Graham - been neglecting 'em space websites since I started work tho (used to visit 'em daily at the uni).

I'm doing more research into planet V - actually it's planet 5 so let me rather call it that from now on.

EDIT:
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NASA Rover Finds Clue to Mars' Past And Environment for Life

PASADENA, Calif. -- Rocks examined by NASA's Spirit Mars Rover hold evidence of a wet, non-acidic ancient environment that may have been favorable for life. Confirming this mineral clue took four years of analysis by several scientists.

An outcrop that Spirit examined in late 2005 revealed high concentrations of carbonate, which originates in wet, near-neutral conditions, but dissolves in acid. The ancient water indicated by this find was not acidic.

NASA's rovers have found other evidence of formerly wet Martian environments. However the data for those environments indicate conditions that may have been acidic. In other cases, the conditions were definitely acidic, and therefore less favorable as habitats for life.

[NeoN]

You should try EVE Online. While the game is poop, exploring space is a blast - and it's gorgeous!

That reminds me of You are not allowed to view links.Register or Login

Freelancer

(click name for Wiki page), which I used to play back in the for that same reason. >_< Compared to today's games tho, the graphics look noticeably horrible. :P

[BanzaiBoB]

Love astromony and (related) space exploration.

Winter skies in KZN, where I used to live, were these amazingly clear nights - the stars twinkling like little shards of ice. You could even see the swathe of the milky way on a good evening. And lots of meteor showers. Beautiful stuff!

BTW, the CT astronomical society - something like that - has excursions out to farms away from the loom in CT for star viewing. They have a web site with events. Don't have the link off-hand, but a bit of googling should find it.

[NeoN]

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--> A comet with an atmosphere the size of Jupiter comes close to Earth

"[the comet]...is visiting the inner solar system and may become visible with the naked eye by the end of the month."

Hope we can get a glimpse of this in SA. 8)

(Thanks to Graham for the find)

[GrahamZA]

From You are not allowed to view links.Register or Login

News24

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Mars had a huge sea - study

Paris - A huge, potentially life-giving sea likely covered more than a third of Mars some 3.5 billion years ago, according to a study released on Sunday.

Spread over an area the size of the Atlantic Ocean, it would have straddled the north pole and contained the equivalent of a tenth of the water on Earth.

For decades scientists have argued as to whether the Red Planet once harboured bodies of water big enough to help nourish a true hydrological cycle marked by evaporation and rainfall. Recent evidence suggests as much, but doubts remained.

To dig deeper, Gaetano Di Achille and Brian Hynek of the University of Colorodo in Boulder sifted through huge stores of images collected by Nasa's Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (Mola) in the late 1990s and other more recent European and US satellite-based monitoring systems.

The data was not new, but the researchers were the first to link up all available information on Mars' terrain into a single computer-driven model. The study, published in Nature Geoscience, found 52 river-delta deposits scattered across the planet.

Puzzles

More than half occurred at about the same elevation, and thus probably marked the boundary of the once-massive sea. All of these would have been connected either directly to the ocean, or to its groundwater table along with several large, adjacent lakes.

The scientists calculated that the ancient sea covered 36% of the planet's surface and contained about 124 million cubic kilometres of water.

Even as single-cell life forms were emerging on our planet some 3.5 billion years ago, Mars probably had an Earth-like water cycle including precipitation, runoff, cloud formation, ice formation and groundwater accumulation, they concluded.

In a parallel study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research (Planets), Hynek and colleagues catalogued some 40 000 river valleys on Mars, four times the number previously suspected.

"The abundance of these river valleys required a significant amount of precipitation," Hynek said. "This effectively puts the nail in the coffin regarding the presence of past rainfall on Mars."

Many puzzles, however, still remain.

"One of the main questions we would like to answer is where all of the water on Mars went," said Di Achille.

Missions

Future Mars missions - including Nasa's $485m Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission (Maven), slated for launch in 2013 - may provide clues. The new studies also provide critical leads on where to look for signs of early Martian life.

"On Earth, deltas and lakes are excellent collectors and preservers of signs of past life," said Di Achille. "If life ever arose on Mars, deltas may be the key to unlocking Mars' biological past."

Hynek also noted that long-lived oceans may have provided an environment for microbial life to take hold on Mars.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and Nasa have separately forecast a manned flight to Mars in about three decades.

The Red Planet's distance from Earth varies between 55 million kilometres and more than 400 million kilometres.

[NeoN]

Here's a copy-paste from my post in the series thread, regarding the next huge near-Earth comet... which is Apophis.

This comet is gonna come incredibly close to Earth, passing between Earth and it's geosynchronous orbiting satellites.

During the early morning hours of April 13, 2029, observers in Asia and North Africa will have a chance to witness a rare celestial event as an asteroid, 99942 Apophis, passes within 20,000 miles of Earth.

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--> space.com

Further reading: You are not allowed to view links.Register or Login

--> Wikipedia

[jGLZa]

So... whats a "geosynchronous orbiting satellites"?

[NeoN]

Had to wiki this one so I wouldn't be misinforming....

"A geosynchronous orbit is an orbit around a planet or moon with an orbital period that matches the planet or moon's sidereal rotation period."

"A geosynchronous Satellite is a satellite whose orbit on the Earth repeats regularly over points on the Earth over time."

[jGLZa]

So is the moon one of earths geosynchronous orbiting satellites? If the comet is going to pass in between the earth and the moon, that is helluva close!!!

[NeoN]

Oh, I now see the confusion, my bad. And to clear it up... this is mind-blowing stuff, so brace yourself. >_<

"The average distance from the moon to the Earth is 238,857 miles (384,392 kilometers)."

Which means that the distance "20,000 miles" (32,186.88 kilometers) is a whole lot closer to Earth than the Moon is. The "geosynchronous orbiting satellites" that were referred to in the article are the man-made ones. Now we see just how close it'll pass by us.

[jGLZa]

kay, Im gona start digging and fitting out my bunker this weekend.

The night sky

[BanzaiBoB]

Scientists this week discovered a huge star approximately 300X the mass of our sun!!! Its in a galaxy orbiting our own galaxy, stupidly far away.

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[GrahamZA]

Wow that's crazy! But it does make me envy every solar sci-fi series/movie/manga/novel.