Space news and Exploration II

[ScienceRocks]

The first one was getting long so I made a second one I hope you all enjoy.

Link back to the first one
http://www.usmessageboard.com/science-and-technology/251426-space-exploration-thread-37.html


Star next door may host a 'superhabitable' world
15:58 31 January 2014 by Jeff Hecht
For similar stories, visit the Astrobiology Topic Guide

Star next door may host a 'superhabitable' world - space - 31 January 2014 - New Scientist

Earth may be our home, but another planet even cosier for life could be orbiting the star next door. A detailed analysis of what might make planets suitable for life says that Alpha Centauri B, the star closest to our sun, would be the perfect star to host a "superhabitable" planet – a world of islands, shallow seas and gentle slopes, where the conditions needed to support a diverse array of life forms would persist for up to 10 billion years. But the near-paradise would come at a cost to visitors from Earth: the pull of gravity would be about one-quarter stronger than on our home turf.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

You are aware of course that Obama with support of the Democrats stripped NASA of anyway to reach orbit or space? We must hire private enterprise to deliver materials to the space station and must use Russia to send people into space.

We have no space vehicle and no plans to make another. Ohh did I mention that Obama and the democrats cut NASA's budget to the bone?

 

[SmedlyButler]

You are aware of course that Obama with support of the Democrats stripped NASA of anyway to reach orbit or space? We must hire private enterprise to deliver materials to the space station and must use Russia to send people into space.

We have no space vehicle and no plans to make another. Ohh did I mention that Obama and the democrats cut NASA's budget to the bone?

Where's the money to come from? Oh yeah it's all Obama's fault. How about taking a few billion from the military's 700b.? After all with a Nasa budget of around 17b, 2 or 3b would be a real shot in the arm.Congress got the will to do that? Do you Sarge?

"A NASA authorization bill drafted by the Republican majority of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology proposes to slash NASA's funding to $16.6 billion for 2014 — $300 million less than it received in 2013, and $1.1 billion less than President Obama requested for NASA in 2014. The bill — which authorizes spending levels but provides no actual funding — would roll back NASA’s funding to a level $1.2 billion less than its 2012 budget."

LINK: Space.com

 

[Old Rocks]

OK, where are the GOP bills to add funds to NASA? Same place their bills to fund the study of the affects of global warming are.

 

[SmedlyButler]

The first one was getting long so I made a second one I hope you all enjoy.

Link back to the first one
http://www.usmessageboard.com/science-and-technology/251426-space-exploration-thread-37.html


Star next door may host a 'superhabitable' world
15:58 31 January 2014 by Jeff Hecht
For similar stories, visit the Astrobiology Topic Guide

Star next door may host a 'superhabitable' world - space - 31 January 2014 - New Scientist

Earth may be our home, but another planet even cosier for life could be orbiting the star next door. A detailed analysis of what might make planets suitable for life says that Alpha Centauri B, the star closest to our sun, would be the perfect star to host a "superhabitable" planet – a world of islands, shallow seas and gentle slopes, where the conditions needed to support a diverse array of life forms would persist for up to 10 billion years. But the near-paradise would come at a cost to visitors from Earth: the pull of gravity would be about one-quarter stronger than on our home turf.

You'd think that even with a modified Drake equation and 300 billion stars in our galaxy there would be thousands of civilizations more advanced than ours. Fermi's Question; Where is everybody"

 

[SmedlyButler]

OK, where are the GOP bills to add funds to NASA? Same place their bills to fund the study of the affects of global warming are.

"A NASA authorization bill drafted by the Republican majority of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology proposes to slash NASA's funding to $16.6 billion for 2014 — $300 million less than it received in 2013, and $1.1 billion less than President Obama requested for NASA in 2014. The bill — which authorizes spending levels but provides no actual funding — would roll back NASA’s funding to a level $1.2 billion less than its 2012 budget."

 

[SmedlyButler]

Also I was visiting this thread partly to get away from politics for a bit. Thx a lot.

 

[Old Rocks]

OK, let's have a discussion about Fermi's question. Also about what a habital planet really means. Seems to me, from the little I know about biology, that if we landed on an advanced world, one in which life had reached about the same level as on ours, that the first thing that would happen to the exploreres, is that they would die of massive allergy attacks with the first breath of that planets air.

I was on base, and in uniform, when we stopped those Soviet ships off of Cuba. Ever spend a day wondering if you would see the flash of the bomb that killed you? Perhaps advanced intelliangent life forms are self eliminating.

Then when one review the PT extinciton event, perhaps planets eliminate a significant proportion of their lifeforms on a regular basis to prevent advanced lifeforms. And, last, perhaps advanced civilizations simple develop a code against interfering with the development of primitive intelligences.

 

[SmedlyButler]

OK, let's have a discussion about Fermi's question. Also about what a habital planet really means. Seems to me, from the little I know about biology, that if we landed on an advanced world, one in which life had reached about the same level as on ours, that the first thing that would happen to the exploreres, is that they would die of massive allergy attacks with the first breath of that planets air.

I was on base, and in uniform, when we stopped those Soviet ships off of Cuba. Ever spend a day wondering if you would see the flash of the bomb that killed you? Perhaps advanced intelliangent life forms are self eliminating.

Then when one review the PT extinciton event, perhaps planets eliminate a significant proportion of their lifeforms on a regular basis to prevent advanced lifeforms. And, last, perhaps advanced civilizations simple develop a code against interfering with the development of primitive intelligences.

Well you definitely wouldn't remove your helmet to take a whiff of the atmosphere.
And all advanced civilizations must at some point develop the technological capacity to self destruct.

And extinction-level cataclysmic events are probably relatively common. Until we have the ability to intercept sizable asteroids we'll be continuously at risk.

And maybe a StarTrek like "Prime Directive" exists in some quadrants.

Still with up to 500 billion galaxies in our universe, and with up to 17 billion earth sized planets in the milky way alone (just try to wrap your head around those staggering numbers, I can't) I think the question is valid, "Where is Everyone?"

 

[dilloduck]

OK, let's have a discussion about Fermi's question. Also about what a habital planet really means. Seems to me, from the little I know about biology, that if we landed on an advanced world, one in which life had reached about the same level as on ours, that the first thing that would happen to the exploreres, is that they would die of massive allergy attacks with the first breath of that planets air.

I was on base, and in uniform, when we stopped those Soviet ships off of Cuba. Ever spend a day wondering if you would see the flash of the bomb that killed you? Perhaps advanced intelliangent life forms are self eliminating.

Then when one review the PT extinciton event, perhaps planets eliminate a significant proportion of their lifeforms on a regular basis to prevent advanced lifeforms. And, last, perhaps advanced civilizations simple develop a code against interfering with the development of primitive intelligences.

Well you definitely wouldn't remove your helmet to take a whiff of the atmosphere.
And all advanced civilizations must at some point develop the technological capacity to self destruct.

And extinction-level cataclysmic events are probably relatively common. Until we have the ability to intercept sizable asteroids we'll be continuously at risk.

And maybe a StarTrek like "Prime Directive" exists in some quadrants.

Still with up to 500 billion galaxies in our universe, and with up to 17 billion earth sized planets in the milky way alone (just try to wrap your head around those staggering numbers, I can't) I think the question is valid, "Where is Everyone?"

The answer could be as simple as " they are all here". Large numbers don't ensure inevitability.

 

[SmedlyButler]

"The answer could be as simple as " they are all here". Large numbers don't ensure inevitability."

That could be the answer. And because of the astronomically low probability of that being the case, if you could prove it you would also be providing incontrovertible proof for the existence of God. In my estimation anyway.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Kepler-34b Helps Explain How Circumbinary Exoplanets Form

Kepler-34b Helps Explain How Circumbinary Exoplanets Form | Astronomy | Sci-News.com

Jan 31, 2014 by Sci-News.com

Researchers reporting in the Astrophysical Journal Letters have found that the majority of circumbinary planets – planets that orbit two stars – were actually formed much further away from their binary stars and then migrated to their current locations.

There are few environments more extreme than a binary star system in which planet formation can occur.

Powerful gravitational perturbations from the two stars on the rocky building blocks of planets lead to destructive collisions that grind down the material.

To shed light on the formation process of circumbinary planets, lead author Dr Stefan Lines of Bristol University and his colleagues used a sophisticated model that calculates the effect of gravity and physical collisions on and between one million planetary building blocks.

They carried out three computer simulations: two of a circumbinary disk representative of the Kepler-34 system and one of a control simulation around a single star.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

The first one was getting long so I made a second one I hope you all enjoy.

Link back to the first one
http://www.usmessageboard.com/science-and-technology/251426-space-exploration-thread-37.html


Star next door may host a 'superhabitable' world
15:58 31 January 2014 by Jeff Hecht
For similar stories, visit the Astrobiology Topic Guide

Star next door may host a 'superhabitable' world - space - 31 January 2014 - New Scientist

Earth may be our home, but another planet even cosier for life could be orbiting the star next door. A detailed analysis of what might make planets suitable for life says that Alpha Centauri B, the star closest to our sun, would be the perfect star to host a "superhabitable" planet – a world of islands, shallow seas and gentle slopes, where the conditions needed to support a diverse array of life forms would persist for up to 10 billion years. But the near-paradise would come at a cost to visitors from Earth: the pull of gravity would be about one-quarter stronger than on our home turf.

You'd think that even with a modified Drake equation and 300 billion stars in our galaxy there would be thousands of civilizations more advanced than ours. Fermi's Question; Where is everybody"

For the longest time, even we here were unaware of all the other people on the planet. Yet not being aware of them didn't mean they didn't exist.

Could simply be (and this is one of the things that really bums me out,) that our knowledge pf physics is correct, and there's no easy way to get around ala warp drive. So everyone's bound to sub-light velocities making interstellar travel impractical. If that's the case, 'everyone' may simply be staying at home and improving things for themselves where ever they started instead of expanding and colonizing.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Stay in die if we do stay. There's a great amount of resources within our own solar system.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Only die out if we don't learn to get along and invest in things that don't kill the planet. No reason planets can't sustain life permanently (or until they die as their stars change.) If we perpetuate the notion that we have to venture out to survive then there's much less incentive to take care of the planet if we instead just migrate to a less screwed up one.

 

[ScienceRocks]

expansion is the best way to grow the worlds economy. Of course I don't hold out much hope for people like you understanding this. The resources within our solar system alone would do far more to improve our planet then staying in waiting for our death.

There's not enough resources on earth to bring everyone up. You know how we can do that??? Education, science and expanding into space collecting the resources.

You really think standing on our heads is going to do a damn thing?

 

[ScienceRocks]

Humanity is the only species capable of insuring our survival in the long term. By spreading outwards we up our odds.

We built this country based on expansion, education and science.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Neg for that?

Space news and... 02-04-2014 05:20 AM Matthew Go suck a cock you anti-human trash

'Anti-human' for proposing we make things better for us right here before treating planets like they're a dime a dozen and just discarding old ones for pristine new ones? Mmkay.

 

[SmedlyButler]

These Cassini Saturn Photos are stunningly beautiful. But what the heck is that hexagonal gaseous structure at it's north pole all about It's counter-intuitive. Long term structures like that should be more or less circular, or at at least elliptical shouldn't they. How can something like the coriolis force produce this? I don't even know if that's one of the forces involved but it sure is a strange atmospheric phenomenon. Man, to me these pics alone are worth the price of admission. Can't wait for the James Webb to come online.

LINK: Bravo!

 

[ScienceRocks]

Kepler finds a very wobbly planet

Kepler finds a very wobbly planet

(Phys.org) —Imagine living on a planet with seasons so erratic you would hardly know whether to wear Bermuda shorts or a heavy overcoat. That is the situation on a weird, wobbly world found by NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope.

The planet, designated Kepler-413b, precesses, or wobbles, wildly on its spin axis, much like a child's top. The tilt of the planet's spin axis can vary by as much as 30 degrees over 11 years, leading to rapid and erratic changes in seasons. In contrast, Earth's rotational precession is 23.5 degrees over 26,000 years. Researchers are amazed that this far-off planet is precessing on a human timescale.

Kepler 413-b is located 2,300 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. It circles a close pair of orange and red dwarf stars every 66 days. The planet's orbit around the binary stars appears to wobble, too, because the plane of its orbit is tilted 2.5 degrees with respect to the plane of the star pair's orbit. As seen from Earth, the wobbling orbit moves up and down continuously.