Kepler Probe Begins To Find Exoplanets In Habitable Zone (And other cool cosmology stuff)

[stryper]

River discovered by Cassini on Titan. 

 

 

http://www.voanews.com/content/cassini-probe-sees-nile-like-river-on-saturn-moon/1563811.html

[Thought2Much]

River discovered by Cassini on Titan. 

 

 

http://www.voanews.com/content/cassini-probe-sees-nile-like-river-on-saturn-moon/1563811.html

 

Nice.

[bornagainathiest]

^{Two super-Earth's, just 12 light-years away.}

 

^{http://phl.upr.edu/press-releases}

 

^{So, we're seeing them as they were in 2000.}

 

Plenty of room for a smaller planet in the habitable zone, between E and F.

 

 

BAA

[stryper]

something on getting there. 

 

http://news.discovery.com/space/mission-to-mars-could-cause-brain-damage-130102.html

 

Go figure.....space kills humans.. who'da thunk it.  

 

 

EDIT:

 

So what about an Avatar or Matrix style thing that allows for shared consciousness with a robot that can survive in space.  Or perhaps an outright transfer of consciousness to another body????

[bornagainathiest]

Billions!

 

http://www.caltech.edu/content/planets-abound

 

Thanks,

 

BAA.

[alpha centauri]

Awesome thread that I just started reading yesterday and completed today. I am fascinated by this wonderful universe and am thankful that many of you are as well. It's a great truth we can enjoy and share, much more true than the make-believe things we once believed in (often times merely out of fear, more than a sense of appreciation or wonder).

 

I throughly enjoyed watching this series on YouTube

, along with Carl Sagan's old (but still captivating) series "Cosmos."

 

I also feel our expenditures on exploring the world around us and off our planet are woefully inadequate. It's a travesty that far more money is spent on religion than on truly making our world a better place, or exploring other worlds. I hope we evolve beyond this superstitous phase in the not-too-distant future.

[Ouroboros]

I don't know if this been linked yet, but there are actual pictures of a planet forming now: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/01/captured-in-actual-pictures-the-swirling-birth-of-planets/266831/

 

It's 450 light years away. So this was happening in 1650 CE, our time.

 

 

And did anyone mention Ison yet? The super bright comet that cometh later this year: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/brighter-than-a-full-moon-the-biggest-star-of-2013-could-be-ison--the-comet-of-the-century-8431443.html

 

[stryper]

I did see both but forgot to post them. 

 

However, 

 

http://gizmodo.com/5974146/a-trip-to-mars-will-turn-astronauts-into-lazy-bros

 

 

The dudes just need some chics for motivation I say.

 

Or at least if the group is all male or female the voice of NASA should be attractive to the group as a whole. 

[Ouroboros]

NASA Johnson Gangnam style:

[bornagainathiest]

Sheesh!  There's almost too much astronomical news to keep up with!

 

Add these to the 'IN' tray.

 

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Story #1:  More evidence for solar systems like ours, even around hot, blue-white stars.  Looks like we're not so special, after all.

#3:  Freaky 'weather' on this failed star.  Clouds of hot sand and liquid iron rain!  600 - 700 degrees C! 

Beach party, anyone?

 

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepler-461-new-candidates.html

Notice the trend in the numbers?  We're finding more and more of the smaller, Earth-like exoplanets.  This tells me that the opening phase of exoplanet discovery (from 1995 to today) is slowly drawing to a close.  Most of the big ones we've pointed a 'scope at have been found or will be soon enough.  Phase two begins whenever Steve Howell's quote becomes reality.

 

Not, "will we?", but "WHEN will we?" 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_(spacecraft)

Slated for launch this October.  It should find tens of thousands of extrasolar planetary systems.  Not just planets - entire systems of planets!

 

Thanks,

 

BAA.

[stryper]

then this too.

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/09/zombie-planet-fomalhaut-b-orbit_n_2438971.html

 

Zombie planet with a really f'd up orbit. 

[bornagainathiest]

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/17-percent-of-stars-have-earth-size-planets.html

 

"...nearly all sun-like stars have planets." 

 

BAA

 

 

...or try this link?

 

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html.

[Joshpantera]

Cool stuff. Thanks for the links.

 

BTW, a friend of mine was trying to hype this years comet to a Hopi Indian "end times" prophecy. I'm sitting there thinking, "really, come on, right after Campings failed rapture dates and 12/21/12 you're going post this crap on facebook?" But I just let it go and didn't comment anything.

[stryper]

[alpha centauri]

Thanks for all the links -- amazing stuff!

 

Apologies if this has been posted somewhere previously (didn't see it anywhere): http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2414140,00.asp

Space X is planning manned space misions for 2015. It's not exactly building a lunar base (or Mars landing) just yet, but it's a step forward.

 

***

Josh -- regarding the Hopi prophecies, people have some ingrained fascination with prophecy and trying to predict the future, and for some reason, many are fascinated with the end times/apocolypse/end o' the world as we know it. Not surprising that after the latest version fails and fades away, another is popping up in its place. It's too bad people are still focusing on the apocolyptic possibilities of a comet after the Hale Bopp tragedy a few years ago.

 

Carl Sagan spoke of science as a candle in a demon haunted (demons bing fiction, of course) world. He hit the nail on the head. Superstition lingers and is hard for people to shed.

[stryper]

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/01/17/alpha-station-private-inflatable-spacebase/

 

Nasa to deploy inflatable space station modules.

[alpha centauri]

^{http://news.yahoo.com/obama-inauguration-nasas-deep-space-mission-continues-170927511.html}

 

^{NASA personnel are on parade during the Obama inauguration, but what's really planned for the next four years?}

 

^{The article talks about unmanned missions for 2014 (unmanned mission of Orion space capsule launched by Delta 4 heavy rocket) and 2017 (unmanned Orion space capsule to make a trip around the moon after beginning the journey via the Space Launch System booster).}

 

^{The article mentions there is talk of more cooperation with the Europeans in pursuing space goals.}

 

^{There is talk about a manned mission to an asteroid in 2025 and a manned mission to Mars by the mid-2030s.}

 

^{I'd like to see additional space stations built between here and Mars. It seems more realistic that astronauts could stop and visit a space station every couple of months along the way rather than one long non-stop flight to Mars.}

[Thought2Much]

^{It seems more realistic that astronauts could stop and visit a space station every couple of months along the way rather than one long non-stop flight to Mars.}

 

Not really. Every time you need to change the direction of a spacecraft, you expend energy (delta-v). To stop off at a station between Earth and Mars would require more delta-v than going directly, and use more fuel, thus adding to the cost of the mission. You would actually be better off just using more fuel to start with to get you to Mars faster on a direct route.

[stryper]

http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/darpa-works-on-creating-robot-capable-of-building-satellites-while-in-space/

 

DARPA launches robot to scavenge old satellites for parts and create new ones.

[Ravenstar]

I love this thread...

 

I was wondering what you guys think about the news since the martian fossil meteorite (2009). When I google I find that there is a progression from suspecting there is water (and probable life) on Mars to pretty much confirming it.

 

Maybe I'm paranoid but it seems like they are kind of gearing up to tell us something - the drips of info and evidence on this just seem kind of, choreographed. The back and forth nature of the claims.... I'm not a conspiracy nut - but I feel that they know more than they are telling the public. What do you think about it?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_on_Mars

[Thought2Much]

I love this thread...

 

I was wondering what you guys think about the news since the martian fossil meteorite (2009). When I google I find that there is a progression from suspecting there is water (and probable life) on Mars to pretty much confirming it.

 

Maybe I'm paranoid but it seems like they are kind of gearing up to tell us something - the drips of info and evidence on this just seem kind of, choreographed. The back and forth nature of the claims.... I'm not a conspiracy nut - but I feel that they know more than they are telling the public. What do you think about it?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_on_Mars

 

I think that if NASA/ESA do have evidence of life on Mars, they want to be really, really, really sure of what they have before going public. The last thing they want to do is say they have evidence of life on Mars, and then be proven wrong, or to have a repeat of what happened in 1996 with ALH 84001. I don't think they have anything that concrete yet, but they are finding more hints in that direction as more scientific work is done.

[Ravenstar]

Good point... and that would be good science.

 

actually there was a paper released recently re-examining ALH 84001... I think I started a thread on it a little while ago. It was supporting the claim that what was found were actually fossils.

 

I'll see if I can find that link again.

[Ravenstar]

Here it is

 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ancient-martians-were-carried-to-ea-2009-11

[Thought2Much]

Here it is

 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ancient-martians-were-carried-to-ea-2009-11

 

Thank you so much for posting that. I'm not sure how I missed that article, especially since it's in Scientific American and not, say, the Daily Mail. It's still not 100% conclusive, so I can see why NASA didn't broadcast this loudly everywhere.

[stryper]

 

Here it is

 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ancient-martians-were-carried-to-ea-2009-11

 

Thank you so much for posting that. I'm not sure how I missed that article, especially since it's in Scientific American and not, say, the Daily Mail. It's still not 100% conclusive, so I can see why NASA didn't broadcast this loudly everywhere.

 

 

The article is from 2009  so that could be why it slipped your mind.