The Astronomy Discussion Thread

[mist2123]

Originally Posted by Defron

I thought it already hit the galaxy.

Also the Mars impact is now 1 in 25

yay i hope they record the entire impact for us to see

[USB500]

Originally Posted by Defron

I thought it already hit the galaxy.

Also the Mars impact is now 1 in 25

This is one interesting event to watch.

On related note, I just watched the History Channel's The Universe's episode (Life and Death of Stars) last night. I never thought there can be star-to-star collisions, and I was like "oh crap, if that is to actually happen now " when they showed the CG movie of neutron stars colliding.

[Satomi87]

Will the black hole ever come near to earth in future?

[mist2123]

Originally Posted by Satomi87

Will the black hole ever come near to earth in future?

if we pass into one and get pulled by its gravity. If one passes by its will be probably 1/10^19. The chances of having a micro black hole created in earth is much higher that passing to into one.

[anti-random]

I remember an article on black holes and how CERN scientists are creating micro ones. Of course these micro black holes are to unstable to exist for more than a few millions or something of a second but they have existe on earth.

[innominate]

I think, micro black holes are primordial, arising from irregularities from the initial states of the universe, (because 'modern' black holes come from massive star collapses, thus are massive).

iirc they have been theorized but yet to be observed/confirmed. Supposedly, they emit intense X-ray and gamma ray radiation. With regards to what anti-random has to say, I don't know; I've not heard about it before.

With reference to the other question: will a black hole ever come near to earth in the future?
Well, I don't suppose so. Not while humanity is still alive. Some close black holes to us are Cygnus X-1 and Sag A, both of which are really far away. Besides, black holes lose mass over periods of time, so it's not really possible for black holes to like, swallow up galaxies as seen in scifi texts.

[Robotnik]

Not to derail the current discussion on black holes and the possible Mars impact...

The Quadrantid meteor shower is due to reach maximum in the predawn hours of Friday, Jan. 4. The Quadrantids are notoriously unpredictable, but if any year promises a fine display, this could be it.

Indeed, this may end up being the best meteor shower of 2008.

The Quadrantid (pronounced KWA-dran-tid) meteor shower provides one of the most intense annual meteor displays, with a brief, sharp maximum lasting but a few hours. The timing of peak activity favors Western Europe and eastern North America. Weather permitting, skywatchers in rural locations could see one or two shooting stars every minute during the peak.
...
According to the International Meteor Organization, maximum activity this year is expected on Friday 1:40 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

For those in the eastern United States, the radiant will be about one-quarter of the way up in the east-northeast sky. The farther to the north and east you go, the higher in the sky the radiant will be. To the south and west the radiant will be lower and the meteors will be fewer.

From Western Europe, the radiant will soar high in the east as the peak arrives just as morning twilight intervenes.

Article here

Hoping to see some tonight, missed the last meteor shower due to snow.

[Kensuke]

Originally Posted by anti-random

I remember an article on black holes and how CERN scientists are creating micro ones. Of course these micro black holes are to unstable to exist for more than a few millions or something of a second but they have existe on earth.

Perhaps it was about Large Hadron Collider, which is currently under construction at CERN, and scheduled to go online next May.

Also the change of asteroid impacting Mars has been lowered to 1 in 28 (or in other words 3.6 % change of hitting, 96.4 % change of missing).

Quote:
"It seems likely that as additional observations further shrink the uncertainty region of this asteroid, the region will no longer intersect Mars and the impact probability will quickly drop to zero."

[Defron]

Originally Posted by Robotnik

Not to derail the current discussion on black holes and the possible Mars impact...



Article here

Hoping to see some tonight, missed the last meteor shower due to snow.

I was hoping to see something, but so far I have seen diddly squat (nice amount of cloud coverage, plus I am on the west coast of the US) nor do I expect to see any. Oh well nothing I can do except hope the next meteor shower will be more favorable for me.

Originally Posted by Kensuke

Perhaps it was about Large Hadron Collider, which is currently under construction at CERN, and scheduled to go online next May.

Also the change of asteroid impacting Mars has been lowered to 1 in 28 (or in other words 3.6 % change of hitting, 96.4 % change of missing).

Quote:
"It seems likely that as additional observations further shrink the uncertainty region of this asteroid, the region will no longer intersect Mars and the impact probability will quickly drop to zero."

Poo, I was hoping that the odds would increase, but I was pretty certain it would go down (most sites and articles said it would).

[JustInn14]

Sorry to revive this thread, however, there is a Lunar Eclipse of the moom on the 20th of January, So, I thought I'd like to tell everyone about it. http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclips...2008Feb21.html Here is some information about it.

[Kamui4356]

NASA's latest Mars mission, the Phoenix Lander has successfully landed on Mars. It's mission involves searching for ise just beneath the surface and organic chemicals that could be evidence of life existing or once having existed on Mars.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/0...der/index.html

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/

[Kensuke]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

NASA's latest Mars mission, the Phoenix Lander has successfully landed on Mars.

I watched it live on NasaTV. Exciting stuff.

Addition: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this picture of Phoenix lander, while it was on its way to surface. You can see the lander under the parachute and even the parachute wires.

Looks like we are returning to Moon around 2020, and there has been talk about manned mission to Mars around 2030. But how about this idea: One-Way Mission to Mars: US Soldiers Will Go.

[markesellus]

In other random news, This year is the 40th celebration of the Apollo 11 mission.

[innominate]

And it is also the 400th anniversary since Galileo's discovery/ies.

[Zaris]

The question is have you recently done anything pertaining to the stars and space? If not, how long ago was your last astrological activity and what did you do? I'm leaving this very open ended.

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The short answer for me is: yes, I have. Today early morning (August 12), I went to glimpse the annual Perseid meteor shower for the first time. It's been years since I stood in one place to look at the stars.

Spoiler for the long answer, better understood if you know how to drive:

The Prep
Yesterday, at around 8:30pm PST, I was taking out the trash when I met my landlord doing the same thing. She mentioned her friend wanting to take her out to go watch the meteor shower at around 1:00am PST, but she was hesitant to go anywhere that required more than an hour's drive. "Really?" I thought. "You had to go that far to see a meteor shower?" I had never put in extra effort to watch a stellar phenomenon, but last night, I felt the urge to do so. Especially since I enjoy driving and will looking for any excuse to get behind the wheel.

I looked up various sources online on where to go to look, what to look for, what direction to look at, and so on. They all recommended going someplace out of city lights, but I had a problem. My 2003 Volkswagen Golf already had 330 miles into its trip. Another 50 and the low fuel warning indicator would trigger and I hate to see that light on while I'm driving largely because it makes me tense and I don't entirely trust it indicating I have another 1.9 gallons of go-power. In addition, I don't like refueling anywhere besides Costco for their cheap as chips gas so no refueling on the way was another condition of mine. So I calculated I could only travel a 30 mile radius outside my home in Pasadena before I would have to turn back. And 30 miles wouldn't even clear the Los Angeles county from where I lived. Still, though, I decided to try.


The Trip
I had my eyes set on a rest area along North Interstate 5. I stopped there once during a nighttime cross-California drive to see my parents in San Francisco and it was relatively high and dark. The perfect viewspot, then. At 12:15am PST, I set off.

Unfortunately, I had less fuel than I thought. Reluctantly, I pulled over and ended up adding 2 additional gallons at a late-night Cheveron rather than quit before I even left the city lights (grrr). Interstate 5, the line where the Los Angeles city lights end, is already a good 30 miles away. If I hadn't refueled, I would be heading back home at this point.

At the interstate, it's a steep drive north up a hill to get to the rest area. It's all mountainous terrain, no pit stops, no illumination except from the cars and trucks, and literally just a handful of highway exits that lead you nowhere. And it was halfway up the hill, halfway through my fuel, when I realized:

"Rest areas in California are only on one side. Once I finish, I'd have to find a U-turn somewhere down the interstate to turn south. And the next offramp could be tens of miles away and I'd risk running out of fuel on the shoulder...at nighttime...on a trip I only planned (badly) hours ago...and my cell phone is running out of juice..."

Embarrassed by the prospect, I immediately got off the next available exit which was five long miles away. Regretfully, I was forced to turn south and head home, but then I decided to stop at every offramp and explore a little bit of the road for potential stargazing sites. And at the first exit, I struck gold. Along the pitch-dark two-lane hilly road up were parked cars with people beside them doing the obvious. I continued until I reached the top of the hill where there was surprisingly nobody around and parked my car. It was 1:40am PST.


The Event
The articles I read said that 9:00pm - 11:00pm PST was the best time to view the meteor shower, but those who wait after 2:00am would be in for something more glamorous. Right on time, then. I only had a short sleeve shirt on but it was surprisingly warm and breezy without a cloud in the sky. I rolled down the windows and left my car stereo on (which I had recently replaced with an aftermarket one) as I looked up outside.

You're told to look away from the moon so that its brightness doesn't interupt your nighttime vision, and then you can see clearly without a telescope. But I stood there squinting for several minutes not certain of what I was looking at. It just looked like a sparce star field that I'm familiar with. For example, I recognize several constellations such as Orion and Big Dipper. For a moment, looking a bit more carefully, I thought I was looking at an entire sky full of tiny meteors streaking over. But then, this huge streak went over the stars, a bright, thick white line. It may have only lasted a second, if that, but it was exciting.

I waited longer, shuffled J-Pop, western albums, and soundtrack music playing behind me (I'm very excited about my new stereo). For a while, I was only looking at one place, but eventually it turns out the entire sky's the limit. I only saw white streaks go over once every few minutes but they can occur anywhere and went in a general direction of east to west. The wildlife around me (mostly crickets) was loud where I was. There was a time when I felt I would eventually be pounced by a bobcat or something from the bushes.

But all in all, the meteors came far and few in between. Probably because I didn't have the right equipment, or the right training, but at most I only saw two streaks sailing a couple milliseconds apart and that only happened once. I was expecting them to come down like rain. I can't say I'm disappointed, though. The articles did say that this year's meteor shower would be on the low end of the flashiness scale, and this was my first time doing this. It's still an inspiring event for the work that I do. And I will likely do it again next year.

I headed down the mountain at 2:40am PST. By this time, the cars had thinned by approximately half.


Reference
To give you a sense of how badly I underestimated the distance to that rest area, go to maps.google.com, enter the underlined text below in the search bar, and zoom out a bit.

Martins, CA 91384

The three-way intersection west of Martins is approximately where I went stargazing for an hour, 2000+ feet above sea level.

Follow Interstate 5 north until you see Lebec. That's where the rest area was, 3000+ feet above sea level. Google maps show it to be 33 miles away.

Pyramid Lake in between the two places was where I made the turn to head south. Good call, then!

And remember, I live in Pasadena. I drove more than a hundred miles last night round-trip. I was a few minutes away from home when the low fuel indicator went on. I've since filled up.

I really should start a blog. Why bore others needlessly?


After doing this, I think most people will see this as a bogus waste of time. And I think they're right to a certain extent. When you see one going by, you're like "Wow!" But then you stand there cringing your neck waiting for the next one to be found five minutes later (only you just weren't looking in the right direction two and a half minutes ago). In the end, I've decided that meteor showers are best done after dinner when you've plenty of hours available with a beach chair, a can of fizz, and a buddy to talk to. Because without something like a radio or an mp3 player, meteor showers can get really boring!

[Joojoobees]

Hi, folks, I saw this amazing story a couple of days ago, and was wondering if anyone knowledgeable might comment:

After using two additional years' worth of data and tracking twice the number of galaxy clusters, "we clearly see the flow, we clearly see it pointing in the same direction," said study leader Alexander Kashlinsky, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. "It looks like a very coherent flow."

The find adds to the case that chunks of matter got pushed outside the known universe shortly after the big bang—which in turn hints that our universe is part of something larger: a multiverse.

As a bonus, here is an interesting collection of 6 Space Oddities of the Year So Far.

[An4rchy99]

Did not know such a thread existed. Too bad its not active that much now
Out of all the astronomical information, for me the most fascinating facts is about the existence of extra solar planets (esp the recent discovery of near Earth mass planets).

I always love nebula and star cluster images. I am an amateur star gazer myself

[ChainLegacy]

Originally Posted by Joojoobees

Hi, folks, I saw this amazing story a couple of days ago, and was wondering if anyone knowledgeable might comment:


As a bonus, here is an interesting collection of 6 Space Oddities of the Year So Far.

That's fascinating. The universe still has so many mysteries to offer. I love this video because it puts everything into perspective and Carl Sagan is just phenomenal at describing the place we have in the universe:

[Ryus]

Originally Posted by An4rchy99

Did not know such a thread existed. Too bad its not active that much now
Out of all the astronomical information, for me the most fascinating facts is about the existence of extra solar planets (esp the recent discovery of near Earth mass planets).

I always love nebula and star cluster images. I am an amateur star gazer myself

Been here 1 1/2 years and I never knew about this thread...

Anyways... Your into amateur astronomy An4rchy99, small world me too (no pun intended w/Carl Sagan video above... but that clip has long been a fav of mine). I personally use a Orion XX12 dobsonian... though I confess to not having used it in the last 6 months due to a move. (it's in the basement behind tons boxes at the moment. (so i feel very rust at the moment) What you use?

BTW if anyone has any astronomy question the best person to ask would be Aimless. Since he actually teaches astronomy at the college level. I may know some stuff (even the math behind the headlines) but his knowledge makes mine look pathetic and he's proven it to me a few times.

[Joojoobees]

Originally Posted by An4rchy99

Did not know such a thread existed. Too bad its not active that much now

Yeah, I don't know why it is so dormant. I guess the tie between Anime and SciFi used to be much stronger decades ago. Maybe people don't care as much about space any more.

BTW, here is some astronomy news from last month:

The new Slooh "map the universe" layer integrates Slooh's Space Camera technology and worldwide network of powerful robotic mountaintop telescopes with the Google Earth application. Anyone, regardless of age or skill level, can explore outer space in real-time and play an active role in mapping the universe.

Link to press release