Outer Space Thread

[IMADreamer]

I think they release images like that just to get the conspiretards riled up.

[go birds]

I think they release images like that just to get the conspiretards riled up.

agreed

/conspiracy theory

[Mary1966]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/11/tech/inno ... ?hpt=hp_t2

Get ready for an unusually beautiful moon to grace the night skies next week. There will be a total lunar eclipse Tuesday that will turn the moon a burnt reddish orange, NASA says.

It's called a blood moon, and this one is just the first in a series of four consecutive total eclipses.

Within a year and a half, North America will be able to see a blood moon a total of four times. The moon takes on this color during the eclipse as it passes through the Earth's shadow, which is the color of a desert sunset.

The four blood moons will occur in roughly six-month intervals on the following dates: April 15, 2014; October 8, 2014; April 4, 2015, and September 28, 2015.

[go birds]

http://www.space.com/25530-earthsize-ex ... overy.html

For the first time, scientists have discovered an Earth-size alien planet in the habitable zone of its host star, an "Earth cousin" that just might have liquid water and the right conditions for life.

Scientists think that Kepler-186f — the outermost of five planets found to be orbiting the star Kepler-186 — orbits at a distance of 32.5 million miles (52.4 million kilometers), theoretically within the habitable zone for a red dwarf.

Earth orbits the sun from an average distance of about 93 million miles (150 million km), but the sun is larger and brighter than the Kepler-186 star, meaning that the sun's habitable zone begins farther out from the star by comparison to Kepler-186.

"This is the first definitive Earth-sized planet found in the habitable zone around another star," Elisa Quintana, of the SETI Institute and NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author of a new study detailing the findings, said in a statement

[Mary1966]

A red dwarf? Will they find these guys?

[pioneer98]

I don't believe I ever shared this. I went through a bunch of old pictures and Tweets today. This is perhaps one of the geekiest things I've ever done. I made a "pinhole camera" from a mirror (basic idea is here) to see the Transit of Venus back in June 2012. I mounted the mirror to a tripod and adjusted it so it was reflecting the image onto a screen in my garage (where it was dark). I'd have to adjust it every few minutes to keep the image on the screen due to the Earth's rotation. When I first saw the spot of Venus in the image I thought it was a cloud or a mark on my mirror...but then it moved across the disk of the sun so I knew it was it. Glad I did it because it doesn't happen again until 2117.

Venus is the small spot on the bottom left of the image of the sun:

[go birds]

awesome!

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

So, researchers are presuming that the periodic table and therefore elements will be the same as on planet earth and that the laws of physics will apply the same as well, correct?

[Arthur Dent]

So, researchers are presuming that the periodic table and therefore elements will be the same as on planet earth and that the laws of physics will apply the same as well, correct?

Are you back to the multiverse stuff or talking about Kepler-186f? I think the answer is no to the former and yes to the latter.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Talking about both this universe and the multiverse. But that answer makes sense. It seems like another universe could have different building blocks but you're limited in this one...perhaps.