Space In General

[DK]

Glad to see everyone here is sane though. I was beginning to wonder about humanity after reading through Facebook comments.

Why am I not surprised?

 

[Wolfe]

I was beginning to wonder about humanity after reading...comments.

Seldom a good idea on any website.

 

[Ryanswannell]

So I was walking to the shop with my brother about an hour ago, and my brother said that two planes looked like they were going to crash. So, I looked up and saw a plane with flashing lights fly past what I thought was a star.
So I said to my brother that the other thing is star, to which he replied "no it isn't, there are flashing red and green lights".
So I looked again, and said that it was just a star twinkling. He then said "how come the other ones aren't twinkling as much then?" And sure enough, they weren't.
I'm not too sure that this "thing" actually was flashing red and green as I didn't have my glasses on, but it was definitely pulsating.
Any ideas what it may be? I was about the size of a bright star if that helps much.

 

[Dean]

What first comes to my mind is the ISS. Not sure if it's that for sure, but it was visible in Northampton (not -shire) earlier today.

http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/

 

[Ryanswannell]

Doesn't it move pretty fast though, like just visible for a few seconds or am I wrong? We saw it for at least a minute. My brother said it was moving but I didn't notice it moving at any real speed.
Also, why would it be pulsating?
Thanks for your reply 👍

 

[homeforsummer]

There are a couple of stars in the night sky that seem to change colour a little as they twinkle. Generally the brighter ones.

There's a couple of possible answers - as in, I'm sure I've read about it at some point, but can't check right now. One is that a few of them are binary systems - two stars in orbit around each other - and the different light they emit leads to different wavelengths reaching earth at different times, leading to more flickering than if there was just the single star.

The other could be that air movement in the atmosphere is refracting a brighter and more visible star (so the flickering is more visible than for smaller stars in the sky) and the colours are a result of the refracted light.

 

[Ryanswannell]

There are a couple of stars in the night sky that seem to change colour a little as they twinkle. Generally the brighter ones.

There's a couple of possible answers - as in, I'm sure I've read about it at some point, but can't check right now. One is that a few of them are binary systems - two stars in orbit around each other - and the different light they emit leads to different wavelengths reaching earth at different times, leading to more flickering than if there was just the single star.

The other could be that air movement in the atmosphere is refracting a brighter and more visible star (so the flickering is more visible than for smaller stars in the sky) and the colours are a result of the refracted light.

Ok, that would make sense I suppose 👍.

Regarding the ISS, I have just watched a few videos of it from earth and it does look slightly similar to what I saw.

 

[Touring Mars]

Jupiter is very bright and quite low down in the sky at this time of year. Depending on the atmospheric conditions, it may well appear to 'twinkle'/change colour... I'm sure I saw something similar as a kid... infact, I had one of those torches that can change colour, and my mate and I were convinced that the torch light (green, red and white) was reflecting off whatever it was we were looking at (probably Jupiter or Saturn). Stupid kids.

Also, the Northern Lights are apparently visible very far south this evening, so it is possible that you might be seeing something like that infront of Jupiter, which would be an extremely rare sight in England!!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...s-may-be-seen-in-britain-tonight-9049869.html

 

[Ryanswannell]

Hmmmm, there are many possibilities about what it could have been it seems...

 

[DK]

Gah, that reminds me, I missed Brian Cox's stargazing show on Wednesday.

 

[mister dog]

Looks perfectly legit to me...

Actually i like that pick as it was taken with new camera technology, we are just too used to those Apollo mission pictures and videos, which date back 40 years. So this would be a more true to life pick of how the lighting looks like on the moon.

Found this one also:

Crazy no! Imagine standing there right now.

 

[solidboss07]

I am afraid that space around the earth and moon will belong to China and its military in this Century.

 

[Adamgp]

I am afraid that space around the earth and moon will belong to China and its military in this Century.

Only if they want to violate the Outer Space Treaty and possibly spark World War III in the process.

 

[solidboss07]

There is a good chance of a large scale conflict before then. 100 years ago in Europe has many parallels to Asia today.

 

[Touring Mars]

Come to think of it, the Moon would be a great location for a prison camp.

 

[Dotini]

Come to think of it, the Moon would be a great location for a prison camp.

New Guantanamo? How about a toxic waste dump, carbon sink, or source of minerals? 💡 Military types think in terms of holding the high ground.

BBC radio ran a piece this morning on the ethics of geo-engineering a shell of particles around Earth to mitigate global warming, as the ability to do it is within our monkey's grasp.

 

[Dennisch]

BBC radio ran a piece this morning on the ethics of geo-engineering a shell of particles around Earth to mitigate global warming, as the ability to do it is within our monkey's grasp.

If we blow up the moon we can create a nice dustcloud!

 

[BobK]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, anyone?

 

[Emptyone]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, anyone?

Yes, it's a good little book that, makes you think about just how a colony would behave, sitting up in the Sky. Hopefully they wouldn't throw rocks at us but it shows how easy it would be to threaten Earth merely because of the gravitational well.

 

[BobK]

My reference to the book was in response to @Touring Mars' suggestion that the Moon would be a good place for a prison camp.


Sorry 'bout the italics, they got turned on somehow and I can't turn them off again. I really detest this new editor.

 

[Emptyone]

Ah my mistake, that makes equal sense too.

 

[Imari]

BBC radio ran a piece this morning on the ethics of geo-engineering a shell of particles around Earth to mitigate global warming, as the ability to do it is within our monkey's grasp.

Geo-engineering, pfft. It'll happen all by itself if they don't keep careful track of all the rubbish they've got in low Earth orbit.

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

 

[CodeRedR51]

NASA could get a boost in their 2014 budget later this week.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...l-would-preserve-major-nasa-missions/4480537/

 

[Leonidae@MFT]

I hope they do. I'd rather see the money go to science and exploration than military or cleaning political messes..

 

[Liquid]

So the Dwarf planet Ceres has been observed releasing water vapour.

Surprised this hasn't been discussed a bit more. It's a planet well within its star system's Goldilocks zone and this is a rather interesting sign that another planet could support, or actually is supporting life.

Or should this go in the alien thread?

 

[Wardez]

I hope they do. I'd rather see the money go to science and exploration than military or cleaning political messes..

I hope they don't. They should be giving that money to private space companies as subsidies. Let NASA die, we don't need them the government to be our leader into exploring outer space.

 

[Dennisch]

@Liquid

We are all still mesmerized by the jelly donut on Mars.

 

[BobK]

So the Dwarf planet Ceres has been observed releasing water vapour.

Surprised this hasn't been discussed a bit more. It's a planet well within its star system's Goldilocks zone and this is a rather interesting sign that another planet could support, or actually is supporting life.

Actually it's not within the habitable (Goldilocks) zone, which is where liquid water would exist on the surface. We don't know where the vapor came from yet, it could be direct sublimation from ice for example. We've known for a while that water frost exists on the surface.

Nonetheless, it's (barely) possible that subsurface liquid water exists, and of course liquid water is a precondition for the development of life as we know it. So yeah, it's a pretty exciting development.

 

[Dennisch]

Actually it is in the habitable zone, if it would have a thick enough atmosphere it could have surface water.

The dark green area is the pretty much confirmed (conservative) zone, and the lighter green is the estimated (extended) zone for liquid surface water.

 

[PeterJB]

I've always had a hunch about Ceres holding some interesting secret. There is an image of it which is quite grainy, but there is a very bright spot on it, which has puzzled astronomers. We'll know what it is in a year of so when Dawn reaches it.