Space In General

[TenEightyOne]

When Rosetta was being designed, the astrophysicists told the engineers to make a lander for a smooth, spherical dirty snowball. Since then we have learned comets are more apt to be rocky dumbbells, so little wonder it had trouble on the landing. They brought a knife to a gunfight, so to speak.

That's discovery for you, the Earth was flat once. Apparently.

 

[Dennisch]

Series of photos made by Voyager 1.

 

[Imari]

Series of photos made by Voyager 1.

That's amazing. Any idea what kind of timescale that series is over? Are those features moving in days, weeks, years?

 

[TenEightyOne]

That's amazing. Any idea what kind of timescale that series is over? Are those features moving in days, weeks, years?

Across 60 days, according to this. I presume that's Earth days, just to save confusion

EDIT: Thank you @Touring Mars for pointing out that they're Jovian days

 

[PeterJB]

My guess is every 12 hours or so, which is why the Great Red Spot doesn't move.

 

[Touring Mars]

Across 60 days, according to this. I presume that's Earth days, just to save confusion

It actually says "60 Jupiter days", and each frame is one Jupiter day apart (~10 Earth hours), or ~25 Earth days in total.

 

[TenEightyOne]

It actually says "60 Jupiter days", and each frame is one Jupiter day apart (~10 Earth hours), or ~25 Earth days in total.

It was late (early) and I guessed the days... thank you for reading it more fully than I did

 

[Touring Mars]

It's quite incredible that a day on Jupiter is only 10 Earth hours - I never knew that before.

Incidentally, a year on Mars is 687 Earth days. This is quite cool because it means I'm approaching my 21st birthday on Mars instead of my 40th on Earth.

 

[TenEightyOne]

It's quite incredible that a day on Jupiter is only 10 Earth hours - I never knew that before.

Incidentally, a year on Mars is 687 Earth days. This is quite cool because it means I'm approaching my 21st birthday on Mars instead of my 40th on Earth.

That's astonishing... for some reason I'd thought it was about ten times longer than that!

Which led me to wonder how one actually works out the length of the day on somewhere like Jupiter, and I found this, interesting for other people who didn't know either

 

[Touring Mars]

That's the article I just read.

 

[PeterJB]

It's quite incredible that a day on Jupiter is only 10 Earth hours - I never knew that before.

Incidentally, a year on Mars is 687 Earth days. This is quite cool because it means I'm approaching my 21st birthday on Mars instead of my 40th on Earth.

It does make you like 160 on Mercury though.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

The Earth in 4K resolution

A timelapse of Earth in 4K resolution, as imaged by the geostationary Elektro-L weather satellite, from May 15th to May 19th, 2011. Elektro-L is located ~40,000 km above the Indian ocean, and it orbits at a speed that causes it to remain over the same spot as the Earth rotates. The satellite creates a 121 megapixel image (11136x11136 pixels) every 30 minutes with visible and infrared light wavelengths. The images were edited to adjust levels and change the infrared channel from orange to green to show vegetation more naturally. The images were resized by 50%, misalignments between frames were manually corrected, and image artifacts that occurred when the camera was facing towards the sun were partially corrected. The images were interpolated by a factor of 20 to create a smooth animation. The animation was rendered in the Youtube 4K UHD resolution of 3840x2160. An original animation file with a resolution of (5568x5568) is available on request.

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/unbelieva...pse-of-our-beautiful-pl-1661013419/+caseychan

 

[FoolKiller]

I actually saw this about a month ago, but forgot to post it. I didn't see it posted since the article came out, so I am assuming it isn't a repost.

For anyone who freaks out anytime a space object crosses within the orbital distance of the moon from Earth:

http://www.universetoday.com/115672/you-could-fit-all-the-planets-between-the-earth-and-the-moon/

 

[TenEightyOne]

I actually saw this about a month ago, but forgot to post it. I didn't see it posted since the article came out, so I am assuming it isn't a repost.

That's great!

I'd still freak out though... the moon's in orbit

 

[Dennisch]

Orion is ready to go!

What a great time it is for space things! Rosetta, New Horizons and now Orion.

Bring it on! I want to space!

 

[CodeRedR51]

I'm impatiently waiting for photos of it all assembled and standing on the launch pad....

 

[CodeRedR51]

Double post because BOOM.

 

[wfooshee]

The Antares was about a month ago, but that video had some cameras I hadn't seen before. That one camera took an arrow on the knee or something, too. Bang!!!

But whoever pulled those clips together needs to be shot. That opening title flash was the stupidest thing I've ever seen, and after seeing 7 or 8 camera angles, why do I need to see the SAME ANGLES in slow motion????!!!!!

YOUTUBERS!!!!! STOP WITH THE SLOW MOTION REPLAYS!!!!!!!!

 

[CodeRedR51]

Slow motion was ok on the first shot, but they let it run too long then did another one on a crappy angle. Agreed on the opening though. This page is a little more professional than an average youtuber I think, so no excuse for them.

 

[CodeRedR51]

 

[Dennisch]

 

[FoolKiller]

I swear I've built that in my Space Agency game.

 

[Dennisch]

Hayabusa 2 will hunt down an asteroid, take samples and try to bring them back to Earth. Launch is scheduled for 11:22EST/4:22GMT/13:22JST

The Hayabusa2 mission will send a spacecraft, three rovers and a small lander to the asteroid 1999 JU3, a space rock that is thought to contain water and organic material. It should take Hayabusa 2 about four years to reach the asteroid, then two more years to return samples of the space rock to Earth in late 2020, according to a JAXA mission description.

More info.

 

[TenEightyOne]

The Hayabusa2 mission will send a spacecraft, three rovers and a small lander to the asteroid 1999 JU3, a space rock that is thought to contain water and organic material. It should take Hayabusa 2 about four years to reach the asteroid, then two more years to return samples of the space rock to Earth in late 2020, according to a JAXA mission description.

More info.

I hadn't actually heard anything about this, incredible mission!

 

[Dennisch]

I think the first link messed up?

I hadn't actually heard anything about this, incredible mission!

Fixed.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Fixed.

It's working, thank you kindly

If this mission succeeds then the results could be fascinating; they're actually planning to land three rovers?

Fascinating documentary, a good watch.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Anyone else getting up early (west coasters?) to watch the launch tomorrow?

 

[TenEightyOne]

Anyone else getting up early (west coasters?) to watch the launch tomorrow?

Erm, I thought it went 12 hours ago? http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/12/japanese-h-iia-rocket-hayabusa-2s-asteroid-mission/

I believe launch was 0422GMT 03 Dec?

 

[CodeRedR51]

Orion launch.

 

[Dennisch]

13:00 for me.

12:00 for the Brits.

So, 19,5 hours left to go.