Space In General

[lbsf1]

I like how the size of the asteroid and the location it'll land aren't mentioned. It could be a lump of rock that drops harmlessly into the Pacific and causes a wave about 6 inches high to lap against the coasts, doing no damage at all. It won't be, of course; what it'll be is completely fictitious.

We don't have the technology as yet to say an asteroid is definitely going to hit us. In all likelihood we won't know for sure until it enters the Earth's atmosphere, by which point it'll be far too late as it'll hit the surface a second or two later. So there's nothing to worry about.

But why let facts stand in the way of talking 🤬?

Well, in January the chief engineering of the UK Space Agency came and gave a talk at my university. It turned out to be one of the most depressing things I have heard in the long time.

Long and short of his hour long talk, if an asteroid big enough to wipe us out is going to hit us we will know for about 2/3 weeks, and there is nothing we can do, however there arn't many of these out there so we are ok. However the more they look the more asteroids are seen that are the size to wipe out a continent, so the calculated probability of those hitting us is constantly going up, and one again we won't know about those for long and there is nothing we can do. There is research going on about how to stop an asteroid, however it has run into the large problem that is stopping a smallish item with huge amounts of kinetic energy.

He then went on to show us videos and pictures of asteroids that have passed very close to earth in recent times, including one in Russia last century that went through our atmosphere, and if it had hit us would have wiped out a continent.

Then to end his speech he said, "and if it were going to happen, would all of you really want to know??", to a stunned silence of 200 engineering undergraduates.

 

[unit-one]

Good morning!

whoah... never seen such activity before!
Magnetometer readings:

More stuff at Aurora Forecast

 

[Dotini]

MEANWHILE ... ANOTHER CME IS ON THE WAY: Big sunspot AR2371 erupted again on June 22nd (18:23 UT), producing a strong M6.5 class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:

X-ray and UV radiation from the flare ionized the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere, causing a blackout of some shortwave radio signals over North America (blackout map). Mariners and ham radio operators, in particular, may have noticed disturbances at frequencies below ~20 MHz.

 

[CodeRedR51]

SpaceX ISS resupply mission and possible landing attempt is Sunday the 28th @ 10:21am EDT for those interested.

 

[Dotini]

"Our observations show that the distribution of water in the coma is highly inhomogeneous," explains Nicolas Biver, CNRS researcher at LESIA-Observatoire de Paris in Meudon, France, and lead author of the study.

The column density of water around comet 67P/C-G, measured by MIRO. From N. Biver et al. (2015)
"We found the highest density of water just above the neck, close to the north pole of the comet's rotation axis: in this narrow region, the column density of water is up to two orders of magnitude higher than elsewhere in the coma," adds Dr Biver.

http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/56065-miro-maps-water-in-comets-coma/

Date: 19 June 2015
Satellite: Rosetta

The column density of water around Comet 67P/C-G as measured by the MIRO instrument on Rosetta.

From N. Biver et al. (2015)

Last Update: 19 June 2015
http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/56070-the-column-density-of-water-around-comet-67p/

A composite image of four NAV/CAM images taken 19 miles (31 kilometers) from the center of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. A new study has revealed that electrons from the comet, not photons from the sun, are responsible for the breakup of water and carbon dioxide molecules.
Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAMdiscovery, which was made using NASA's Alice instrument aboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, was surprising to scientists, who had previously thought that light particles, or photons, from the sun caused these eruptions.


Electrons cause the rapid breakup of water and carbon dioxide molecules erupting from the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, new findings reveal.

"The discovery we're reporting is quite unexpected," Alice instrument principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, said in a statement. "It shows us the value of going to comets to observe them up close, since this discovery simply could not have been made from Earth or Earth orbit with any existing or planned observatory, and it is fundamentally transforming our knowledge of comets."
http://www.space.com/29672-rosetta-comet-eruptions-surprising-discovery.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+spaceheadlines+(SPACE.com+Headline+Feed)

 

[ProjectWHaT]

The three moons shown here — Titan (3,200 miles or 5,150 kilometers across), Mimas (246 miles or 396 kilometers across), and Rhea (949 miles or 1,527 kilometers across) — show marked contrasts. Titan, the largest moon in this image, appears fuzzy because we only see its cloud layers. And because Titan’s atmosphere refracts light around the moon, its crescent “wraps” just a little further around the moon than it would on an airless body. Rhea (upper left) appears rough because its icy surface is heavily cratered. And a close inspection of Mimas (center bottom), though difficult to see at this scale, shows surface irregularities due to its own violent history.

 

[CodeRedR51]

http://www.spacex.com/news/2015/06/24/why-and-how-landing-rockets

Pretty interesting read about why SpaceX is attempting to land their rockets, and what went wrong with the first two attempts.

 

[Dennisch]

I really hope they can eventually pull it off. It will be a massive step for getting humanity cheaper into space.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

What you’re seeing is V404 Cygni, a binary system consisting of a star and a black hole, some 7800 light-years away. It has lain quiet for the last 25 years, but a week ago, NASA’s Swift satellite noticed a burst of new activity.

V404 is a binary system, consisting of a star and a black hole orbiting one another. Matter flows from the star to the black hole, where it heats up and lets off all sorts of x-ray and gamma-ray waves, before vanishing into the black hole. The last time V404 was active was way back in 1989, but on June 15th, NASA’s Swift satellite started picking up renewed bursts of gamma rays.

In turn, Earth-based telescopes started to monitor V404 on other wavelengths, and started picking up intense x-ray flashes, according to Erik Kuulkers, Integral project scientist at the European Space Agency.

“The behaviour of this source is extraordinary at the moment, with repeated bright flashes of light on time scales shorter than an hour, something rarely seen in other black hole systems. In these moments, it becomes the brightest object in the X-ray sky – up to fifty times brighter than the Crab Nebula, normally one of the brightest sources in the high-energy sky.”

http://gizmodo.com/this-dormant-monster-black-hole-just-woke-up-1714080949

 

[Dotini]

​

http://gizmodo.com/this-dormant-monster-black-hole-just-woke-up-1714080949

We need an explanation for those jets coming out of the black hole.

 

[Dennisch]

We need an explanation for those jets coming out of the black hole.

Happens often. When there goes more material into the hole than it can actually swallow, jets of energy fly out of the poles.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Don't forget the SpaceX launch & landing attempt Sunday morning. 10:21 EDT

 

[Dotini]

@R1600Turbo
Recovery and relaunch of a rocket is done everyday in the realm of model rocketry. Its done by a variety of means, all simple.

Musk has loaded up his rocket with descent thrusting, heavy hydraulics, extra fins, thrusters and gizmos, then tried to land it on a moving object at sea. The guy is successful, maybe a genius, but some of his ideas may not be entirely practical.

 

[CodeRedR51]

@R1600Turbo
Recovery and relaunch of a rocket is done everyday in the realm of model rocketry. Its done by a variety of means, all simple.

Musk has loaded up his rocket with descent thrusting, heavy hydraulics, extra fins, thrusters and gizmos, then tried to land it on a moving object at sea. The guy is successful, maybe a genius, but some of his ideas may not be entirely practical.

You have your opinion of which I don't agree with, maybe you should read the link I posted above. Meanwhile, I think it's awesome. We'll just leave it at that.

For those wanting to watch the stream:

http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

 

[Dotini]

You have your opinion of which I don't agree with, maybe you should read the link I posted above. Meanwhile, I think it's awesome. We'll just leave it at that.

For those wanting to watch the stream:

http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

I'm watching!

 

[Dotini]

Kerblammo!!

 

[CodeRedR51]

Well that's not gone well. No traces of an explosion though, just disappeared.

 

[Dotini]

I thought I saw parts coming off, a titanic explosion, and the sky filled with smoke and debris. I was using a 27" HD screen.

The launch team profess not to know what happened, and are rewinding the tape and poring over data.

There were flashes of light at times which I took to be thrusters, but maybe it was struck by lightning?

It appeared to happen near the time of stage separation.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Well I saw what looked like a massive fuel leak and the clouds created by it, what looked like the vehicle breaking up and parts flying, then nothing - just vanished.

 

[Dotini]

Well I saw what looked like a massive fuel leak and the clouds created by it, what looked like the vehicle breaking up and parts flying, then nothing - just vanished.

They've sent the boats to look, and still have no answers.

 

[CodeRedR51]

They've sent the boats to look, and still have no answers.

Well it just happened, this takes time.

 

[Dotini]

They say data transmission stopped at 2:19 into the flight, and no further information will be released until the conference at 12:30 EST at the earliest.

 

[Dennisch]

It just disintegrated! That was strange to see.

 

[Dotini]

This is the 3rd resupply mission to the ISS that has failed since last fall. This is getting serious for some people.

 

[Dennisch]

It's time to set the stupid geographical differences aside and get all the space agencies to work together. Imagine the budget that it creates.

We'll have people on Mars before 2025. Easy.

 

[CodeRedR51]

If they are in serious need of supplies up there, it wouldn't take long to get another rocket ready, loaded, and launched. SpaceX probably has a few on hand ready to go. They could gather the supplies and get another one in the air within a few weeks I think.

This is one area where the reusable rocket stuff comes into play. Always having another one refurbished and ready to go in a short time span.

 

[Dotini]

It's time to set the stupid geographical differences aside and get all the space agencies to work together. Imagine the budget that it creates.

We'll have people on Mars before 2025. Easy.

I wholly agree with your first thought.

Your 2nd idea is a nice thought, but we need currently unavailable technology to enable humans to survive a trip to Mars and back and not exceed the maximum lifetime NASA permitted radiation exposure.

 

[Dennisch]

I wholly agree with your first thought.

Your 2nd idea is a nice thought, but we need currently unavailable technology to enable humans to survive a trip to Mars and back and not exceed the maximum lifetime NASA permitted radiation exposure.

The bigger budget means faster development. Faster development means better (faster) spaceships!

One month round trip to Mars!

If you don't fantasise, you're not alive!

 

[Dotini]

One month round trip to Mars!

If you don't fantasise, you're not alive!

Do you read Game of Thrones?

 

[Dennisch]

Do you read Game of Thrones?

Nope.