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Space In General
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Dotini
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Yes, an alien member. Miles long. And such girth! Somewhat diseased, but presumably functional.
Ceres = Goddess of fertility
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CodeRedR51
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That's one hell of a test fire.
Dotini
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From today's edition of spaceweather.com:
A MYSTERIOUS FORM OF AURORA: Humans have been watching the aurora borealis for thousands of years, with scientific studies of the phenomenon underway for centuries. Despite all that watching and studying, however, there are still some auroral forms that remain a mystery--namely, the "proton arc." This one appeared over the Grande Cache area of Alberta, Canada, on July 29th:
"As I was driving to the Kakwa river, I saw a purple 'proton arc' crossing the sky from east to west, pulsing and dancing with the Northern lights," says photographer Catalin Tapardel. "Quite a show...."
Aurora photographers see these structures from time to time--tight ribbons of light, sometimes red, sometimes green, writhing across the night sky. They are commonly called "proton arcs."
Yet aurora scientists say they probably have nothing to do with protons.
"My opinion, and I believe the consensus of most aurora scientists, is that these arcs are not proton related, " says Jason Ahrns, a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, "but I don't know what does cause them."
"Ordinary auroras we see from the ground and space are caused by electrons precipitating down into the atmosphere," says Dennis Gallagher of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. "Protons can cause auroras, too, but they are different. For one thing, proton auroras are brightest in the UV part of the spectrum, invisible to the human eye."
There is some visible light from proton auroras, but the structures they make are not tight and filamentary, but rather broad and diffuse--"in part because the gyroradius of protons is large," says Ahrns. In other words, massive protons circle around magnetic fields in broad lazy arcs unlike lightweight electrons, which can tightly circle magnetic fields to form narrow structures.
Ahrns photographed an authentic proton aurora in February 2014: photo. "It appearance matched the description of proton arcs in the scientific literature - 'a dim and diffuse glow' with 'very little structure in the observed brightness' with a total brightness of only a few kiloRayleighs, which is just on the verge of visual threshold (Lummerzheim 2001)."
So what are the "proton arcs" often photographed by amateur aurora chasers? "I don't know," says Ahrns, "but it is something many of us would like to get to the bottom of!" For more examples of this mystery in the sky, browse the Proton Arc Photo Gallery.
A MYSTERIOUS FORM OF AURORA: Humans have been watching the aurora borealis for thousands of years, with scientific studies of the phenomenon underway for centuries. Despite all that watching and studying, however, there are still some auroral forms that remain a mystery--namely, the "proton arc." This one appeared over the Grande Cache area of Alberta, Canada, on July 29th:
"As I was driving to the Kakwa river, I saw a purple 'proton arc' crossing the sky from east to west, pulsing and dancing with the Northern lights," says photographer Catalin Tapardel. "Quite a show...."
Aurora photographers see these structures from time to time--tight ribbons of light, sometimes red, sometimes green, writhing across the night sky. They are commonly called "proton arcs."
Yet aurora scientists say they probably have nothing to do with protons.
"My opinion, and I believe the consensus of most aurora scientists, is that these arcs are not proton related, " says Jason Ahrns, a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, "but I don't know what does cause them."
"Ordinary auroras we see from the ground and space are caused by electrons precipitating down into the atmosphere," says Dennis Gallagher of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. "Protons can cause auroras, too, but they are different. For one thing, proton auroras are brightest in the UV part of the spectrum, invisible to the human eye."
There is some visible light from proton auroras, but the structures they make are not tight and filamentary, but rather broad and diffuse--"in part because the gyroradius of protons is large," says Ahrns. In other words, massive protons circle around magnetic fields in broad lazy arcs unlike lightweight electrons, which can tightly circle magnetic fields to form narrow structures.
Ahrns photographed an authentic proton aurora in February 2014: photo. "It appearance matched the description of proton arcs in the scientific literature - 'a dim and diffuse glow' with 'very little structure in the observed brightness' with a total brightness of only a few kiloRayleighs, which is just on the verge of visual threshold (Lummerzheim 2001)."
So what are the "proton arcs" often photographed by amateur aurora chasers? "I don't know," says Ahrns, "but it is something many of us would like to get to the bottom of!" For more examples of this mystery in the sky, browse the Proton Arc Photo Gallery.
Danoff
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Comet goes into the sun at 600km/s... pretty sweet.
http://www.space.com/33651-comet-death-dive-into-sun-video.html
http://www.space.com/33651-comet-death-dive-into-sun-video.html
CodeRedR51
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CodeRedR51
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SpaceX launch 1:26am EDT Sunday, satellite to geostationary orbit and landing attempt on drone ship.
CodeRedR51
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Launch webcast is live.
Edit: Yet another successful landing. 👍
Edit: Yet another successful landing. 👍
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CodeRedR51
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Tired Tyres
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Nearest star us, Proxima Centuri has a planet 1.3 times the size of earth in Proxima Centuri's goldilocks zone.
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I was just reading about that. http://time.com/4464833/earth-like-planet-discovered-one-star-away/
@Danoff or someone may need to help me out here though.
In the zone to allow water? Good
The star is a red dwarf, so it has a very close orbit. Temperatures are fine, but what about other radiation? A red dwarf can still put off a lot of other forms of radiation. Possibly not a deal breaker and easily overcome through evolution. I've seen crazy stuff on Earth.
Orbit of 11.2 days? No seasons or constantly turbulent atmosphere? Though it may not matter, because...
Synchronous orbit. Possibly, only one side ever faces the sun (much like the moon to Earth). If so, that creates an odd question. Is the center of day equator basically desert? Night frozen? Is there basically a small habitable circle around the edge of day and night? There are no tides in this scenario. What effect does that have on life? Does it affect geological events?
Aside from its temperature zone to its sun it sounds very much unlike Earth. If water is all that matters for life and evolution takes care of the rest then we might have neighbors. But if life requires more than just water I'm doubtful this is going to be a chance at finding new life. At best, simple organisms.
Of course, I'm still not sold on our definition of life. Life as we know it, yes. But life as we don't know it, well we wouldn't know would we? We would be wise not to overlook things when checking out places without Earth-like conditions. That said, I do understand its playing the odds. We know one condition that sustains life, so we know it can be there in those conditions, making it the first thing to look for.
@Danoff or someone may need to help me out here though.
In the zone to allow water? Good
The star is a red dwarf, so it has a very close orbit. Temperatures are fine, but what about other radiation? A red dwarf can still put off a lot of other forms of radiation. Possibly not a deal breaker and easily overcome through evolution. I've seen crazy stuff on Earth.
Orbit of 11.2 days? No seasons or constantly turbulent atmosphere? Though it may not matter, because...
Synchronous orbit. Possibly, only one side ever faces the sun (much like the moon to Earth). If so, that creates an odd question. Is the center of day equator basically desert? Night frozen? Is there basically a small habitable circle around the edge of day and night? There are no tides in this scenario. What effect does that have on life? Does it affect geological events?
Aside from its temperature zone to its sun it sounds very much unlike Earth. If water is all that matters for life and evolution takes care of the rest then we might have neighbors. But if life requires more than just water I'm doubtful this is going to be a chance at finding new life. At best, simple organisms.
Of course, I'm still not sold on our definition of life. Life as we know it, yes. But life as we don't know it, well we wouldn't know would we? We would be wise not to overlook things when checking out places without Earth-like conditions. That said, I do understand its playing the odds. We know one condition that sustains life, so we know it can be there in those conditions, making it the first thing to look for.
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I think you're right. A lot of things about that planet suggest that complex life may not have the right ingredients to emerge. Even if it has water, and an atmosphere, and elements like oxygen and carbon.
Far more to a planet being habitable than it being in the habitable zone, at least in Earth's case. Weather patterns. Plate tectonics. Ocean currents. A broadly temperate climate. And virtually every factor that makes Earth suitable for the development of life also affects other factors, each contributing to the others.
You can have flour, eggs, butter and sugar and if you mix the right amount of ingredients together in the right way and bake it for the right amount of time you'll have a cake. But chucking those same ingredients in a bowl without mixing and baking it as-is probably won't have the same result.
Danoff
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Radiation is thought to be somewhat beneficial for the development of life. Not too much, of course, but there would certainly be zones where there isn't too much.
Our atmosphere is constantly turbulent. The presence of an atmosphere would smooth out the short orbital period if there are seasons.
There's not thing inherently wrong with a synchronous orbit. You won't have a lot of plant life on one side vs. the other, for example. I would imagine that it would create bands around the day/night boundary that would be quite habitable. Life on our planet does best when conditions are relatively constant. We survive the variations, but I'd have a harder time telling you how life survives day/night transitions or seasons than how it survives consistency.
Possibly it's a better world than ours really.
We have massive climate variations, chaotic weather, tidal forces... just wacky wacky stuff to deal with. I don't see any of what was listed as being important for life to develop or difficult for evolution to conquer.
...because life here is well evolved to be here.
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To sum up, evolution might take care of the rest, assuming it isn't a radioactive wasteland?
Danoff
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It won't be a radioactive wasteland. I'm sure there are places underground, in isolated bodies of water deep in caves, or just under a deep ocean that would be shielded from radiation. But really there's a certain threshold of radiation that may help life develop. In fact, studies are showing that since life on earth evolved at a certain level of radiation, when that life is cultured in an area where there is almost zero radiation it does not fare as well as when it is immersed in radiation at the level of background radiation of the Earth.
So who knows?
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And this all comes back to life as we know it vs just life. I imagine that the first extraterrestrial life we find will have Earth biologists scratching their heads.
Whenever I watch documentaries of deep ocean explorations to places where sunlight has never reached, but there is a flourishing ecosystem powered by geothermal energy, I think about how that completely altered our view of what is necessary for life when we first discovered it. I imagine extraterrestrial life will alter our view even more drastically.
CodeRedR51
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SpaceX to Launch SES-10 Satellite on Previously Flown Falcon 9 This Year
Also, launch early Saturday...
Also, launch early Saturday...
CodeRedR51
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Well, scratch that launch for this weekend...
SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Explodes on Launch Pad in Florida
Edit: This article says it may have been an issue with the pad and not the rocket.
Statement from SpaceX:
Edit 2: additional update.
Edit 3: VIDEO!
SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Explodes on Launch Pad in Florida
Edit: This article says it may have been an issue with the pad and not the rocket.
Statement from SpaceX:
Edit 2: additional update.
Edit 3: VIDEO!
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Dotini
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AURORAS ON JUPITER: On Aug. 27th, for the first time ever, NASA's Juno spacecraft swooped over Jupiter's south pole. The flyby revealed an astonishing vortex of infra-red light:
"While we knew that the flyby of Jupiter's south pole might reveal the planet's southern aurora, we were still amazed to see it for the first time," says Alberto Adriani from the Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali in Rome. Adriani is a co-investigator on the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), the instrument that took the picture.
Another instrument on Juno named "Waves" detected low-frequency (<100 kHz) radio signals coming from Jupiter's aurora-zone. To make these signals audible, mission scientists at the University of Iowa shifted the signals into the frequency range of human hearing. The audio begins about 30 seconds into this movie:
http://spaceweather.com (September 6, 2016)
If the auroras of Jupiter sound mysterious--that's because they are.
Unlike Earth, which lights up in response to solar activity, Jupiter makes its own auroras. The power source is the giant planet's own rotation. Although Jupiter is ten times wider than Earth, it manages to spin around 2.5 times as fast as our little planet. As any freshman engineering student knows, if you spin a magnet you've got an electric generator. And Jupiter is a very big magnet. Induced electric fields accelerate particles toward Jupiter's poles where the aurora action takes place. Remarkably, many of the particles that rain down on Jupiter's poles appear to be ejecta from volcanoes on Io. How this complicated system actually works is a puzzle.
"While we knew that the flyby of Jupiter's south pole might reveal the planet's southern aurora, we were still amazed to see it for the first time," says Alberto Adriani from the Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali in Rome. Adriani is a co-investigator on the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), the instrument that took the picture.
Another instrument on Juno named "Waves" detected low-frequency (<100 kHz) radio signals coming from Jupiter's aurora-zone. To make these signals audible, mission scientists at the University of Iowa shifted the signals into the frequency range of human hearing. The audio begins about 30 seconds into this movie:
http://spaceweather.com (September 6, 2016)
If the auroras of Jupiter sound mysterious--that's because they are.
Unlike Earth, which lights up in response to solar activity, Jupiter makes its own auroras. The power source is the giant planet's own rotation. Although Jupiter is ten times wider than Earth, it manages to spin around 2.5 times as fast as our little planet. As any freshman engineering student knows, if you spin a magnet you've got an electric generator. And Jupiter is a very big magnet. Induced electric fields accelerate particles toward Jupiter's poles where the aurora action takes place. Remarkably, many of the particles that rain down on Jupiter's poles appear to be ejecta from volcanoes on Io. How this complicated system actually works is a puzzle.
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CodeRedR51
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Here's the stream.
Edit: Love these close up shots.
Edit: Love these close up shots.
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CodeRedR51
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So SpaceX is asking the public for video or audio files that may help in the investigation of the latest mishap. That leads me to believe that they have combed through all of their data and couldn't find anything and are now looking for an outside source.
SpaceX
Dotini
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Despite the support of NASA, the FAA and the US Air Force, no answers are thus far forthcoming as to the cause of the massive explosion. The problem is no apparent heat source. It does seem to be a bit of an "anomaly", or "bug". Poor Elon Musk, the stars seem to have turned against him.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37316836
An investigation into how a SpaceX rocket exploded is uncovering a "difficult and complex failure", the firm's founder Elon Musk has said. Mr Musk tweeted that the explosion of Falcon 9 during a routine filling operation was the most complicated in the space travel firm's history. He said that the engines weren't on and there was "no apparent heat source".
