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Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 10:09 pm
by Arioch
Suederwind wrote:Astronomers Find a New Type of Planet: The "Mega-Earth" Link
It's a bit goofy that they insist on classifying every rocky exoplanet as some flavor of "Earth." Kepler-10c is as massive as Neptune and has a smaller orbit than Mercury; it's nothing at all like Earth.

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 11:07 pm
by Suederwind
It's a bit goofy that they insist on classifying every rocky exoplanet as some flavor of "Earth."
Yes, Stracciatella would be much better.

Jokes aside: a planet as massive and as close to the sun as this one would come very close to anyones idea of "hell".

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 3:30 pm
by Smithy
Good news!

The Churymov-Gerasimenko comet has entered Rosetta's sights, and more interestingly, it appears to be a contact binary!

Image

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 7:23 pm
by Suederwind
Found an interesting article about caves on the moon: Link
I didn't even know such things exist up there. Anyway, Nasa thinks (Link) that they could provide shelter for future settlements.

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 5:33 pm
by Smithy
Fantastic News!

As you know I've been following the progress of Rosetta, from my periodic posts of it's achievements on these forums.

It's been over 10 years in the waiting, but finally Rosetta has just recently entered into orbit around comet 67P (Churyumov-Gerasimenko), a first in space exploration history. Delivering stunning detail of the comet. The Philae lander carried by Rosetta will hopefully be able to land on the surface for November 11th.

Image

EDIT: Link fixed

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:21 pm
by Nemo
So, a variety of news outlets are reporting that plankton was found on the exterior of the ISS. The money shot:
Mr Solovyev was uncertain "how these microscopic particles could have appeared on the surface of the space station", adding that the organisms were not typical for Baikanour in Kazakhstan, from where the space station lifted off.

"Plankton in these stages of development could be found on the surface of the oceans.

"This is not typical for Baikonur. It means that there are some uplifting air currents which reach the station and settle on its surface,"

Le wut? Ok, I'll buy exoatmospheric air currents, sure, but connecting them to plankton on the ISS? Rather than contamination by a visiting vessel (Shuttle comes to mind) or space walk? Can anyone source this better than these random news stories that are popping up?

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:42 pm
by icekatze
hi hi

Honestly, it isn't surprising to me. Back in 2013, there was a big surprise for climate scientists when a group of scientists taking rarified air samples in the upper troposphere discovered a significant percentage of bacteria and fungus in their samples.

Since the ISS interacts with the atmosphere on a regular basis, it is hardly outside the realm of possibility.

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:52 pm
by Arioch
It still seems more likely that it was contamination from a supply vehicle.

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 1:00 am
by Nemo
See, that would have been my guess too. I'm wondering if someone translating from Russian to English, or from science to "press", made a mistake or embellished something along the way. I recall there are some European readers poking around, hoping someone has something closer to the source.


Honestly, it isn't surprising to me. Back in 2013, there was a big surprise for climate scientists when a group of scientists taking rarified air samples in the upper troposphere discovered a significant percentage of bacteria and fungus in their samples.
Troposphere goes up to what, little less than 20km? We've known bacteria and such get up to the stratosphere since... I dunno to be honest. I remember watching Nova or something on PBS back in the '80s talking about high-altitude low-level life beyond the reach of Everest. Showed them capturing samples in big air filters hanging from balloons and what have you. They found new ones more recently in 2009, I remember that.

The ISS has a periapsis over 400km, well out of the troposphere, past the stratosphere, beyond the mesosphere, and into the thermosphere.

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 3:51 am
by icekatze
hi hi

Contamination by a supply vehicle is certainly a strong possibility, but I still wouldn't rule out atmospheric lift. Atmospheric lift has supported a 4188.7cm^3 object to an altitude with an average pressure of 1 mbar. I know things get more complicated mathematically as you go up, but at first glance, it seems at least possible that a 9.0e-19cm^3 particle could be lifted to an altitude with an average pressure of 1.4e-17 mbar.

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 8:55 am
by Suederwind
Hm... The only news I did read about this discovery, was in the german newspaper "Der Spiegel": http://m.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltall/a-986833.html
There is nothing more about it there, expect that they discovered those microorganisms last year.

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 7:10 am
by Arioch
NASA spokesman Dan Huot: "As far as we're concerned, we haven't heard any official reports from our Roscosmos colleagues that they've found sea plankton. The Russians did take samples from one of the windows on the Russian segment, and what they're actually looking for is residues that can build up on the visually sensitive elements, like windows, as well as just the hull of the ship itself that will build up whenever they do thruster firings for things like re-boosts. That's what they were taking samples for. I don't know where all the sea plankton talk is coming from."

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2014 2:26 pm
by Nemo
I was once told that when dealing with the Russians, "Doveryai, no proveryai." Seems apt as always. Thanks, Arioch.

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 12:48 am
by icekatze
hi hi

This was news months ago, but I only just heard about it today.

Astronomers discover strong Thorne-Zytkow Object candidate

I didn't even know what a Thorne-Zytkow Object was until now, but it is what you get when a neutron star is enveloped by another star. In this case, it looks like a neutron star was dragged into a companion when it expanded to become a giant.

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 3:24 am
by Arioch
Strange. You would think that a neutron star plunging into the core of a red supergiant would either cause the supergiant to explode or collapse... having a neutron star at your core seems like it should either shut down fusion or cause it to run amok.

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 1:38 pm
by RedDwarfIV
Eh... neutron stars are very dense, but as it said in the article, they're a lot less massive than red supergiants. I wouldn't be surprised if it caused some weirdness, but I wouldn't say it'd be most likely to do that.

They have a mass several times that of the Sun. A red supergiant will have more than ten solar masses.

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 5:27 pm
by Arioch
Yeah, but I'm sayin'... you're putting a huge mass of superdense non-compressible, non-fissionable material at the core of a star that's already running on fumes. The impact alone might cause a supernova-sized explosion, but if not, you've now got a giant neutron sitting at your core.

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 8:00 pm
by icekatze
hi hi

Here's some more specific, in depth information on how the process works, in a format clearly made by a scientist and not a graphic designer. (Yellow text on a black background? ouch!)

Science is math!

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 9:46 am
by Arioch
ALMA radio telescope image of the protoplanetary disk around HL Tauri:

Image

The gaps in the disk are, presumably, planetesimals. And since the star is only about a million years old, they formed very quickly.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Re: The Astronomy Thread

Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 6:07 pm
by GeoModder
Arioch wrote:ALMA radio telescope image of the protoplanetary disk around HL Tauri:
Is that an Outsider Insider hint? A Soia object? ;)