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Space: The Final Frontier

P

perfectchaos007

Member
i'm just inside the pink figure 8, so I should get a good view barring cloud cover

Kjxxl5.gif
 
L

Lucky Forward

Member
DNA survives critical entry into Earth's atmosphere

The genetic material DNA can survive a flight through space and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere -- and still pass on genetic information. A team of scientists from UZH obtained these astonishing results during an experiment on the TEXUS-49 research rocket mission.

Applied to the outer shell of the payload section of a rocket using pipettes, small, double-stranded DNA molecules flew into space from Earth and back again. After the launch, space flight, re-entry into Earth's atmosphere and landing, the so-called plasmid DNA molecules were still found on all the application points on the rocket from the TEXUS-49 mission. And this was not the only surprise: For the most part, the DNA salvaged was even still able to transfer genetic information to bacterial and connective tissue cells. "This study provides experimental evidence that the DNA's genetic information is essentially capable of surviving the extreme conditions of space and the re-entry into Earth's dense atmosphere," says study head Professor Oliver Ullrich from the University of Zurich's Institute of Anatomy.
Click to expand...
Various scientists believe that DNA could certainly reach us from outer space as Earth is not insulated: in extraterrestrial material made of dust and meteorites, for instance, around 100 tons of which hits our planet every day.

This extraordinary stability of DNA under space conditions also needs to be factored into the interpretion of results in the search for extraterrestrial life: "The results show that it is by no means unlikely that, despite all the safety precautions, space ships could also carry terrestrial DNA to their landing site. We need to have this under control in the search for extraterrestrial life," points out Ullrich.
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A

A-Dark-Injection

Member
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/15/7551365/playstation-cpu-powers-new-horizons-pluto-probe

You probably already know that your smartphone is more powerful than the computers used to land astronauts on the Moon. But did you know that the processor used in the original Sony PlayStation is currently guiding a space probe the size of a grand piano towards Pluto? Yep, the same MIPS R3000 CPU that once rendered graphics for Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid was repurposed by NASA in 2006 to fire thrusters, monitor sensors, and transmit data from the New Horizons space probe.
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The CPU in New Horizons may have been tweaked a little to better survive the radiation bombardment of space, but other than that it's the same old chip: NASA’s engineers don’t need power; they need reliability.

This is why there’s nothing better than a reputation staked on years of commercial use. Is your old PlayStation still working? Good. Because New Horizon has been in space for nine years already.
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179 days until encounter start. I'm so excited.
 
Melchiah

Melchiah

Member
http://www.gizmag.com/nasa-titan-submarine-concept/35960/
NASA releases details of Titan submarine concept

Now that NASA has got the hang of planetary rovers, the space agency is looking at sending submarines into space around the year 2040. At the recent 2015 NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium in Cocoa Beach, Florida, NASA scientists and engineers presented a study of the Titan Submarine Phase I Conceptual Design, which outlines a possible mission to Saturn's largest moon, Titan, where the unmanned submersible would explore the seas of liquid hydrocarbons at the Titanian poles.

xnPb9EC.png

The Titan submarine would use a large dorsal fin as an antenna

If you had to choose the odd man out of all the moons of the Solar System, Titan would be it. Larger than the planet Mercury, it's the only moon with a proper atmosphere. In this case, one composed largely of nitrogen and methane at a pressure one and half times that of Earth's, which is remarkable when you consider that the gravity is only 0.14 g. It is, however, unpleasantly cold at a nippy minus 290 °F (minus 179 °C).

As a result of the Voyager and Cassini probe flybys and the Huygens probe landing, it's been established that there are three large polar seas on Titan consisting of methane and ethane in a composition similar to that of liquified natural gas. The largest of these is Kraken Mare, which was discovered by the Cassini probe n 2007. It lies in the Titanian arctic between 60 and 80 degrees north latitude, covers 400,000 sq km (154,000 sq miles), and may be 160 m (525 ft) deep, though some estimates place it beyond 300 m (1,000 ft). It even has tides due to the pull of Saturn, a complex shoreline, and evaporite deposits, so it's of particular interest to scientists.

7t4wzHF.png

The Titan submarine concept has side-scanning sonar

Unfortunately, as anyone who has peered over the side of a boat can tell you, there's only so much that can be learned by looking at the surface, so NASA is considering what kind of a submarine would be able to explore the depths of Kraken Mare.

NASA's conceptual Titan submarine is based on experience gained from the building and operations of drone submersibles on Earth. Weighing in at about one tonne (2,200 lb), it uses conventional electric propulsion modified for use on Titan for a 90-day mission covering 2,000 km (1,240 miles) of Kraken Mare.

Because of its elongated shape, the sub would need to be delivered to the surface of Titan using a winged spacecraft similar to US Air Force X-37 lifting body, which could survive a hypersonic entry into Titan's atmosphere, ditch on the surface of Kraken Mare, and then sink away, leaving the submarine floating on the surface. After orientation and testing, the sub would then begin its mission. Because of the great distance from Earth, the submarine would operate with a very high level of autonomy.
Click to expand...
More in the link.

Titan Submarine: Exploring the Depths of Kraken Mare
http://youtu.be/NnKxbdpLP5E
 
Buggy Loop

Buggy Loop

Member
Posted?

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31519875

A red dwarf had a mere 0.8 LY close encounter with our solar system 70 000 years ago, around the time humans were expanding out of Africa.

Mind blowing, it could have been seen with binoculars too or with the naked eye if it would have flares. Just a slight shift in its long term trajetory and it could have caused mass extinction or even kill all life in our solar system.

Just another one of those numerous lucky dices we've been throwing since the beginning of life on this planet. And we're still fighting over stupid shit.
 
E

endre

Member
To anyone interested space.com is doing a series about what it would like to live on the planets or moons of the solar system.

p.s.: Only three more days till Dawn reaches Ceres.

EDIT: I want to share this image I have just seen as well:

potential-hazardous-asteroids-crop.jpg


This NASA graphic shows the orbits of all the known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs), numbering over 1,400 as of early 2013. Shown here is a close-up of the orbits overlaid on the orbits of Earth and other inner planets.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
 
O

owlbeak

Member
Ceres has captured Dawn! :)

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/march/nasa-spacecraft-becomes-first-to-orbit-a-dwarf-planet/

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has become the first mission to achieve orbit around a dwarf planet. The spacecraft was approximately 38,000 miles (61,000) kilometers from Ceres when it was captured by the dwarf planet’s gravity at about 4:39 a.m. PST (7:39 a.m. EST) Friday.

Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California received a signal from the spacecraft at 5:36 a.m. PST (8:36 a.m. EST) that Dawn was healthy and thrusting with its ion engine, the indicator Dawn had entered orbit as planned.
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Data downlink begins at 1pm EST with (hopefully) new images and such. Livestream at 1pm can be watched here: http://live.slooh.com/stadium/live/dawn-to-arrive-for-ceres
 
A

A-Dark-Injection

Member
Melchiah

Melchiah

Member
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150311-enceladus-astrobiology-life-saturn-space-planet/
Saturn Moon Just Got More Interesting in Hunt for Alien Life
Particles spewed from its ice-encrusted ocean hint at the same kind of chemistry that might have jump-started Earth’s biology.

VxTarO6.jpg

In this picture taken by the Cassini spacecraft, the textured surface of Enceladus is visible in the foreground, while plumes of vapor rise from ice fractures in the distance. These plumes likely originate from a hidden sea, increasing the chance that the orb could be hospitable to life.
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More in the link.
 
Melchiah

Melchiah

Member
It's tin foil hat time.

http://earthweareone.com/pentagon-secret-the-anunnaki-are-returning/
Pentagon Secret – The Anunnaki Are Returning

Gd0mUKK.jpg


The Anunnaki may be returning to Earth according to one recent interview from a man with insider Pentagon sources.

According to Stan Deyo, the buzzword around the Pentagon is that the Sumerian Gods are returning back to Earth.

Anunnaki Ties to Comets ISON and Encke

With two well known celestial objects on the horizon, one must question why the comets ISON and Encke were given those particular names.

The word “on” is associated with the word An (pronounced “on”), as in Anunnaki, and one of their leaders, Anu (ON-nu).

The prefix for ISON would be IS, as in Isis who is the same character in folklore as Inanna and the Sumerian Goddess, Ishtar. So, if you separate the word ISON to become IS + ON, you get Ishtar, of the Anunnaki.

Comet Encke is much more obvious to those who have studied the Anunnaki. Enki (as in comet Encke) was a Sumerian God who was later referred to as Ea (as in why our planet is called EArth). Enki was the deity of crafts, mischief, water, seawater, lake water, intelligence and creation.

...

Some believe this UFO may possibly be a Pleiadian or Arcturian ship but it is also possible that it might be the return of the Anunnaki.

As evidence from many reports and videos from all around the globe, this UFO changes color and size. Various sacred geometry shapes can be detected from this UFO and the colors will change intermittently.

If this UFO is the Anunnaki, expect all governments to ensure that a new star will be placed on SkEye and Stellarium applications to cover up the fact that we are not alone in this galaxy or universe.

For some people, this will be too much for them to swallow. Others will deny what is happening but for those who have the capability to look outside the box, all possibilities exist without fear or apprehension.
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More in the link, including videos.
 
N

Naked Snake

Member
endre said:
To anyone interested space.com is doing a series about what it would like to live on the planets or moons of the solar system.

p.s.: Only three more days till Dawn reaches Ceres.

EDIT: I want to share this image I have just seen as well:

potential-hazardous-asteroids-crop.jpg


This NASA graphic shows the orbits of all the known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs), numbering over 1,400 as of early 2013. Shown here is a close-up of the orbits overlaid on the orbits of Earth and other inner planets.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Click to expand...

It does look scary like that, but when you stretch that image to the size of the solar system then the spaces between all those lines become vast oceans of emptiness, and it doesn't look as dangerous anymore.

Scale bruh.
 
E

Escape Goat

Member
Scale image of Earth's size/distance from the moon

UG2Jzyo.jpg


Earth's thin atmosphere

mMPxLjU.jpg


We see more than 50% of the moon due to its rotation

k9TL7Ae.gifv


Martian sunset

aFy4ABB.jpg


I hope Mars astronauts dont get homesick. Its a long way back.

gIx6mfY.jpg


Baby picture of a solar system forming

RdC8jpQ.jpg



Sunlight reflecting off ice on Saturn's moon, Titan.

kwEJSBn.jpg



Saturn in front of the sun.

IteCrHX.jpg



Earth playing peakaboo behind the rings of Saturn

3i0ek7B.jpg



Sharpest image Hubble has taken

fz5ruBq.jpg



Galaxy passing behind another galaxy

720B9Dz.jpg



When galaxies collide...

Z14DREU.jpg



South pole of Jupiter

WFZmagi.jpg



Io has sprung a leak

K3qIk6d.gifv




Lots of galaxies

gLLr5Pc.jpg
 
L

Lucky Forward

Member
Ice on Mars: Mars has belts of glaciers consisting of frozen water

Mars has distinct polar ice caps, but Mars also has belts of glaciers at its central latitudes in both the southern and northern hemispheres. A thick layer of dust covers the glaciers, so they appear as surface of the ground, but radar measurements show that underneath the dust there are glaciers composed of frozen water. New studies have now calculated the size of the glaciers and thus the amount of water in the glaciers. It is the equivalent of all of Mars being covered by more than one meter of ice.
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From some locations on Mars they have good detailed high-resolution data, while they only have more sparse data from other areas. But by supplementing the sparse data with information about the flow and form of the glaciers from the very well studied areas, they have been able to calculate how thick and voluminous the ice is across the glacier belts.

"We have calculated that the ice in the glaciers is equivalent to over 150 billion cubic meters of ice -- that much ice could cover the entire surface of Mars with 1.1 meters of ice. The ice at the mid-latitudes is therefore an important part of Mars' water reservoir," explains Nanna Bjørnholt Karlsson.

That the ice has not evaporated out into space could actually mean that the thick layer of dust is protecting the ice. The atmospheric pressure on Mars is so low that water ice simply evaporates and becomes water vapour. But the glaciers are well protected under the thick layer of dust.
Click to expand...
 
L

Lucky Forward

Member
The Last Days of MESSENGER

MESSENGER is doomed. Because Mercury is so close to the Sun (about 58 million km), the Sun’s gravity pokes at MESSENGER, changing its orbit. It uses hydrazine propellant to alter its orbit, but it's out of fuel. The last orbital maneuver on April 6 used up the remaining hydrazine in its tanks. All that's left is helium (used to keep the tanks pressurized); that can be used as a propellant but it's not terribly efficient. A few more "burns" are planned to raise its minimum distance above the surface but they will only add a bit of time to MESSENGER's life. It's not clear when exactly, but sometime in late April or early May the probe is expected to crash into the planet’s surface.

This is inevitable, and was understood by the scientists and engineers on the team even during mission planning. They even are taking advantage of it! MESSENGER has been getting as low as 13 to 17 km from the surface, and the adjustments have kept that distance from 39 to as low as an astonishing 5 km above Mercury. The images taken during this time will be the highest resolution of the mission.

It’s been a great four years, filled with exciting new discoveries and gorgeous pictures of Mercury. I’m glad to see that the team is squeezing every last drop of science they can from the mission before the end.
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I like the idea that NASA is going to ride this thing down like Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove.
 
3

3phemeral

Member
Mapping the cosmos: Dark Energy Survey creates detailed guide to spotting dark matter


tx1X2lC.jpg
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This is the first Dark Energy Survey map to trace the detailed distribution of dark matter across a large area of sky. The color scale represents projected mass density: red and yellow represent regions with more dense matter. The dark matter maps reflect the current picture of mass distribution in the universe where large filaments of matter align with galaxies and clusters of galaxies. Clusters of galaxies are represented by gray dots on the map - bigger dots represent larger clusters. This map covers three percent of the area of sky that DES will eventually document over its five-year mission.
Click to expand...
 
A

A-Dark-Injection

Member
NASA’s New Horizons Detects Surface Features, Possible Polar Cap on Pluto

OpNav3_plutcenv7_lowres.gif
OpNav3_barycen_v7_lowres.gif
Click to expand...

Pluto and Charon rotate around a center-of-mass (also called the “barycenter”) once every 6.4 Earth days, and these LORRI images capture one complete rotation of the system. The direction of the rotation axis is shown in the figure. In one of these movies, the center of Pluto is kept fixed in the frame, while the other movie is fixed on the center of mass (accounting for the “wobble” in the system as Charon orbits Pluto).

The 3x-magnified view of Pluto highlights the changing brightness across the disk of Pluto as it rotates. Because Pluto is tipped on its side (like Uranus), when observing Pluto from the New Horizons spacecraft, one primarily sees one pole of Pluto, which appears to be brighter than the rest of the disk in all the images. Scientists suggest this brightening in Pluto’s polar region might be caused by a “cap” of highly reflective snow on the surface. The “snow” in this case is likely to be frozen molecular nitrogen ice. New Horizons observations in July will determine definitively whether or not this hypothesis is correct.
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75 days remaining until closest approach
 
L

Lucky Forward

Member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpH684lNUB8#t=15m40s

SpaceX stages dramatic crew escape system test

Simulating a launch pad emergency, an unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule was blasted away from Cape Canaveral Wednesday, shooting to an altitude of several thousand feet before arcing over for an offshore splashdown in a dramatic test of the emergency escape system planned for the company's space station crew ships.

Eight SuperDraco engines mounted in pairs around the base of the eight-ton capsule ignited at 9 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), reaching a combined thrust of 120,000 pounds and boosting the spacecraft from zero to 100 mph -- straight up -- in one second.

Quickly climbing away from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the SuperDracos burned for just five seconds or so, enough to push the craft away from an impending booster failure in an actual launch attempt. The acceleration subjected an instrumented dummy to about five times the force of Earth's gravity.

After the engines shut down, the capsule continued climbing, coasting to an altitude of about 4,500 feet on an arcing trajectory carrying it just over the coastline from launch complex 40.

At the apex of the arc, the Dragon and its finned trunk section separated as planned. The Dragon capsule immediately flipped around, going through a full 360-degree rotation, before two small drogue parachutes deployed to stabilize the vehicle. A few seconds later, three orange-and-white main parachutes unfurled, gently lowering the spacecraft to the Atlantic Ocean just off shore.
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