Astronomy General Space Discussion

[ChampRevesby]

There is a phenomena where electromagnetic waves lose energy the further they travel which means eventually the whole universe will be dark

Electromagnetic energy is conserved in a vacuum. As the electromagnetic radiation travels from a distance source like a galaxy it is "stretched" or shifted to a lower frequency (towards red) because spacetime is expanding between us and the object. So the lower the observing frequency, the further back in time you go. Go low enough and you get a glimpse at the early universe. Radio astronomy is the key science here.

 

[grumbleguts]

Electromagnetic energy is conserved in a vacuum. As the electromagnetic radiation travels from a distance source like a galaxy it is "stretched" or shifted to a lower frequency (towards red) because spacetime is expanding between us and the object. So the lower the observing frequency, the further back in time you go. Go low enough and you get a glimpse at the early universe. Radio astronomy is the key science here.

It's estimated that the 7% of the snow seen between television channels, is the background radiation from the early universe.

 

[rippersnipper]

Interestingly scientists think they have discovered the first white dwarf pulsar.
It's accreting matter off a red dwarf. Pretty damn cool.

https://phys.org/news/2017-02-mysterious-white-dwarf-pulsar.html

This is pretty awesome as well. May well be similar to V838 Monocerotis.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/01/colliding-stars-will-light-night-sky-2022

 

[melbournemartin]

I have always wondered about the expanding universe and if its expanding what is it expanding into? universe seems to be a gigantic bubble within another bubble within another bubble and so on.

Since the Universe is space itself, there is nothing to expand into because there is no such concept as space outside of the Universe.

Yep, it's ****ed.

 

[Thrawn]

So they've discovered a new planetary system 39 LY away, with several planets in the habitable zone, orbiting a smaller star. C'mon JWT, launch already!!

Btw Chief, this particular forum is not on the LHS dropdown panel.

 

[Frank Bunn]

So they've discovered a new planetary system 39 LY away, with several planets in the habitable zone, orbiting a smaller star. C'mon JWT, launch already!!

Btw Chief, this particular forum is not on the LHS dropdown panel.

I was just reading about that. The planets are close together - similar distances as earth to the moon. So you would think if intelligent life evolved on one planet they could travel to the others.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/02/22/nasa-announcement-live/

 

[volcboy]

I was just reading about that. The planets are close together - similar distances as earth to the moon. So you would think if intelligent life evolved on one planet they could travel to the others.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/02/22/nasa-announcement-live/

Reddit AMA with the JPL & NASA scientists involved can be found here:



Lots of interesting questions and discussion about the discovery and what comes next.

 

[Frank Bunn]

Reddit AMA with the JPL & NASA scientists involved can be found here:



Lots of interesting questions and discussion about the discovery and what comes next.

I'm thinking this planet configuration might be quite rare. And all the life forms on remote planets across our galaxy would find it and start bombarding them with communications. They could be like a universal telephone exchange

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

So these new planets they found are in the Goldie Locks zone that can probably support life? Interesting.

All we need now is NASA to make a Millennium Falcon so we can travel at light speed

 

[chelseacarlton]

So they've discovered a new planetary system 39 LY away, with several planets in the habitable zone, orbiting a smaller star. C'mon JWT, launch already!!

Btw Chief, this particular forum is not on the LHS dropdown panel.

We need to wait for the new James Webb to come online first.
Launch date some time in 2018,then we wait and if we don't find any other systems of note between now and then,I'd imagine this system would be número uno on this magnificent lens.
40LY ain't much in the scheme of things and terrific progress will be made in the next century in terms of high speed space travel.
This is really ******* exciting,might need sometime in the mancave,alone!

 

[GreyCrow]

Yeah we should send the drones coz only AI can go into space.

 

[Ricardo]

Nice quote by 'Cransley' from The Guardian;

"Our exploration of the universe thus far, is the equivalent of going to the beach, filling a pint glass with seawater, looking into it and concluding there are no fish in the oceans."

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Nice quote by 'Cransley' from The Guardian;

"Our exploration of the universe thus far, is the equivalent of going to the beach, filling a pint glass with seawater, looking into it and concluding there are no fish in the oceans."

They stole it from Neil DeGrasse Tyson and changed whales to fish.

 

[Ricardo]

They stole it from Neil DeGrasse Tyson and changed whales to fish.

Ahh...thought it might be from somewhere else, still a nice i thought.

 

[Frank Bunn]

Nice quote by 'Cransley' from The Guardian;

"Our exploration of the universe thus far, is the equivalent of going to the beach, filling a pint glass with seawater, looking into it and concluding there are no fish in the oceans."

Analogies usually suck.

eg

• No one is making that conclusion.
• The pint glass of seawater would be teeming with life.
• We are not going to the beach and filling a glass with water, we are looking in rockpools that look promising.

Also, the 'fish in the ocean' would also be looking for us. If there is so much life in the universe, and some of it fairly close like these Trappist planets, why have we not heard signs of them?

 

[Pessimistic]

Will "intelligence" always need to evolve via a biological food chain base ?

 

[Huntercrow]

So we have been transmitting radio waves since the end of world war 2.

So our reach into the universe is only 70 light years!!

Hardly scratching the surface.

 

[Total Power]

How about this:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sc...t-four-days-of-operation-20170522-gwa5m2.html

Australian astronomers have discovered an object six to eight billion light years away that - in about a millisecond - ejected the same amount of energy that our sun releases in 2½ years.

The universe never disappoints

 

[Genesis67]

How about this:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sc...t-four-days-of-operation-20170522-gwa5m2.html




The universe never disappoints

Never a truer word is spoken.

 

[Werewolf]

NASA announces the existence of "Planet Nine" - not to be confused with Plan 9 from Outer Space

NASA has admitted that a mysterious world called Planet Nine is hidden out of sight at the edge of our solar system. The gigantic icy planet is believed to be ten times larger than Earth and 20 times farther away from the sun than Neptune.

 

[Ron The Bear]

NASA announces the existence of "Planet Nine" - not to be confused with Plan 9 from Outer Space

The dailies have seemingly absolved themselves of all responsibility in reporting this pseudo-scientific crap as news. "NASA has admitted"... FFS.

This theory has been around for centuries as an explanation for tiny perturbations in the orbits of the outer planets. The hypothetical body was formerly referred to as Planet X, prior to Pluto being downgraded.

 

[Werewolf]

This theory has been around for centuries as an explanation for tiny perturbations in the orbits of the outer planets. The hypothetical body was formerly referred to as Planet X, prior to Pluto being downgraded.

You can prove using Kepler's 3rd law that a planet that far away from the Sun would take nearly 15,000 years to orbit!

That means no birthdays for anyone who happens to live there

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

That means no birthdays for anyone who happens to live there

... assuming their life span is Earth-like.

 

[goalieboy82]

space related:

 

[Total Power]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...-google-artificial-intelligence-a8111256.html
“NASA has found an entire solar system with as many planets as our own.

The discovery of a new planet around the Kepler-90 star, which looks like our own sun, means the distant solar system has a total of eight known planets. And those planets look like those in our own neighbourhood: rocky planets orbit close to the star, with gas giants further away.

The star and its family of planets were already known about, having been detected by the Kepler space telescope. But the breakthrough came when astronomers found the new world, which was done using Google’s artificial intelligence technology.”


Very interesting. Could there be an earth like planet with life in there?