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Early space programme

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- Wed, 18 Mar 2015 14:00:34 EST A1E2ozZS No.55144
File: 1426701634395.jpg -(25279B / 24.69KB, 350x300) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. Early space programme
I recently realised that I'm completely fascinated with the early space programmes / the early space technology / the early space race. I would say from the very beginning until the end of the 80's.
My request: recommended information, books, documentaries, websites, cheesy anecdotes.. Anything really.

Thanks a lot.
2 posts omitted. Click View Thread to read.
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William de Sitter - Tue, 24 Mar 2015 17:02:07 EST CB4800qQ No.55160 Reply
1427230927705.jpg -(26506B / 25.88KB, 299x324) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size.
I found one of the early motivating factors for the space race.
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Joseph Lockyer - Tue, 24 Mar 2015 21:41:19 EST YbQiwQ8y No.55161 Reply
Check out Werner von Braun and his V2 rocket built first for the Nazi party, then Americans extradited him to the US (clearing him of any war-crime charges) and put him to work. There is also a Modern Marvels episode called 'Satellite'. Goes pretty in depth about the whole space race etc...

black hole the size of 12 billion suns found, debunks all theories of the universe

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- Thu, 26 Feb 2015 19:38:03 EST GFgbSSMF No.55071
File: 1424997483202.jpg -(32556B / 31.79KB, 534x401) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. black hole the size of 12 billion suns found, debunks all theories of the universe
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/black-hole-as-massive-as-12-billion-suns-found-could-change-theories-of-how-universe-began-10071817.html
This article tripped me the fuck out, and scared me a bit. I don't like that something this scary is visible from Earth.
15 posts and 3 images omitted. Click View Thread to read.
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Harlow Shapley - Fri, 20 Mar 2015 09:18:57 EST 415JX8nG No.55149 Reply
>>55148
I think you're fine, just didn't take in angular momentum of the earth and time doesn't become a factor until you use relativity
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Charles Bolton - Fri, 20 Mar 2015 12:39:27 EST jScv5urc No.55151 Reply
>>55148
Your math horribly wrong. I don't think you have calculated the distance correctly.
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Urbain Le Verrier - Fri, 20 Mar 2015 23:32:14 EST JIt5A3UU No.55153 Reply
>>55149
>>55151

No, I am stupid, forgot to square the total distance. Total force between the two bodies is 557 N, we gud

How does it make you feel?

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- Sun, 15 Feb 2015 04:36:13 EST 9T8PqMeL No.55035
File: 1423992973167.png -(289416B / 282.63KB, 405x455) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. How does it make you feel?
So as far as I know, there are two theories on the ultimate fate of the Universe.

One is that the Universe will experience heat death and that chemical reactions and everything reliant upon them will cease to be.

The other is that the universe will tear itself a new one, collapse in on itself and reset.

Either way, humanity, every other sapient species in the universe and everything we've ever known and accomplished will amount to nothing.

On a scale from "Stubbed your toe" to "Visigoths sacking Rome", how does that make you feel?

For me, I'd say that it triggers a "Read Ecclesiastes and contemplated petty arson" kind of feeling.
18 posts and 2 images omitted. Click View Thread to read.
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Allan Sandage - Fri, 06 Mar 2015 15:36:34 EST Wzs50sSC No.55109 Reply
> Either way, humanity, every other sapient species in the universe and everything we've ever known and accomplished will amount to nothing.

I'll be dead long before that happens, so I honestly don't care. I just want to live my life to the fullest, do chill science stuff, and hopefully try to help others when I am able to.
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Karl Jansky - Fri, 06 Mar 2015 19:02:10 EST FVrU3tol No.55111 Reply
>>55107
Throwing that weak mess around here is kind of insulting
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Edwin Hubble - Fri, 20 Mar 2015 11:22:01 EST IGgsfW+0 No.55150 Reply
>>55035

Personally, I already felt like whatever humans did would amount to nothing in the grand scheme of things anyway. I have absolutely no faith that Humanity won't completely blow each other up in the future and eventually when Earth dies entirely nothing we didw would matter anyway. I don't believe we'll ever colonize another planet or anything, I think we're too stupid as a species for anything that cool.

CERES, BITCH

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- Thu, 26 Feb 2015 04:28:40 EST uyuUt0io No.55065
File: 1424942920059.jpg -(467396B / 456.44KB, 1873x1044) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. CERES, BITCH
LOOK AT THIS FUCKING THING
HOW NEAT
6 posts and 1 images omitted. Click View Thread to read.
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Stephen Hawking - Fri, 06 Mar 2015 14:16:37 EST jGLzk50k No.55108 Reply
1425669397799.png -(23663B / 23.11KB, 1000x1000) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size.
http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/march/nasa-spacecraft-becomes-first-to-orbit-a-dwarf-planet/index.html#.VPn4fXysWrj

It's in orbit!
I would be lying, if i said i wasn't excited most about the bright spots.
Seems like it's a bit of a wait still, until we get clearer images, though.
It's pretty fucking cool nevertheless

"The most recent images received from the spacecraft, taken on March 1 show
Ceres as a crescent, mostly in shadow because the spacecraft's trajectory put it on a side of Ceres that faces away from the sun until mid-April. When Dawn emerges from Ceres' dark side, it will deliver ever-sharper images as it spirals to lower orbits around the planet."
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Fred Whipple - Mon, 27 Apr 2015 17:06:39 EST l/7F60uv No.55258 Reply
>>55092
I think you're defining the word "novel" too strictly. I'd consider any form of cryovolcanism to be novel because the evidence itself is relatively new and much of it is based on indirect observation.

Astronomy 101

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- Tue, 10 Mar 2015 16:45:18 EST ng5PGFH1 No.55120
File: 1426020318482.jpg -(119531B / 116.73KB, 847x845) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. Astronomy 101
I need your help, I'm completely clueless.
If Hydrogen has a spectral line of 656nm and it is measured in a distant galaxy at 705nm, how would you find the recessional velocity of the galaxy?
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Edmond Halley - Wed, 11 Mar 2015 18:13:34 EST rjqBmvyM No.55125 Reply
Wouldn't you need at least one other line? A given spectrum could be translated as well as stretched/compressed, and a single line wouldn't be able to distinguish those, right?
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Edwin Salpeter - Sat, 14 Mar 2015 10:41:12 EST kB08C8qN No.55130 Reply
>>55125
Wavelength dependent effects are rare and in the optical almost always destroy the lines. Just treat it all as a velocity, it's the safest bet.

Size And Age Of Universe Suggests The Existence Of Alien Life

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- Fri, 06 Mar 2015 11:18:40 EST CLP0/vbo No.55104
File: 1425658720324.jpg -(5752B / 5.62KB, 276x182) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. Size And Age Of Universe Suggests The Existence Of Alien Life
We are not alone in the universe, just because we have not found life on other planets some people seem to doubt the possibility of alien life. I'm just here to tell you we have not even explored 1% of our galaxy for alien life. It's even probable that there are sentient species as advanced or more advanced than our own i this galaxy based upon the age of it. The main ingredients for life (amino acids) are not that uncommon from what we know. How do we know for sure those are not alien spacecraft we see on occasion in our skies? What's your theory on how advanced alien life is?
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Christiaan Huygens - Sat, 07 Mar 2015 18:34:09 EST uyuUt0io No.55113 Reply
1425771249713.jpg -(49299B / 48.14KB, 512x368) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size.
>>55104
there's already a space alien thread on page 0, so i'm not gonna bump, but until we find fossils or microbes or something somewhere that isn't Earth, or until somebody talks to us, it isn't 'probable', it's possible. We've literally got a sample size of 1 to look at right now. Kind of impossible to determine probability based on the one single rock in a galaxy with billions and billions of rocks that sprouted life.
It's fun to think about, and I'm in the camp that believes there's life out there, but we just can't possibly know it based how very, very little we can observe things not on Earth.

Furthermore, 'sentient' life seems like an unbelievably rare occurrence. It's only happened once here. Multicellular life in itself is probably excessively rare if life even exists elsewhere to begin with, animal life even moreso. Rarer still would be a self-aware species. Yet rarer would be self-aware species capable of technological civilization. It's fairly safe to assume quite a few civilizations would end themselves before reaching the stars, and who knows; it might simply be too much time and energy to cross interstellar space for such a species to leave its home planet.

UFOs being filled with little green men is silly, though. Remember all those UFO sightings in the American Southwest during the Cold War? How people thought that they had flying saucers holed up in Area 51, and then a bunch of files were declassified and it turned out the Air Force was testing SR71s and shit out there?
If space aliens have the technology to efficiently get around and build a galactic civilization, then we're like, an ant colony in New York City to them. So advanced compared to us that we could not possibly comprehend them.

I dunno, man. Imagine what people might be like if we manage to maintain a technological civilization for a a thousand, a hundred thousand, one million, five hundred million, even billions of years.

Who knows, though, maybe we're lucky number one. The first civilization to emerge in the galaxy. It's not unfeasible, really. Shit, we might even be the first planet to have life. Or maybe life came to Earth from somewhere else. It's hard to say.

Greased Darkspeed

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- Wed, 04 Feb 2015 18:24:41 EST IhokWyRc No.54990
File: 1423092281534.gif -(620158B / 605.62KB, 402x543) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. Greased Darkspeed
Slip the what? Dark the who? MY HEAD ASPLODE
SHUT THE FUCK UP I MADE THE KESSEL RUN IN TWELVE PARSECS SOBSOB SOB
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Bernhard Schmidt - Thu, 05 Feb 2015 19:02:24 EST 3dhJAQX4 No.54996 Reply
I always wonder what people who make these sort of threads are like in real life. It fascinates me.

Non-stellar black hole

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- Sun, 30 Mar 2014 23:19:17 EST ZhOAg7La No.53409
File: 1396235957344.jpg -(1526332B / 1.46MB, 1728x1224) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. Non-stellar black hole
OK, odd question but...well marijuana is what...

Here we go - Is a non-stellar black hole theorhetically possible?
Imagine no restrictions of the creation of it. You have an unlimited supply of dense matter to throw into a big old sphere. Say, I dunno...Iron. Unlimited iron. You can just throw that shit by the teraton into one even pile.

I mean, you could create a black hole eventually, right? It would get really fucking hot at first...molten...then maybe some sort of weird plasma? But we keep throwing on the mass. Using special Future Magic to keep shit contained. You get a black hole at some point, right?
25 posts and 2 images omitted. Click View Thread to read.
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Wilhelm Beer - Tue, 10 Feb 2015 13:11:50 EST ZM0jvM6N No.55020 Reply
>>55015
It's from one of the other papers published by the author. I'm not sure if that's still what she thinks.
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Robert Dicke - Tue, 10 Feb 2015 23:49:27 EST 415JX8nG No.55022 Reply
It doesn't matter what element it is made of, it is strictly a measure of total mass.
A earth mass of iron would be a planet, a solar mass of iron collapses into a neutron star.

Iron nuclei are much more massive than hydrogen and helium, remember the real implications of the periodic table.
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Margaret Burbidge - Fri, 13 Feb 2015 19:53:11 EST 4HbkLal6 No.55030 Reply
1423875191278.gif -(505454B / 493.61KB, 200x200) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size.
>the universe started when a bunch of shit got thrown together

If instead of astronomy, young Carl had instead become interested in the culinary arts.

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- Sun, 08 Feb 2015 12:18:46 EST ZmBRgB9c No.55007
File: 1423415926683.jpg -(61262B / 59.83KB, 315x476) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. If instead of astronomy, young Carl had instead become interested in the culinary arts.
DICKS EVERYWHERE

Celestron 127EQ

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- Sun, 04 Jan 2015 18:14:07 EST 1FsPM3Cw No.54891
File: 1420413247281.jpg -(101670B / 99.29KB, 1200x720) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. Celestron 127EQ
I'm gonna start this thread out by saying, this is one of the most appropriately named boards on the web. With that being said, I have had a life long passion for astronomy for 30 years now and I have finally acquired a really good telescope. The Celestron 127EQ is the scope I have (got it last month for my birthday) and it seems to be a rather good investment for a beginner. I do have some troubles though. I got the telescope put together without trouble, but I have trouble with coordinates and with the adjusting of it. I can of course move it around and swivel it, but sometimes it doesn't want to lock into position. If any of you could give me some tips and advice it would be much appreciated. I just really want to get the hang of this hobby so I can begin photographing, the telescope comes with a mount for a camera. Anyway, pic related, this is it.
1 posts omitted. Click View Thread to read.
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Nicolaus Copernicus - Tue, 13 Jan 2015 02:51:48 EST Dnv5U1Ks No.54905 Reply
Is that pic related? It looks 8"

Invest in a bigger one if you can. You will be glad you did.

nb cuz not helpful
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Hannes Alven - Mon, 02 Feb 2015 09:59:16 EST SiTp3J4K No.54983 Reply
just put one of these on it and then point the scope at cool stuff in the sky and look at it through the eye piece

you might want a different mount for it if yours is slipping. it doesn't look like a very good mount...you probably won't be taking many astro photos with it. i have a similar scope on this tripod with steel legs for ultra stability, it's pretty good! - http://www.telescopesandbinoculars.co.uk/acatalog/AZ4-HEAVY-DUTY-ALT-AZIMUTH-MOUNT---TRIPOD-------1606.html
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Hannes Alven - Mon, 02 Feb 2015 10:02:07 EST SiTp3J4K No.54984 Reply
1422889327459.jpg -(99363B / 97.03KB, 336x448) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size.
>>54983
i meant to post this. it's a telrad. they're pretty tight and they're not too spenno...probably one of the best astronomy accessories i've purchased.

also im beginning to learn that a nice set of binoculars is pretty important for backyard astronomy, probably even more important than a scope tbh

m(11)

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- Tue, 06 Jan 2015 14:35:49 EST Qrrkgdjp No.54896
File: 1420572949725.jpg -(42642B / 41.64KB, 569x350) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. m(11)
cyanide in space (toward galactic core)
waxy cyanide in space (toward galactic core)
cyanide on Mars (furthest from Sol than Earth)
Radioactive Water (Diduetrium Oxide)
Watery super planets near the Galactic Core
Cold, Rogue Gas Giants (No detected host star) opposite of Glesian superplanets


after a little research using Twitter I'll find the location of Mars at the point of Curiosity's recent discovery.
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Karl von Weizsacker - Tue, 06 Jan 2015 23:52:25 EST L6PvDKDA No.54900 Reply
> Radioactive Water (Diduetrium Oxide)
What? Heavy water isn't radioactive, though it's used in some types of reactors. What are you on about anyway? nb

cool video

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- Tue, 06 Jan 2015 00:15:08 EST 415JX8nG No.54895
File: 1420521308940.jpg -(33070B / 32.29KB, 640x467) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. cool video
Here's a cool video on quantum mechanics I found, there's no hard math in it, but it really made me see things in a different way.
youtube.com/?reload=7&rdm=1cbzr13i6#/watch?v=BFvJOZ51tmc

It revolves around the famous debate between Bohr and Einstein over really their philosophies on the fundamental nature of reality. But it really drove home to me a lot of principals of quantum mechanics.

Picture is of the election shell around a hydrogen atom
Also: General far out stuff thread

Worlds Largest Optical Telescope Gets Green Light

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- Tue, 09 Dec 2014 19:35:39 EST CSHK8ujB No.54790
File: 1418171739534.jpg -(192677B / 188.16KB, 1280x800) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. Worlds Largest Optical Telescope Gets Green Light
The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), a planned 39 meter telescope to be built high in the atacama desert has received sufficient funding to move into implementation. The observatory aims for first light around 2024.

http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1440a/

At 39 meters the telescope will dwarf the current 8-10 meter class telescopes with 4 times the resolution and about 15 times the collecting area.

The telescope evolves around several science themes from large to small. It's extreme resolution combines will provide Hubble like views of galaxies 30 times further away but also with the power to resolve every pixel into a spectrum. This will mean a great deal for galaxy formation.

On the topic of exoplanets E-ELT will have a high precision spectrograph capable of confidently detecting earth like planets around sun like stars. With later instruments it will also be capable of directly imaging super-earths. With time it could provide evidence of continents and oceans.

It's high precision spectrograph of directly measuring the expansion of the universe for the first time. Redshift drift is an effect where the expansion of the universe causes redshifts to slowly increase over time.

E-ELT boasts big science and some incredible engineering.
11 posts and 2 images omitted. Click View Thread to read.
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Kiyotsugu Hirayama - Fri, 12 Dec 2014 15:02:50 EST CSHK8ujB No.54811 Reply
>>54809
Nice post, tiny nitpic. The deep fields are actually a very small region of the sky.
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John Bahcall - Mon, 05 Jan 2015 04:07:37 EST uAV78rGD No.54893 Reply
Does it get red, blue, infrared and ultraviolet light too?
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John Wheeler - Mon, 05 Jan 2015 23:21:24 EST CSHK8ujB No.54894 Reply
>>54893
Yes. Initially the instumentation will focus on the near infrared because adaptive optics is easier there and so you get the most out of the telescope. Possibly with a mid infrared camera also. After that visible and UV will come in.

Panspermia

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- Mon, 29 Dec 2014 16:10:02 EST h1NupmlQ No.54865
File: 1419887402811.gif -(1021711B / 997.76KB, 400x225) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. Panspermia
Oh shit. I just realized that panspermia is plausible. For those here who dont know, Panspermia basically explains that the building blocks for life, or even micro-organisms came originally from some extra-terrestrials source [read: Not "aliens" per se].

The way I came to this self realization is by reading about the Voyager & Pioneer crafts, and this page from What If:

https://what-if.xkcd.com/117/

So according to this author, whom I would say is slightly reliable if not on the optimistic side, there are a number of microorganisms that remain viable upon spacecraft after launch. Even though most craft are decontaminated, there are still some number of organisms left. Now, a number of craft have failed in their missions and impacted planets. Another number of craft have willingly set down upon planets.

Do you think it is possible that there could be cross contamination from earth based organisms on any local celestial bodies, and more, do you believe that if microorganisms contaminated Mars, or Titan, etc. that they could remain viable, or even multiply?
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James Elliott - Thu, 01 Jan 2015 23:18:56 EST XwQwdExC No.54885 Reply
1420172336080.jpg -(168259B / 164.32KB, 1068x614) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size.
The 11th episode of the new Cosmos TV series shows a very plausible explanation for the origin of life being Panspermia; I suggest you watch that episode if you are interested in the subject. I made a thread on /sagan/ about this exact same topic early last year, see this post here:
>>53790

I just find it incredibly interesting how we are finding amino acids and other biological building blocks just floating around in space...
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Robert Wilson - Fri, 02 Jan 2015 03:09:47 EST H3af7FdZ No.54886 Reply
1420186187995.jpg -(43279B / 42.26KB, 400x302) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size.
name for this hypothesis contains a word of sexual nature and its meaning can have vulgar, or even sexist overtones to sensitive people
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Annie Cannon - Sat, 03 Jan 2015 00:21:26 EST 415JX8nG No.54889 Reply
I think a reasonable to suggest that if panspermia is correct, most habitable places in this solar system should be inhabited.
I think Martian caves, Europas oceans or slush, and I was thinking maybe even volcanoes on titan, there may be liquid water with interesting chemistry going on.

Also, Curiosity detected organic carbon when it burned some soil containing water ice in a sample retrieved a few inches underground. Nothing definitive, but an interesting signal none the less.

Of course not finding life wouldn't necessarily be proof that panspermia didn't happen, but it would imply that life needs more particular conditions to survive.

We are always finding life that pushes the boundaries of what we thought was possible, if life can in fact exist elsewhere in our solar system, it will.
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