The Astronomy Thread

Anorion

Sith Lord
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Oh no, that is just the ideal situation if we think and plan everything with a holistic approach
commercial interests on earth are going to pave the way, and we are bound to make many short sighted decisions... say just pumping the excess nitrogen on Titan into space, because it is not useful there
 

Faun

Wahahaha~!
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^^Terraforming.

I think best candidates are Moon, Mars, and Europa in the longer run (but it has jupiter radiation). Sun will expand as supernova so best bet then will be Europa.
 

Anorion

Sith Lord
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Ganymede, Iapetus, Enceladus and Mimas good options as well
Jupiter radiation is a good thing. And Io can be energy station... geothermal converted to microwave beams for outer solar system.
and yeah, don't think we would bother with the inner solar system
 

icebags

Technomancer
not saying actual pipeline
maybe some kind of railguns or mass drivers at particular locations. It's not just water, like we may need to remove some of the nitrogen on Titan and move it to Mercury and Venus, then take metals from Mercury and dump it into Venus. Some of the greenhouse gasses on Venus can help melt down some of the ice on Europa, and then it would be useful to get rid of the extra water, which can be used on Mercury.
terraforming some of these (mercury, venus) would need large mirrors to simulate day/night cycle and/or create shade...

sounds quite nice, i wonder why they don't make a sim-solar system. :D

meanwhile, with higher res detailed images coming up, some new questions and features have emerged :

-> both pluto & charon are near kuiper belt objects and should get bombarded withobjects very now and then. still, charon shows more impact caters and pluto has them rare.
-> charons polar 2 o'clock area has a big long kilometers deep crater line, but very smoother places at other sides, how strange is that !
-> pluto has methane, a lot.
-> but methene & nitrogen don't form pointy mountains, so they are hard water ice mountains from eruptions ?
-> pluto has thin atmosphere, but showfall did not cause those mountains either.
-> their surfaces are quite active probably still today,
-> inside both, there is heat..... from radio active core probably ?

here is the link of comparative geological planetology of pluto and charon, go through it, if feel interested .
First look at New Horizons' Pluto and Charon images: "baffling in a very interesting and wonderful way" | The Planetary Society

these are found to be some interesting worlds unlike other planets / satellites observed so far, and expected scientists will probably get greedy and plan lander/orbiter missions to pluto system in future. :)

- - - Updated - - -

Mountains could be formed due to tectonic shifts.

yah isnt that amazing ? such a small body is having tectonic shifts .... that means molten core, which in term means a lot of heat inside. when a small body is found to be holding heat that much , then it has to be that its comparatively new.

tectonic shift may also be caused by huge gravitational pull by something big, but no such thing is there near pluto. that effect is more normal in jupiter moons.
:)
 
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Desmond

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Some cool stuff from the Philae comet lander: All the Amazing Stuff We Just Learned About Philae's Comet

*pop.h-cdn.co/assets/15/31/980x490/landscape-1438277906-philae-crop.jpg

The comet's surface at a distance of 3km:

*pop.h-cdn.co/assets/15/31/1024x1024/gallery-1438278836-philae-2.jpg
 

icebags

Technomancer
^ that is still an interesting looking dumbbell shaped piece of rock. any idea if it may break into pieces or dive into the stormy jupiter anytime sooner or later ?
 
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Desmond

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The course of the comet hasn't been reported anywhere. Therefore I have no idea.

However, the comet Shoemaker Levy crashed into Jupiter back in 1994.

Edit:

Shoemaker-Levy 9's collision with Jupiter in infrared (left of Jupiter):

*upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Max_Planck_Institute_Shoemaker%E2%80%93Levy_9.gif/220px-Max_Planck_Institute_Shoemaker%E2%80%93Levy_9.gif
 
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Desmond

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NASA releases the closest close up of Pluto's surface:

[video]*i.imgur.com/1FMM1xa.webm[/video]
 

icebags

Technomancer
NASA releases the closest close up of Pluto's surface:

[video]*i.imgur.com/1FMM1xa.webm[/video]

that's one very soft and creamy surface indeed, looks like lots of soft ice there. :D

on the other side, there is Akatsuki mission update :

JAXA is trying out their final attempt to recover Akatsuki mission, with Venus orbit insertion. they missed Venus in 2010, now in 2015 the spacecraft has once again come close to the planet, to make them one last attempt.

here is the recovery procedural timeline :
Sunday, December 6 (Japan time): Akatsuki turns to orbit insertion attitude.
Dec 7 04:30 JST / Dec 6 19:30 UT / Dec 6 11:30 PST: Usuda Deep Space Center begins tracking Akatsuki.
Dec 7 08:22 JST / Dec 6 23:22 UT / Dec 6 15:22 PST: Akatsuki enters Venus' penumbra.
Dec 7 08:51 JST / Dec 6 23:51 UT / Dec 6 15:51 PST: Akatsuki fires one set of RCS thrusters for about 20 minutes to enter Venus orbit.
After the firing, Akatsuki will automatically rotate to prepare for a second attempt at orbit insertion with its opposite set of RCS thrusters. Akatsuki will wait for instruction from Earth to find out if the second attempt is needed.
Dec 7 12:00 JST / Dec 7 03:00 UT / Dec 6 19:00 PST: JAXA will hold a press briefing from Sagamihara. At the press briefing, they will only be able to say whether or not the attitude control system functioned as commanded. It will take until December 9 to confirm that the spacecraft successfully entered Venus orbit. Another press briefing is scheduled for that day.
December 7, afternoon (Japan time): Canberra Deep Space Network begins tracking Akatsuki.

more details here, here & here, and also here :

because pictures make posts more attractive sometimes :

*planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/charts-diagrams/20151205_20151109_akatsuki_traj-01.png
 
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Desmond

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Akatsuki has re-entered orbit BTW.

*mobile.twitter.com/NatureNews/status/673679718772797440
 

icebags

Technomancer
Why did it fail before? Bad calculation of trajectory?

as per wikipedia it was a technical issue with main engine - either the communication speed was lower than expected and it went behind venus before full data upload, or the engine jammed and did not burn for the required time or something like that.

however, some failsafe instructions took over, and they could communicate with the craft later, but meanwhile it over shot venus, and went into a trajectory around sun. they main engine is not responding anymore, but they are trying stuff with altitude control thrusters.

hopefully this modern craft will send us some interesting analysis on veneran atmosphere, & our kind japan scientists will do humanity a favour by publishing some info in english. :)

on the orbital insertion success, you may leave a message of congrats or encouragement to jaxa team here :

JAXA | Messages for Akatsuki
 
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Desmond

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Speaking of Venus, did you know that Soviet Russia had planned of setting up a colony on Venus? More like a space station observatory though.
 

icebags

Technomancer
they fantasized a lot about venus perhaps, from their earlier missions, they launched a mission every ear, and in some years more than one. but all they could find was acid. :D

space station observatory around venus may seem a decent idea, smaller size solar panel will produce enough electricity to power the systems & as well as the ion thrusters, so it may have a longer orbital life there.

but not sure what much to find there, soviet landing probes have already shown what is there, even if it had life or anything, they all got dissolved in acid by now.

on the other hand, earth itself becoming more venus day by day. :lol:
 
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Desmond

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US signs first space mining law: New US space mining law to spark interplanetary gold rush
 

Anorion

Sith Lord
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throughout the night, was new moon yesterday, clear skies.
very nice one to watch. today also should be there.
 
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