OT: Astronomy Picture of the Day
 

Here's a great website for those of you who haven't already seen it and have an interest in space exploration in general and astronomy in particular. This Picture (Link) in particular is just awesome I think.

The address to find the current picture of the day is:

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

Enjoy the beautiful pictures!

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Cool picture. I've been to that site a few times, but can never remember to check it on my own. They have some realy good ones there.

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I use APOD on a regular basis. My wallpapers, a lot of my nebula pics for SEIV, all come from downloads from it.

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A lot of the system images in FQM originally came from there, collected by Woundwart. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Speaking of which... any spectacular new images that need including? Make sure to check the new 2.10, as a lot of images that I did not care for were replaced or removed. There are several open slots in the nebulas that are currently using duplicate image calls and can easily be replaced.

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Fy, I'll take a look at 2.1 this evening and get back to you.

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I have that bookmarked, but I also keep forgetting to look at it.

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Ditto. The internet is just too damn big, and I have a veritable plethora of interests. I surf like a schizophrenic butterfly.

T

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lol

/me hands Turin a trophy - One of the good ones.

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Are those dark parallel bands on the upper part of Saturn the cloud patterns of Saturn or are they shadows of the rings? The angle of those bands seem kind of unusual?

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They are shadows from the rings according to the caption.

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That is very neat looking. I wonder how much is still out there that we don't know about?

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All of it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

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Depends what you mean by "out there". http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif If you mean the solar system, well as far as we know everything major has been discovered out to the orbit of Pluto or so. But beyond that, in the regions of the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Belt, there's still tons that hasn't been discovered. Think of that world recently discovered that's larger than Pluto! Still a little smaller than the moon, but that's a significant discovery in the outer solar system...and astronomers think there could be a whole lot more like it.

On the other hand, if you're talking beyond the solar system...well like Ragnarok said, all of it is undiscovered! Extrasolar planets are being discovered all over the place. But the vast majority of what's "out there" is unknown and likely will remain so.

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I've had that site added to favorites for quite some time. Like most of you, I usually forget to check it.

As Renegade said, the portion of the solar system we've explored is what's in the general "disk" where the planets are. There's still plenty of room for other moon-sized, or larger bodies to be drifting around in the Oort cloud.

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Even toxic waste mutants from planet x!

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Those are some fascinating and wonderful images at that site. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

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Hey!! That deal we made with planet X was supposed to be a secret!

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I saved this last one. I collect similar images (as opposed to artist's conceptions like the previous one). I have other images of the planet, like those from the Hubbel telescope, but none of this scope and resolution.

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Been looking at this picture of Mars, and eating ham sandwiches, so here's what I came up with:

That big trench is where a tan meteor plowed into Mars, creating an Extinction Level Event to a normally dark colored world. The craters indicate that it happened a long time ago--say a bajillion years? K, so I've never really believed there's such a thing as a 'stable' orbit. Things go sailing off, or they fall back down. And all the planets are basically burped out by the Sun every so often. So...a bajillion years ago Mars was where Earth is today, and had a thriving civilization on it. And in another bajillion, it will be Venus' turn. We should send archeology excavator robots to Mars.

So um, guess I'm just saying, don't eat ham sandwiches after midnight.

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From http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060730.html ,

"The origin of the Valles Marineris remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a crack billions of years ago as the planet cooled."

Planetary orbits seem to be more stable than stars themselves.

I don't think planets are likely burped out of stars, but are probably formed back when the star itself was formed.

However, the star's behavior can change, and things can smash into planets and change their environments (or, their human-stupid inhabitants can destroy their environments themselves...).

PvK

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These guys suggest orbital "changes" are the reason that gas giants have been found in very close proximity to their host stars.

"we might expect any planetary system to follow the general plan of our own, with small, dense, rocky worlds occupying orbits close to the central star and large, low-density, gassy worlds orbiting at much greater distances. However, the majority of the first batch of extrasolar planets to be confirmed do not conform at all to this scheme. Planets with masses even greater than that of Jupiter have been found in near-circular orbits within 2 astronomical units (and, in some cases, within 0.1 AU) of their host stars."

Perhaps the concept of changing from one stable position to another isn't necessary. One can just envision a decaying orbit.

Perhaps Global Warming is just orbital decay.

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I think the astronomers would notice that.

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I think it's more likely that large gas giants in close orbits have been discovered so far due mostly to the methods that we currently have to use to detect extra-solar planets. The most fruitful efforts detect minor gravitational perturbations that the planet induces in the parent star in order to detect the planets. This method will inherently favor discovery of large planets that are close in. Planets that are smaller or that are farther out will induce much smaller gravitational perturbations within the parent star, so will be much harder to detect with our current instruments...though hopefully the proposed TPF (Terrestrial Planet Finder) array will change that if it ever gets off the ground.

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A humorous method of interstellar communication I've had pop up in my mind now and again involves very good telescopes...And very large signs.

"We are sorry to hear,"
"About your nuclear winter,"
"We hope the plans we sent"
"You, cool the planet off."
"Burma Shave."

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or you could send message by Emperon. We all know the phrase
"The Emperor is dead, long live the Emperor"
So succession is instantaneous. Even light doesn't move instantaneously, so by subtly torturing a small Emperor you can transmit information faster than light. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

disclaimer: this is a blatant ripoff of the Kingon and Queenon principle.

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Does that not require you to first make the destination of your message a colony of the empire, which will be done at SLT speeds?

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It only works between 2 places as the successor receives the information from the Emperor. So you need to take the 2nd in line to the throne to the target, say the other side of the Empire. But once that's done the information is instantaneous.

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I imagine, with a suitably specific line of succession, you could make a token ring network.

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I saved this one too. Back (thirty-some years ago) when I built my 6" reflector, I never would have guessed that I'd have such easy access to such high-resolution images. I've seen pictures of the Cydonia area from a similar angle before, but not this big. There's no Mount Rushmore there.

I hope nobody's been contemplating this one late at night over ham sandwiches, sauerkraut, or chili dogs. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

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Mmm, sauerkraut and chili dogs!

Yep, some big blonde thing went kafump onto the surface a long time ago, and then got buried.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

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Back when I was in elementary school, the science teacher posted up on the wall a newspaper article on the "Face of Mars" with that original fuzzy picture. Back then, that was the only picture in existance of that geological feature, and although the article said that the structure was most likely natural in origin, we kids wondered about the possibility of Martians. That was a long time ago.

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It's fascinating that the lights at night indicate the locations with the most population: Eastern U.S., Western Europe, Japan are brightest. It's easily seen that there's way more people living in U.S. than in Canada. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Somehow they edited out all the clouds and the daytime areas by combining multiple images, and the picture is actually from August 2002 if you look at the big image, not October 2006.

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Hmm I guess Hobart counts for more than I thought. We only just register.

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http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061002.html

Panoramic view from the Mars rover Opportunity, showing Victoria Crater.

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http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061003.html The Heart Nebula
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061004.html Comet SWAN
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061005.html Galaxy IC 342

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http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061016.html

You guys really need to take a look at this picture, it is absolutely stunning.

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Indeed.

Most impressive.

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Beutifull.

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Wow. Imagine seeing that directly, from the window of a spaceship. It's a dream... I wonder if that would ever be possible during our lifetimes?