OT: Astronomy Picture of the Day

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Even toxic waste mutants from planet x!

[Kamog]

Those are some fascinating and wonderful images at that site.

[Cipher7071]

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

[Renegade 13]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060827.html

[Renegade 13]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061010.html

[AngleWyrm]

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.

[Renegade 13]

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.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

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."

[Randallw]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
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."

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.

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

[Suicide Junkie]

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?