Hates the Infotainment
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
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For those of you who are algorithmically inclined, some interesting looks at how our terrestrial space heroes are simulating everything from protoplanetary discs to the entire milky way... on GPUs. Most of the presentations are from last year but this year's conference just ended so some of those should be coming online soon maybe. No idea. Just found this site.
http://www.gputechconf.com/highlights/overview ...into the light of a dark black night. |
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Hates the Infotainment
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
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Hates the Infotainment
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
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¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
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Am I weird, or was that really touching?
As a kid I always imagined the far side being perpetually dark, pummeled by space rocks every second and in general being a very unpleasant place to hang out for the aliens that have bases there to keep an eye on us and abduct the occasional cow. Still, even if adult me knows more and of course the far side gets some sun, I have to say it's kind've a relief to see it lit up for reals. So it goes. |
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Keen for a quick overview of current missions throughout the Solar System?
The excellent Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society has details in her blog If you're more of a visual person and/or just want a quick overview, Olaf Frohn's diagram is comprehensive yet comprehensible. The page also contains links to past versions through 2010 All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. |
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Hates the Infotainment
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Star spotted with mysterious fluctuations in Kepler's light curve data*... so mysterious that some are speculating on whether the most likely explanation is some type of artificial constructs... namely a Dyson Sphere
Of course the more cautious links above are from the journalists at the Atlantic... * The actual paper at Arxiv.org is more academically sound, and while it does sketch out various hypotheses, it seems to suggest a family of disturbed exocomets may fit the data best. KIC 8462852, located 1480 light-years away, and has produced a series of bizarre light fluctuations researchers have not been able to conclusively explain. Over the duration of the Kepler mission, KIC 8462852 was observed to undergo irregularly shaped, aperiodic dips in flux down to below the 20% level... while the Daily Mail version of the story is a bit more breathless ... Have researchers discovered an alien MEGASTRUCTURE? 'Bizarre' star could be surrounded by a Dyson sphere built by extraterrestrials, researchers claim All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. |
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Space Pirate
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Props to SpaceX for sure.
Easier than landing on a floating platform. Too bad they can't give the pad a funky name though. |
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¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
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Not just a rocket test either, they deployed nearly a dozen satellites as their payload while attempting to get stage 1 back on the ground safely. The payload is the 'easy' part, sure, but still. It's a testament to SpaceX that they were getting client work done and fulfilling contracts at the same time they were trying to make history.
Truly a turning point. While Musk may not go down in history as an Einstein or even a Jobs, he will go down as one of the most forward-thinking people on the planet during these iffy times. So it goes. |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: UK's most densely packed city. It's not London...
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They had a track record of (mostly) successful orbital insertions, the experimental side of this was the post-insertion mechanics as Grey points out...
What this speaks to is a highly step wise engineering process that Musk or his people recognized would allow them to continue to profit while exploring novel aspects of their space delivery system. Not everyone can think like this (Jobs couldn't or wouldn't, for instance, famously insisting for the delivery of the wholly consistent consumer product in each iteration. And he wasn't wrong in his industry.). I still believe there is a need and value in non-commercial space exploration and development, and I think that it is great that private corporations are taking on the light weight tasks that would otherwise consume NASA, ESA, JAXA, etc. time and resources... |
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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But for your Seasonal Astronomical pleasure... a sort of a Christmas Star
Behold Comet Catalina Phil Plait has a nice explanation of the two tails seen in the pic above (hint: dust and ions), as well as links to Sky and Telescope page with viewing details and maps as seen below. Basically, it's sharing the early morning sky with Venus now as it enters Bootes. At current magnitude 5 or 6 it's near the limit of naked eye visibility unless you're in a dark sky site. Binoculars may be required for some locations. Jan 1 it passes within a Full Moon's width of orange coloured Arcturus. Welcome to 2016 Highlights
Clear skies and Happy Holidays. All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. |
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Dark Cat of the Sith
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Holy shit! On the spacex news. This is a big damn deal. Wish I'd been in FL to see it but the flights didn't work that way.
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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... aaaand we're potentially back to Nine Planets again . BBC story here
Tracking the wacky orbits of the Dwarf planets has led scientists to theorise a new "Planet Nine" that is predicted to be 10 times Earth mass (not quite Neptune sized) in a highly elliptical orbit that might extend out to a maximum between 500 and 1200 AU. (Waaay past Neptune... and Pluto... and Sedna... etc.) Phil Plait Bad Astronomy explanation here Slate video here which helps to explain the diagram below where Sedna's orbit is shown in Magenta and Neptune (while also captioned as Magenta) has an orbit too small to see in this still frame. The 'ninth planet' - where to look? The six most distant known objects in the Solar System with orbits exclusively beyond Neptune (magenta) all line up in a single direction. Why? Drs Brown and Batygin argue that this is because a massive planet (orange) is anti-aligned with these objects. Can telescopes now find this planet? Could the evidence already be in observational data but no-one has yet recognised it? The hunt is on. <Image courtesy of Brown and Batygin> Technical paper here All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. Last edited by curiousuburb : 2016-01-21 at 20:21. |
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Advanced LIGO spots Gravitational Waves.
PBS Digital explains on YouTube in @pprox 7 min {with links to more detailed vids/links} Basically, Einstein proved right, again. Last major prediction of General Relativity... confirmed! Guardian Article here (with videos, diagrams, etc) The announcement is the climax of a century of speculation, 50 years of trial and error, and 25 years perfecting a set of instruments so sensitive they could identify a distortion in spacetime a thousandth the diameter of one atomic nucleus across a 4km strip of laserbeam and mirror.Bring on the Nobels... And the surfboards. 🏄🏼 All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: UK's most densely packed city. It's not London...
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Maybe Nobel worthy... maybe... Especially if it is a slow year. The problem here is that there are a not small (>3) number of people responsible for the LIGO experiments, and the Nobel committees are rarely (these days) making decisions that can seem arbitrary when faced with selecting which 3 (at most) deserve the prize. So it might take a while for this 1) to be confirmed by independent groups (essential to the Nobel) and 2) the number of PIs to whittle down until there are 3 or less still alive...
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Selfish Heathen
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
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It's certainly not new space exploration coolness, but here's a nice annotated gallery about the Buran and Energia rockets with some pics and videos I'd not seen before:
https://imgur.com/a/GaDej Quote:
The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting. |
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@kk@pennytucker.social
Join Date: Jan 2005
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I love Soviet history. So many crazy things they came up with but we never saw the full potential of them.
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ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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Brad, you should check out this gallery if you haven't already:
http://imgur.com/gallery/b70VK There's an abandoned building with two Buran orbiters - one is the unfinished orbiter and the other is a mockup. |
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Selfish Heathen
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
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I've seen that gallery or another set of very similar photos. So sad to see them in this abandoned state; so much sadder knowing that neglect led to their destruction.
I read that a German museum has the only remaining Buran orbiter, but it's not actually a space-worthy one, rather one built just for atmospheric testing. The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting. |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Toronto
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Space X just made an impressive landing.
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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I was thoroughly impressed with it. I wasn't expecting it to nail the landing so well either.
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Juno set to arrive at Jupiter July 4th, 2016
Jupiter Orbit Insertion Press Kit This Fourth of July, NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter after an almost five-year journey. News briefings and live coverage will be held at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and air live on NASA Television and the agency's website. On the evening of July 4, Juno will perform a suspenseful orbit insertion maneuver, a 35-minute burn of its main engine, to slow the spacecraft by about 1,212 mph (542 meters per second) so it can be captured into the gas giant's orbit. Once in Jupiter's orbit, the spacecraft will circle the Jovian world 37 times during 20 months, skimming to within 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) above the cloud tops. This is the first time a spacecraft will orbit the poles of Jupiter, providing new answers to ongoing mysteries about the planet's core, composition and magnetic fields. NASA TV has events all day... Monday, July 4 -- Orbit Insertion DayTo watch all of these events online, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv http://www.ustream.tv/nasa http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 Live coverage on orbit insertion day also will be available online via Facebook Live at: http://www.facebook.com/nasa http://www.facebook.com/nasajpl Follow the mission on social media at: http://www.facebook.com/NASAJuno http://www.twitter.com/NASAJuno Main NASA Juno page: http://www.nasa.gov/juno Go Juno! All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. |
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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For not getting to actually see the probe enter Jupiter's orbit it was really cool watching the feed and seeing the details emerge as it succeeded. Welcome to Jupiter Juno!
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.” Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it. |
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Dark Cat of the Sith
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Go Juno! Welcome to Jupiter
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¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
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Pay no attention to the circling mistresses*... your husband has always been a bit of a whore.
*for now. |
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Don't ask Leda... she's still a bit touchy. First 'full instrument pass' Aug 27th, IIRC. All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. |
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek, Spitzer spots "Enterprise" Nebulae
🔭 🖖🏼Fascinating [/SpockVoice]🖖🏼 All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. |
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