You Can't Hide from a Supernova
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- Speaker for the Dead
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You Can't Hide from a Supernova
Also Known As the return of the interesting Astronomy thread.
The Leonids are expected to be strong this year (yay!!). Peak will be on 18 November.
Get your binoculars out, folks! (It'll rain again here. It always does. Every single time.)
The Leonids are expected to be strong this year (yay!!). Peak will be on 18 November.
Get your binoculars out, folks! (It'll rain again here. It always does. Every single time.)
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII
- Oliver Dale
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I always miss every single good meteor shower thanks to clouds. Hopefully I can see this one... I wonder if I should go home and get my telescope and bring it to school? Hmm.
Epi's Anime Blog:
http://www.animeslice.com
http://www.animeslice.com
- hive_king
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*covers eyes* if I can't see the supernova, it can't see me.
The Makeout Hobo is real, and does indeed travel around the country in his van and make out with ladies... If you meet him, it is customary to greet him with a shot of whiskey and a high five (if you are a dude) or passionate makeouts (if you are a lady).
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/scien ... nted=print
Puffy, puffy planets. They would float in water!
Puffy, puffy planets. They would float in water!
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I just thought to check my star forecasts, and it seems like if you want to go planet-gazing this month, Saturn's your only hope.
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII
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I'm mega-bumping this, because I got a rumour that Betelgeuse (in Orion) is about to supernova! Wow!
Sadly, this is an exaggerated rumour, with not much concrete behind it. So don't be suckered. But you can still hope it happens in our lifetimes!
Sadly, this is an exaggerated rumour, with not much concrete behind it. So don't be suckered. But you can still hope it happens in our lifetimes!
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII
- neo-dragon
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It funny how people say it's "about to blow" even through if we were to see it happen today it means that it actually went nova like 600 years ago. It's odd to think about observing something that may have ceased to exist centuries ago. Astronomy is neat that way. It's the closest thing to time travel we'll ever have.
"Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic."
- Frank Herbert's 'Dune'
- Frank Herbert's 'Dune'
EEE, speaking of very early stars, I can't wait for the James Webb Telescope. 2014!!!!
I am taking a class this summer that is apparently co-taught by one of my favorite astronomers and I am already freaking out about how awesome it will be.
I am taking a class this summer that is apparently co-taught by one of my favorite astronomers and I am already freaking out about how awesome it will be.
So don't go worrying about me
It's not like I think about you constantly
So maybe I do, but that shouldn't affect
Your life anymore
It's not like I think about you constantly
So maybe I do, but that shouldn't affect
Your life anymore
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Man, you know you're a nerd when you have a favourite astronomer...
Mine is Sir Patrick Moore.
Mine is Sir Patrick Moore.
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII
Heh, mine's definitely not as famous as him. But in the specialty I'm most interested, he's one of the go-to people for it, so I look forward to asking lots and lots of questions. He's okay with it because he will walk with people to their next classes to talk with them about astronomy.
What is everyone's favorite astronomical sub-topic? Mine's exoplanets & trans-Neptunian objects. Does anyone else love GalaxyZoo? I want to do the galaxy merger simulation scoring one but my computer wasn't handling it well.
What is everyone's favorite astronomical sub-topic? Mine's exoplanets & trans-Neptunian objects. Does anyone else love GalaxyZoo? I want to do the galaxy merger simulation scoring one but my computer wasn't handling it well.
So don't go worrying about me
It's not like I think about you constantly
So maybe I do, but that shouldn't affect
Your life anymore
It's not like I think about you constantly
So maybe I do, but that shouldn't affect
Your life anymore
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- Speaker for the Dead
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I don't know GalaxyZoo but I know I want to know, now. I think if I had to pick an academic topic it would maybe be stellar lifecycles, but most of what I do is read internet articles and enjoy nighttime observing. I have a soft spot for Saturn, and seeing it is like saying hi to an old friend.
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII
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I developed this soft spot for it when I had to do an observing project for a class. We were tracking the movement of Titan, and it was the first non-terran moon I'd ever seen outside of pictures. It was an amazing feeling! And just to put the icing on the guiness cake, Saturn was tilted so we got a brilliant view of its rings! I've loved it ever since.
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII
- Rei
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When I was younger, Saturn was my favourite planet. But then I read a book about Lewis and Narnia, and a good point was made, quoting Lewis, that this past century has been overly fascinated with Saturn and that we should seek to be Jovial instead.
I still think Saturn is very pretty, but it is something to consider.
I still think Saturn is very pretty, but it is something to consider.
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point.
~Blaise Pascal
私は。。。誰?
Dernhelm
~Blaise Pascal
私は。。。誰?
Dernhelm
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It could be worse. Others mistake astronomy with astrology.:p This is the astronomy thread, not the cosmology thread.
- Oliver Dale
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When I was an undergrad, people used to always refer to me as a student of astrology. It used to piss me off to no end.It could be worse. Others mistake astronomy with astrology.:p This is the astronomy thread, not the cosmology thread.
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The student newspaper once referred to the telescope owned by the School of Astrology.When I was an undergrad, people used to always refer to me as a student of astrology. It used to piss me off to no end.It could be worse. Others mistake astronomy with astrology.:p This is the astronomy thread, not the cosmology thread.
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII
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Double post, because hey, why not make this useful? Both Saturn and Mars are visible shortly after sunset right now, Saturn just to the south of SW in Virgo, and Mars WSW in Leo. Venus is also visible, WNW, in Gemini.
Pluto is also rising in the East, for anyone with a wicked awesome telescope (can I come visit your observatory, if you have one?).
http://www.neave.com/planetarium/ can show you a map based on your own location.
Pluto is also rising in the East, for anyone with a wicked awesome telescope (can I come visit your observatory, if you have one?).
http://www.neave.com/planetarium/ can show you a map based on your own location.
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII
- Oliver Dale
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- Speaker for the Dead
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I haven't been able to figure out how much of that is a joke, so thhbbbbppptt to you.
*plain old cellphone carrier*
*plain old cellphone carrier*
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII
Another quote from that article:http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/scien ... nted=print
Puffy, puffy planets. They would float in water!
Rocky cores inside gas giants? I thought that was still speculation. Was that proven and I missed it, or did a fact-checker miss a point?While gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn are primarily hydrogen and helium, they also possess rocky cores
It's more of an educated guess than a simple speculation. When it comes to gas, you need way more mass than big-J has to make it collapse into a sphere... and then you'd have at least a brown dwarf. It's assumed that Jupiter has a metallic core over which the gas blown out from the Sun collapse into a star began to accumulate by gravity.Rocky cores inside gas giants? I thought that was still speculation. Was that proven and I missed it, or did a fact-checker miss a point?
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Aside from gravity or traveling really really fast, anyway. It's likely to be the closest thing to reverse time travel, though. Unless we manage to solve the wormhole feedback loop problem and find a way to make them somewhat larger than sub-atomic.It's the closest thing to time travel we'll ever have.
The enemy's fly is down.
Travelling forward in time... man, we do it all the time. Currently i am travelling forward in time at a 1 s/s* ratio (s= earth seconds, s* = subjective seconds). If i start travelling at near-light speeds, i would be travelling forward in time at more than 1s/s*.Backwards time-travel is just downright impossible. I don't discount the slim possibility for going forwards, but to go backwards - essentially, to re-arrange everything in the universe to a previously-existing energetic, molecular and quantum state, is just laughable.
Backwards time travel is entirely possible, theoretically.
The same way that in flat-ish spacetime our light cone restricts us to moving forward in time, and any direction in space, inside the event horizon of a blackhole, you can only move forward in space (forward means towards the black hole) and can move forward or backward in time.
There are 2 inconvenients, though:
-You need to build a very hard travelling machine, that also can keep a flatish spacetime inside of it. Otherwise tidal gravity forces will tear you apart. Another chance is stay always very close to the event horizon, were tidal forces aren't too extreme yet.
-You can't get out of the event horizon, ever.
These inconvenients are workable if the infinite-universe interpretation of QM turns to be true: the distortion of spacetime because of the blackhole could make our universe touch, and merge, inside the black hole, with a parallel universe, which would likely be a perfect copy of ours, or differ very very slightly from ours. In this case, we would never be able to reach the center of the blackhole (the blackhole itself would have disappeared, only remaining the extreme spacetime distortion), so as we would travel in a straight line, we would exit through a white hole on the parallel universe.
If we take advantage of the curvature after the event horizon to travel back in time, we would be able to travel to the past of that parallel universe, which would be almost indistinguishable from the past of our own universe (maybe even completely indistinguishable, except for our presence there).
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If anyone else was avidly anticipating the waxing of the sunspot cycle and the chance to view more auroras, I have bad news for you. On the flip side, this does give us a chance to examine a phenomenon we never could in a lab.
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII
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