A new Astronomy thread

[The Solar System Scope]

You mean:
THE PHILAE LANDER HAS LANDED ON THE COMET 67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO PEOPLE!

[Monkeykind]

You mean:
THE PHILAE LANDER HAS LANDED ON THE COMET 67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO PEOPLE!

Oh right, 67P hasn't landed.

[Northwest Slobovia]

Cool blue Uranus currently hosting mega storms

By Brooks Hays | Nov. 13, 2014 at 12:30 PM

BERKELEY, Calif., Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Normally, the smooth blue surface of Uranus denotes a soothing, deep-space serenity. Being the seventh planet from the sun, its temperatures are cool -- it's a so-called ice giant -- and its main chemical components (hydrogen, helium, water, ammonia and methane) all play nicely with each other.

But recently, astronomers have noticed several high-powered storms swirling across the planet's surface, befuddling onlookers accustomed to an uninterrupted sphere of pale, greenish-blue. According to imagery collected by Hawaii's Keck Observatory, as well as the Hubble Telescope, Uranus currently features eight distinct storms. One of them is the largest astronomers have ever seen on the planet.

Infrared images of Uranus (1.6 and 2.2 microns) obtained on Aug. 6, 2014, with adaptive optics on the 10-meter Keck telescope. The white spot is an extremely large storm that was brighter than any feature ever recorded on the planet in the 2.2-micron band. The cloud rotating into view at the lower-right limb grew into the large storm that was seen by amateur astronomers at visible wavelengths. Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley) & Keck Observatory images.

Article from: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2014/11/13/Cool-blue-Uranus-currently-hosting-mega-storms/1371415896229/

The article itself is based on Amateur, professional astronomers alike thrilled by extreme storms on Uranus, which has bigger pictures, more explanation, and a low-resolution video of the storms. The caption for the pictures is from there too.

And you all were fixated on some tiny clump of ice and dirt in the inner solar system...

[Wisconsin9]

Cool blue Uranus currently hosting mega storms

By Brooks Hays | Nov. 13, 2014 at 12:30 PM

BERKELEY, Calif., Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Normally, the smooth blue surface of Uranus denotes a soothing, deep-space serenity. Being the seventh planet from the sun, its temperatures are cool -- it's a so-called ice giant -- and its main chemical components (hydrogen, helium, water, ammonia and methane) all play nicely with each other.

But recently, astronomers have noticed several high-powered storms swirling across the planet's surface, befuddling onlookers accustomed to an uninterrupted sphere of pale, greenish-blue. According to imagery collected by Hawaii's Keck Observatory, as well as the Hubble Telescope, Uranus currently features eight distinct storms. One of them is the largest astronomers have ever seen on the planet.

Infrared images of Uranus (1.6 and 2.2 microns) obtained on Aug. 6, 2014, with adaptive optics on the 10-meter Keck telescope. The white spot is an extremely large storm that was brighter than any feature ever recorded on the planet in the 2.2-micron band. The cloud rotating into view at the lower-right limb grew into the large storm that was seen by amateur astronomers at visible wavelengths. Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley) & Keck Observatory images.

Article from: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2014/11/13/Cool-blue-Uranus-currently-hosting-mega-storms/1371415896229/

The article itself is based on Amateur, professional astronomers alike thrilled by extreme storms on Uranus, which has bigger pictures, more explanation, and a low-resolution video of the storms. The caption for the pictures is from there too.

And you all were fixated on some tiny clump of ice and dirt in the inner solar system...

Not me. I'm too busy focusing on cosmic rays. I'm part of a team in my school's rocket club that's sending up a muon detector.

[Risottia]

The caption for the pictures is from there too.

There appears to be a lot of wind in Uranus.

[Northwest Slobovia]

(Image)



Article from: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2014/11/13/Cool-blue-Uranus-currently-hosting-mega-storms/1371415896229/

The article itself is based on Amateur, professional astronomers alike thrilled by extreme storms on Uranus, which has bigger pictures, more explanation, and a low-resolution video of the storms. The caption for the pictures is from there too.

And you all were fixated on some tiny clump of ice and dirt in the inner solar system...

Not me. I'm too busy focusing on cosmic rays. I'm part of a team in my school's rocket club that's sending up a muon detector.

So maybe you could post about that, huh?

When you say "sending up" you mean what...? A balloon? A sounding rocket? A cubesat? A multi-billion-dollar gamma-ray observatory?

[Monkeykind]

The caption for the pictures is from there too.

There appears to be a lot of wind in Uranus.

Everyone already knew that.

[Brickistan]

Sadly, it seems that Philae has been lost.

Still, landing on a comet and sending an image back is no small feat...

[Northwest Slobovia]

NASA releases a newly cleaned-up picture of Europa:



More information and larger image.

[The Solar System Scope]

Anybody excited of the testing of Orion on 4th of December?!?!?!?!

[Berdanvia]

Fun Fact: Russia is Bigger than Pluto.

[Risottia]

Three close approaches this week!

2014 WC201 (25ish m across) swooshing by at 1.4 Lunar Distances on December 2.
2014 WX202 (5ish m) wobbling by at at 1.0 LD on Dec 7.
2014 WU200 (8ish m) trotting along at 1.2 LD on Dec 10.

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/

Is anyone planning to follow them with a telescope? If you do post the pics here!

[Risottia]

Sadly, it seems that Philae has been lost.

Not lost. Merely without power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philae_%28 ... eawakening
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space ... ibernation

[Jessjohnesik]

NASA releases a newly cleaned-up picture of Europa:

(Image)

More information and larger image.

As a Europa fanatic I must say the image is quite enthralling.

[Brickistan]

Sadly, it seems that Philae has been lost.

Not lost. Merely without power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philae_%28 ... eawakening
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space ... ibernation

Stranded in a shadow with no battery power is, unfortunately, just about the same.

We can hope, of course, that the path of the comet will eventually get Philae into the sunlight for a bit.

[Wisconsin9]

Not me. I'm too busy focusing on cosmic rays. I'm part of a team in my school's rocket club that's sending up a muon detector.

So maybe you could post about that, huh?

When you say "sending up" you mean what...? A balloon? A sounding rocket? A cubesat? A multi-billion-dollar gamma-ray observatory?

Jeez, sorry I didn't answer this sooner. Thread kind of dropped off of my radar. The closest thing on your list to reality would be a sounding rocket, but we're only planning to go maybe eight klicks up.

[Monkeykind]

So maybe you could post about that, huh?

When you say "sending up" you mean what...? A balloon? A sounding rocket? A cubesat? A multi-billion-dollar gamma-ray observatory?

Jeez, sorry I didn't answer this sooner. Thread kind of dropped off of my radar. The closest thing on your list to reality would be a sounding rocket, but we're only planning to go maybe eight klicks up.

Pah, not even an Everest.

[The Sotoan Union]

Fun Fact: Russia is Bigger than Pluto.

Well in terms of surface area. When we talk about Pluto though we talk about the whole celestial body, so obviously Russia isn't going to be as dense.

[Brickistan]

Forgive me doing a bit of a gravedig, but we have good news.

Philae seems to have survived the last seven months of hibernation and has now called home.

Philae comming out of hibernation and starting to transmitting data is good news indeed. Hopefully, as the comet gets closer to the sun, Philae will be able to fully recharge it's batteries and remain operational for the remainder of the trip around the sun. Fingers crossed...

[Risottia]

Fun Fact: Russia is Bigger than Pluto.

Well in terms of surface area. When we talk about Pluto though we talk about the whole celestial body, so obviously Russia isn't going to be as dense.

Well, one could contend that Russia extends down at least to the whole mantle underlying its surface area...

[Risottia]

Philae comming out of hibernation and starting to transmitting data is good news indeed.

"Philae is doing very well: It has an operating temperature of -35ºC and has 24 Watts available," explains DLR Philae Project Manager Dr. Stephan Ulamec. "The lander is ready for operations."

Pics! We want money shots of that comet!

[Brickistan]

This is truly a good time to be an amateur astronomy.

First we had the first probe to leave the Solar System. Then the first landing on a comet. And new the first fly-by of Pluto...



Too bad that we couldn't get New Horizons into orbit to have a better look.

[Wallenburg]

Damn. Pluto's looking really nice this century.

[Grenartia]

This is truly a good time to be an amateur astronomy.

First we had the first probe to leave the Solar System. Then the first landing on a comet. And new the first fly-by of Pluto...

(Image)

Too bad that we couldn't get New Horizons into orbit to have a better look.

Anybody who's ever played KSP understands the difficulty of getting even a minimal probe from the homeworld to a distant object in the system, and then into orbit.

I mean, really, the best way I could think to go about making a Pluto probe capable of performing an orbital survey with a full sensor suite (and possibly a lander), in any timeframe close to NH, would be to launch everything up in bits, including the propulsion systems. You'd probably need to have a two-part system, one to get it from Earth orbit to Pluto rendezvous, then another part to actually kill off all that velocity and insert into a useful orbit. Best way I can think to do that would actually be a 4 part system, the first part being liquid-fueled, to get out of the Earth-Moon system, then an Orion drive to give you delta-v for large manuevers in a short time frame (useful especially for orbital insertion at the target), and an ion drive for delta-v for small manuevers in a long time frame.

Of course, all of that means a lot of launches, and a really big booster stage to get out of Earth's gravity well, but if we're in a hurry, its the best way I can think to do with tech we currently have.

[Brickistan]

Yeah, killing the velocity would be a major issue.

As I understand it, the probe has so little fuel left that the best we can do is to aim it into the Kuiper Belt as it slingshots by Pluto, cross our fingers, and hope for the best. A worthwhile endeavor for sure, but considering the difficulty of even getting a probe to Pluto, it is a crying shame that we couldn't stay there for a while.

Too bad that space exploration gets so little funding these days. Ideally (in my world, anyway) we'd have probes orbiting all planets and major moons by now. We have the technology to do it, all we lack is funding.