MAVEN reached Mars a few days ago and it now has company.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/indian-spacecraft-enter-mars-orbit-25693181
On their first attempt, India thus matches the total number of successful Mars missions by the European Space Agency.
MAVEN reached Mars a few days ago and it now has company.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/indian-spacecraft-enter-mars-orbit-25693181
On their first attempt, India thus matches the total number of successful Mars missions by the European Space Agency.
I was following the updates live today and I was quite glad it went well. The highlight was of course the ridiculously low cost of building the entire thing as compared to the maven which we ideally shouldn't compare because of the differences in economies, cost of raw materials etc. It's still a really good success rate for a first timer in Mars exploration! Way to go!
After a twenty-four delay thanks to a combination of a boat in the wrong place, wind gusts, and a stuck valve, Orion successfully launched earlier today.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4485
Dawn is getting ever closer to Ceres.
Above is a picture of Pluto and Charon from New Horizons and below is Ceres from Dawn.
Four months later:
That was the last picture sent from New Horizons before it went dark to gather information during the flyby. It'll start sending stuff back about 8:30PM EST.
This is so amazing. First time mankind sees Pluto like that. And in the future even there are footprints from a guy/girl on it, who wanted to be the first.
Can't wait to see the next bunch of pictures :happy:
Oh, hello there Pluto, looking great, it's a shame you are not a planet anymore.:ninja:
I read somewhere that Pluto used to have oceans, this information is correct ?
When AP used to be good:
NEVER FORGET !!
Cute little Pluto is wearing its heart on its sleeve.
I read somewhere that Pluto used to have oceans, this information is correct ?
Pluto is too far from the Sun for that. Most of its surface is covered by a layer of nitrogen ice.
Did NASA ever mentioned when the New Horizons got to Pluto if there would was still an atmosphere surrounding Pluto. I heard that Pluto only has an atmosphere for only 20-30 years or it's 248 year orbit. Can't wait for more pictures including pictures of its moons.
Yeah, New Horizons actually picked up traces of the Plutonian atmosphere from much farther away than they expected. It's a mixture of methane and nitrogen.
Jupiter Twin Discovered
A picture of Charon was the first thing sent back.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
So, hey, turns out that both Pluto and Charon are probably geologically active.
http://www.nature.com/news/pluto-s-massive-mountains-hint-at-geological-mysteries-1.17986
A little while ago NASA announced the discovery of Kepler-452b so far the closest we've come to an "Earth 2". It's fourteen-hundred light-years away though, so you better pack a lunch.
So it's possible that the planet has long since been turned into a dead wasteland by an asteroid collision, as we're getting excited by images from more than a millenia ago? Hehe.
Seriously though, vastness of space is scary and discouraging. It seems like a perfect reminder that we aren't all that. We may get extinct before we even get anywhere.
A little while ago NASA announced the discovery of Kepler-452b so far the closest we've come to an "Earth 2". It's fourteen-hundred light-years away though, so you better pack a lunch.
It also seems to be a billion years older than earth. So basically we will get a glimpse of our future
Can't wait for a movie where Kepler 452b was our home planet and life was unleashed on Earth due to some fuck up there
"Hey Earth, its your cousin, lets go play bowling."
"Hey Earth, its your cousin, lets go play bowling."
Thousands of light years of tedious driving.
When AP used to be good:
NEVER FORGET !!
So, I always knew
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/29/science/space/mars-life-liquid-water.html?_r=0
You know when they said that there is going to be a big announcement the kid in me hoped that it would be about an alien life form 
Either way this is huge news! I sincerely hope they find at least some microbes in there
From what I'm reading it's like it's essentially water mixed with antifreeze to keep it from, well, freezing on the surface. Pretty cool.
Soooo, it's not really water. And it's not really liquid. And they kind of knew it was there all along.
Genuinely curious, why such hype now?
@xan:
BIG NEWS!
Sent from my XT1068 using Tapatalk
Amazing discovery! Can't wait to see where the field goes from here 
http://www.bbc.com/news/video_and_audio/headlines/36085656
Amazing time lapse videos of aurora from the ISS. Prepare to be awestruck!
There's an astronomy thread here? Omigod, I love you guys! :wub:
@xan:
BIG NEWS!
Sent from my XT1068 using Tapatalk
Ooh, yeah, this was great! I'm taking a High-Energy Astrophysics class right now, and my professor ended up devoting an entire lecture to this.
My mom shared this with me the other day; interesting stuff!
http://www.upworthy.com/the-incredibly-weird-reason-the-north-pole-is-headed-to-england?c=ufb1
Is the wormhole a mere concept or theory, or do scientists actually have enough proof of its existence?
For those who are interested, there will be a transit of Mercury across the Sun later today/tomorrow (depending on where you live), so if you're interested in seeing it, here's some info: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/08/477246099/mercury-will-cross-in-front-of-the-sun-in-a-rare-event-heres-how-to-watch. I will try to take pictures through my telescope if the weather's good, although right now the forecast is unfortunately calling for cloudy skies in my area.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/team-begins-powering-up-science-instruments August 27 and Oktober 19 are the next dates for looking out for Juno.
It's time for the annual Perseids meteor shower, and it sounds like this year's should be exceptionally good. If you know of a dark place nearby to go and watch it, you definitely should! Here's more info: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2016/08/08/the-perseid-meteor-shower-could-be-twice-as-awesome-this-year-heres-how-to-watch/
This is pretty cool: exoplanet found orbiting Proxima Centauri.
The Good:
The Bad:
Have you seen the Elon's conference about the Mars colonisation? AWESOME
Have you seen the Elon's conference about the Mars colonisation? AWESOME
I didn't see the whole conference but just glimpsed through the highlights of it. I sincerely hope we see at least a single successful mission during our lifetimes.
Pluto has blue skies, surface water ice, and, apparently, clouds.
Who is the laughing stock of the milkway now?
Donald J. Trump
that starshot project of sending a nano-machine to the next star system. How likely is that we can send something that small to the speed of light and be able to take a pciture and send it back. Sounds extraordinary difficult.
Dunno how many of you have heard of Planet Nine… But it turns out that it may explain the six-degree tilt of the solar system too.
It so sad the the Mars mission failed…
It so sad the the Mars mission failed…
It was a partial failure only. Though the lander was lost it managed to send data about the failure, and the Trace Gas Orbiter entered into Mars orbit succesfully.
Failures like that are necessary steps, or experiments, to accumulate enough data for an adequate space exploration technology, NASA failed some missions too. And i'm happy nevertheless that also non USA agencies, like European Space Agency, put themselves to test in this beautiful field of research.
So the super moon was pretty boring huh?
So the super moon was pretty boring huh?
What are you on about my good fellow??? The moon is never boring! How many other worlds can you see so clearly?
So the super moon was pretty boring huh?
Really? I, myself, found it very interesting. It was almost once in a lifetime chance to be able to better contemplate its features just with naked eye.
I even know people who noticed it without having heard the news in the first place.
So the super moon was pretty boring huh?
Well, "supermoons" in general are one of those things in astronomy that tend to be overhyped by the media, to sound like they're gonna be something more fantastic/amazing/extraordinary than they really end up appearing to most people. Heck, last year's lunar eclipse was a supermoon, and I had more than one person ask if it being a supermoon was going to cause it to have additional effects/effects on us/something like that. The media also loves to talk about how "rare" these things like supermoons, micromoons, and eclipses are, regardless of whether or not it's really true.
That being said, I can't mind too much because, thanks to the positive attention the supermoon received, at least that means the media is getting people interested in astronomy in a good way. We had a higher number of planetarium tickets sold at the Museum last weekend from people who were interested in finding out more, and apparently some questions about how/where/when to best observe it, too. That's what I like to hear. Also, I have to say that this "extra-super supermoon" was more noticeable and impressive than most. Even my mom, who's not a science person and normally doesn't notice such things, commented numerous times how lovely it looked.
Give me a mega moon
Give me a mega moon
!
In non-Moon news, Ceres:
http://gizmodo.com/nasa-s-dawn-probe-sent-some-stunning-new-images-of-cere-1789212627
