The Space/Cosmos Thread

[fujee]

So I wanted to make my first thread a worthwhile and interesting one, as many of you seem to share similar tastes and interests to me from looking about the board - I have decided to create a thread on Astronomy, this can encompass anything you feel interesting to do with the Cosmos.

It's personally been a big interest of mine for about 10/11 years, since I was about 9 and got my first books on the skies.

This article inspired me to start the thread.

Voyager STILL returning interesting/relevant information on the outer limits of the Solar System, incredible after 33 years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11988466

[meaty]

Total lunar eclipse coming up in about a week. December 21, 8:17 UTC. And it's a total eclipse, making this a RED MOON NIGHT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2 ... ar_eclipse

*edits: added link and corrected time

[Pantheon]

I feel a hike into the Pentlands is warranted on the 21st.

[Evrox]

I had lots of fun reading this topic a while ago

http://www.twoism.org/forum/viewtopic.p ... t=red+moon

[turquoise70]

I absolutely love space and just about everything about it.

Well, except some things. Like for a while I was deathly afraid of planet-killer asteroids.

[fujee]

I feel with something as vast and chaotic as the universe - if we are going to be wiped out, its just something we simply cannot stop. The universe is beautifully destructive.

Carl Sagan's cosmos is so wonderful to watch - even for someone with an already extensive knowledge of the skies (I am not claiming this is me)

[Spenner]

Space is so wonderful and mysterious... space ambient music and imagining myself drifting through orbits of distant pulsars and galaxies is such a powerful and distancing experience. Mostly because I don't think I can comprehend the size of space o_O makes me a bit agoraphobic when I think about it.

[Numerator]

space is the shizz

[Mexicola]

I absolutely love space and just about everything about it.

Well, except some things. Like for a while I was deathly afraid of planet-killer asteroids.

PMSL!!

Never have I seen you examine the positives and negatives of a subject so succinctly!

[Lascaille]

Are any of you studying astronomy/cosmology/astrophysics? I'm interested in a reading list. Introductory-intermediate or even all-encompassing, doesn't matter. Lay it on me. Authors, titles, you know.

[fujee]

I really wish I was. Astronomy or astro physics is so fascinating.

Something which excites me so much is the near certain possibility that life does exist - its mathematically in our favour to discover extra terrestrial life. Incredible.

EDIT: Mathematically in our favour that life exists! Discovering it is another matter! haha

[meaty]

Are any of you studying astronomy/cosmology/astrophysics? I'm interested in a reading list. Introductory-intermediate or even all-encompassing, doesn't matter. Lay it on me. Authors, titles, you know.

I took a bunch of physics courses in college and got a minor in astrophysics. It was mostly regular physics classes and only a couple astrophysics classes. Lots of trigonometry and calculus. Since I only have a minor it's really more of an introduction to the field rather than any kind of expertise, but it certainly fosters that "cosmic" sense of scale that's so fascinating.

I wish I could recommend some reading based on my classes but we used textbooks, which are so boring even if you are taking the class. Instead read anything by Carl Sagan. I started with Cosmos but it doesn't matter really, his books are great.

For more technical reading of the theoretical, try Brian Greene's second book, The Fabric of the Cosmos, or Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Or just peruse Amazon and look at the reviews, there are so many books it's hard to pick just a few.

[Snufkin]

Ok, Ok, ok - who would win in a fight: space OR time?

-Snuf ^_-

[zeitgeist]

I have contemplated formally studying astronomy so many times it's ridiculous. My girlfriend and I have been members at the local planetarium for over a year and love hanging out there. I'm really interested in the stories of all our ancestors about the stars. Also places like the old barrows of Denmark, and Ramses' Abados temple where the light from certain celestial objects cast light beams down hallways on precise equinoxes, etc. People of the past had much more general interest in this stuff that "hangs above our heads" 24/7 than most people seem to today. I would guess a large majority of people today couldn't tell ya why the sky is blue. Maybe that's because we know now that those objects are flaming balls of hydrogen and rock, not gods, and they have football games to watch, who knows?

one of the most intense experiences of my life was one particular very clear night i spent in the desert several years ago--the clearest night you can imagine. it gets to a point, i'm sure some of you have seen, when there's no light pollution, that it's almost literally overwhelming how many stars are visible. like every 5 seconds of eye adjustment warrants a thousand more stars it seems. then, the milky way "rose" on the horizon. laying on my back looking up, with the nearest light source 50 miles away, i felt like i could suddenly and distinctly perceive the motion and spatial layout of all. the perpendicular ring of our galaxy combined with the distant horizon where i was laying just made this phenomenal optical illusion (without obviously being an "illusion" exactly). i guess it's hard to describe. everything i saw lined up in such a way that i had about 30 minutes of seemingly perfect 3D perspective of this corner of our solar system. it was like, "ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh mmmmannnnnnn hhhhaaaaaannnnnngggg ooooooooooonnnnn!!!" like i was desperately gripping onto the front of a tennis ball that had just gotten served at 20,000 miles an hour. it scared the holy bejeezus out of me at least. only a few places have done anything similar for me since.

thread needs more pictures!

[turquoise70]

I have contemplated formally studying astronomy so many times it's ridiculous. My girlfriend and I have been members at the local planetarium for over a year and love hanging out there. I'm really interested in the stories of all our ancestors about the stars. Also places like the old barrows of Denmark, and Ramses' Abados temple where the light from certain celestial objects cast light beams down hallways on precise equinoxes, etc. People of the past had much more general interest in this stuff that "hangs above our heads" 24/7 than most people seem to today. I would guess a large majority of people today couldn't tell ya why the sky is blue. Maybe that's because we know now that those objects are flaming balls of hydrogen and rock, not gods, and they have football games to watch, who knows?

one of the most intense experiences of my life was one particular very clear night i spent in the desert several years ago--the clearest night you can imagine. it gets to a point, i'm sure some of you have seen, when there's no light pollution, that it's almost literally overwhelming how many stars are visible. like every 5 seconds of eye adjustment warrants a thousand more stars it seems. then, the milky way "rose" on the horizon. laying on my back looking up, with the nearest light source 50 miles away, i felt like i could suddenly and distinctly perceive the motion and spatial layout of all. the perpendicular ring of our galaxy combined with the distant horizon where i was laying just made this phenomenal optical illusion (without obviously being an "illusion" exactly). i guess it's hard to describe. everything i saw lined up in such a way that i had about 30 minutes of seemingly perfect 3D perspective of this corner of our solar system. it was like, "ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh mmmmannnnnnn hhhhaaaaaannnnnngggg ooooooooooonnnnn!!!" like i was desperately gripping onto the front of a tennis ball that had just gotten served at 20,000 miles an hour. it scared the holy bejeezus out of me at least. only a few places have done anything similar for me since.

thread needs more pictures!

wow, dude! that sounds phenomenal!

i can definitely say there have been times when it's almost terrifying to look up.

i was standing on top of the rim of Haleakala Crater near the visitor center in Maui, Hawaii about an hour before sunrise. My family and I were taking an all-day bike tour down the mountain and down into the lowlands of Maui that day, and we started here at about 4:30 or 5 in the morning. It was so cold we were all wearing protective windsuits and hoods - positively freezing! And yet, not 10 miles to our west, the valley was typical Hawaiian tropical warm.

From on top of that mountain, above the clouds, you could look up and every time you turned your eyes upwards, you'd almost be guaranteed to see a shooting star or two. We also saw several satellites and spacecraft drifting by overhead. that was one of those experiences where, it was so bright and so real and so ....right there in front of you, it was scary. It was almost like looking at a huge animal, bigger and huger than any planet, as big as a galaxy, and wondering if you'd catch its eye back, and what in the world you could do about it if that did happen.

i believe the crux of the quintessential existential crisis is the realization that one is standing on a ledge facing oblivion full-on, and there is nothing stopping you from stepping off except yourself. this was one of those moments.

[Möbius]

Great thread.

American Museum & Natural History produced a short film titled The Known Universe that everyone should watch.

[meaty]

http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/100

Ultraviolet image of the Sun: "The purplish aura reveals high-arcing loops of 3.6-million-degree plasma that link sunspots and other magnetic areas on the surface; white lines illustrate computer calculations of how the magnetic areas connect."

[LightI3ulb]

A composite panoramic image of the Milky Way as seen in a 360 degree view of Earth's viewpoint. Our location about 2/3 out from the center of the galaxy gives us an amazing point of view. What you are seeing is the glowing galactic core being obscured by the matter that makes up the rest of the galaxy.

For your viewing pleasure:
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0932/
http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0932a/



As a sidenote (hey, we're part of the universe too):

http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com/index.html

[Mexicola]

A composite panoramic image of the Milky Way as seen in a 360 degree view of Earth's viewpoint. Our location about 2/3 out from the center of the galaxy gives us an amazing point of view. What you are seeing is the glowing galactic core being obscured by the matter that makes up the rest of the galaxy.

For your viewing pleasure:
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0932/
http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0932a/



As a sidenote (hey, we're part of the universe too):

http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com/index.html

Amazing shot

[mechanismj]

I would love to see another comet in the future, now that I'm old enough to really appreciate it. You could really sense the absolute vastness between the objects.

Also, space would kick times ass!