Space Thread

B00Mer

Keep Calm and Carry On
Sep 6, 2008
44,800
7,297
113
Rent Free in Your Head
www.getafteritmedia.com
I think a thread on its own for photos, video, and whatever else tickles the fancies of the astonomers out there would be fun.

I'll start of with Enceladus:

enceladus.jpg

Enceladus is the sixth-largest of the moons of Saturn.[14] It was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel.[15] Until the two Voyager spacecraft passed near it in the early 1980s very little was known about this small moon besides the identification of water ice on its surface. The Voyagers showed that the diameter of Enceladus is only 500 kilometers (310 mi), about a tenth of that of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, and that it reflects almost all of the sunlight that strikes it. Voyager 1 found that Enceladus orbited in the densest part of Saturn's diffuse E ring, indicating a possible association between the two, while Voyager 2 revealed that despite the moon's small size, it had a wide range of terrains ranging from old, heavily cratered surfaces to young, tectonically deformed terrain, with some regions with surface ages as young as 100 million years old.

In 2005 the Cassini spacecraft performed several close flybys of Enceladus, revealing the moon's surface and environment in greater detail. In particular, the probe discovered a water-rich plume venting from the moon's south polar region. This discovery, along with the presence of escaping internal heat and very few (if any) impact craters in the south polar region, shows that Enceladus is geologically active today. Moons in the extensive satellite systems of gas giants often become trapped in orbital resonances that lead to forced libration or orbital eccentricity; proximity to the planet can then lead to tidal heating of the satellite's interior, offering a possible explanation for the activity.

Enceladus is one of only three outer solar system bodies (along with Jupiter's moon Io and Neptune's moon Triton) where active eruptions have been observed. Analysis of the outgassing suggests that it originates from a body of sub-surface liquid water, which along with the unique chemistry found in the plume, has fueled speculations that Enceladus may be important in the study of astrobiology.[16] The discovery of the plume has added further weight to the argument that material released from Enceladus is the source of the E ring.

In May 2011 NASA scientists at an Enceladus Focus Group Conference reported that Enceladus "is emerging as the most habitable spot beyond Earth in the Solar System for life as we know it".

Enceladus_venting.jpg

220px-Successful_Flight_Through_Enceladus_Plume.jpg

Cassini has produced thousands of amazing images and Enceladus has produced some of the most amazing. Although Titan got most of the initial attention, Enceladus with its outgassing and likely liquid oceans had been a very pleasant surprise. The images themselves are haunting and the exciting potential for astro-biological discoveries keeps me watching the news items on this moon with growing interest every day.

To think that outside of Earth, the only stellar bodies we've found to contain surface liquids (Titan) and subsurface liquids (Enceladus) would orbit a planet as far our as Saturn.
 

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
48,340
1,650
113
1612103036891.png

There is an exoplanet, discovered by ESO's VLT, where it rains iron. But WASP76-b is 640 light years away, how could we possibly know that?

 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: B00Mer

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
48,340
1,650
113
1612210162421.png

How large is the universe? Where does it begin and end? And how does it expand? These are some of the biggest questions of astronomy. And while humanity is so small that we may never be able to fully understand the true scale of the universe, advancements in technology are helping us to look ever-deeper into the wilds of our existence - towards the edge of our observable universe, known as the Cosmic Horizon. Today, we will analyse the universe, its laws, and its awe-inspiring scale...

 
  • Like
Reactions: B00Mer

Danbones

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 23, 2015
24,505
2,197
113

These 4 Cosmic Phenomena Travel Faster Than The Speed of Light​

 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,667
3,003
113
View attachment 5604

How large is the universe? Where does it begin and end? And how does it expand? These are some of the biggest questions of astronomy. And while humanity is so small that we may never be able to fully understand the true scale of the universe, advancements in technology are helping us to look ever-deeper into the wilds of our existence - towards the edge of our observable universe, known as the Cosmic Horizon. Today, we will analyse the universe, its laws, and its awe-inspiring scale...

more importantly when will it end? 😲
 
  • Like
Reactions: Danbones

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
48,340
1,650
113
more importantly when will it end? 😲

The Universe is expected to end in a googolplex years from now - that's 1 followed by a googol zeroes (a googol itself is one followed by a hundred zeroes). The number is so big there isn't enough room in the entire observable universe to write it out - even at Planck level. If you filled the entire observable universe with sand, then there would be a googolplex combinations of positions for the sand grains.

A typical book can be printed with 106 zeros (around 400 pages with 50 lines per page and 50 zeros per line). Therefore, it requires 1094 such books to print all the zeros of a googolplex (that is, printing a googol zeros). If each book had a mass of 100 grams, all of them would have a total mass of 10 to the power of 93 kilograms. In comparison, Earth's mass is 5.972 x 10 to the power of 24 kilograms, the mass of the Milky Way Galaxy is estimated at 2.5 x 10 to the power of 42 kilograms, and the mass of matter in the observable universe is estimated at 1.5 x 10 to the power of 53 kg.

To put this in perspective, the mass of all such books required to write out a googolplex would be vastly greater than the masses of the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies combined (by a factor of roughly 2.0 x 10 to the power of 50), and greater than the mass of the observable universe by a factor of roughly 7 x 10 to the power of 39.


 
Last edited:

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,667
3,003
113
The Universe is expected to end in a googolplex years from now - that's 1 followed by a googol zeroes (a googol itself is one followed by a hundred zeroes). The number is so big there isn't enough room in the entire observable universe to write it out - even at Planck level. If you filled the entire observable universe with sand, then there would be a googolplex combinations of positions for the sand grains.

A typical book can be printed with 106 zeros (around 400 pages with 50 lines per page and 50 zeros per line). Therefore, it requires 1094 such books to print all the zeros of a googolplex (that is, printing a googol zeros). If each book had a mass of 100 grams, all of them would have a total mass of 10 to the power of 93 kilograms. In comparison, Earth's mass is 5.972 x 10 to the power of 24 kilograms, the mass of the Milky Way Galaxy is estimated at 2.5 x 10 to the power of 42 kilograms, and the mass of matter in the observable universe is estimated at 1.5 x 10 to the power of 53 kg.

To put this in perspective, the mass of all such books required to write out a googolplex would be vastly greater than the masses of the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies combined (by a factor of roughly 2.0 x 10 to the power of 50), and greater than the mass of the observable universe by a factor of roughly 7 x 10 to the power of 39.


thats assuming that unforeseen things dont happen. eg. the universe starts contracting, god farts a second time, etc. 💡
 

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
48,340
1,650
113
"Therefore, it requires 1094 such books to print all the zeros of a googolplex."

That should be 10 the the power of 94 books...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Danbones

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
108,902
11,183
113
Low Earth Orbit

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
48,340
1,650
113
thats assuming that unforeseen things dont happen. eg. the universe starts contracting, god farts a second time, etc. 💡

Scientists believe the Universe is too dense to ever contract. It's believed it'll keep expanding until its death in a googolplex years.

In fact, the expansion of the Universe is increasing all the time. The expansion used to be slowing but around 5 billion years ago, around the time the Solar System was formed, the expansion sped up, and it's continuing to speed up. It's expanding faster than the speed of light. It's expanding at 72 kms per second per 3.3 million light years. For every 3.3 million light years further away from Earth, the matter is moving away from Earth 72 kms a second faster. That means that somewhere the observable Universe will be expanding faster than light.
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,667
3,003
113
Scientists believe the Universe is too dense to ever contract. It's believed it'll keep expanding until its death in a googolplex years.

In fact, the expansion of the Universe is increasing all the time. The expansion used to be slowing but around 5 billion years ago, around the time the Solar System was formed, the expansion sped up, and it's continuing to speed up. It's expanding faster than the speed of light. It's expanding at 72 kms per second per 3.3 million light years. For every 3.3 million light years further away from Earth, the matter is moving away from Earth 72 kms a second faster. That means that somewhere the observable Universe will be expanding faster than light.
we dont know what caused the first big bang which means that it could happen again at any time. 😲
 
  • Like
Reactions: Danbones