Ongoing important Science news thread

[pylon]

Originally Posted by Baron von Kriterium

Me, too. I spend a lot of time on the Astrophotography subreddit.

I'm about $12k in on gear. Every time I try and get going, some major life event derails my quest to master it. Planets are easy, but I want to start doing Galaxies, and Nebulae.

The nice thing about scopes, mounts, and CCD's is they aren't like conventional electronics, and outdate themselves every 2 years. But I really want to get to work on it.

[Baron von Kriterium]

Originally Posted by pylon

I'm about $12k in on gear. Every time I try and get going, some major life event derails my quest to master it. Planets are easy, but I want to start doing Galaxies, and Nebulae.

The nice thing about scopes, mounts, and CCD's is they aren't like conventional electronics, and outdate themselves every 2 years. But I really want to get to work on it.

I'd be interested to see all of that gear. I'm content with a pair of binos and my camera, although I just bought the Pentax O-GPS1 that slides into the hot shoe of my Pentax camera. It moves the camera's sensor at the speed of the earth's rotation. It claims 5 minute exposures are doable without star trails, but the reviews state that claim is overly optimistic. I haven't tried it out yet - waiting for the skies to clear now.

Do you use video for the planets and then stack all of the frames? I haven't done so myself but have read that is the preferred method.

[Regulator75]

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/n...r-solar-system

NASA to Host News Conference on Discovery Beyond Our Solar System
NASA will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 22, to present new findings on planets that orbit stars other than our sun, known as exoplanets. The event will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

[MillerTime GFG]

Was just about to post this. Can't handle the wait! NASA - such a tease!

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by ASP#26525

Pictures from Voyager make the physicist in me cry tears of wonderment. I could stare at astronomy pictures all day. The first time I saw the Hubble Deep Field, I was speechless.

I love that photo. Easily the most important photo in human history.

[OutOfTheCube]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

I love that photo. Easily the most important photo in human history.

It really is extraordinary. Our brains can not even begin to comprehend the actual scale of what we're seeing.

[CaptainCrunch]

Speak for yourself pal, my brain comprehends everything.

[polak]

Why do you tease us NASA? I want to know today......

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

I eagerly await your silence 18 months from now when the James Webb shows it's awesomeness

That is going to be a terrifying day.

They get one shot. Everything has to be perfect since they can't go and fix it.

Also, James Webb is infrared isn't it? Doesn't have the same "wow" factor as telescopes optimized for visible light, picture wise. Still can't wait for the potential discoveries they make though.

[Ozy_Flame]

They get one shot because once it's in orbit it's going to be impossible to bring in and fix.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

It really is extraordinary. Our brains can not even begin to comprehend the actual scale of what we're seeing.

Never mind the fact that we are actually looking into the past. The image actually represents a snapshot from millions of years ago.

[polak]

Of course every website that ends with ".co.uk" is predicting that Nasa will announce they have discovered signs of life outside of the solar system No biologists on the panel fyi.

Realistic guesses?

I'm going to guess that they have been able to get a spectrum of the atmosphere of an exoplanet?

[OutOfTheCube]

Maybe a planet or planets that they can confidently speculate would be able to support life? Maybe solid evidence of liquid water on the surface or something like that.

Wouldn't be worth a press conference if it wasn't something pretty interesting.

[troutman]

I'm guessing they have found a few more earth-like planets in the Goldilocks zones around other stars.

[photon]

Originally Posted by troutman

I'm guessing they have found a few more earth-like planets in the Goldilocks zones around other stars.

That or the taking the spectrum of an atmosphere are good guesses imo.

[Ozy_Flame]

Announcement is about a nearby star (Trappist-1) that has 7 earth-like planets. About 40 light years away.

[Regulator75]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Announcement is about a nearby star (Trappist-1) that has 7 earth-like planets. About 40 light years away.

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ne...ospheres/79602

[polak]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Announcement is about a nearby star (Trappist-1) that has 7 earth-like planets. About 40 light years away.

3 of which were already discovered in 2016?

Bummer.

Not to say that it's not amazing that there's 7 earth like planets in one system, but we already know that the universe is littered with earth like planets. I was hopeful for something more ground breaking.

EDIT: It looks like that article about the 7 planets has been taken down?

[Baron von Kriterium]

Could be that they have detected a bug meteor from the Klendathu system heading our way. Would you like to know more?

[Ozy_Flame]

I stand corrected. It's announcing four new ones, not the originals they already discovered.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Announcement is about a nearby star (Trappist-1) that has 7 earth-like planets. About 40 light years away.

So this seems super-interesting and significant as a potential extra-terrestrial life target: The structure of that solar system is more like a gas-giant/moon relationship like Jupiter and its moons. If the system is really planet-rich and they have orbital resonance relationships with each other, that means they could have tides, and this could also help keep the planets internally molten, and thus have protective magnetic fields.