The Universe Thread

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

Ahhh, that doesn't make sense.
You're saying that the universe is so huge that the chance of life is basically 0?

No, it came out wrong and I am sick. I was trying to say the chance of there not being life besides Earth is pretty much 0.

[troutman]

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Carl Sagan would be proud: NASA's Kepler Mission confirms estimates of at least 100 billion planets in our galaxy alone.

Full story: http://go.nasa.gov/ZgEVTx

http://www.caltech.edu/content/planets-abound

To do that calculation, the Caltech team determined the probability that an M-dwarf system would provide Kepler-32's edge-on orientation. Combining that probability with the number of planetary systems Kepler is able to detect, the astronomers calculated that there is, on average, one planet for every one of the approximately 100 billion stars in the galaxy. But their analysis only considers planets that are in close orbits around M dwarfs—not the outer planets of an M-dwarf system, or those orbiting other kinds of stars. As a result, they say, their estimate is conservative. In fact, says Swift, a more accurate estimate that includes data from other analyses could lead to an average of two planets per star.

The implications of a galaxy chock full of planets are far-reaching, the researchers say. "It's really fundamental from an origins standpoint," says Swift, who notes that because M dwarfs shine mainly in infrared light, the stars are invisible to the naked eye. "Kepler has enabled us to look up at the sky and know that there are more planets out there than stars we can see."

[photon]

Just because I don't have anywhere else to use these.



Profanity:

NSFW!

[T@T]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

You would have to flip your coin about a million times and have it come up heads every time to get remotely close to the odds of other life out there. I don't think you have the foggiest clue how freakin big the universe is.

The chances of flipping heads a million times in a row are about the same odds that there is NOT life out there.

And thats not remotely foggy.

[T@T]

Originally Posted by troutman

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Carl Sagan would be proud: NASA's Kepler Mission confirms estimates of at least 100 billion planets in our galaxy alone.

Full story: http://go.nasa.gov/ZgEVTx

http://www.caltech.edu/content/planets-abound

To do that calculation, the Caltech team determined the probability that an M-dwarf system would provide Kepler-32's edge-on orientation. Combining that probability with the number of planetary systems Kepler is able to detect, the astronomers calculated that there is, on average, one planet for every one of the approximately 100 billion stars in the galaxy. But their analysis only considers planets that are in close orbits around M dwarfs—not the outer planets of an M-dwarf system, or those orbiting other kinds of stars. As a result, they say, their estimate is conservative. In fact, says Swift, a more accurate estimate that includes data from other analyses could lead to an average of two planets per star.

The implications of a galaxy chock full of planets are far-reaching, the researchers say. "It's really fundamental from an origins standpoint," says Swift, who notes that because M dwarfs shine mainly in infrared light, the stars are invisible to the naked eye. "Kepler has enabled us to look up at the sky and know that there are more planets out there than stars we can see."

It will probably be proven soon(not our lifetime soon) that over 90% of stars have planets in orbit, 100 billion planets will be nothing compaired to realilty.

[SeeBass]

[Sr. Mints]

From Wikipedia:

The Overview Effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts and cosmonauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from orbit or from the lunar surface.
( . . .)
The term and concept was coined in 1987 by Frank White, who explored them in his book The Overview Effect — Space Exploration and Human Evolution

If anything, there's some pretty shots in this video:



On the 40th anniversary of the famous ‘Blue Marble’ photograph taken of Earth from space, Planetary Collective presents a short film documenting astronauts’ life-changing stories of seeing the Earth from the outside – a perspective-altering experience often described as the Overview Effect.

The Overview Effect, first described by author Frank White in 1987, is an experience that transforms astronauts’ perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it. Common features of the experience are a feeling of awe for the planet, a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment.

‘Overview’ is a short film that explores this phenomenon through interviews with five astronauts who have experienced the Overview Effect. The film also features insights from commentators and thinkers on the wider implications and importance of this understanding for society, and our relationship to the environment.

[Nyah]

FYI

[troutman]

How's that for an extended warranty? Opportunity has operated on Mars 36 times longer than the planned three months. The rover will start her 10th year of work on Jan. 24 (PT). More info: http://go.nasa.gov/10FaPK6

[troutman]

NOVA

Breaking news in astrophysics!

Scientists at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have discovered that six percent of red dwarf stars have habitable, Earth-sized planets. Some might even be as close as 13 light-years away.

Earth-like Planets Are Right Next Door
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2013/pr201305.html

Despite their dimness, these stars are good places to look for Earth-like planets. Red dwarfs make up three out of every four stars in our galaxy for a total of at least 75 billion. The signal of a transiting planet is larger since the star itself is smaller, so an Earth-sized world blocks more of the star's disk. And since a planet has to orbit a cool star closer in order to be in the habitable zone, it's more likely to transit from our point of view.

That's 4.5 Billion Red Dwarf stars in our galaxy with earth-sized planets in the habitable zone.

[nik-]

And if you think the chance of those planets having life is .01% ... that's 450000 chances.

[TheGrimm]

Originally Posted by nik-

And if you think the chance of those planets having life is .01% ... that's 450000 chances.

Originally Posted by T@T

The chances of flipping heads a million times in a row are about the same odds that there is NOT life out there.

And thats not remotely foggy.

Good thing neither of you are math majors.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by TheGrimm

Good thing neither of you are math majors.

Yeah, because then I'd be unemployed.

BAM

[troutman]

http://armchairastronautics.blogspot...p/history.html

Behold: the entire history of Solar System exploration in one graphic. It requires a HTML5-capable browser, so only newer ones work. If your browser only shows a static image, it is too old. The Button on the upper left enables full screen mode.

[Regulator75]

The IAU is pleased to announce that today it has officially recognized the names Kerberos and Styx for the fourth and fifth moons of Pluto respectively (formerly known as P4 and P5). These names were backed by voters in a recently held popular contest, aimed at allowing the public to suggest names for the two recently discovered moons of the most famous dwarf planet in the Solar System.

The new moons were discovered in 2011 and 2012, during observations of the Pluto system made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3, and increasing the number of known Pluto moons to five. Kerberos lies between the orbits of Nix and Hydra, two bigger moons discovered by Hubble in 2005, and Styx lies between Charon, the innermost and biggest moon, and Nix. Both have circular orbits assumed to be in the plane of the other satellites in the system. Kerberos has an estimated diameter of 13 to 34 kilometres, and Styx is thought to be irregular in shape and is 10 to 25 kilometres across.

http://www.iau.org/public_press/news/detail/iau1303/

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by T@T

The chances of flipping heads a million times in a row are about the same odds that there is NOT life out there.

And thats not remotely foggy.

Don't tell that to Gildenstern and Rosencrantz

[Coach]

If a species has somehow developed the capability to travel through inter-steller space, my guess is they got past any self-destructive tendencies they may have had and evolved beyond petty conflict for the better of their own species' advancement.

I personally think humans have incredible potential as a species. If we could stop fighting over ridiculous things like land, religion and own owns what, we could allocate our resources of energy and knowledge towards a common goal of human evolution/survival. I think this is necessary to go beyond much further than we currently are, when the best minds of the world spend their time inventing new, convenient ways for me to waste my time (phones, game systems, whatever) or trying to find better ways to get a non-renewable resource out of the ground when they could be working on things like solar energy. I mean come on, my phone can access the internet, communicate with anyone in the world, all through sending messages to each other at the speed of light wirelessly. We can drill miles into the ground/ocean, turn the drill sideways, break the ground with water pressure and allow oil to leak out. Im sitting on front of and typing on what would be considered a miracle by people who came less than 30 years before me. We can do all these things, but we can't efficiently harness and store solar energy? Give me a f***ing break. We could do incredible things, but instead our resources and intelligence are wasted on consumer products and increasingly more powerful and easier ways of killing each other.

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by MattyC

If a species has somehow developed the capability to travel through inter-steller space, my guess is they got past any self-destructive tendencies they may have had and evolved beyond petty conflict for the better of their own species' advancement.

this is what always bothered me about Klingons. how the hell does a species like that work together long enough to create starships. you'd have employees accidentally bump each other walking down a hallway, and both would end up dead with multiple batleth stabs to the gut.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by MattyC

If a species has somehow developed the capability to travel through inter-steller space, my guess is they got past any self-destructive tendencies they may have had and evolved beyond petty conflict for the better of their own species' advancement.

I personally think humans have incredible potential as a species. If we could stop fighting over ridiculous things like land, religion and own owns what, we could allocate our resources of energy and knowledge towards a common goal of human evolution/survival. I think this is necessary to go beyond much further than we currently are, when the best minds of the world spend their time inventing new, convenient ways for me to waste my time (phones, game systems, whatever) or trying to find better ways to get a non-renewable resource out of the ground when they could be working on things like solar energy. I mean come on, my phone can access the internet, communicate with anyone in the world, all through sending messages to each other at the speed of light wirelessly. We can drill miles into the ground/ocean, turn the drill sideways, break the ground with water pressure and allow oil to leak out. Im sitting on front of and typing on what would be considered a miracle by people who came less than 30 years before me. We can do all these things, but we can't efficiently harness and store solar energy? Give me a f***ing break. We could do incredible things, but instead our resources and intelligence are wasted on consumer products and increasingly more powerful and easier ways of killing each other.

I've never bought into that theory that because a species is technologically advanced they're benevolent.

Conflict and fear are two of the biggest accelerates in scientific discovery.

If a species is at war with each other you're going to get advances in military technology which leads to advances in scientific technology.

A advanced war like technological species might even look at species across the galaxy as a sop to unit a warring culture.

Hey instead of fighting each other lets go conquer the universe get more living space and have some rowdy run.

God forbid that mankind finds another species out there at an equivalent tech level or slightly below because next thing you know they'll be labeled as the next great threat to mankinds existence and dealt with.

We're the scorpion on the turtle. Its in our nature.

[troutman]

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...tem-moons.html