The Universe Thread

[T@T]

Originally Posted by troutman

NOVA

Sorry to disappoint, but there doesn't appear to be any methane on Mars.

Nothing too shocking there isn't methane near the surface after being bombarded by radiation for a billion years, However, methane has been found in the upper atmosphere, it's been estimated that Mars produces about 300 tons of methane a year but their not exactly sure how it's getting there.

[photon]

Originally Posted by T@T

It makes more sense to me than the normal "big bang" theory. maybe 20 billion years ago a HUGE black hole ate an old universe,blew up and spit out a new one.

I think you have a misunderstanding (a common one) of what the Big Bang Theory describes...

It describes the history, or early development, of the universe. It does not describe how the universe came to be in the state that it was in when the big bang started or before it started.

The Big Bang Theory is very well accepted and explains all kinds of things, like the CMBR, the ratio of light elements, how the universe looks on a large scale (distribution of galaxies), etc..

But BBT only goes back so far, to some small amount of time before t = 0 our current theories break down and are unable to describe the universe at that time.. because we have no theory of gravity that works at the quantum level.

As for the general prepublished papers and other theories, this blog post summarizes them:

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithab...-i-read-about/

[MillerTime GFG]

I'm not sure if this has been posted here before, but this video absolutely blew my mind:

Over 100 billions galaxies?

http://www.flixxy.com/hubble-ultra-deep-field-3d.htm

[dissentowner]

So, I was wondering...what would happen if a neutron star met a black hole?

[CaptainCrunch]

The neutron star would further collapse?

http://physics.stackexchange.com/que...nd-black-holes

[troutman]

China may land rover on Moon December 16th . . .

Chang'e 3 may launch December 1 with Yutu rover, will not harm LADEE mission
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...-change-3.html

Yesterday the Chinese space agency held a press briefing about the Chang'e 3 lunar lander. They announced that the rover has been named Yutu (or "Jade Rabbit," a legendary companion of the goddess Chang'e). Yutu was selected from a list of 10 names, receiving 649,956 votes out of nearly 3.5 million votes cast. In a written statement that I'm decoding with the help of Google Translate, they remark that the name Yutu embodies Chinese traditional culture and reflects their intent for peaceful use of space, and that they're looking forward to the rover rolling across the Bay of Rainbows. Chang'e 3 will launch on a Long March III B onto a direct lunar transfer orbit (an orbit with perigee 200 kilometers and apogee 380,000 kilometers).

Strangely, the press briefing did not include a mention of a specific launch date and time. Via NASAspaceflight.com I can convey a rumor that it may be launching December 1. The rumor comes from a member of the forum's personal communication with a friend who knows someone at the Xichang launch site, so I wouldn't set my watch by it, but I'll report it in case it turns out to be true:

The launch may take place on December 2, 2013 between 1 and 1:30 a.m. China standard time (December 1 at 9:00 PT / 17:00 UT), with lunar orbit insertion on December 6 at 10:30 (December 5 at 18:30 PT / December 6 at 2:30 UT), and landing on December 16. A subsequent post points to a 2008 paper that states that a landing on December 16 would occur at 12:36 UT.

[T@T]

Originally Posted by MillerTime GFG

I'm not sure if this has been posted here before, but this video absolutely blew my mind:

Over 100 billions galaxies?

http://www.flixxy.com/hubble-ultra-deep-field-3d.htm

Posted in another thread I think.

Anyway scientists call the deep field pic the most important pic ever taken.

I know when I saw it first thing that came to mind was I no longer believe the universe is only 13.8b years old, in the video they explain we are looking at galaxys that formed only 500 million years after the big bang. I just have a hard time believing galaxies can form that fast...especially ones full of "blue" stars.