Recent content by vector

Experts say such a nearby habitable planet has already been found - it happened in 2016. The closest star to our sun is Proxima Centauri, and the exoplanet now called Proxima Centauri b is said to be about 1.25 times the mass of planet Earth There is a video on youtube that discusses what the...

OK, thanks. I see that they are not going to put their Xuntian telescope up into orbit until 2024. I wonder how the different approach to optics China is taking will pan out visually. .? Personally I like cosmic close-ups better than the deep field kind of image (the Orion Nebula - that...

The Chinese are going to include a space telescope as a component of their independent space station. China put the first module of their station into orbit in April and are moving ahead quickly. They say their new scope will be an order of magnitude more advanced than elderly Hubble. But how...

Last month in late April the Chinese accomplished a primary goal of their construction of an independent space station by successfully putting its first module into orbit. China intends to include a space telescope as one of the components of their space station, an eyepiece that is supposed to...

Yeah, the numbers you posted are daunting. Fuel is a humongous consideration too. Somewhere I read that the fuel requirements to send a starship as small as a big Boeing or Airbus plane from here to Proxima Centauri would outstrip all of the energy the USA ever produced or used, counting more...

I'm a male. I'd love to follow mankind's dreams to the stars, but due to the expenses of interstellar flight (such as fuel, time, food production, etc. ) and the likelihood that humans will want to be fruitful, multiply and populate the targeted solar system when we arrive, I don't think males...

Construction is happening now - China's Tiangong space station will complete its first stage of assembly in orbit with a mass of about one-fifth the mass of the ISS. Yet it will likely evolve into something much larger. Tiangong is modular type of space station "3rd generation modular"...

Good news (sort of) - I think you've been granted your second wish. It's about to go BOOM. Betelgeuse has been looking sick for more than a decade - the convection cells on Betelgeuse's surface are not turbulent little 'knots' like on our Sun, but instead are (proportionally) about the size of...

OK, on 2nd thought my bad. The cosmic background radiation thing is the purported proof of the Big Bang. Which inspires me - undaunted - to paraphrase yet another brilliant thinker-outside-of-the-box, Terrence McKenna. He said; "Today's astrophysics are based on the following principle - "OK...

"Dark matter. We can't see it. We can't quantify it. We don't know whether it can be converted into regular matter or vice versa. Yet we are supposed to believe it exists." - paraphrasing Rupert Sheldrake What's the difference between this kind of belief and any old religious dogma? Is it the...

I checked out the video. Rogan is by far the more interesting talker, a real pro (natch) at keeping the show interesting. I am about to follow it up by watching Rogan's interview of George Knapp. Thanks again. Bigelow, by the way, may not be glib as a talk show guest but he does indeed put his...

COLGeek, thanks for the Rogan link. I'll check it out. And btw, I kind of like snake oil salesmen.

Maybe not exactly on point with the astronomy of meteorites, but this meteorite sales site can be gleaned for a variety of info about them - and human interests - that U won't find elsewhere. http://www.meteorite.fr/en/forsale/NWA801.htm "Achondrites for Sale : > Martian Meteorites - SNC >...

Are the people making this journey to the wilds of the outer solar system seafood lovers? Cephalopod mollusks - octopus, squid, etc - came from somewhere, after all. Their oxygen carrying pigment in their blood is copper (hemocyanin) rather than iron (hemoglobin). Copper-rich blood operates...

How about ---> The Ice Pirates (1984) "In a distant future scarce of water, space pirates get caught after stealing ice from a spaceship. They are sold to a princess looking for her dad. He might have found a planet abundant with water." (imdb com) Its' a comic science fiction film that...