Hubble

[Ripper29]

Don't know if this was posted before or not, cool photos though.

http://wires.news.com.au/special/mm/030811-hubble.htm

[Chairboy]

Beautiful photos.  I'm a big fan of the 'bird in the hand vs. two in the bush' philosophy.  I hope that the powers that be will evaluate Hubble's retirement against the status of the James Webb telescope when the time comes.  If the JW telescope is behind schedule or has risks without mitigation plans, then I hope the Hubble retirement is postponed.

[acepilot2]

wow:eek:

its amazing how much we know about our universe.

[Hawklore]

What are the chances of there being life on another planet?

And how many planets are there?

[Chairboy]

Q: How many planets?

Billions and billions.....


Q: How many have life?
Nobody knows yet.  Drake's equation makes some guesses, but all the numbers are pulled out of a hat, so....

[Octavius]

Originally posted by acepilot2
wow:eek:

its amazing how much we know about our universe.

its amazing how much we don't know about the universe

Beautiful pictures.

Hubble's replacement, the NGST (next generation space telescope?), will supposedly be positioned at a lagrange point past the moon.  Also supposed to be a giant radio and infrared detector instead of a visible EM wave detector.  Very little interference from our atmosphere and shielded from solar wind should provide some astonishing detail.  Can't wait!

[BGBMAW]

im scared...we on earth need to be isolationists..

theres defnlty other life forms out there....



so party on

[midnight Target]

re: life.

I'm not gonna look it up, but I think Drake's equation basically says there is tons of life, but the number may be really small when calculating advanced civilizations.

[Octavius]

Create your own life in the universe

http://www.seds.org/~rme/drakeeqn.htm

here's a better explanation:  http://www.seti-inst.edu/science/drake-bg.html

[Pongo]

Would that big sulfur cloud really look like that? Or is it just imagery. IE it wouldnt be imuminated right cause no light source is big enough to do so. Would be wierd to have your night sky be a big yellow streak a light year long

[Wolfgang]

big yellow streak..
oh man .. that's a joke waiting to happen

[Octavius]

Yes Pongo.



Roughly 75% of the universe is Hydrogen 24% Helium... less than 1% other.  

Determining what elements or things make up interstelar gases through spectroscopy.  There are several ways of finding them.  

The light source powerful enough to illuminate those clouds are  stars.  If you shine a light source (sun light) behind a certain cloud of gas, the light that reaches you (or your spectroscope) will be the light that was not absorbed by the cloud.  Through deduction we can determine which elements are in the cloud (bands of light absorbed will appear black in their respective frequency).  



The mass of these clouds is maybe 100 times larger than our sun... so, there's a ****load of it and a ****load of other stars to illuminate it

[Gremlin]

Originally posted by Pongo
Would that big sulfur cloud really look like that? Or is it just imagery. IE it wouldnt be imuminated right cause no light source is big enough to do so. Would be wierd to have your night sky be a big yellow streak a light year long

Pongo it is illuminated by newly born stars at its core or nearby ones.  Howevere if you looked through a telescope it would not look that colorful.  The human eye sees faint light as greeny/gray only sensitive photographic equipment picks up the subtle colours.

Hubble images are colorized to some degree, but they are done in sceintific way so they're not lies just enhanced for aesthetics.

Check the hubble website;

http://www.hubblesite.org for more info.

re: life

Midnight is right drakes equation suggests the universe is teeming with life.  I would however be personally skeptical that (even with lots of life there and even with advanced space travel capabilites) that they would be interested in coming near us.

Look at it like this would you if travel miles to see a nasty little ant hill?  They might well perceive us that way.

Anyway get out there space is for exploring.  Look up your local astronomy club, they're just dying to show you these wonders and more.  If I were told i *had* to get rid of my computer *or* my telescopes, my puter would be soooooooo gone.

[Gunslinger]

here's my take on life.  Its from a series of sci fi novels called starfist (excelent books if that's your thing) basically they talked about this huge equation (could be drakes have no clue about it)

basically it was this....the universe is supposed to but billions and billions of years old.  The chances of two species of intelegent life finding one another are slim to none based on our own society.  I KNOW I KNOW THERE'S ALOT OF HOLES IN THIS BUT BARE WITH ME.  If our society is a social model for life think about how many times this world has come close to distroying itself.  Think about the destructive power available to kill the planet over and over again.  Think about outside sources (astroids/solar flairs ect.)

Now with all that info in mind look at the time line.  In this book it took humans 3000 years to master (or get a grasp on) space travel.  3000 years is a small chunk of a billion year timespan.  

now the odds of two space fairing civilizations mastering space (without destroying themselves first) and meeting up in the same time frame with the known distance of the galexy and the amount of space out there is VERY SMALL!

of course this book was fiction but an interesting theory to ponder

[Saurdaukar]

Beautiful photos.