The Astronomy Thread | Vital Football

The Astronomy Thread

SiggyBrownie

Villa Princess
Astronomers have discovered a potential "rogue" alien planet wandering alone just 100 light-years from Earth, suggesting that such starless worlds may be extremely common across the galaxy.

Read More: http://news.yahoo.com/orphan-alien-planet-found-nearby-without-parent-star-122308193.html
 
I like how in space terms 100 years at the speed of light is like a microscopic distance. Yep, 7.5 billions years at the speed of light and you've only gone half way across the universe. Mind boggling stuff.
 
Space is quite remarkable to think that there is literally anything out there as I said earlier is quite "mind boggling"
 
yup, difficult to get your head around. Few are well into it on Vital, be interesting to see their opinions.
 
This is just very early theories explaining what they have observed so far. It will take a while to track its movement to refine the theories, but it is an interesting discovery. Whether its an orphaned planet, an aborted star or the fall out from another ocurrence, like a dying star or colliding galaxies, something formed it and sent it on its current path.

It will be interesting to see what emerges with further observations.
 
avfcsimmsy - 15/11/2012 16:39

I think a space what do you think thread is needed :17:

One of my favourite thread used to be The Ellk's APOD thread....we should resurrect that.

We just used to chat through the daily picture on here:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
 
Love the title, very interesting read, space never fails to further fascinate me.
 
Astonomers have found the second biggest black hole ever, but it is a major discovery more because it resides in a small galaxy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20528137
 
The Fear - 15/11/2012 16:37

yup, difficult to get your head around. Few are well into it on Vital, be interesting to see their opinions.

Well seeing as you asked. I think it will be proven pretty soon beyond all reasonable doubt that the moon is NOT made of cheese, but is infact just a giant onion.
 
That's a ridiculous comment Deano.....do you really think the clangers would live on an onion!
 
For a start they'd be crying all the time.

But then, if it was made of cheese, they'd be puking all the time.

Go back to the drawing board deanothickie
 
Still looking forward to hearing the exciting news the NASA controllers are keeping quiet about it until the facts have been checked out, John Grotzinger principal investigator for Curiosity quotes "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good,"
the data comes from the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, which consists of a six-column gas chromatograph, a quadrupole mass spectrometer, and a tunable laser spectrometer. This gives SAM the ability to find organic life, if it exists. So far Curiosity has done a sample scoop of soil for SAM earlier this month, and NASA announced more samples were going to be taken last week from an area the team have dubbed Rocknest. It appears they have found something very special, but Grotzinger says his lips are sealed.
 
Here is the picture that drew interest to the site.

Can't wait to see what their analysis of it shows.

 

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Looks like a Pepperami wrapper.

So Martian's like Pepperami?

Big deal. Call me when they discover a KFC Bucket.
 
The Fear - 29/11/2012 14:56

what are people speculating/suggesting it shows Nimmo?

They think it might be debris from the spacecraft, but its brightness drew interest. Then, they noticed other bright fragments that they think are materials native to Mars.

They have been analysing soil samples and may have found evidence of organic material....may have.