Official Space is Awesome Thread

[MMB1500]

HUGE news in the world of space today. Gravitational waves (ripples in space time), first predicted by Einstein, have almost certainly been discovered:

“This is transformational,” said Prof Alberto Vecchio, of the University of Birmingham, and one of the researchers at Ligo. “We have observed the universe through light so far. But we can only see part of what happens in the universe. Gravitational waves carry completely different information about phenomena in the universe. So we have opened a new way of listening to a broadcasting channel which will allow us to discover phenomena we have never seen before,” he said.

“This observation is truly incredible science and marks three milestones for physics: the direct detection of gravitational waves, the first detection of a binary black hole, and the most convincing evidence to date that nature’s black holes are the objects predicted by Einstein’s theory.”

Check it out:

 

https://www.theguard...-of-the-century

[bscinstnct]

Hubble image: Dormant black hole, in a word, is gargantuan

 

According to NASA, every galaxy has a supermassive black hole with "masses greater than than 1 million suns combined" at the center. It is believed that the black holes were created at the same time as the galaxy they are in.

 

 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/18/us/hubble-telescope-galaxy-photo/index.html

 

 

 

[driverwedge]

I love these guys.

 

 

Why gravitational waves are a big deal

 

[NV825]

Hubble Team Breaks Cosmic Distance Record (seeing 13.4 billion years ago)

[bscinstnct]

"After Two Black Holes Collide, a Puzzling Flash

 

It had characteristics of a typical short gamma-ray burst that, at its origin, contained 10,000 trillion times the amount of energy the sun produces over that same length of time.

 

....

 

Loeb describes how a pair of black holes might originate simultaneously inside a star 100 times as large as the sun. As he envisions it, this massive star was originally created when two smaller stars combined. The conditions of that merger cause the massive star to spin very rapidly. When it eventually begins to collapse, the centrifugal force from the spin causes its core to break into two clumps in a dumbbell configuration, and each clump forms a black hole—with the two black holes gravitationally intertwined inside the remnants of the massive star."

 

http://www.wired.com/2016/03/two-black-holes-collide-puzzling-flash/

 

 

Uhhhh, ok.

[Argonne69]

Astronomers discover several super spiral galaxies having masses more than 10 times the Milky Way, brightness 8 to 14 times greater, and 30 times the star making potential. These are equal to the biggest and brightest galaxies ever seen.

 

[jbw749]

Many things had to fall into place for humans to evolve as far as we have in our stars lifetime. The evolution process is usually disrupted at some point and starts over. The likelihood of other planets avoiding those disruptions before their stars life is over is not as likely as we would think. It took half of the suns life for humans to get this far. We have been very lucky over the last 65 million years. If the universe was crawling with life we should have heard something by now.

 

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/07/-stephen-hawking-why-is-the-milky-way-not-crawling-with-selfdesigning-mechanical-or-biological-life.html

[Argonne69]

Many things had to fall into place for humans to evolve as far as we have in our stars lifetime. The evolution process is usually disrupted at some point and starts over. The likelihood of other planets avoiding those disruptions before their stars life is over is not as likely as we would think. It took half of the suns life for humans to get this far. We have been very lucky over the last 65 million years. If the universe was crawling with life we should have heard something by now.

 

http://www.dailygala...gical-life.html

 

There are ~100,000,000,000 galaxies containing ~100,000,000,000 stars. Each star may have several rocky, watery, habitable planets orbiting them.

 

The process of evolution never stops. Some branches of life simply get pruned. We've had several major extinction events on our planet, and yet life continued, and here we are.

 

'Disagree that we should have heard something by now. After billions of years our planet finally evolved to the point where we started sending I Love Lucy broadcasts into the universe. The signals have reached only a handful of star systems. On the flipside, we've only been listening for ET for a handful of decades.

[jbw749]

Many things had to fall into place for humans to evolve as far as we have in our stars lifetime. The evolution process is usually disrupted at some point and starts over. The likelihood of other planets avoiding those disruptions before their stars life is over is not as likely as we would think. It took half of the suns life for humans to get this far. We have been very lucky over the last 65 million years. If the universe was crawling with life we should have heard something by now.

 

http://www.dailygala...gical-life.html

 

There are ~100,000,000,000 galaxies containing ~100,000,000,000 stars. Each star may have several rocky, watery, habitable planets orbiting them.

 

The process of evolution never stops. Some branches of life simply get pruned. We've had several major extinction events on our planet, and yet life continued, and here we are.

 

'Disagree that we should have heard something by now. After billions of years our planet finally evolved to the point where we started sending I Love Lucy broadcasts into the universe. The signals have reached only a handful of star systems. On the flipside, we've only been listening for ET for a handful of decades.

 

Yes and in the 80 years we've been listing we haven't heard anything. Out of 100 billion or so galaxies or so you would think there would be a moment in time that would align would reach us. Evolving to intelligent life forms capable of communication via radio waves may not be as common as you think.

[bscinstnct]

Many things had to fall into place for humans to evolve as far as we have in our stars lifetime. The evolution process is usually disrupted at some point and starts over. The likelihood of other planets avoiding those disruptions before their stars life is over is not as likely as we would think. It took half of the suns life for humans to get this far. We have been very lucky over the last 65 million years. If the universe was crawling with life we should have heard something by now.

 

http://www.dailygala...gical-life.html

 

There are ~100,000,000,000 galaxies containing ~100,000,000,000 stars. Each star may have several rocky, watery, habitable planets orbiting them.

 

The process of evolution never stops. Some branches of life simply get pruned. We've had several major extinction events on our planet, and yet life continued, and here we are.

 

'Disagree that we should have heard something by now. After billions of years our planet finally evolved to the point where we started sending I Love Lucy broadcasts into the universe. The signals have reached only a handful of star systems. On the flipside, we've only been listening for ET for a handful of decades.

 

Yes and in the 80 years we've been listing we haven't heard anything. Out of 100 billion or so galaxies or so you would think there would be a moment in time that would align would reach us. Evolving to intelligent life forms capable of communication via radio waves may not be as common as you think.

 

There are billons of galaxies that are millions and billions of light years away.

 

So even if there are there are millions of life bearing planets with thousands of intelligent species capable of communicating. It could take millions or billions of years for their communications to reach us.

[NV825]

Many things had to fall into place for humans to evolve as far as we have in our stars lifetime. The evolution process is usually disrupted at some point and starts over. The likelihood of other planets avoiding those disruptions before their stars life is over is not as likely as we would think. It took half of the suns life for humans to get this far. We have been very lucky over the last 65 million years. If the universe was crawling with life we should have heard something by now.

 

http://www.dailygala...gical-life.html

 

There are ~100,000,000,000 galaxies containing ~100,000,000,000 stars. Each star may have several rocky, watery, habitable planets orbiting them.

 

The process of evolution never stops. Some branches of life simply get pruned. We've had several major extinction events on our planet, and yet life continued, and here we are.

 

'Disagree that we should have heard something by now. After billions of years our planet finally evolved to the point where we started sending I Love Lucy broadcasts into the universe. The signals have reached only a handful of star systems. On the flipside, we've only been listening for ET for a handful of decades.

 

Yes and in the 80 years we've been listing we haven't heard anything. Out of 100 billion or so galaxies or so you would think there would be a moment in time that would align would reach us. Evolving to intelligent life forms capable of communication via radio waves may not be as common as you think.

 

80 years is nothing when you compare it to the amount of space between us. Even with radio waves traveling at the speed of light in space, our planet may be wiped out by our own sun by the time it reaches other galaxies.

[Argonne69]

80 years is nothing when you compare it to the amount of space between us. Even with radio waves traveling at the speed of light in space, our planet may be wiped out by our own sun by the time it reaches other galaxies.

 

True, but that doesn't stop the radio waves from eventually reaching another galaxy/planet. If an intelligent signal is received, it doesn't mean that the creatures that sent it aren't extinct.

 

Lots of variables here, including the frequency at which the signal is sent. We receive a lot, lot more radio waves than we're able to analyze. A signal from another life form may be buried in the unprocessed data.

[Argonne69]

Yes and in the 80 years we've been listing we haven't heard anything. Out of 100 billion or so galaxies or so you would think there would be a moment in time that would align would reach us. Evolving to intelligent life forms capable of communication via radio waves may not be as common as you think.

 

It may not be common, but the probably is far from zero. We don't know how long an intelligent species can exist before it annihilates itself. It may be that a species that reaches the point of being able to send a directed radio signal may only do so for a few hundred years. That leaves a lot of gaps in the multi-billion year existence of the universe.

 

As I noted in post 96 above, we just recently "discovered" three very large galaxies. They've been putting out light for billions of years, and we received the light years ago. We just got around to analyzing it, and whoa, a new large galaxy. There are a lot of frequencies that an alien species might transmit on. We'd have to listen to every single one in every direction of the sky.

[MMB1500]

Many things had to fall into place for humans to evolve as far as we have in our stars lifetime. The evolution process is usually disrupted at some point and starts over. The likelihood of other planets avoiding those disruptions before their stars life is over is not as likely as we would think. It took half of the suns life for humans to get this far. We have been very lucky over the last 65 million years. If the universe was crawling with life we should have heard something by now.

 

http://www.dailygala...gical-life.html

 

There are ~100,000,000,000 galaxies containing ~100,000,000,000 stars. Each star may have several rocky, watery, habitable planets orbiting them.

 

The process of evolution never stops. Some branches of life simply get pruned. We've had several major extinction events on our planet, and yet life continued, and here we are.

 

'Disagree that we should have heard something by now. After billions of years our planet finally evolved to the point where we started sending I Love Lucy broadcasts into the universe. The signals have reached only a handful of star systems. On the flipside, we've only been listening for ET for a handful of decades.

 

Yes and in the 80 years we've been listing we haven't heard anything. Out of 100 billion or so galaxies or so you would think there would be a moment in time that would align would reach us. Evolving to intelligent life forms capable of communication via radio waves may not be as common as you think.

 

80 years is nothing when you compare it to the amount of space between us. Even with radio waves traveling at the speed of light in space, our planet may be wiped out by our own sun by the time it reaches other galaxies.

 

Humans are doing their best to ensure planet earth is wiped out long before the sun does it for us.

 

Regarding intelligent life out there, here's a good video on the Fermi Paradox

 

[jbw749]

Yes and in the 80 years we've been listing we haven't heard anything. Out of 100 billion or so galaxies or so you would think there would be a moment in time that would align would reach us. Evolving to intelligent life forms capable of communication via radio waves may not be as common as you think.

 

It may not be common, but the probably is far from zero. We don't know how long an intelligent species can exist before it annihilates itself. It may be that a species that reaches the point of being able to send a directed radio signal may only do so for a few hundred years. That leaves a lot of gaps in the multi-billion year existence of the universe.

 

As I noted in post 96 above, we just recently "discovered" three very large galaxies. They've been putting out light for billions of years, and we received the light years ago. We just got around to analyzing it, and whoa, a new large galaxy. There are a lot of frequencies that an alien species might transmit on. We'd have to listen to every single one in every direction of the sky.

 

Just for the sake of good argument. This is a good read.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Earth_hypothesis

[Argonne69]

West Side Story - Galaxy Cluster Edition.

 

Let's get ready to rumble. MACS J0416 consists of two galaxy clusters on the verge of merging. Located in the constellation Eridanus, 4.3 billion light years away.

 

[bscinstnct]

http://youtu.be/1VHy3EYgnrs

[Argonne69]

"Astronomers have discovered the largest and most luminous black hole ever seen — an ancient monster with a mass about 12 billion times that of the sun — that dates back to when the universe was less than 1 billion years old...In comparison, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way is thought to have a mass only 4 million to 5 million times that of the sun." - http://www.space.com/28664-monster-black-hole-largest-brightest-ever.html

 

[i*windows]

latest from work http://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann16024/

[Argonne69]

"The concept of the cosmic web—viewing the universe as a set of discrete galaxies held together by gravity—is deeply ingrained in cosmology. Yet, little is known about architecture of this network or its characteristics. Our research used data from 24,000 galaxies to construct multiple models of the cosmic web, offering complex blueprints for how galaxies fit together. These three interactive visualizations help us imagine the cosmic web, show us differences between the models, and give us insight into the fundamental structure of the universe." - Cosmic Web (http://cosmicweb.barabasilab.com/)

 

 

 

[Argonne69]

Happy 26th birthday, Hubble.

 

Bubble Nebula, formally known as NGC 7653, is an emission nebula located about 8,000 light years from Earth. It occupies a region roughly seven light-years across. The star at its core is about 45 times larger than our sun, and it will likely detonate as a supernova in about 10 to 20 million years.

 

 

Additional resolutions at: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/13/image/a/

[crich88848]

Apparently, Stephan Hawking has enough confidence that there is other life out there that he his willing to dedicate his limited and valuable time to the search.

 

http://bilbaoya.com/...terstellar.html

 

With how vast space is and how spread out solar systems are, there may be millions of planets with life and we may never find a single one. Even the closest galaxy to ours; Andromeda; would require a signal to travel for 2.2 million years to reach us. We have been able to send signals into space for under a 100 years now. So lets say they are on a relative timetable, we won't hear their signal for another 2.199.. million years. Light is just now reaching us from the outer universe of galaxies when they formed just after the big bang, something like 13 billion years ago. The truth is the probability that we will find the answer to this question is extremely low. A better question we should be asking ourselves is, do we want them to know we are here if they are out there. After all, our planet is covered 90% with one of the most valuable resources in the universe. Honestly, I think a better use of our intelligence and time would be to focus on ourselves for the time being. We have a variety of existential questions and extinction related problems that we would be better served answering. Either way, one day the last star will lose it's battle with its core's gravity , the universe will go black, and all life will cease to exist. This is the sad and unchangeable fact of our universe. We are right in the middle of very stable time in our universe. Chaos will erupt eventually.

[chickenpotpie]

Many things had to fall into place for humans to evolve as far as we have in our stars lifetime. The evolution process is usually disrupted at some point and starts over. The likelihood of other planets avoiding those disruptions before their stars life is over is not as likely as we would think. It took half of the suns life for humans to get this far. We have been very lucky over the last 65 million years. If the universe was crawling with life we should have heard something by now.

 

http://www.dailygala...gical-life.html

 

There are ~100,000,000,000 galaxies containing ~100,000,000,000 stars. Each star may have several rocky, watery, habitable planets orbiting them.

 

The process of evolution never stops. Some branches of life simply get pruned. We've had several major extinction events on our planet, and yet life continued, and here we are.

 

'Disagree that we should have heard something by now. After billions of years our planet finally evolved to the point where we started sending I Love Lucy broadcasts into the universe. The signals have reached only a handful of star systems. On the flipside, we've only been listening for ET for a handful of decades.

 

Yes and in the 80 years we've been listing we haven't heard anything. Out of 100 billion or so galaxies or so you would think there would be a moment in time that would align would reach us. Evolving to intelligent life forms capable of communication via radio waves may not be as common as you think.

 

Allegedly Eisenhower met with aliens. Putting on my tinfoil hat now.

[hogans71]

Many things had to fall into place for humans to evolve as far as we have in our stars lifetime. The evolution process is usually disrupted at some point and starts over. The likelihood of other planets avoiding those disruptions before their stars life is over is not as likely as we would think. It took half of the suns life for humans to get this far. We have been very lucky over the last 65 million years. If the universe was crawling with life we should have heard something by now.

 

http://www.dailygala...gical-life.html

 

There are ~100,000,000,000 galaxies containing ~100,000,000,000 stars. Each star may have several rocky, watery, habitable planets orbiting them.

 

The process of evolution never stops. Some branches of life simply get pruned. We've had several major extinction events on our planet, and yet life continued, and here we are.

 

'Disagree that we should have heard something by now. After billions of years our planet finally evolved to the point where we started sending I Love Lucy broadcasts into the universe. The signals have reached only a handful of star systems. On the flipside, we've only been listening for ET for a handful of decades.

 

Yes and in the 80 years we've been listing we haven't heard anything. Out of 100 billion or so galaxies or so you would think there would be a moment in time that would align would reach us. Evolving to intelligent life forms capable of communication via radio waves may not be as common as you think.

 

There are billons of galaxies that are millions and billions of light years away.

 

So even if there are there are millions of life bearing planets with thousands of intelligent species capable of communicating. It could take millions or billions of years for their communications to reach us.

 

Technology... What a rip off.

[bscinstnct]

Apparently, Stephan Hawking has enough confidence that there is other life out there that he his willing to dedicate his limited and valuable time to the search.

 

http://bilbaoya.com/...terstellar.html

 

With how vast space is and how spread out solar systems are, there may be millions of planets with life and we may never find a single one. Even the closest galaxy to ours; Andromeda; would require a signal to travel for 2.2 million years to reach us. We have been able to send signals into space for under a 100 years now. So lets say they are on a relative timetable, we won't hear their signal for another 2.199.. million years. Light is just now reaching us from the outer universe of galaxies when they formed just after the big bang, something like 13 billion years ago. The truth is the probability that we will find the answer to this question is extremely low. A better question we should be asking ourselves is, do we want them to know we are here if they are out there. After all, our planet is covered 90% with one of the most valuable resources in the universe. Honestly, I think a better use of our intelligence and time would be to focus on ourselves for the time being. We have a variety of existential questions and extinction related problems that we would be better served answering. Either way, one day the last star will lose it's battle with its core's gravity , the universe will go black, and all life will cease to exist. This is the sad and unchangeable fact of our universe. We are right in the middle of very stable time in our universe. Chaos will erupt eventually.

 

Unless there is more than one univesrse ; )

 

 

"As its inflating interior forms a new universe, its energy incrementally ticks down in clocklike fashion each time the expanding circle winds around the cylinder’s circumference and overlaps itself. When the energy of the “brane” dilutes, the clock stops ticking, and inflation ends. "

 

http://www.wired.com/2016/04/triangles-sky-tell-story-universes-birth/

 

 

Great post, btw, crich!

[crich88848]

Apparently, Stephan Hawking has enough confidence that there is other life out there that he his willing to dedicate his limited and valuable time to the search.

 

http://bilbaoya.com/...terstellar.html

 

With how vast space is and how spread out solar systems are, there may be millions of planets with life and we may never find a single one. Even the closest galaxy to ours; Andromeda; would require a signal to travel for 2.2 million years to reach us. We have been able to send signals into space for under a 100 years now. So lets say they are on a relative timetable, we won't hear their signal for another 2.199.. million years. Light is just now reaching us from the outer universe of galaxies when they formed just after the big bang, something like 13 billion years ago. The truth is the probability that we will find the answer to this question is extremely low. A better question we should be asking ourselves is, do we want them to know we are here if they are out there. After all, our planet is covered 90% with one of the most valuable resources in the universe. Honestly, I think a better use of our intelligence and time would be to focus on ourselves for the time being. We have a variety of existential questions and extinction related problems that we would be better served answering. Either way, one day the last star will lose it's battle with its core's gravity , the universe will go black, and all life will cease to exist. This is the sad and unchangeable fact of our universe. We are right in the middle of very stable time in our universe. Chaos will erupt eventually.

 

Unless there is more than one univesrse ; )

 

 

"As its inflating interior forms a new universe, its energy incrementally ticks down in clocklike fashion each time the expanding circle winds around the cylinder's circumference and overlaps itself. When the energy of the "brane" dilutes, the clock stops ticking, and inflation ends. "

 

http://www.wired.com...niverses-birth/

 

 

Great post, btw, crich!

 

You got me there. I should have been a little more specific in my comment. One day "this universe" will go black. There are multiple theories out there on how our universe will end, just about all them involve our extinction. At least we still have billions of years before this happens. We should probably focus a little more locally though. Estimates currently are at about 2 billion years until the sun makes the Earth inhabitable. The theory of Eternal Inflation suggests that this universe will actually end in 5 billion years, right around the time our Sun is expected to die. Eternal inflation is also the theory that suggest there are an infinite number of universes, called the multiverse. This theory also suggests that anything that can happen, will happen an infinite amount of times. Based on this theory, life in the multiverse outside of Earth is not only a possibility, it is pretty much a certainty. I guess the question then is, is it a certainty within our own universe? But then again, this isn't a widely accepted theory within the physicist community. It does explain why the universe is expanding greatly in some areas and not in others though.

[i*windows]

here the the 4 lasers we just deployed to create artificial stars. The image below is not a photoshop, it is a long exposure taken inside our facility in chile

http://www.eso.org/p...c/news/eso1613/

http://gizmodo.com/these-four-laser-beams-will-create-the-worlds-most-powe-1773321042

 

 

 

[Argonne69]

here the the 4 lasers we just deployed to create artificial stars. The image below is not a photoshop, it is a long exposure taken inside our facility in chile

http://www.eso.org/p...c/news/eso1613/

http://gizmodo.com/t...powe-1773321042

 

 

 

 

Nice! And so it begins. We're only a few decades away from...

 

 

:taunt: :taunt: :taunt:

[NV825]

here the the 4 lasers we just deployed to create artificial stars. The image below is not a photoshop, it is a long exposure taken inside our facility in chile

http://www.eso.org/p...c/news/eso1613/

http://gizmodo.com/t...powe-1773321042

 

 

 

 

Awesome stuff!

[i*windows]

It's really mind blowing technology and some of the stuff in the pipeline is amazing. I always thought I was pretty smart, but the guys doing this are off the scale