This week in Cosmology

I'm away tomorrow for 2 weeks holiday in Cornwall so I wont be posting...
see you all when i return :)
 
Hi and thanks for great links!! The equatorial mountain range on Iapetus is especially stunning.
Had the kind of holiday you need a holiday to recover from and I am glad to be back. :)
 
Hi all...The word "hobbit" is gaining increasing usage these days, besides Mr Tolkein's foundational literature. There are the Hobbit people, miniature human skeletons found on the Island of Flores in Indonesia. Scientific debate still rages as to whether or not they're a valid species deviation within the Homo Sapiens lineage, or perhaps just isolated and genetically diseased beings. However there are many folk tales and legends about the "small people" being on the island until a time many believe to be only a few hundred years ago.

Now we have a usage of the word to help describe possible sources of universal mass and dark matter.

flow....:)

http://www.livescience.com/space/scienceastronomy/070912_dark_galaxies.html
 
Hi Tao...

We've heard quite a bit about the "Allen Array" over here also. But my question is, with the time and space fabric/continuum being what it is, non-linear, what's going to happen to our logical progression of scientific discovery when the Allen Array begins to pick up some of Benny Hill's original television programmes ?

flow....:p
 
lol,

I think that signature tune could not be confused :p

On that subject tho it is my understanding that only a small fraction of what we have ever pumped out across the airwaves has the power to to be detectable. And the fraction that does get out you really would need a big receiver pointing dead at us to pick it up.

I think SETI a noble idea but I do believe intelligent life will be so rare that the chances are it will never pick up anything. For the same reason as above. Its like trying to find needle in all the haystacks anywhere anytime. I would love to be wrong tho.

Tao
 
Hello all...It has been about a week mates !

For some time now, the search for the origins of the macro universe has concentrated upon trying to devise methods, theoretical and practical, to look into the circumstances which may have existed prior to the "big bang" some 14 billion years ago.

A mysterious "cold spot" has been found in the radiation patterns which persist from that cataclysm so long ago. Perhaps this will lead to a further unraveling if that great mystery. Of course maybe it's something that we don't want to know, or wish we didn't when we do discover it ?

flow....;)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071026/sc_nm/universe_defect_dc
 

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Tao...I live about a half mile from the strip in Vegas, and on a calm night with my windows open, I can sometimes hear heavy breathing noises in the distance.
Thanks for your post and answer.
Now it all makes sense to me.

flow....:p
 
lol... maybe you just live too close to the chicken ranch?

Mum just been on the fone... she cannot keep a secret or surprise (which has the advantage of bringing extra gifts as she loves to surprise) and she has bought me a 4 1/2" mirror for my xmas. Shame that the light pollution here is really really bad tho. I can still stare at the moon sometimes :) And that gorgeous girl......... :p
 
Hi Tao...Nahh, how'd you know aboot the "World Famous Chicken Ranch" in Edinburgh ? Oh...it is world famous isn't it ?

I went out there once to drive a customer to his pleasures. Quite a place, but it's 60 miles over the mountains from the strip, so the heavy breathing may have been from parking lots at the T***y bars on the other side of the expressway.

Had one of those 4 1/2 inch reflector scopes when I was a teen ager. Amazing what all you can see away from lights on a clear night. I was even able to take some 35mm pics through the lens of Saturn, Jupiter and moons, etc. Great stuff. Lots of astronomy groups here that go out into the desert for observation parties and such. Some have huge home made instruments up to 16 inchers.

Now that I've got a little more free time I may look into that.

Ta...flow....:)
 
When 17th gave me link to his homepage first thing that comes up is a link to the livecam at the Chicken Ranch :p Just kidding!! Yeh...was doc. on tv a few years ago about the place. Goes to prove no matter how up-market they try to make "ye oldest profession" its still seedy and depressing.

I will be getting a new car early next year and will be able to take the odd nite out in my sleeping bag. I had a poor refractor as a kid, this will be a huge improvement, but even that old lensed tube gave me a taste for knowing more so I cant knock it. Never been to a "scope party" !! cant imagine them being a riot but life is full of surprises and so I might look into finding the local group.

You should get one... Nevada has BIG skies.

Tao
 
The first time you look through a telescope and see a nebula it is incredible.

Following a comet through the sky...even a fuzz ball... the telescope takes your mind to places you can't imagine...much more than looking at a picture...somehow it brings it closer.

I had a little scope I used for moon watching and planets...no big deal.. One time had it set up in my living room and pointed it at a hotel lobby a quarter mile away...I could make the picture in the lobby of a serene meadow lake with a mountain in the background be full frame...full view.

At night people would chuckle as they saw it pointed at the motel down the street...but when they looked through and saw the lake and flowers and mountains they were incredulous....they would then look at the other end thinking I had some slide hanging there....and then look out the window and back at me...such fun.
 
I agree so much that looking at the night sky with your own scope takes you out in a way that is truly profound. Everybody should have one!!

Here is a story that gripped my attention earlier this week. The hunt for extra-solar planets has now shown us a solar system of planets: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/science/space/07planetweb.html?em&ex=1194670800&en=9671413ac0ec230b&ei=5087%0A

And this story not only reveals the source of ultra-high energy cosmic rays but gives us a new method to study black holes.
The Press Association: Black holes clue to cosmic rays
 
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