science The Space Thread

[Feather Spiral 1,892]

On 11/25/2018 at 7:49 PM, Olly said:

and people take it for granted wishing...

Will disagree, you can fully appreciate your home world and still aspire for the stars.

There's a good reason people get so hyped up about exoplanets that have similar properties and conditions to our own. Think of it this way: you realize how much you depend on Earth, so even outside of it, you're still looking for similar things.

Mars, for all its dusty cold surface capped with solid methane, weak gravity and thin atmosphere mainly composed of CO2, is often considered Earth's twin. There are signs suggesting it once was warm enough to sustain liquid water, one of the many conditions necessary for life as we know it.

Plus, if we get around to establishing a base on Mars, it'll be the perfect launch platform for missions to the edge of the Solar System and beyond.

I do agree we definitely have some serious problems on Earth we need to work on. But there's no guarantee we'll find feasible solutions, on time, simply by staying on our cozy little watery rock. Heck, we've solved many past problems, only to face new ones nowadays; perhaps they'll just keep popping up as we troubleshoot.

Might as well go ahead and keep pushing further away... idk maybe I watched/read/played too much Star Trek?

[Spacey 747]

I'm into space and stuff ^-^ I always watch documentaries about killer quazars and suns exploding and black holes, ect... I love the series with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

What I'm most interested in are the things that could have drastic effects on Earth like an Asteroid hitting the planet or a black hole that just wizzed by our solar system messing up orbits and what not. Im also interested about the edge of the universe. I would like to know how infinite space really is but im sure we will never find out in many lifetimes. Every time there is a picture that comes out from telescopes that see deeper and deeper into space is very cool to me.

Do you know whats at the center of our universe? We are! xD the center of the observable universe that is.

[Olly 1,008]

14 hours ago, Feather Spiral said:

There are signs suggesting it once was warm enough to sustain liquid water, one of the many conditions necessary for life as we know it.

Yes I know  I'm a science student 

 

14 hours ago, Feather Spiral said:

I do agree we definitely have some serious problems on Earth we need to work on. But there's no guarantee we'll find feasible solutions, on time, simply by staying on our cozy little watery rock. 

If we can't find solutions to help us survive where we already have everything we need, how will we manage in more hostile environments that are very far away and are much more expensive to live in and to get to? If we can't make it on earth, I don't think we'll fare much better elsewhere. We can feasibly get to mars, but any further is another matter... it is unimaginably expensive and an absolutely gargantuan task to colonize another world. If we can even consider trying to do that, we can certainly do better for our home, since it would be both less expensive and difficult (though still very much of both). I'm not against colonizing mars, but I don't think most people have their priorities straight or have a good grasp on the realities of sending people into distant space in the near future.

Edited November 28, 2018 by Olly

[Olly 1,008]

14 hours ago, Feather Spiral said:

Might as well go ahead and keep pushing further away... idk maybe I watched/read/played too much Star Trek?

I'm a big trekkie. Let's remember the context in which star trek was created, the 1960s. In that time, most people genuinely thought we'd already be in deep space by now, or at least have a full-blown colony on the moon or mars. There's many reasons why we still haven't, and they remain relevant... so any expectations of traveling deep into space or colonizing places outside of earth should be tempered with understanding of the obstacles and difficulties of doing so. 

[Feather Spiral 1,892]

19 hours ago, Olly said:

If we can't find solutions to help us survive where we already have everything we need, how will we manage in more hostile environments that are very far away and are much more expensive to live in and to get to?

You misread my post... maybe I went overboard in trying to make things short and concise.

I was saying, in looking at the stars and searching for exoplanets, we might find some whose properties inspire us some solutions. I don't know what those properties might be, I'm not an astronomer (I took Genetics, and... nobody's looking for geneticists). But I'm sure there's some history, a few discoveries made from watching other solar systems and being applied on Earth. Saying "we have everything we need" is a bit of a stretch; even if we have the material resources, we don't necessarily have the know-how to use them in fixing problems.

That's different from my point about going outside and colonizing other planets like Mars. Of course, we'll have to wait till technology and knowledge have advanced much further than it is now, before we make an attempt. But you said that means we're "taking Earth for granted", so I was merely pointing out that appreciating Earth and wanting the stars weren't mutually exclusive.

Also, my mention of Star Trek was a sidenote, not directly relevant to my other arguments on flying off to space. It pertains to where I say "Heck, we've solved many past problems, only to face new ones nowadays; perhaps they'll just keep popping up as we troubleshoot." Sorry for not making that clearer, albeit the linked post's content was hinting at it.

Edited November 28, 2018 by Feather Spiral

[Olly 1,008]

3 hours ago, Feather Spiral said:

But you said that means we're "taking Earth for granted", so I was merely pointing out that appreciating Earth and wanting the stars weren't mutually exclusive.

Sure, but in my experience, generally, people talk about colonizing mars and other places because they feel we can't be on earth much longer. So I wasn't really addressing you directly.

3 hours ago, Feather Spiral said:

I was saying, in looking at the stars and searching for exoplanets, we might find some whose properties inspire us some solutions. I don't know what those properties might be, I'm not an astronomer (I took Genetics, and... nobody's looking for geneticists).

Some scientists think we could mine asteroids for precious metals and convert their water into rocket fuel. 

3 hours ago, Feather Spiral said:

Saying "we have everything we need" is a bit of a stretch; even if we have the material resources, we don't necessarily have the know-how to use them in fixing problems.

In terms of what we need to live and thrive, we have everything we could possibly need on earth already. Earth is very rich in resources of every kind, whereas places like mars and the moons of the gas giants (the next possible places for human colonies) are rather sparse and desolate, and starved of most resources that would need to be imported from earth or elsewhere. So that's what I was getting at

 

[Stone Cold Steve Jobs 22,412]

I will just leave this here

[Celli 4,332]

The size of the great superclusters like ours is beyond imagination. And that's just a fragment of the vast size of the observable universe. Which itself is not the entire universe, either.

And this from Carl Sagan, one of the brightest minds of the last three decades. 

[Celli 4,332]

So this is happening.

https://phys.org/news/2019-04-scientists-unveil-picture-black-hole.amp

 

[Props Valroa 26,096]

I have been interested in space as long as I can remember, and I feel pretty passionately about it.

[Feather Spiral 1,892]

Exactly what Celli shared-

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-07/black-hole-first-ever-photograph-could-be-unveiled-this-week/10979244

...so hyped for this

[Lucky Bolt 34,915]

I used to be such an astronomy buff when I was younger, I may have lost interest a bit but I still find myself fascinated by outer space. 

Black holes especially have always caught my attention.

[Celli 4,332]

So here is the first photo of a black hole, taken from the Galaxy m87 which is 58 million light years away. 

 

[Feather Spiral 1,892]

and people were already memeing the shit out of that one blurry photo, not even half a day after it was published.

I mean... I was expecting it. I just didn't think it'd happen that quick.

The internet truly is a wondrous place.