When the moon is in the Seventh House, And Jupiter aligns with Mars...

[samhexum]

For the first time in 800 years, earthlings will be able to see the Milky Way’s uh... I think they meant our solar system's two biggest planets so close together it’ll look like they’re touching.

 

Saturn and Jupiter will have a rare meeting from our vantage point on Dec. 21, 2020. The “conjunction,” or alignment, of the two planets hasn’t happened since 1226. Since the two planets are the biggest gas bodies in our solar system that won't be living in Florida soon, ??:cool: experts call this one a “Great Conjunction.”

 

The two planets have been rather close in the sky lately, however, “it is fair to say that this conjunction is truly exceptional in that the planets get very close to one another,” Patrick Hartigan, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University, wrote in a blog entry on the conjunction.

 

During this year’s conjunction, “both planets will be visible in the same field of view in most small telescopes, along with some of Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons,” Hartigan wrote. “In fact, they will be so close it may be a challenge to separate them with the unaided eye for many people.”

 

It won’t be easy for much of the population to catch the rare celestial event, which falls on the winter solstice. The farther you are from the equator, the smaller your window to see the conjunction will be.

 

Regardless, if you go outside around dusk (in New York City, this will be about 5 p.m.), and look toward the southwestern sky, you may have about an hour to find the two planets. It’ll help to use an app such as Google’s Sky Map, which can be held up to the sky to show where certain planets and stars are located.

 

Conditions will have to be ideal that day, as in no low clouds fogging up the view. However, if you miss it, the two planets will still be relatively close through Christmas. So try the next day. And if you miss it again, well, the next conjunction like this will happen in 60 years.

 

And though they may look close to our eyes, in space, they’re separated by a distance more than four times the distance between the earth and the sun.

Edited December 21, 2020 by samhexum

[abdul dreamcatcher]

Thank for sharing great info!

[+ Charlie]

And thanks for reminding me what a terrific musical Hair! is.

[samhexum]

Mysterious ‘angelic figure’ spotted on Mars by spacecraft

 

An ‘angelic figure’ on the surface of Mars has been spotted by the European Space Agency.

 

Scientists were using the Mars Express spacecraft to observe around the south pole of Mars when they spotted what looks like a snow angel formation on the ground.

 

The researchers may have been feeling festive when they pointed out that the formation looks like it has a halo and two wings.

 

A heart shape to the right of the ‘angel’ has also been pointed out.

 

The ESA said in a statement: “The defined wings of an angelic figure, complete with halo, can be seen sweeping up and off the top of the frame in this image.”

 

The colors are due to the different types of sands in the area.

 

An enhanced color image was also released by the ESA.

 

The angel’s left hand is said to be stretched into a ‘sublimation pit’.

 

This is something that occurs when ice on Mars turns into vapour and leaves a depression on the surface.

 

The ESA added: “The ‘head’ and halo are formed of an impact crater, created as a body from space flew inwards to collide with Mars’ crust.”

 

There’s also signs of the surface being disrupted by strong wind formations called ‘dust devils’.

 

The Red Planet is known for its bumpy surface and lots of people think they’ve spotted mysterious objects there.

 

An eerie crater on the dusty slopes of Mars’ Pavonis Mons volcano was once picked out by two space scientists as a prime spot for extraterrestrials.

 

NASA says the “unusual” feature “appears to be an opening to an underground cavern”.

 

An image of the hole was first snapped by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2011, and scientists have studied it ever since.

 

 

2020 Perseid Meteor Shower Timelapse

 

[samhexum]

REJOICE!!! It's the shortest day of the year! Embrace the darkness!!!

 

and it's also the date referred to in the first post in this thread.

[SirBillybob]

Today’s cloud cover in Montreal area will obscure it. I will be no wiser a man.

[+ AntonGraza]

Still one of my favs to sing, oh my, it has been a while, 1969.

Cloudy here in Chicago area as well, have not been able to see it at all, will have to rely on the postings from others.

[+ MysticMenace]

hmm, I ain't seeing it...is it too cloudy?

[samhexum]

hmm, I ain't seeing it...is it too cloudy?

Nah, your glasses are dirty.

[+ azdr0710]

we watched it......shitload of cars just out of town also watching it......we brought binoculars and that helped, but it just seemed like a regular bright star with a fainter dot very near it.....

 

I thought it would be like Jesus being born or something......

 

[samhexum]

I thought it would be like Jesus being born or something......

 

I hope you know my head is exploding because I'm trying to hold in all the possible sarcastic replies.

[samhexum]

Japan hoping wooden satellites will solve the problem of space junk

 

Japanese researchers are working on satellite technology that would use wood components to eliminate excess space junk, allowing objects to burn up upon reentry to Earth’s atmosphere, according to a new report.

 

Sumitomo Forestry, a 400-year-old Japanese woodworking company, is partnering with Kyoto University to develop the technology, the BBC reported Tuesday.

 

NASA estimated more than a decade ago that 95% of manmade objects in orbit were space junk. They come from defunct satellites, discarded rocket stages and other discarded mission materials.

 

Most of it is relatively small, according to the European Space Agency. Out of 128 million pieces of debris in orbit, only about 34,000 objects are larger than 10 cm. But when larger objects collide, they produce many, many smaller ones. And they can travel more than 20,000 mph, making even tiny particles dangerous.

 

There are also about 2,800 functioning satellites in orbit, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, which maintains a satellite database. Governments and space-faring companies have plans to launch thousands more in the future.

 

Experts are concerned that too much junk in orbit could complicate future launches, possibly narrowing the window of flightpaths. Larger objects that fall out of orbit are also dangerous for life on the ground

 

Space junk threatens satellites and could be potentially lethal to astronauts. Some launches from countries less concerned about safety protocols can send huge chunks of material hurtling back down to Earth.

 

In May, a Chinese rocket core rained down in pieces over West Africa. If its reentry had been minutes earlier, it could have slammed into New York City.

 

Wooden satellites would break up completely, rather than slamming back to the surface or leaving tiny metallic particles that could pierce spacesuits, solar panels or shuttles in the future.

 

“We are very concerned with the fact that all the satellites which re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere burn and create tiny alumina particles which will float in the upper atmosphere for many years,” Kyoto University professor and Japanese astronaut Takao Doi told the BBC. “Eventually it will affect the environment of the Earth.”

 

In October, two pieces of junk nearly collided 615 miles above the Earth. One was an inoperable Russian satellite launched in 1989 and the other a Chinese rocket stage from 2009.

 

The objects passed within 39 feet of one another in a near miss, but a crash could have broken them into thousands of pieces then posed risks for more collisions with other objects.

 

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by samhexum

[samhexum]

When the first sign of intelligent life first visits us from space, it won’t be a giant saucer hovering over New York. More likely, it will be an alien civilization’s trash.

 

Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard’s Department of Astronomy, believes he’s already found some of that garbage.

 

In his upcoming book, “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), out Jan. 26, the professor lays out a compelling case for why an object that recently wandered into our solar system was not just another rock but actually a piece of alien technology.

 

The object in question traveled toward our solar system from the direction of Vega, a nearby star 25 light-years away, and intercepted our solar system’s orbital plane on Sept. 6, 2017.

 

On Sept. 9, its trajectory brought it closest to the sun. At the end of September, it blasted at about 58,900 miles per hour past Venus’ orbital distance, and then, on Oct. 7, it shot past Earth’s before “moving swiftly toward the constellation Pegasus and the blackness beyond,” Loeb writes in the book.

 

The object was first spotted by an observatory in Hawaii containing the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) — the highest definition telescope on earth.

 

The space object was dubbed ‘Oumuamua (pronounced “oh moo ah moo ah”), which is Hawaiian for — roughly — “scout.”

 

As space travelers go, it was relatively small at just about 100 yards long, but it was a big deal in the scientific community.

 

For starters, it was the first interstellar object ever detected inside our solar system. Judging from the object’s trajectory, astronomers concluded it was not bound by the sun’s gravity — which suggested it was just traveling through.

 

No crisp photos could be taken, but astronomers were able to train their telescopes on the object for 11 days, collecting reams of other data.

 

At first, scientists thought it was an ordinary comet. But Loeb said that assumption ran the risk of allowing “the familiar to define what we might discover.”

 

“What would happen if a caveman saw a cellphone?” he asked. “He’s seen rocks all his life, and he would have thought it was just a shiny rock.”

 

Loeb soon opened his mind to another possibility: It was not a comet but discarded tech from an alien civilization.

 

A number of unusual properties about the object helped Loeb make this conclusion.

 

First were ‘Oumuamua’s dimensions.

 

Astronomers looked at the way the object reflected sunlight. Its brightness varied tenfold every eight hours, suggesting that was the amount of time it took for it to complete a full rotation.

 

Scientists concluded the object was at least five to ten times longer than it was wide — sort of like the shape of a cigar.

 

No naturally occurring space body we’ve ever seen has looked like it — or even close.

 

“This would make ‘Oumuamua’s geometry more extreme by at least a few times in aspect ratio — or its width to its height — than the most extreme asteroids or comets that we have ever seen,” Loeb writes in his book.

 

What’s more, ‘Oumuamua was unusually bright. It was at least “ten times more reflective than typical solar system [stony] asteroids or comets,” the author writes.

 

He likens its surface to that of shiny metal.

 

But the anomaly that really pushed Loeb toward his E.T. hypothesis was the way ‘Oumuamua moved.

 

“The excess push away from the sun — that was the thing that broke the camel’s back,” he said.

 

Using physics, scientists can calculate the exact path an object should take and what speed it should travel due to the gravitational force exerted by the sun. The sun’s pull will speed up an object massively as it gets closer, then kick it out the other side, only for the object to slow considerably as it gets farther away.

 

But ‘Oumuamua didn’t follow this calculated trajectory. The object, in fact, accelerated “slightly, but to a highly statistically significant extent,” Loeb writes, as it moved away from the sun.

 

In other words, it was clearly being pushed by a force besides the sun’s gravity alone.

 

At first the explanation seemed simple. Comets show a similar acceleration, because as they approach the sun, their surface is warmed, releasing once-frozen gases, which act like a rocket engine.

 

Those released materials, however, form a comet’s distinctive tail. Scientists looked carefully for that tail or any sign of gases or dust that might propel ‘Oumuamua and came up empty.

 

Loeb calculated that with these and other anomalies, the chances that ‘Oumuamua was some random comet was around one in a quadrillion, leading him to his blockbuster hypothesis.

 

But what was it exactly?

 

One possibility, weirdly enough, could be found in technology we already have here on earth.

 

Some 400 years ago, astronomer Johannes Kepler observed comet tails blowing in what looked like a solar breeze and wondered if that same force could propel rocket ships through space like the wind pushes boats through water.

 

It was a smart idea that scientists now use to develop light sails for probes. Thin, reflective sheeting is unfurled in space to capture the particles streaming off the sun, propelling a ship at great speeds through the empty void. Alternatively, powerful lasers from earth could be aimed at the sail to make it go even faster.

 

Loeb, who is involved in a light-sail project to send a tiny, unmanned craft to a nearby star, said if we earthlings have thought of this idea, then why couldn’t aliens?

 

He and a colleague crunched the numbers and hypothesized that ‘Oumuamua was not actually cigar-shaped but possibly a disk less than a millimeter thick, with sail-like proportions that would account for its unusual acceleration as it moved away from the sun.

 

As to its purpose, Loeb isn’t entirely sure. He speculated it could be “space junk” that once served as a kind of space navigation buoy used by a long-ago civilization.

 

“The only way to look for [alien civilizations] is to look for their trash, like investigative journalists who look through celebrities’ trash,” Loeb said.

 

Of course, not everyone in the scientific community agrees with his theory.

 

In July 2019, the ‘Oumuamua Team of the International Space Science Institute published an article in Nature Astronomy concluding, “We find no compelling evidence to favor an alien explanation for ‘Oumuamua.”

 

Loeb admits his theories have raised astronomers’ eyebrows, but he is resolute about his findings. “Some people do not want to discuss the possibility that there are other civilizations out there,” he told The Post. “They believe we are special and unique. I think it’s a prejudice that should be abandoned.”

 

Loeb said the skeptics are bending over backwards to assign natural origins to the object and that the explanations they’ve given to explain its weird properties don’t stand up to scrutiny.

 

For example, some scientists have suggested that ‘Oumuamua’s acceleration was caused by frozen hydrogen on its surface turning to gas and driving it like a comet, and that hydrogen would have been invisible to Earth’s infrared cameras, which is why we didn’t detect it.

 

But Loeb and a colleague published a paper showing that “a hydrogen iceberg traveling through interstellar space would evaporate long before it reached our solar system.”

 

Whatever the truth, the stakes are high.

 

The acceptance that an alien race has made contact — even through its trash — would trigger a serious search for more trash, leading us to scour the moon and Mars, for example, for debris that might have crash-landed thousands or millions of years ago.

 

And if more evidence is found, we earthlings would have to start building tools to help us grapple with extraterrestrials, such as space treaties and academic fields like astro-linguistics and astro-economics.

 

But, perhaps more important, any further discoveries could redefine our place in the universe.

 

“It would put us in perspective,” Loeb said. “If we are not alone, are we the smartest kids on the block? If there was a species that eliminated itself through war or changing the climate, we can get our act together and behave better. Instead, we are wasting a lot of resources on Earth fighting each other and other negative things that are a big waste.”

 

Since ‘Oumuamua’s appearance, a second interstellar object known as 2I/Borisov was spotted entering the solar system by a Crimean telescope in 2019. But that turned out to be a plain old comet.

 

Until recently, our instruments have not been sensitive enough to pick up these kinds of visitors. But Loeb said technology will soon make it possible to locate more space travelers, and the only way the mystery of ‘Oumuamua will be settled is if a similar object is spotted and more thoroughly investigated with a probe.

 

He said his book “should motivate people to collect more data on the next object that looks weird.”

 

“If we find another and we take a photo and it looks like a light sail, I don’t think anyone will argue with that.”