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Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Speaking of telescopes..

As I was saying.. Galileo wasn’t able to describe the four satellites of Jupiter other than noting moving points of light, but when you’re whizzing past them with a battery of modern scientific devices you can get a much better view.  Nasa’s New Horizons mission is heading further out towards the dwarf planet Pluto [that’s not a real planet - Ed], although it was a fully fledged planet when they started, and they’ve been testing out the onboard equipment while passing through Jupiter’s backyard.

They also took some very nice images of Io.. moving ones too

Jupiter’s Little Red Spot

And Galileo’s moving points of light.. aka Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Pete Baker @ 02:53 PM

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  1. As a species we’re able to carry out a feat of engineering and science to send crafts millions of miles away to accurately record planetary events and open up new branches of study...yet we cannot get democracy to work without more conspiracy theories than asteroids...when next week’s hubub about the restoration of devolved powers dies down and the global media spotlight moves on our sad wee land will well and truly be Plutoed!

    Posted by Jonny on May 02, 2007 @ 10:09 PM
  2. Jonny

    That would be because there’s no connectiuon whatsoever between the two topics.

    Posted by  on May 02, 2007 @ 10:47 PM
  3. Damn there goes another attempt to be a smart ase blown out of the water by Peter...still, it amazes me that such feats of scientific and engineering endeavour are over-looked in a trivia obsessed world where the wranglings of OK, Hello and celebrities who have achieved nothing other than being celebrities. The team that pioneered this mission and the likes of Tim Berners-Lee should be lauded in the place of the vacuous...tho related to your introduction to the post I wonder what Gallileo’s persecutors would have made of New Horizons pix!

    Posted by Jonny on May 02, 2007 @ 10:53 PM
  4. Not over-looked on Slugger, Jonny ;o)

    Posted by  on May 02, 2007 @ 10:58 PM
  5. I know, I know!

    Posted by Jonny on May 02, 2007 @ 11:03 PM
  6. Heh.

    Posted by  on May 02, 2007 @ 11:06 PM
  7. Great shots of Io.

    Poor Pluto, once mysterious and alone, now just another Kuiper belt ice cube in the galactic cocktail bar.

    Posted by  on May 03, 2007 @ 01:50 AM
  8. Jonny, it’s not as though Rosanna Davison’s been put on the latest issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

    Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, has been funding the building of a spaceship in a warehouse of Seattle for years now, with the goal of founding permanent space colonies.  They’ve just discovered a potentially unlimited source of water in space ...okay it’s on Mars, there may be a few details to wait for yet....but Moby’s “We are All Made of Stars” is based on his understanding of the frontiers of theoretical physics...space nerds are all around you, Jonny, I suppose it’s like cross-dressing.

    Very complete briefing, Pete, many thanks!

    Wilde Rover, you certainly can turn a phrase.

    Posted by  on May 03, 2007 @ 10:26 AM
  9. Ah Moby’s vegan wittering aside...the music of the spheres is French Thash/Prog metal act Gojira, who manage to combine eco-friendly and space voyaging on their album From Mars to Sirius, ensuring that even us metal heads stay up to speed...and Jeff Bezos knows where to reach me if he wants a hack or PR to document his journey towards space colonies...as long as Carlsberg have the sponsorship tied up first...as to “We’re all made of stars” thought that was a chemical proof, as opposed to theoretical physics, verified by Frank Drake on the exchange of hydrogen and helium to deuteranium which enabled the creation of carbon based molecules that were ejected into the early cosmos through supernovae...though as a humble metalhead/hack/PR person with an arts degree I probably am well wide of the mark on all counts, except whilst in the mosh pit or reading New Scientist as if I understood it :)...btw Wilde Rover...does the galactic cocktail bar take reservations?

    Posted by Jonny on May 03, 2007 @ 11:17 AM
  10. Jonny, you have so many neurons bouncing around you I’d need a bee-keeper’s suit just to remain standing, but by theoretical physics I am referring to the ongoing search to identify the unifying Theory of Everything, making it theoretically possibly for intelligent life to escape into the tenth dimension before the eventual known universe collapses into itself, aka The Big Crunch.

    What is “metal”?  I’ve never really understood.

    Posted by  on May 03, 2007 @ 11:29 AM
  11. Don’t worry, once I invent hyperspace, we’ll be swarming over every G-class system within 50 parsecs!!!

    Ever since the discovery of that Gliese 581c jobby, I’ve been playing Frontier for the first time in about 10 years.

    What a class game!

    Posted by Sammy Morse on May 03, 2007 @ 11:29 AM
  12. Gerry Ryan had an “expert” on his programme who believed that Mars had a different gravity compared to Earth.

    The license fee what a greta use of money.

    Posted by  on May 03, 2007 @ 11:44 AM
  13. Gerry Ryan had an “expert†on his programme who believed that Mars had a different gravity compared to Earth.

    0.38g?

    Posted by Sammy Morse on May 03, 2007 @ 12:27 PM
  14. Jonny

    “thought that was a chemical proof”

    More the work of [astro]physicists, Alpher-Bethe-Gamow theory - with an intentional cosmic joke - later to be further developed by Fred Hoyle.

    Posted by  on May 03, 2007 @ 02:06 PM
  15. lol, Sammy.  Summertime, and the living’s Gliese. 

    I nominate Pete to be the first to hyperlink hyperspace for all of us more spaced than hyper.

    Posted by  on May 03, 2007 @ 03:37 PM
  16. Yep you got it right Peter, was Fred Hoyle - was in work and sober at the time hence my mistake :) Susan when you ask what is metal I presume you are referring to the musical genre as opposed to the iron/steel/bronze type metal...the musucal genre comes in many varieties (one of which does include Space Metal in the form of Hawkwind...which is a tenuous connection to the thread..) there is also power metal, thrash metal, old school metal, heavy metal, pop metal, love metal, death metal, speed metal, stoner metal, doom metal, folk metal, celtic metal (not named after the Glasgee fitba team), and a whole lot more...and at last an anthropologist has been given a grant to study it...though as he’s from New Zealand I suspect his research will be decried as...false metal

    Posted by Jonny on May 03, 2007 @ 10:02 PM
  17. Jonny

    Tenuous indeed. ;op

    “a grant”?!?!  Sociology.. that’s an -ology.. It’s a science!

    Thanks, susan.. hyperlinking hyperspace.. thought that’s what I’d been doing..

    *spaced out*

    Posted by  on May 03, 2007 @ 10:08 PM
  18. Just to add..

    That first image of Europa rising is worth noting..

    The picture was one of a handful of the Jupiter system that New Horizons took primarily for artistic, rather than scientific, value. This particular scene was suggested by space enthusiast Richard Hendricks of Austin, Texas, in response to an Internet request by New Horizons scientists for evocative, artistic imaging opportunities at Jupiter.

    Posted by  on May 03, 2007 @ 10:11 PM
  19. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon_(moon)

    Wikipedia not up to speed on this matter.

    Posted by  on May 03, 2007 @ 10:17 PM
  20. If the purpose (allegedly) of art is to hold a mirror up to the world then it’s clear that New Horizons has provided an invaluable mirror up to our ever-expanding view of the universe and the tiny corner we and the rest of our solar system occupy...the images should humble us in our petty divisions and dodgy BBC journalism :)

    Posted by Jonny on May 03, 2007 @ 10:23 PM
  21. Iano

    Wrong search

    Try the second link on the list.  There seems to be a problem linking with some characters..

    Posted by  on May 03, 2007 @ 10:24 PM
  22. “the images should humble us in our petty divisions and dodgy BBC journalism :)”

    *Harrumph*

    Posted by  on May 03, 2007 @ 10:25 PM
  23. LOL harrumpher...was trying to link universal themes to other posts...failed again :(

    Posted by Jonny on May 03, 2007 @ 10:26 PM
  24. heh

    :o)

    Posted by  on May 03, 2007 @ 10:31 PM
  25. Jonny, thanks very much for the tour of metal.  I had no idea it was so diverse. I’m still no closer to understanding what was so hilariously off about a casual musical observation I made at the weekend, but I blame it all on resolved trauma involving a very young me and a Concrete Sox concert.  It’s a great story, but I think Pete’s a bit on the delicate side and I don’t want to violate the sanctity of the thread.

    Pete, I have seen you hyperlink interplanetary space, interstellar space, and cyber space, but not yet hyperspace.  I was thinking more off a spin off blog, and if it has a name that sounds like a pub we won’t mind so much if it’s good for us.  Major Tom’s, maybe, or Stagger In.

    Posted by  on May 04, 2007 @ 05:57 PM
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