SPACE

[RedOktober]

There was a very bright star due south at 3am the other night, about 30 degrees elevation.

Anyone with a slide rule know what that might be?

[benedictw]

There was a very bright star due south at 3am the other night, about 30 degrees elevation.

Anyone with a slide rule know what that might be?

Depends on where you are in the world.

[TFO]

Depends on where you are in the world.

Stalin's Organ

[RedOktober]

In the Yorkshire wilderness.

[benedictw]

Jupiter would've been above the horizon at that time. The only other bright object would've been Altair I THINK - that would've been about 45'.

[Darkflame]

http://twitter.com/Marsphoenix
Looks like it might take awhile to get the samples....2 particles when they need 1000? :p

Still, I also view the clumpyness as a good sign overall.

[axel000]

Earth and Moon as seen from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera



At the time the image was taken, Earth was 142 million kilometers (88 million miles) from Mars, giving the HiRISE image a scale of 142 kilometers (88 miles) per pixel, an Earth diameter of about 90 pixels and a moon diameter of 24 pixels. The phase angle is 98 degrees, which means that less than half of the disk of the Earth and the disk of the moon have direct illumination.

On the Earth image we can make out the west coast outline of South America at lower right, although the clouds are the dominant features.

source

[axel000]

Well there's some interesting new news on the SETI technology front, a new wide array of antennae is being established in Western Europe and expected to be online in 2009. Unlike the current SETI search which is confined to a fairly narrow bandwidth and limited shared time of the Puerto Rico based Arecibo telecsope, this array will be able to search a much wider band for signals.

More importantly in some respects, it will be searching a bandwidth similar to that used on Earth for radio and TV signals.

source

The Low Frequency Array, or LOFAR, is a network of up to 25,000 small antennae being built in the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, France and the United Kingdom. The distributed radio arrays will collectively scan the universe in the low radio frequency of light when they are completed in 2009.

"LOFAR can extend the search for extraterrestrial intelligence to an entirely unexplored part of the low-frequency radio spectrum, an area that is heavily used for civil and military communications here on Earth," said Michael Garrett, general director of ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy and professor of radio techniques in astronomy at Leiden University in the Netherlands. "In addition, LOFAR can survey large areas of the sky simultaneously — an important advantage if SETI signals are rare or transient in nature."

Good stuff. The more listening devices we have, the higher chance of confirming or eliminating the possibility of nearby intelligent technological civilizations.

[Darkflame]

Well, its a bit hard to eliminate the possibility, as they might not even use radio.
[/ect ect]

Whats the range like anyway before it just gets lost in the background noise?
a) If we assume they have radio comm's like our own.
b) If they are broadcasting specificaly to be found.

100 light years?
1000 ?

[axel000]

I think it partially depends on what you expect to receive. You won't be able to decode a full complete video image like a TV signal further out than 1 light year so thats out. Simpler lower bandwidth signals may be discernable at higher distances. However, I'd assume that you'd still get fragments out to much larger (100 light year ?) distances - sufficient to confirm there is a technology out there sending a signal, even if you can't fully decode it.

Of course, if they are sufficiently advanced and deliberately broadcasting, you probably improve potential useful range of the receiver exponentially to the increase in power of the broadcaster.

[axel000]

GLAST is a few minutes away from launch at Cape Canaveral, fuel tanks are pressurized and weather looks good. Expected launch time is 11:45 am EST, about 14 mins from now.

"GLAST is going to be a great new instrument for looking at the extreme universe, the high-energy sky, in gamma-rays. It will open a new window on phenomena throughout the universe, such as super-massive black holes, neutron stars, gamma-ray bursts, and what really excites us is the unknown," said Steven Ritz, the mission's project scientist.

"We're really at a unique time in the history of science and of astronomy that we can study the cosmos across the entire electromagnetic spectrum for the first time...GLAST is one of those missions where we are extending our reach significantly," said Jon Morse, director of the astrophysics division at NASA Headquarters.

9 mins to go, all things are go for launch

[axel000]

There was a slight delay in launch, now scheduled for 12:05 pm EST, CNN is carrying it live.

[axel000]

1608 GMT (12:08 p.m. EDT)

T+plus 3 minutes, 45 seconds. The vehicle is 48.2 nautical miles in altitude, 217.8 miles downrange from the launch pad, traveling at 9,874 mph

[axel000]

1609 GMT (12:09 p.m. EDT)

T+plus 4 minutes, 45 seconds. The spent first stage has been jettisoned and the Delta's second stage engine has ignited!

1609 GMT (12:09 p.m. EDT)

T+plus 4 minutes, 28 seconds. MECO. The first stage main engine cutoff is confirmed.

[Dio]

all things are go for launch

"I never said it was Disneyworld. Nice scientific jargon by the way..."