The Universe

[Reynard]

Patrick Moore was much more interesting at this sort of stuff really. A bunch of council house clowns with cheap binoculars doesnt really cut the mustard.

[Boomtown Boy]

What questions?

EDIT: my eyes are fine i'll have you know!!!

Double EDIT: I almost forgot, we have this on the moon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experiment

Speaking of things on the moon I wasonce in a pub quiz and a question was "how many golf balls are on the moon" we were like wtf, didnt know they opened a driving range up there.

2 apparently

[Reynard]

I might as well trump you all now by regaling you with tales of how my grandfather had Col. James Irwin over for dinner once and how he signed a poster for me and told me what it was like going up in a rocket and walking on the moon.

I was only about seven or eight years old right enough, but still pretty cool.

[Confidemus]

Morning troops. You'd like to know more about Wasp 12-b, from the Auriga constellation?

Why, certainly!

At only 2.1 million miles from it's mother star's solar surface, the planet orbits at 1/44th the distance that the Earth is from the Sun, our orbit being a pretty relaxing 93 million miles out. Because of this close proximity, Wasp12-b makes a full orbit of the star Wasp 12 in around a day, meaning a day on Earth is a year on Wasp12-b.

Because it's so close, the solar winds of Wasp12 tear right through Wasp12-b and rip over 6 billion metric tons of mass PER SECOND from it. This basically means that in around 10 million years, Wasp12-b will be no longer, which is a pity, because it's thought to have a core of solid diamond.

Here's a photograph I took of it earlier:

More to come, P&Bers!

[renton]

I'd like to know how they got past the van allen belt considering it was such a major problem for (at the time) a far more advanced Soviet space programme.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Pie & Bovril mobile app

It wasn't the van allen belt that stopped the Soviets. It was a combination of their lack of hours of spaceflight to build epxerience and relaiblity in their procedures and equipment, and most of all, the lack of a reliable heavy booster. Whatever lead the Soviets had in 'milestones' in space i.e. first in space, first spacewalk - the US completely destroyed them in terms of hours in space. Even Ed White's first spacewalk was twice as long as Leonov's. Most of the rest of the Gemini flights all had spacewalks of increasing complexity.

Gemini was an impressive programme, in it's 12 flights (10 manned, two unmanned) it proved every fundamental required for lunar flight in terms of flight duration, crew well being, the ability to work in a vacuum, manual navigation, docking with other spacecraft in orbit...... That one programme completely overloaded the Soviet attempts to keep up.

Even more impressive was the 'all up' testing of the Saturn stages for Apollo: between Apollo 2 and 6 the US was able to demonstrate sufficient relaiblity for all the Saturn stages in one go. By 1968 the Soviets were just beginning to roll out the first of their heavy boosters: in order to see off the challenge the US front loaded a lot of mission objectives into Apollos 8 and 9 - the former had the first use of the Saturn V stage, the first use of the SPS engine to secure Lunar orbit - the latter had to demonstrate that the LM could be used, that flying the command module solo was doable, that the ground controllers could work with two seperate spacecraft at any given time.

Basically, once the US ramped up their industry into the space programme, they were always going to win.

[Quentin Taranbino]

Morning troops. You'd like to know more about Wasp 12-b, from the Auriga constellation?

Why, certainly!

At only 2.1 million miles from it's mother star's solar surface, the planet orbits at 1/44th the distance that the Earth is from the Sun, our orbit being a pretty relaxing 93 million miles out. Because of this close proximity, Wasp12-b makes a full orbit of the star Wasp 12 in around a day, meaning a day on Earth is a year on Wasp12-b.

Because it's so close, the solar winds of Wasp12 tear right through Wasp12-b and rip over 6 billion metric tons of mass PER SECOND from it. This basically means that in around 10 million years, Wasp12-b will be no longer, which is a pity, because it's thought to have a core of solid diamond.

Here's a photograph I took of it earlier:

More to come, P&Bers!

Interesting, what do you know of Cancri?? Is it not a planet pretty much made of diamonds? Could we get there? How long would it take?

[Boomtown Boy]

If we ventured outwith our solar system what would the temperature likey be?

Obviously the closer we get to the sun the hotter it is but if we keep going further away from our sun does the temp keep going down until we eventually get closer to a different sun or is there a sort of base temperature in space where the void is that kinda levels out?

Reason I am asking is that if the temperature was extreme in deep outer space of say -10000000oC coz we were no where near to a sun then I dont fancy the chances of the space ship, surely the diesel would freeze or at the very least we would need a jump start

Just thinking ahead here guys to when we have to vacate this planet coz we have fvcked it

[renton]

If we ventured outwith our solar system what would the temperature likey be?

Obviously the closer we get to the sun the hotter it is but if we keep going further away from our sun does the temp keep going down until we eventually get closer to a different sun or is there a sort of base temperature in space where the void is that kinda levels out?

Reason I am asking is that if the temperature was extreme in deep outer space of say -10000000oC coz we were no where near to a sun then I dont fancy the chances of the space ship, surely the diesel would freeze or at the very least we would need a jump start

Just thinking ahead here guys to when we have to vacate this planet coz we have fvcked it

Absolute zero is -276 degrees C, due to the laws of thermodynamics this value can never be reached. Space generally is around -273 degrees.

That's due to the cosmic background radiation transfering energy to the (mostly) sparse hydrogen aprticles in the void.

The IR radiation eminating from the sun does not heat up space because there are very few particles in space to transfer this energy to. A guy inside a space ship or a pace suit close to the sun will perceive heat, becuase the IR from the sun transfers into the astronaut's matter, the suit, the air inside the suit, his own body.

Likewise in the depths of space at -273 a spaceship will radiate heat - radiation is a terribly inefficient way to transfer energy but a spacecraft will still do so, hence why the spacecraft needs heaters and insulation in addition to being hermetically sealed from the vacuum.

One point about radiation as a means of transfering energy: You won't freeze to death in space. You will freeze, but that's not going to be what kills you. Likewise you won't explode in space, as the presusre drop is ultimately from 1 atmosphere to 0, the human body will survive this (unlike a pressure drop from 8 atmospheres to 1, see the Byford Dolphin diving bell incident if you have a strong stomach) your blood will begin to boil off, your eyeballs wil lfreeze and your lungs will collapse (unless you exhale all air form your lungs prior to vacuum exposure) no, mostly, you'll merely asphyxiate to death....

Edited May 28, 2013 by renton

[Ric]

If we ventured outwith our solar system what would the temperature likey be?

About 2 or 3 degrees Kelvin, round about -270'C.

And we have ventured out of the Solar System (just) albeit by proxy.

Edit: it should be noted that you do not need to leave the solar system to reach those sorts of temperatures.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Ric

[Bully Wee Villa]

About 2 or 3 degrees Kelvin, round about -270'C.

And we have ventured out of the Solar System (just) albeit by proxy.

Edit: it should be noted that you do not need to leave the solar system to reach those sorts of temperatures.

I know. I've been to Sunderland.

[Quentin Taranbino]

Has an astronaut ever become disconnected from his ship and floated into outer space? If not, could that happen or would they simply hover where they were if they got disconnected? I have heard astronauts have jet packs on their suit but I'm thinking the scenario something along the lines of:

Astronaut goes to do some maintenance on his ship so goes for a wee walk

He clunks his head of a wing and knocked unconscious and accidently disconnects his thing that connects him to the ship (I know, I know, there will be all sorts of saftey mechanisms to stop this happening, but roll with it)

As he is unconscious, he cant use his jet pack, does he float away? Or does someone stick out a big pole and try and hook him back in?

[renton]

Has an astronaut ever become disconnected from his ship and floated into outer space? If not, could that happen or would they simply hover where they were if they got disconnected? I have heard astronauts have jet packs on their suit but I'm thinking the scenario something along the lines of:

Astronaut goes to do some maintenance on his ship so goes for a wee walk

He clunks his head of a wing and knocked unconscious and accidently disconnects his thing that connects him to the ship (I know, I know, there will be all sorts of saftey mechanisms to stop this happening, but roll with it)

As he is unconscious, he cant use his jet pack, does he float away? Or does someone stick out a big pole and try and hook him back in?

If all other forces were cancelled out he would remain motionless with respect to the spaceship, but obviously still moving at orbital velocities with repsect to earth. However if he's rocheted off of something he'll have been imparted with some kinetic energy and be moving relative to the axis upon which that force was imparted to him.

There have only ever been a couple of flights with the AMU, the famous 'jet pack' that was used in the mid 80s and then abandoned. The vast majority of space flights in history have been tethered through an umbilical, and many of those have fed air and cooling water directly through the umbilical.

[Confidemus]

Afternoon chums. How about a little information on Olympus Mons, the shield volcano found on Mars?

At a height of nearly 14 miles, it's almost three times the height of Mt Everest and at it's base almost as big as France. Rather fucking large, I think you'll find.

Comparison with France:

[Ric]

This popped up on my Facebook feed, so I thought I would share it...

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/27/5-sky-events-this-week-row-of-planets-summer-triangle

I've not gone through it yet so can't comment on how good it is, or whether it's been written from a specifically American viewing perspective.

[Confidemus]

Evening colleagues. How about some information on some of the moons in our solar system?

Jupiter's moon Io has over 400 active volcanoes.

Also orbiting Jupiter, Callisto has a similar diameter to Mercury, but only a third of it's mass.

Saturn's moon Enceladus has ice fountains.

Saturn's fifth largest moon Tethys has a huge canyon called Ithaca Chasma that is several miles deep and goes round most of the moon.

Neptune's largest moon Triton has an irregular orbit, which suggests it was formed elsewhere in space before being trapped by Neptune's gravity. It's also getting slowly closer to Neptune with each orbit, meaning that, eventually it will crash into Neptune.

Uranus' moon Miranda has a huge cliff that is 5 miles (3.1 km) high. Also, as Uranus rotates on it's side, all it's 27 moons orbit the same way and go "up and over" the "top" of the planet.

[Confidemus]

Now then, chums. Let's discuss Voyager 1, shall we?

Launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, the spacecraft is the most distant man made object from Earth, currently, as of this month, around 124.34 AU from us. This is approximately 11,563,620,000 miles from us.

It's currently travelling at around 38,120mph. Even at this speed, it would need another 17,565 years to complete a light year, meaning that if Voyager 1 were heading in the direction of our CLOSEST star, Proxima Centuari, it wouldn't get there until almost 74,000 years had elapsed.

It's unknown whether it's current location is in interstellar space or an unknown region of the solar system.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Confidemus

[cowboy]

Saturn's fifth largest moon Tethys has a huge canyon called Ithaca Chasma that is several miles deep and goes round most of the moon.

are they sure its a moon, and not a giant yo-yo?

[Boomtown Boy]

So, is Vulcan a real planet with an eliptical ordbit that we will only see every few thousand years then or is this tripe?

[Confidemus]

So, is Vulcan a real planet with an eliptical ordbit that we will only see every few thousand years then or is this tripe?

Cow's stomach lining, I'm afraid.

[Boomtown Boy]

So wanted this to be true lol