The Astronomy Thread

Kedwyn · Aug 7, 2015

Iannis_sl said:
There are more mares on the near side for whatever reason. Mares are those basalt lakes, the splotches.

So yeah, the far side is smoother. You can't build nazi bunkers without doing some landscaping first.

Not sure I'd say it looks anything close to smoother on the back side. Distance in that gif smoothed out a lot of features.

Eomer · Aug 7, 2015

Far side of the Moon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seems like they still don't have a definitive answer on why the two sides are different. But they're definitely different.

iannis · Aug 7, 2015

I kind of wonder if, over the course of millions of years, helium escaping earths atmosphere creates a gentle current to erode the loose moondust left by craters. It seems like it would be something along those lines. Or maybe that's backwards, and it's somethingsomething magic about the sun instead.

Of course, it's most likely that it just formed that way because it had to form SOME way. Shouldn't the side facing earth be a little bit more dense, anyway? Because of gravity and stuff.

BruuceWarduck_sl · Aug 7, 2015

Iannis_sl said:
Shouldn't the side facing earth be a little bit more dense, anyway? Because of gravity and stuff.

Im not sure

khorum · Aug 7, 2015

Well if the dark side has more meteor strikes, they'd be newer and smaller and it would look more evened-out noise from farther out.

AngryGerbil · Aug 7, 2015

Would gravity do that? I guess maybe it would? I dunno. I know the planetary central gravity of the Earth helps 'pull down' mountains and other geological salients, but would orbital or tidal forces act even further and actually pull them across the surface? Could you build a 'tidal mountain' on the side facing the gravity source in such a way?

1987 · Aug 7, 2015

AngryGerbil_sl said:
Would gravity do that? I guess maybe it would? I dunno. I know the planetary central gravity of the Earth helps 'pull down' mountains and other geological salients, but would orbital or tidal forces act even further and actually pull them across the surface? Could you build a 'tidal mountain' on the side facing the gravity source in such a way?

I think one of the prevalent moon creation theories is from an ancient mega impact, with a mars sized planet "thea". If the moon was molten for a few million years that makes more sense.

Brad2770 · Sep 3, 2015

NASA's New Horizons spaceship leaves Pluto for FIVE BILLION mile trip to comet 2014 MU69 | Science | News | Daily Express

Cybsled · Sep 10, 2015

New Pluto images

New Pluto Pictures Are Out Of This World : The Two-Way : NPR

Tuco · Sep 11, 2015

article_sl said:
"Pluto is showing us a diversity of landforms and complexity of processes that rival anything we've seen in the solar system," said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, according to NASA. "If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top - but that's what is actually there."

I mean, the pics are great and all, but I've seen this a lot when referencing pluto and don't get it. It just looks like a big ole ball of beaten up icy shit to me and is basically what I expected.

iannis · Sep 11, 2015

I think they expected it to look like the moon. A spherical hunk of pockmarked rock.

Instead it looks like it might be semi-liquid(ish) instead of completely solid and much less pockmarked than they expected.

The neat thing in that one article is the thought that the mountains are giant water icebergs floating in a liquid nitrogen mantle. They didn't expect that.

chthonic-anemos · Sep 11, 2015

space egg confirmed

Troll_sl · Sep 11, 2015

chthonic-anemos_sl said:
space egg confirmed

Now we just need to build the mini-golf course.

Eomer · Sep 11, 2015

Tuco_sl said:
I mean, the pics are great and all, but I've seen this a lot when referencing pluto and don't get it. It just looks like a big ole ball of beaten up icy shit to me and is basically what I expected.

Planetary science hipster confirmed.

Faltigoth · Sep 11, 2015

Found this interesting, mainly because of who said it:Elon Musk's new idea: Nuke Mars - CNN.com

If there is any person alive who could manage to do this shit himself no matter what the various nations of Earth said - build a bomb, then transport it to Mars and detonate it - it is Elon Musk. Of course, it could very likely have the exact opposite effect that he desires, though terraforming by nuclear weapon is kind of an interesting thing to think about.

Itzena_sl · Sep 11, 2015

It'd probably be better to nuke Venus, tbh. See if we can crack that crust into some actual tectonic plates plus the nuclear winter might counter the runaway greenhouse effect.

Chris · Sep 11, 2015

Faltigoth_sl said:
Found this interesting, mainly because of who said it:Elon Musk's new idea: Nuke Mars - CNN.com

If there is any person alive who could manage to do this shit himself no matter what the various nations of Earth said - build a bomb, then transport it to Mars and detonate it - it is Elon Musk. Of course, it could very likely have the exact opposite effect that he desires, though terraforming by nuclear weapon is kind of an interesting thing to think about.

I heard this a few years ago but it was about Olympus Mons being so big compared to Mars that it fucked the planet up and tilted the axis or something, destroying it with a nuke would help.

Lenas · Sep 11, 2015

It would apparently require more nukes than the US and Russia have combined, so, quite the pipe-dream.

Araxen · Sep 11, 2015

Pluto Moon Nix...

Q&A with the NH team:Weekly Space Hangout - Sept 11, 2015: New Horizons Pluto-Palooza!

Highlights taken from Emily Lakdawalla's twitter:Emily Lakdawalla (@elakdawalla) | Twitter

Alan Stern: All of SWAP and PEPSSI data from the New Horizons flyby is on the ground now, as is SDC.

Viewer question: Could you send an orbiter to Pluto and would it be worth it?
Bowman: That's an easy one. Yes we could and yes it would.

Stern: We don't yet know how close we can get to 2014 MU69, but we are looking at going substantially closer than we got to Pluto.

Stern: But we'll look at 10-30 KBOs from a distance, which will add a lot to our understanding of Kuiper belt.

Q: Can New Horizons do a "Pale Blue Dot" image like Voyager did?
Stern: Yes. For spacecraft safety, will probably do it after KBO flyby.

Stern: Nix is very reflective, "pushing 50%." "That's a puzzle." Has a crater with red material surrounding it.

Stern: "Whether that's an impact crater or something else is TBD." Also a puzzle that there's no other visible craters on the surface.
I asked why there are duplicate images. Stern: Group 1 (highest priority) are taken with some redundancy to be very sure we meet objectives.

Stern: As downlink continues and we get to lower priority data, you'll see more variety and less repetition.

Stern: Data are organized into priority bins based upon how they address mission goals: Group 1, 2, and 3. Group 1 gets sent down first.

Stern: We're sending all the data to the ground, even images that look blank, in the hopes of finding new moons.

Stolen From/Credit:Pluto New Horizons |OT| New images. Pluto/Charon still geologically active - Page 29 - NeoGAF

Cybsled · Sep 12, 2015

Tuco_sl said:
I mean, the pics are great and all, but I've seen this a lot when referencing pluto and don't get it. It just looks like a big ole ball of beaten up icy shit to me and is basically what I expected.

Look at the pics with this playing and it will help increase your appreciation of them ;p

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