The Astronomy Thread
- Thread starter Araxen
- Start date
-
Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Mudcrush Durtfeet
Hungry Ogre
- 2,428
- -757
India will not be the next country to land on the moon:
India’s moon landing attempt ends in communication loss
India’s bid to become the fourth country to land on the moon ended with loss of contact with the Chandrayaan-2 mission lander during the final stages of the Sept. 6 landing attempt.spacenews.com
If not India, then which country is next?
- 1
- 1
sleevedraw
Revolver Ocelot
- 1,975
- 5,566
Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
- 25,443
- 33,205
They're pretty entertaining to watch them mess with electrical stuff. If you like zaps, it's the place to be.
Burnt to a crisp? They were already halfway there which I guess saves time.
- 1
Ukerric
Bearded Ape
- 8,311
- 10,287
khorum
Murder Apologist
- 24,338
- 81,363
Japan.
Which makes me wonder what would qualify a country as the fourth nation to put a probe on the moon. Japan's JAXA "landed" SELENE-1 on the moon after its 2-year orbit. That should technically count. They just recently cancelled SELENE-2, which was supposed to put an exploratory lander on the moon in the 2020's, but they got another lander program in conjunction with the Indians of all people.
- 1
- 1
Mudcrush Durtfeet
Hungry Ogre
- 2,428
- -757
Brb, I'm going to build a giant trebuchet for the first private moon landing.
- 4
- 1
Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
- 43,738
- 52,286
Blakkheim
Karazhan Raider
- 8,167
- 37,347
This is actually a pretty good listen and is one of the better explanations of quantum mechanics and gravity that I’ve seen. I certainly still don’t understand all of what he’s saying but it filled in a number of gaps in my knowledge.
- 1
- 1
meStevo
I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
- 6,493
- 4,773
Water has been detected in the atmosphere of an exoplanet in the habitable zone of it's star.
Water detected on an exoplanet located in its star’s habitable zone
An international study lead by Université de Montréal astronomer Björn Benneke has detected water vapour on the planet K2-18b; this represents a major discovery in the search of alien life.
nouvelles.umontreal.ca
- 6
- 34,214
- 134,349
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
- 47,382
- 80,800
In a few years SpaceX might make moon landings available to any country that wants to pay for a ticket. So yeah, maybe Luxembourg
- 2
Ukerric
Bearded Ape
- 8,311
- 10,287
More on the object. Oumuamua, aka I1/2017 U1 (Interstellar number 1) had an excentricity of 1.2, hyperbolic but good. This one I2/2019 Q4 has a whopping eccentricity of 3.
Oumuamua was a cylinder of about 100m. This one is a full comet with outgassing and all, probably close to 1km. And it's really merely passing thru.
- 2
Ukerric
Bearded Ape
- 8,311
- 10,287
EDIT: It's only 7 degrees vs the rest of the planets. But this is exxagerated by its highly elliptical orbit: 47M km perihelion for a 70M km aphelion.
- 2
Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
- 43,738
- 52,286
Venus is 3.4 and Mars is 1.85. Like Ukerric said it's the high eccentricity of the orbital path and low orbital period that exaggerates the effect.
Some of the dwarf planets have pretty wild inclinations, Pluto is just over 17 while Pallas is almost 35.
Some of the dwarf planets have pretty wild inclinations, Pluto is just over 17 while Pallas is almost 35.
Last edited: