The Astronomy Thread

Mudcrush Durtfeet said:

It's another SLS style pork program. At least we'll get some science out of it.

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I'll be shocked if it actually works, and if it does so for more than a year.

Nice, although I was hoping they might do a Venus blimp probe and have it fly around in the upper atmosphere

nice

AladainAF said:

Is there any way to somehow make something work on venus for a long time, but still be functional?

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The surface of Venus is 900 F, 1400 PSI, and rains sulfuric acid. It's hard to imagine what could withstand that.

You'd have to make technology that could keep the insides cool (not likely) or work at such high temperatur indefinitely (not likely) or some combination of both. Maybe also has to be resistant to acid raid. Pressure equalization inside and out could solve the pressure issue but that would probably nix refrigeration of the insides of such a probe.

Ya, keeping the insides cool would be no go with current technologies. Your only real option would be a probe made of materials and components and a power source that could withstand that environment and currently that just isn't feasible in terms of a long functioning probe.

The only feasible long term mission on Venus, outside of orbital, would be some flying probe/craft that stayed in the upper atmosphere. Solar power would be all it would need and you would really only have to make things acid resistant (which could be accomplished with stuff like Teflon)

Is there an alien civilization next door? It’s…possible(ish). In late 2020, we discovered a signal from the direction of Proxima Centauri (not necessarily from Proxima Centauri), our closest neighbour star. Named BLC- 1 by project Break Through Listen, the signal is still being analyzed to ensure it isn’t simply an echo of our own civilization – typically what they turn out to be. But why not just directly look at planets in Proxima Centauri and see if a civilization is there?

Tabor and Loeb scaled artificial illumination as a fraction of the solar illumination reflecting from the dayside of the planet. 0% on this scale would assume that the nightside of the planet is completely dark, devoid of artificial illumination. 100% means the nightside of the planet is as equally bright as the dayside. The type of light used by the hypothetical civilization on Proxima b is assumed to be similar to LEDs on Earth which have a distinct artificial spectrum. The results? If the artificial nightside illumination of Proxima b reaches 5% of the natural dayside illumination JWST could detect the artificial light with 85% certainty. If artificial illumination were to reach 9% JWST’s detection confidence rises to 95%.


talks also about massive industrial scale planets (ecumenopolis) and how detectable they would be for us, something like up to 30 parsecs away we could detect with James Webb launching soon.

MusicForFish said:

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Sub-orbital, though. Pretty much just goes up to the recognized start of space, then the capsule will parachute down after wards

MusicForFish said:

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Cybsled said:

Sub-orbital, though. Pretty much just goes up to the recognized start of space, then the capsule will parachute down after wards

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I mean, if you're going to spend $$$ to go to space, you can (apparently) get a ticket to go to the ISS via Falcon9/Crew Dragon.

That partnership with Axiom or w/e, right?

Space-X is also doing that all-civilian orbital launch privately funded by a billionaire, and there is also that "Hello Moon" civilian mission paid for by that Japanese Billionaire contingent on Starship being able to at least be able to fly to the moon and back to Earth's orbit, if not actually land on Earth directly.