Space - The Final Frontier

A few awesome moments lately in space exploration. The two SpaxeX launches, one at Canaveral and one at Vandenburg, both returned home, with one landing successfully, the astronauts are on there way back to the space station, and NASA successfully landed on Mars again! Keep it up, I'm loving it! My guess is the speed at which these amazing accomplishments happens only accelerates exponentially as the costs are reduced.
 
It's not just Christmas here on Earth, it's also Xmas on Mars...

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46645321

_104907009_marsice.jpg
 
Free To Canoe said:
A gift indeed. That's alot of water in that hole (50 miles x 1.8km thick).
Merry Christmas to all, where ever you are.
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Roughly 2.4 quadrillion gallons.
 
Another fly by adventure for the New Horizons spacecraft will take place this New Years Day when it flies by Ultima Thule a very distant remant of the creation of our solar system.

https://www.businessinsider.com/new-horizons-flyby-ultima-thule-most-distant-object-2018-12

Ultima Thule is one of these pristine remnants. It has presumably remained in its distant and icy orbit for billions of years, and it is not a planet that has deformed under its own mass and erased its early history. This means studying it may help reveal how the solar system evolved to form planets like Earth, Stern said.
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Ultima is the first thing we've been to that is not big enough to have a geological engine like a planet, and also something that's never been warmed greatly by the sun," he said. "It's like a time capsule from 4.5 billion years ago. That's what makes it so special."
Click to expand...
 
Very interesting how this search for minor planets and far out orbiting bodies is taking place as a backdrop in the race between a few teams intent on finding the hypothetical Planet X.

I figure I have about 2 - 3 more decades on this rock and it has taken New Horizons about 12 years to make it out that far. So, there might be 2 or 3 more such missions before I go under the grass. It'd certainly be very cool if they could find X before then and do a flyby.

That's what I should have asked Santa for... :facepalm:
 
The Chinese completed their rover soft landing on "The Far Side" :LOL:

Great first pictures.

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It is pretty cool to go on the far side. They need a satellite up there to act as a relay. This is a system they've created. I'm sure there are some political statements being made, but from a science, tech and execution standpoint, well done.
 
JoeWras said:
It is pretty cool to go on the far side. They need a satellite up there to act as a relay. This is a system they've created. I'm sure there are some political statements being made, but from a science, tech and execution standpoint, well done.
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+1

A bit of competition is always helpful.
 
I know it's old news now, but I keep getting drawn back to the New Horizons mission and that picture of Ultima Thule:
010219-color2.jpg


Maybe having only the one good picture makes me want more. Sort of like the Chinese rover. Can't wait to see more pics from both missions!
 
Meanwhile, OSIRIS-REx has gone into orbit around Bennu. (Sounds like Star Wars names, doesn't it?)

Bennu is a very small asteroid generating very little gravity, so this orbit is quite an accomplishment.

Plan is to wander the orbit right down to the surface and deploy a sampler to bring back a piece of the asteroid and land in the Utah desert. Watch out, sounds like Andromeda Strain!

https://www.asteroidmission.org/
 
Koogie said:
A reminder about tonights "Super Blood Wolf Moon" eclipse.

Starts at 10:34 EST, total eclipse at 11:41 and it lasts about an hour.

super-blood-moon-2019
https://www.space.com/43062-super-blood-moon-2019-last-until-2021.html
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Thanks - been watching it. It got cold here today (1F right now), and cold usually means clear, so we have good viewing.

The moon is too high to see from most of our windows, the overhang is in the way, but I can see it from the porch which is a toasty 34F and out of any wind.

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
Thanks - been watching it. It got cold here today (1F right now), and cold usually means clear, so we have good viewing.

The moon is too high to see from most of our windows, the overhang is in the way, but I can see it from the porch which is a toasty 34F and out of any wind.

-ERD50
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Stayed up to watch it. I mean once in 500 years, count me in! Was totality worth it ;)

Never seen the moon so bright red from the naked eye. I would post vid but the pro's did a much better job. Was super clear in the North. Witnissing totality with the total lunar and total solar eclipses' was something you literally cannot put a price on! :D And to think, my hairstylist still thinks the earth is flat :facepalm:
 
ERD50 said:
Thanks - been watching it. It got cold here today (1F right now), and cold usually means clear, so we have good viewing.
The moon is too high to see from most of our windows, the overhang is in the way, but I can see it from the porch which is a toasty 34F and out of any wind.
-ERD50
Click to expand...


We had good viewing as well (about 0F). It was also overhead so unfortunately I had to drag DW outside to have a look (she was less enthralled. It to took her longer to put her boots on that she stayed out..:LOL:)

We went out at about 11:20 so it was about 75% covered but the color was fantastic. I must admit I am not enough of a lunar aficionado to tell that it was in it's "super" phase. I gather that the difference is subtle anyway.
 
About 2 hours before the eclipse it was very cloudy out about 80% coverage. On a lark I decided to go outside when I heard voices. The sky was clear and the moon was quite spectacular. :)
 
I think I'll call this one the Bloody Cold Moon! I enjoyed watching it, although I didn't spend much time outside.

Lunar eclipses aren't all that rare. And regarding the "supermoon," that's way overblown. There's at least one full moon near perigee every year (this year there are three in a row, starting with last night's). The difference in size isn't detectable by the naked eye anyway.
 
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