The Space Picture Threrad

[Theodore]

When did the shuttle ever get set up at Vandenberg?!?

[Tuckerman]

A dood I work with forwarded me this in a email that reads,

For you old Grummies that worked the LM, I see that they still use the reflective gold Mylar.

There was a link in the email the web page says,

A friend's granddaughter who works for NASA sent us these pictures - I am assuming the last picture is Hurricane Dean - I am going to drop her a note to make sure.
Pictures from the past mission.

[Affix Snow]

Pretty damn cool....

[BigDaddy]

....if the existence of Earth was made into a year, humans would have started December 31st, 11:45 pm, and civilization December 31st, 11:59:35 pm. We are truly insignificant.

this is pretty cool: Largest Known Star

I don't feel like Big Daddy anymore... in fact, I feel kinda more like teeny tiny speck Daddy!

This is very cool stuff and always takes me away for a great day dream or two...

[runethechamp]

whats just as interesting is how long all of this has been around. our lives comprise such an iota like amount of time, if we were to make all the time our universe proportional to a year, our lives, the life of man, and the existence of Earth would probably be undetectable. Especially considering that if the existence of Earth was made into a year, humans would have started December 31st, 11:45 pm, and civilization December 31st, 11:59:35 pm. We are truly insignificant.

Have you been watching Cosmos lately? Still Remember Carl Sagan using this analogy. I read somewhere that he did research on the probability of us discovering another life form in the universe. One of his factors was the time it took from the moment we were are able to discover this (and record it I guess) to the time our civilization will self destruct. His analogy of the life of the universe to a year makes it easy to see how difficult it would be, even if at some time there would be other life forms out there somewhere.

[adam]

The year analogy I got from school (imagine that) but the life form is something that I was thinking about a while back. Never seen that show.

[adam]

bump for a really interesting thread

[skiHOG]

all i know is that looking at space with google earth is BADASS. It really helps put the universe into perspective. Also, it helps if you have it on a big, HD TV.

[NeigeÉternelle]

Comet Swan

[ArmadaBC]

Wow, just wow.

Some of those space pics look so surreal that they look like paintings.

In a certain way they are, Hubble and such do not take pictures using film at all rather a "picture" is a conglomeration of black and white results from electronic sensors.

Color is added to highlight things, display things not visible to the human eye and to give us an idea of how things look if our eyes where as powerful as say the Hubble telescope.

If we were somehow able to see these things with our own two eyes it is unlikely that they would look like the pictures posted in this thread.

That said I can't imagine them being any less impressive....probably the opposite would be true though I don't know enough about space to say if they would even be visible.


Edit: More about color and the Cats Eye
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/behind...or/catseye.php

[grateful2ski]

thanks for the bump....

these pics are sick...personal favorite is mtnjam's pic

[Rideski]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science...ges/index.html

[summit]

When did the shuttle ever get set up at Vandenberg?!?

1985... I remember going to the shuttle... we were stationed there... I was little.

[JongWhisperer]

[klaxed]

Lol at the Star Wars pic.

I was perusing the APOD's, and came across this awesome picture.

[Rideski]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science...ies/index.html

[The Eagle Spreader]

Love the astronomy stoke. As far as other life out there (if there is other life) our chances of finding it are virtually nil. Don't want to piss on anyone's fire but the sheer amount of space and time involved most likely precludes us from ever finding exterrestial life. No, I don't believe in UFO's, I believe in physics.
Just as Antares makes us look like a spec, space itself, the age of the universe, makes Antares and the time frame life has been on earth even smaller. The chances that within this narrow frame of our existence there is other life who's span coincides with ours? that are capable of responding? or even within range of responding? Virtually zero. I wouldn't be surprised if someday we or our descendants receive a message from life out there, but it will unfortunately be from a life form that is long since extinct. Given the numbers I doubt we will ever hear anything. Wrap your brain around that.

[Scotia902]

this is pretty cool: Largest Known Star

OK, this just blew my fucking mind. This really puts things into perspective.

[LittleYellowFriend]

Lol at the Star Wars pic.

I was perusing the APOD's, and came across this awesome picture.

That has to be a photoshop. There is no way you could get that exposure without the stars streaking. You'de have to use a tracking mechanism for he stars but then the cliffs would be blurry. I say FAKE

[jonesy]

I'm so important, in a microscopic way...........

[otter]

this thread is so awesome!!!

[belgian]

That has to be a photoshop. There is no way you could get that exposure without the stars streaking. You'de have to use a tracking mechanism for he stars but then the cliffs would be blurry. I say FAKE

Or you could read the explanation. I would very very very much doubt NASA would publish a photo which was photoshopped, those guys aren't exactly pizza delivery drivers, they know their shit. The picture is incredible.

http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/photos.asp?ID=3001638

The magnificent beauty of the night sky as photographed from the giant window of False Kiva in Canyonlands National Park in eastern Utah, USA. The park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into countless canyons, mesas and buttes by the Colorado River and its tributaries. As described by the photographer "The America Southwest is home to thousands of caves that were once home for millenniums of various Indian cliff dwellers. Few are as hauntingly beautiful as False Kiva, given its name for the round stone circle structure. The hidden cave sits half way down a mesa cliff and has a stunning "room with a view" of rock formations in Canyonlands. One can only imagine the thousands of times individuals through the ages saw the same view of Jupiter and the Milky Way parade across the heavens from their very own back yard... False Kiva is by far the most magical place I have ever been to and everyone that has been there says it is a hauntingly beautiful place lost in a time. Since the cave is so large, even with my 24mm lens I was not able to get the whole cave in view without doing a panoramic image with 4 shots. During the exposures the crescent Moon lit up the canyons and I artificially lit the inside of the cave. If the photo looks unreal, believe me that place looks like the most unreal scene time wrapped place I have ever been to. I have gotten unbelievably spooked at times being in there alone at night while I was just waiting for a mountain lion to return to its den!" Wally Pacholka/Astropics.com.

[SiSt]

This one is printed out huge, hanging on the wall in the living room. Link to fullsize version: http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/1...34_ys_full.jpg




Crop Circles in Kansas

Resembling a work of modern art, variegated green crop circles cover what was once shortgrass prairie in southwestern Kansas. The most common crops in this region—Finney County—are corn, wheat, and sorghum. Each of these crops was at a different point of development when the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) captured this image on June 24, 2001, accounting for the varying shades of green and yellow. Healthy, growing crops are green. Corn would be growing into leafy stalks by late June. Sorghum, which resembles corn, grows more slowly and would be much smaller and therefore, possibly paler. Wheat is a brilliant gold as harvest occurs in June. Fields of brown have been recently harvested and plowed under or lie fallow for the year.

Like crops throughout large sections of the U.S. Midwest, these crops are partly fed by water from the Ogallala Aquifer, a giant layer of underground water. The rivers and streams that initially fed the aquifer have long since disappeared in the geologic development of the West after the last ice age. Water now takes a long time to trickle down through the soil to recharge the aquifer, though the rate varies from region to region. Like a bank account, if more water is taken from this underground bank than is deposited into it, it could run dry. For this reason, efforts are being made to conserve the water of the Ogallala Aquifer.

[2dois2b]

[mock vomit]

Edit: Page top beeyotches. Bring the large scale space stoke!!! I'm rocking this as my desktop wallpaper today.