Space stuff (NASA, UKSA, CSA, ESA, etc)

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Yay if you live in eastern Iceland or the Faroe Islands, I guess.

--Patrick
The Sun will be about 70% covered here in Barcelona, should be pretty nice ...if the sky weren't thick with clouds :(

I'm particularly bummed because in the floor right above me is the astronomy department, and normally they organize something and the roof and give out special glasses and everything. And in a few months I won't be working here any more >.<
 
I've said it before & I'll say it again - there is a small area near St Louis which will be in the path of a total solar eclipse TWICE in a 7 year span!!

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GasBandit

Staff member
The really weird thing is, the first picture of all of those posts animate for me, but the second does not unless I open it in its own window. And that goes for both Chrome at the house, and Firefox here at work.
 
The really weird thing is, the first picture of all of those posts animate for me, but the second does not unless I open it in its own window. And that goes for both Chrome at the house, and Firefox here at work.
....oohhh, those are supposed to animate too. I was wondering why both pictures said "no eclipse".
 
The really weird thing is, the first picture of all of those posts animate for me, but the second does not unless I open it in its own window. And that goes for both Chrome at the house, and Firefox here at work.
Yeah, now that I actually pay attention, those animations aren't gifs, so they run thru once, and quickly at that... sorry:(
 

GasBandit

Staff member
The sunset on Mars is blue, FYI.



NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured the above image on April 15, and it’s being described as the first sunset observed in color by the spacecraft.

The photos were taken last month, but they were just sent back to Earth last week.

While Mars may appear red, the sunset is actually blue, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory explains why this is possible:
Dust in the Martian atmosphere has fine particles that permit blue light to penetrate the atmosphere more efficiently than longer-wavelength colors. That causes the blue colors in the mixed light coming from the sun to stay closer to sun’s part of the sky, compared to the wider scattering of yellow and red colors. The effect is most pronounced near sunset, when light from the sun passes through a longer path in the atmosphere than it does at mid-day.​
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Speaking of Mars, is anyone else annoyed at the latest U-Verse commercial?



I mean, even if Earth and Mars were as close together as they could possibly get, the communication delay should still be about 7min between question and response (3+ min broadcast, 3+ min receive).

--Patrick
 
I always wondered if there's a theory of faster communication even possible compared to what we have available today.
 
I used to think that too, but wikipedia poured cold water on my giddy hopes.
Well, that's why I called them exotic as opposed to feasible.

Unfortunately, at least as far as our current understanding of the universe is concerned, there appears to be no possible way for information to travel faster than the speed of light.
 
If anyone has followed the Planetary Society, they know that they just recently launched their prototype solar sail. After many problems and delays with communicating with it, it has finally deployed its sails. The following is a link of where you can see it for about the next week or two before it gets dragged back down by atmospheric effects.

http://www.n2yo.com/?s=40661
 
Yeah. They have trouble staying up unless they're going pretty fast. Airplanes are heavy, air is thin, etc.

--Patrick
At that altitude, yes. At lower altitudes, though, a 747 has a 15:1 glide ratio (without power but at a stable attitude, it will travel 15 feet forward for every foot it descends).
 
At that altitude, yes. At lower altitudes, though, a 747 has a 15:1 glide ratio (without power but at a stable attitude, it will travel 15 feet forward for every foot it descends).
And no idea how much extending the flaps will help, but that's something I expect they wouldn't want to try at 32,000 feet.

--Patrick
 
And no idea how much extending the flaps will help, but that's something I expect they wouldn't want to try at 32,000 feet.

--Patrick
Yeah extended the flaps at that altitude might well cause a stall. They generally extended the flaps only at low altitude because of ground effect - an aircraft at low altitude gets a boost to lift from the air being forced against the ground. That's how ground effect vehicles like the Russian Ekranoplanes worked.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Glide ratio doesn't account for speed. It may get 15:1 ratio, but the stall speed of a 747 is still 98 knots (112 mph).

Anyway, I don't think that's a 747 in the video, it looks more like a gulfstream 3 if you made me guess.
 
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GasBandit

Staff member
Though I suppose it could also be a G650 (the aircraft alluded when one is "fly like a G6") or any of the Gulfstreams that routinely employ vertical winglets at the end of their wings... but its curvature just looks more like a 3 to me.
 
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