Spaceships and astronomy
Aug 30th 2016, 6:14 pm
#136
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Sep 1st 2016, 7:20 pm
#138
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Re: Spaceships and astronomy
A bit of an oopsy for Space-X, and also for Farcebook which owned the satellite being launched.
Sep 1st 2016, 7:26 pm
#139
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Re: Spaceships and astronomy
A bit of an oopsy for Space-X, and also for Farcebook which owned the satellite being launched.
Sep 1st 2016, 7:33 pm
#140
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Sep 1st 2016, 7:40 pm
#141
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Re: Spaceships and astronomy
More like the explosion is in control. Contained, for the most part, but nothing is without risk, of course.
Sep 14th 2016, 6:24 pm
#142
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Re: Spaceships and astronomy
So the Gaia space telescope has started creating "the most precise map of the night sky ever assembled". Which sounds great, and the telescope has already mapped a billion stars, including 400 million not previously mapped. 
..... But the one billion stars mapped so far is estimated to be only 1% of the stars in the Milky Way! 
..... But the one billion stars mapped so far is estimated to be only 1% of the stars in the Milky Way!
Sep 14th 2016, 6:27 pm
#143
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Re: Spaceships and astronomy
So the Gaia space telescope has started creating "the most precise map of the night sky ever assembled". Which sounds great, and the telescope has already mapped a billion stars, including 400 million not previously mapped. ..... But the one billion stars mapped so far is estimated to be only 1% of the stars in the Milky Way!
..... But the one billion stars mapped so far is estimated to be only 1% of the stars in the Milky Way! 
That's a hell of a project, though.
Sep 14th 2016, 6:30 pm
#144
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Re: Spaceships and astronomy
"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."
Douglas Adams.
Douglas Adams.
Sep 14th 2016, 6:32 pm
#145
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Re: Spaceships and astronomy
Sep 14th 2016, 10:17 pm
#146
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Re: Spaceships and astronomy
Sep 15th 2016, 1:36 am
#149
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Re: Spaceships and astronomy
Gaia's experimental accuracy is 7 microarcseconds. It is capable of seeing an angle the equivalent of a human hair at 1000km away, and measuring it.
7 MICRO arc seconds is mindbogglingly small. There are 1.2 x 10^12 microarcsec in a revolution.
Sep 15th 2016, 1:41 am
#150
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