Cancer Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 I've seen it several times, but most recently was about a week ago. It finally cleared off here so I can try it again tonight. My daughter saw it last night up in Port Townsend. DShomshak 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted July 26, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2020 Too many trees blocking my view. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted July 26, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2020 This story is a year old, but this thread is the best place for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 30, 2020 Report Share Posted July 30, 2020 First discussion I've seen of New Horizons data for the side of Pluto that was dark at the time of the fly-by Much more of a dynamic world than thought before that fly-by. The words "ocean" and "life" appear in a non-ironic way in that article. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted July 31, 2020 Report Share Posted July 31, 2020 On 7/25/2020 at 11:40 AM, DShomshak said: Last week I saw Comet NEOWISE on a fortunately clear night. Has anyone else? Dean Shomshak Managed to see it on the one night we weren’t socked in. It wasn’t terribly impressive due to the light pollution and scattered clouds, but my kid was fascinated by it so that was cool. DShomshak 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted August 3, 2020 Report Share Posted August 3, 2020 10 hours ago, tkdguy said: Older wallpaper? tkdguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 5, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 9, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted August 9, 2020 Report Share Posted August 9, 2020 Just watched this...very very cool..... tkdguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted August 11, 2020 Report Share Posted August 11, 2020 Lots of things have come out in the last couple of days, but this is Sky & Telescope's take on Ceres as an ocean world. tkdguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted August 12, 2020 Report Share Posted August 12, 2020 tkdguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 18, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 24, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 25, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archer Posted August 26, 2020 Report Share Posted August 26, 2020 Don't they have news in articles rather than videos anymore? (grumble, grumble) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 26, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2020 48 minutes ago, archer said: Don't they have news in articles rather than videos anymore? (grumble, grumble) Sure they do, but I often see them first on YouTube, since I've been visiting it a lot lately. Amorkca 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archer Posted August 26, 2020 Report Share Posted August 26, 2020 6 minutes ago, tkdguy said: Sure they do, but I often see them first on YouTube, since I've been visiting it a lot lately. I figured that was the case. One of the things I enjoy about this thread is seeing all the new things without having to necessarily having to personally scour the internet to find it. Unfortunately, I get migraines so easily that I almost never have my computer sound on. And I'm not particularly fond of getting my news through video (which is excruciatingly slow compared to reading text). So I don't often watch videos. I was making the mistake of trying to watch a political convention tonight so I'm in a particularly grumbly mood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 26, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2020 Well, there's a reason I'm avoiding news on TV this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted September 3, 2020 Report Share Posted September 3, 2020 Another awkward-mass black hole merger That's an "Open" Astrophysical Journal paper. Less technical comment from Nature 85 and 66 solar masses ... those aren't black hole masses that are predicted outputs from stellar evolution. DShomshak 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted September 3, 2020 Report Share Posted September 3, 2020 ... Eeeenteresting ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archer Posted September 5, 2020 Report Share Posted September 5, 2020 https://futurism.com/the-byte/seti-team-increases-number-stars-might-host-life-200x SETI TEAM INCREASES NUMBER OF STARS THAT MIGHT HOST LIFE BY 200X That's a pretty powerful SETI team, eh? tkdguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted September 14, 2020 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2020 Phosphines found in Venus' atmosphere Potential signs of life in Venus? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted September 15, 2020 Report Share Posted September 15, 2020 The technical paper in Nature Astronomy is here. I managed to get to it this morning without a subscription, so I don't think it's behind a paywall, but YMMV. This is based on spectroscopic observations of an absorption line at about 1 millimeter wavelength. The first observation was done with the James Clerke Maxwell Telescope in 2017, and I would call that spectrum suggestive but not compelling that an absorption line was actually present. The 2019 ALMA spectrum is better but I would still hesitate to make a claim based on that. The two data sets jointly make something worth putting into the literature. Even so, it fairly cries out for confirming evidence, which probably will have to come from an atmospheric probe: I don't think it'll be possible to do better with Earthbased data for quite some time. The best takeaway from this is the whole of their main-text final paragraph ("PH3" here means PH[sub]3[/sub]: the chemical formula for phosphine. ) Quote Even if confirmed, we emphasize that the detection of PH3 is not robust evidence for life, only for anomalous and unexplained chemistry. There are substantial conceptual problems for the idea of life in Venus’s clouds—the environment is extremely dehydrating as well as hyperacidic. However, we have ruled out many chemical routes to PH3, with the most likely ones falling short by four to eight orders of magnitude (Extended Data Fig. 10). To further discriminate between unknown photochemical and/or geological processes as the source of Venusian PH3, or to determine whether there is life in the clouds of Venus, substantial modelling and experimentation will be important. Ultimately, a solution could come from revisiting Venus for in situ measurements or aerosol return. Terrestrial biology does produce phosphine at a rate adequate to make the feature seen in the millimeter spectra. Other known photochemical and geochemical processes don't. That's as strong a statement in favor of life as can be made from these data, IMO. OTOH, I am not convinced that the identification of this single spectral line as being due to phosphine is bulletproof; and even if it is, while a particularly implausible assumption about a biosphere producing PH3 can produce the observed feature, that's a really bad reason to think of this as evidence for life there. DShomshak and tkdguy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted September 16, 2020 Report Share Posted September 16, 2020 Much appreciated, Cancer. The article tkdguy linked to wouldn't load in a timely manner (goddam dial-up), and the interview on All Things Considered was necessarily weak on technical details. Though it did include that one of the few people to smell phosphine and live described the stench as "the rancid diaper of the spawn of Satan," which is a pretty good bit of wordsmithing. Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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