astronomy & space stuff

[linuxgeek]

It was pretty to watch her go up. Was actually clear enough was able to still see engine plume after the boosters separated.

 

[BlueTriton]

It was pretty to watch her go up. Was actually clear enough was able to still see engine plume after the boosters separated.

i wanted too, forgot to look

 

[Lost Cause]

All fixed!

http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/images/medium/08pd1557-m.jpg

 

[Ishmael]

All fixed!

http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/images/medium/08pd1557-m.jpg

See the boosters? See the color?

Ishmael

 

[BlueTriton]

a nuclear bomb creates a big fireball

there is very little air in deep space

what would a nuclear explosion look like in deep space?

 

[linuxgeek]

a nuclear bomb creates a big fireball

there is very little air in deep space

what would a nuclear explosion look like in deep space?

Fusion looks like stars.

 

[Lost Cause]

what would a nuclear explosion look like in deep space?

Been there done that..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKvvrNrCOnw&NR=1

http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~imamura/208/feb24/novacyg.gif

 

[BlueTriton]

Been there done that..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKvvrNrCOnw&NR=1

http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~imamura/208/feb24/novacyg.gif

the vid seems to still be in atmosphere.

 

[Lost Cause]

the vid seems to still be in atmosphere.

250 kilometers is way into space....orbit is only about 140 kilometers high.
The ISS is at 310 km-

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Lyo001tV2P4

http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/hane.html

http://www.radiochemistry.org/history/nuke_tests/dominic/StarfishAC640c20.jpg

 

[BlueTriton]

how is it creating a fireball without any oxygen?

 

[Lost Cause]

how is it creating a fireball without any oxygen?

How does the Sun do it?

 

[Lost Cause]

They're doing the tile check and equipment inspection now..

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/chan2large.jpg
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/

 

[Fagin]

how is it creating a fireball without any oxygen?

oxygen is not needed

nuclear bombs are a molecular reaction, not a chemical reaction
solid fuel bombs have the oxidizers within them

the solid fuel (ammonium perchlorate) rocket motors have the oxidizer within them (this is what I fly my high power rockets on)
liquid fuel (such as hydrazine) rocket motors burn with the addition of the oxidizer

external atmospheric oxygen isn't used

 

[Fagin]

Camera on Arm Looks Beneath NASA Mars Lander
05.31.08

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/234080main_under-226.jpg

A view of the ground underneath NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander adds to evidence that descent thrusters dispersed overlying soil and exposed a harder substrate that may be ice.

The image received Friday night from the spacecraft's Robotic Arm Camera shows patches of smooth and level surfaces beneath the thrusters.

"This suggests we have an ice table under a thin layer of loose soil," said the lead scientist for the Robotic Arm Camera, Horst Uwe Keller of Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg- Lindau, Germany.

"We were expecting to find ice within two to six inches of the surface," said Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator for Phoenix. "The thrusters have excavated two to six inches and, sure enough, we see something that looks like ice. It's not impossible that it's something else, but our leading interpretation is ice."

The Phoenix mission is led by Smith at the University of Arizona with project management by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. For more about Phoenix, visit: http:// www.nasa.gov/phoenix and http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080531.html

 

[linuxgeek]

How does the Sun do it?

Fission & fusion do not specifically create "fireballs". There is a large energy release which may have a component in the visual spectrum. There is also some plasma created in a chain reaction fission explosion.

The customary fireball we see when from a fusion & fission bomb on the planet is the material being kicked up and vaporized by the emense heat of the explosion. Most things will burn when raised to a temp measured in the hundreds of thousands of degrees.

The sun (and all stars) is actually a black body. We see it as a yellow light because of the temperture at the surface of the sun. There are brown dwarf stars which burn at a temperture only "visible" to a Infrared detector.

 

[Lost Cause]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0806/whitepatch_phoenix_big.jpg

 

[Lost Cause]

Adding a new module!

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/chan2large.jpg

 

[Lost Cause]

June 02, 2008 One week after landing on far-northern Mars, NASA Phoenix spacecraft lifted its first scoop of Martian soil as a test of the lander's Robotic Arm.

The practice scoop was emptied onto a designated dump area on the ground after the Robotic Arm Camera photographed the soil inside the scoop. The Phoenix team plans to have the arm deliver its next scoopful, later this week, to an instrument that heats and sniffs the sample to identify ingredients.

A glint of bright material appears in the scooped up soil and in the hole from which it came. "That bright material might be ice or salt. We're eager to do testing of the next three surface samples collected nearby to learn more about it," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, Phoenix co-investigator for the Robotic Arm.

http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/news.php

http://a52.g.akamaitech.net/f/52/827/1d/www.space.com/images/080603-phoenix-scoop-02.jpg
http://a52.g.akamaitech.net/f/52/827/1d/www.space.com/images/080603-phoenix-shadow-02.jpg
http://a52.g.akamaitech.net/f/52/827/1d/www.space.com/images/080603-phoenix-dump-02.jpg

http://www******.com/missionlaunches/080603-phoenix-update.html

 

[BlueTriton]

Fission & fusion do not specifically create "fireballs". There is a large energy release which may have a component in the visual spectrum. There is also some plasma created in a chain reaction fission explosion.

The customary fireball we see when from a fusion & fission bomb on the planet is the material being kicked up and vaporized by the emense heat of the explosion. Most things will burn when raised to a temp measured in the hundreds of thousands of degrees.

The sun (and all stars) is actually a black body. We see it as a yellow light because of the temperture at the surface of the sun. There are brown dwarf stars which burn at a temperture only "visible" to a Infrared detector.

so a nuke in empty space would create a plasmaball?

 

[Lost Cause]

so a nuke in empty space would create a plasmaball?

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1033/582093783_f7d4585a41.jpg

 

[linuxgeek]

so a nuke in empty space would create a plasmaball?

I would expect there to be plasma at the core of the explosion. Most of what an observer from a distance would preceive would be the energy expanding away from the explosion--at least the visual part.

Unlike what is shown in the movies most of the time, I would expect the energy wave to leave the center of the explosion spherically. Never understood why hollywood generally has energy wave from high energy explosions only travel on one plane from the center of the explosion.

 

[BlueTriton]

I would expect there to be plasma at the core of the explosion. Most of what an observer from a distance would preceive would be the energy expanding away from the explosion--at least the visual part.

Unlike what is shown in the movies most of the time, I would expect the energy wave to leave the center of the explosion spherically. Never understood why hollywood generally has energy wave from high energy explosions only travel on one plane from the center of the explosion.

any idea what the "energy" will look like?

bright light?
plasma?

 

[linuxgeek]

any idea what the "energy" will look like?

bright light?
plasma?

I expect it would be a bright light. How long it lasts and how large the sphere gets should depend on how much material there is to fision or fussion.

 

[Lost Cause]

any idea what the "energy" will look like?

bright light?
plasma?

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2007/21feb07/mcnaught1.gif

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn11239-rocket-explosion-creates-dangerous-space-junk.html

 

[Peregrinator]

I just found this .gif and thought it was cool. It's Comet McKnaught, C/2006 P1, observed in January of 2007 from southern Bavaria.


http://www.tboeckel.de/EFSF/efsf_ps/mc_naught/martin/neu/ani90er512-01.gif