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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
10/15/09
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10/15/09
Or is this just one of those neato space pictures that get everyone all mushy; talking about how can God make something so beautiful, I feel so small, they should have sent a poet.... #science
10/15/09
And I don't like fish. #science
10/15/09
10/15/09
10/15/09
@Geisrud: you added nothing to the conversation. nothing.
except to remind us why it is so important that we take these photos in the 1st place.
so i guess a thank you is in order: thank you for reminding me what i never want to be. #science
10/15/09
What I did do, is elicit thoughts from others, towards others, and on their feelings towards this image. You're welcome.
Now, I'd like to ask you; why is it so important that we take these photos? #science
10/15/09
I agree, this image has nothing to do with God. I was merely mocking others' comments who so frequently do say that images like this are about God.
I'd like to know what you think about this image. And more curiously, what you think I think this is about - since you apparently know. #science
10/15/09
10/15/09
That is one serious telescope in mars... or is totally fake!.
For Earth & Jupiter to be on the same picture, considering Mars is between them in orbital distance to the sun, Mars would have to be positioned ahead of them in the orbital turn, having Earth closer , in a smaller orbit, and Jupiter would have to be Millions of Miles away on a wider orbit but still within the field of view of the telescope.
For Jupiter to be the appoximate size of earth in the photo, then Jupiter would have to millions of times bigger than Earth. It's only 11.2 times in radius.
Jupiter is 778 Million Km from the Sun. Earth is about 150 Mkm.
So in the best case scenario, We are 628 Mkm appart.
So there's no way that Jupiter at 11.2 times the size of Earth and 628 Mkm (minimum) away look practically the same size.
Fake! #science
10/15/09
@aec007: Here is some context as to the position of the planets when this image was taken. I think you neglect to add into your numbers the distance from Mars to the Sun, and also relative to Earth and Jupiter in our orbits. Also, Also, more importantly, lens distortion (like when you zoom in your point-and-shoot camera lens apparent field of view changes) to take into account. #science
10/15/09
During this May 8, 2003 Earth / Jupiter Conjunction as viewed from Mars, the JPL Solar System Simulator ([space.jpl.nasa.gov]) provides the following ephemera...
Distance to Jupiter = 943.829 million km
Angular Size = 31.2" arc
Distance to Earth = 139.821 million km
Angular Size = 18.8" arc
With these figures, we see that Jupiter is 6.75 times further away than the Earth from Mars at the time of this conjunction. Since Jupiter is 11.209 times greater in size than the Earth; in this frame, it should have an apparent size 1.66 times greater than the Earth.
The angular size measurements given also support this, as 31.2 divided by 18.8 gives us a difference of 1.66 times. #science
10/15/09
10/15/09
Earth is an angram for Heart :) #science
10/15/09
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10/16/09
whoooaaa..... #science
10/16/09
10/15/09
Use them together.
Use them in peace. #science
10/15/09
10/15/09
10/15/09
It's mind-blowing. #science
10/15/09
04/09/09
04/09/09
Voter's remorse anyone?
04/09/09
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04/09/09
And apart from taking away valuable CO2 from real trees, how will this help? They will likely not be anywhere near complex enough to produce oxygen in the process, and it won't negate the fact that water vapor remains one of the most significant greenhouse gases. Real trees work, and will always work. There will never be a man-made product that can outdo life forms that have evolved and adapted over millions of years. Ever.
04/09/09
04/09/09
Because America is largely rural, that's why. It wouldn't be worth the cost to invest hugely in those systems if the majority of people won't use them.
04/09/09
04/09/09
With increased mass transit you can lower the average number of vehicles per household, number of personal miles driven every day, and the general cost of road infrastructure. (Less wear and tear, less traffic, less maintenance need.)
And, such products can be manufactured in the US. Creating jobs, technology, high-speed freight rail corridors can be created to move products between transit hubs quickly and efficiently with less smog overall... (Fewer trucks, less oil use, etc...)
04/09/09
As for getting cars off the road, they should actually find a way to people to use carpool lane efficiently and effectively. In fact, I am totally against hybrid carpool lane exemptions. It doesn't do any good. One more hybrid car on the road isn't clean as one less car on the road.
04/09/09
Seattle's bus system is pretty good, and we have light rail coming, which will soon be expanded. But it still takes me more than twice as long to get to/from work by bus as it does driving. Even with congestion. The funny thing is, my office is near a park and ride, but to get there I have to ride downtown, switch busses, and ride out of town, cross commute. So even the express lanes aren't in my favor ever.
04/09/09
04/09/09
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04/09/09
What happened to America being the land of the free? Once you start talking about tax hikes to induce cosumer decisions, we start moving from the great capitalist society that America is to communists. The thing about oil is that it is a very inelastic good. There aren't many close substitutes available now, and many people depend on it to get to where they are going, and they have to buy gas regardless of the price. Raising the price of oil to summer of 2008 standards, which is a dollar more on average than it is now, will not cause people to switch to hybrids (which may not be as environmentally friendly due to their batteries), but rather just burden the American people. How about lowering the tax on oil so that we have more money to spend on comsumer goods to get us out of this recession, eh?
04/09/09
Actually, you could use biodiesel for the trains. Which isn't inelastic.
I'm not talking about a switch to hybrids. Unless a bike, mass transit, or walking is a switch to a hybrid. As for lowering the tax on oil, most of the tax money from oil goes to support infrastructure projects. You know, roads, bridges, things that are suffering badly in this country. (See Minnesota bridge collapse for a good example of this...) What happened since peak oil prices was that mass transit ridership number skyrocketed.
04/09/09
Seeding the clouds is a more realistic path, since the technology is here now and won't have drastically bad side-effects. The artificial trees would be the most sensible, since there's plenty of open space to do it, and the technology behind it would be relatively inexpensive and without any side-effects.
04/09/09
I am interested in this cloud-seeding thing though. Cloud creation does offer some interesting promise of deflecting suns rays, and it doesn't cost much, is pretty much off-the-shelf technology and seems like we could do it pretty quickly. Interesting stuff.
04/09/09
04/09/09
We should go all Futurama and attach gigantic rockets to Earth and push the Earth to an orbit further away, so that not only would we be cooler, we would have an extra week in the year, and I declare it, ROBOT PARTY WEEK!
04/09/09
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04/09/09
Why do I feel like this was a line from a Bond movie?
04/09/09
and perhaps, use your schooling time to learn how to spell.
04/09/09
04/09/09
04/09/09
... is that true ??? why not planting more living plants
but if it's for urban spots, it would be a good solution to place on very top of buildings and such
04/09/09