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posts about #space more →
We're Not So Different, Earth and Mars
LaserMotive's Robot Is The First Ever To Win NASA's $900,000 Space Elevator Prize
New HiRISE Images Show Chilly, Frost-Covered Phoenix Lander
Nothing Makes You Feel Insignificant Like a 648-Megapixel Image of Our Galaxy
Vrrrrooom On the Moon
NASA Mars Spirit Rover Has Recurring Case of Amnesia
New Apollo 17 Landing Photo Clearly Shows Lander, Flag
An Astronaut Explains How We'll Fall In Love With Space Again
The Ares I-X Rocket in Pictures, From Birth to Launch
Russia Wants Nuclear-Powered Rocket to Go to Mars

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Nick
11/06/09

In reply to We're Not So Different, Earth and Mars
bette midler thinks this is bull crap. #space
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Duckspwn:Loves Approving Reds
11/06/09

In reply to We're Not So Different, Earth and Mars
Yeah guys, it's amazing, the similarities between the two places when you look from a certain distance with one eye closed while jumping on one leg, dropping acid and listening to the music go "Untss Untss Untss" during a rave party.
I jest of course. #space
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mattycakes
11/06/09

@Duckspwn: *pokes his head up*

...did somebody say "acid" and "rave party"? #space
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Duckspwn:Loves Approving Reds
11/06/09

@mattycakes: They go together well, kinda like porn and the internet. #space
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met2art
11/06/09

In reply to We're Not So Different, Earth and Mars
Wow... stunning images! But also, when buried 30 meters under the surface of either planet, at the poles, they are eerily and uncannily similar as well. #space
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Nick
11/06/09

In reply to LaserMotive's Robot Is The First Ever To Win NASA's $900,000 Space Elevator Prize
if done right -- climbing an endless "gym rope" to the skies could very well feel like an ascent into heaven. #spaceelevator
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Snes
11/05/09

In reply to LaserMotive's Robot Is The First Ever To Win NASA's $900,000 Space Elevator Prize
I wonder what kind of cable they use... any kind of metal cable would break under it's own weight after a certain height, obviously they could be using a metal cable here, but getting up to space and well... it'd snap. #spaceelevator
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tande04
11/05/09

@Snes: carbon nano tubes.
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Edited by tande04 at 11/05/09 7:57 PM tande04 was starred tande04 was unstarred

Snes
11/05/09

@tande04: ahh, I've been wondering what they would use since I saw this competition... Was always too lazy to look it up. #spaceelevator
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Geisrud
11/05/09

In reply to New HiRISE Images Show Chilly, Frost-Covered Phoenix Lander
Mars must have grown a lot of trees over the winter. Either that, or was bombarded with hamster food pellets #phoenixlander
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
11/04/09

In reply to New HiRISE Images Show Chilly, Frost-Covered Phoenix Lander
Looks like a close-up of a cantaloupe.. #phoenixlander
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Yanguang
11/03/09

In reply to Nothing Makes You Feel Insignificant Like a 648-Megapixel Image of Our Galaxy
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." The Call of Cthulhu, H.P. Lovecraft #galaxy
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Benjamin Posch
11/02/09

In reply to Nothing Makes You Feel Insignificant Like a 648-Megapixel Image of Our Galaxy
well, not that my opinion matters or anything, but i clicked for the full size view. it didn't seem very big, and i don't really feel that insignificant afterwords, honestly. no more than normally anyway. it was a little wider than my browser window was at the time, but i dragged it out and fixed that. #galaxy
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Bertone77
11/02/09

@Benjamin Posch: Try Zooming in. #galaxy
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Heliophage
11/03/09

@Bertone77:

Methinks he clicked on the image of this post, rather than going to the actual site. #galaxy
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psychonaut2021:Secrets of the Pineal Gland
11/02/09

In reply to Nothing Makes You Feel Insignificant Like a 648-Megapixel Image of Our Galaxy
The thing I'm particulary worried about, doesn't every galaxy has a black hole in it's center? A massive one? If so, the gravitational force of it must be intense. Plus the thing must be spinning like mad. Wouldn't that make the gravitational field expand to a disc shape field that spreads wide and far? What if our Solar system were to cross that field into the other side of it?

I'm no chef but I would imagine that everything would get stirred pretty good in our solar system. Kinda scary if you think about it. #galaxy
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nutbastard
11/02/09

@psychonaut2021: Secrets of the Pineal Gland:

it's not an issue at this distance. because gravity diminishes with the inverse cube of the distance, the supermassive black hole being disc shaped has, for all intents and purposes, equivalent gravitational pull regardless of our orientation relative to it.

think of it this way. put a quarter on your desk, and put your finger a few inches away from it. look at the relative distance from your finger to the edge, center, and far edge of the quarter. now lift your finger up a bit and look at it again. if you're truly keeping your finger the same distance away from the center, you just got a little bit closer to the close top edge - but you also got further away from the far bottom edge.

now imagine your finger is a couple thousand miles from the quarter, and you did the same thing. that's akin to the proper scale of things here. even if gravity diminished with the regular inverse of the distance you'd see almost no effect whatsoever.

furthermore, the solar system crosses the galactic plane every 13,000 years or so, and things seem to be fine for the last few hundred thousand years as far as cataclysm is concerned.

interestingly enough, though, is that human history goes back about 9,000 years, but there is a lot of evidence to suggest that we were around, and civilized, long before that. look into the grooved metal spheres of South Africa, the Baghdad Battery, Egyptian electroplating/arc lighting, Indian Vedic Texts, and various other monolithic structures of unknown origin/construction method.

we've been around in present form fo about 100,000 years, maybe up to 150,000 years. that's ~125 solar plane crossings. we're still here. I wouldn't worry about it (especially since there's jack shit to be done)
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Edited by nutbastard at 11/02/09 6:13 PM nutbastard was starred nutbastard was unstarred

AUAnonymous
11/02/09

@nutbastard:
Just saying but I'm pretty sure that gravity is proportional to the inverse square of the distance, not the cube #galaxy
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Bos'un's Mate
11/02/09

@AUAnonymous: #galaxy
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psychonaut2021:Secrets of the Pineal Gland
11/02/09

@nutbastard: Aha! I'm glad I read your response.

Alden up there got it wrong. He missed the part where I say it crosses through the disc, not crash into the blackhole.

With that said, nutbastard, I see what you're saying, but I was talking more about stronger gravity pulls, since we're crossing the disc. Or am I missing something here? If so please do explain, because I may be misunderstanding you.

Further more the fact that you mentioned that people back then were quite civilized (which I was hoping someone would mention it, thanks!) suggest that something did in fact occured that kinda set us back a bit.

I'm into "sacred geometry" and it seems like the ancients understood our universe better than what we do now adays. I mean they knew it was holographic in nature, and that it's based on a duality principle. Not only that but Metatron's cube is something so complex. It even describes how the cells begin to multiply when a baby is being formed. Amazing stuff really. Thank The Architect I joined the big G, if you catch my drift.

Either way, let me know if I got your message right! I'd love to look into this further.

*hearted* #galaxy
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JohnnySaber
11/03/09

@psychonaut2021: Secrets of the Pineal Gland: I don't understand much of what you said, but I would really like to be pointed in a direction where I could read more about this stuff. #galaxy
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psychonaut2021:Secrets of the Pineal Gland
11/03/09

@JohnnySaber: Look up "sacred geometry".

"Fasten your seatbelt Dorothy, 'cause Kansas is going bye bye!".

Enjoy! #galaxy
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Crashproof
11/02/09

In reply to Nothing Makes You Feel Insignificant Like a 648-Megapixel Image of Our Galaxy
"Nothing Makes You Feel Insignificant Like a 648-Megapixel Image of Our Galaxy"

Except for Chuck Norris. #galaxy
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Muzzled
11/02/09

In reply to Nothing Makes You Feel Insignificant Like a 648-Megapixel Image of Our Galaxy
648 mega pixel image, amazing, Thats something I would like to see.

<3 mega pixel image uploaded to gizmodo? no thanks #galaxy
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nutbastard
11/02/09

@Muzzled:

the full image is over 2 gigs. i dont imagine even giz has the bandwidth to handle everyone trying to grab it at the same time.

check bittorrent. #galaxy
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Robert-Freeman
11/02/09

In reply to Nothing Makes You Feel Insignificant Like a 648-Megapixel Image of Our Galaxy
This doesn't make me feel insignificant, it makes me feel more significant. :) #galaxy
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Nick
11/02/09

In reply to Nothing Makes You Feel Insignificant Like a 648-Megapixel Image of Our Galaxy
universal pictures is gonna send him a cease and cut-it-out letter. #galaxy
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cobaltage
11/02/09

In reply to Nothing Makes You Feel Insignificant Like a 648-Megapixel Image of Our Galaxy
There's no way this is going to beat the iPhone.

Thank you, I'm here all week. #galaxy
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Nick
11/02/09

@cobaltage: actually, android has a google sky map. it's awesome. #galaxy
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