[MaxBigfoot]

There should be incentives for a company or agency to create something that can either de-orbit satellites or move them up out of Earth orbit.  Right now, we're in extreme danger of having Kessler Syndrome happen, which is when one bad luck collision creates debris that causes more collisions, in a chain reaction until Earth orbit is completely unusable.

[TheZookie007]

From the BBC. 

The fine is nearly meaningless to them.  The FCC should fine then $150,000 each day until they de-orbit the damn thing.

Starlink has entered the chat

[TheZookie007]

Astrum, 26 September 2023: "What the Solar Maximum Will do to Earth in 2025?"

[TheZookie007]

Astrum, 18 September 2023: "We've Been Receiving a Radio Signal Every 22-Minutes for 35 Years, And Astronomers Are Baffled"

[Shadowmuse Blown]

Tesla Cybertruck towing a Raptor vacuum engine around Starbase. 

[TheZookie007]

"In December 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope added a huge amount of detail to one of the most iconic space images of all time.

The stellar nursery dubbed the Pillars of Creation is a small region within M16, the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6500 light-years away. It's also blu-tacked to hundreds and thousands of teenage bedroom walls thanks to a 1995 Hubble Space Telescope image, which has gone on to be one of the most enduring of all its fabulous forays into deep space photography.

Here is the original picture:


It was taken on April 1, 1995 with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The color image is constructed from three separate images taken in the light of emission from different types of atoms. Red shows emission from singly-ionized sulfur atoms. Green shows emission from hydrogen. Blue shows light emitted by doubly-ionized oxygen atoms.

The James Webb Space Telescope has added a shedload (technical term, trust us) of additional detail by combining images already released and taken with two separate cameras; its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).

Here's that updated image:


A boatload (another technical term) of stars are now spread throughout the scene. The stars primarily show up in near-infrared light, thanks to the NIRCam. Near-infrared light also reveals thousands of newly formed stars; bright orange spheres that lie just outside the dusty pillars.

In mid-infrared light, the dust is on full display. MIRI showcases the layers of diffuse, orange dust that drape the top of the image, relaxing into a V. The densest regions of dust are cast in deep indigo hues, obscuring our view of the activities inside the dense pillars.

Dust also makes up the spire-like pillars that give the image its name, though in this image they look less like pillars and more like leaping animals: foam flecked horses in the sea or a plethora of jumping cats depending upon how your subconscious processes these things. Or goats.

Anyway, these young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, and will continue to form for millions of years. Also almost everything you see in this scene is local to the image. The distant universe is largely blocked from view both by the interstellar medium, which is made up of sparse gas and dust located between the stars, and a thick dust lane in our Milky Way galaxy.

And if you want to see the image in all its 7130 x 6675 glory, it's here. Coming to a teenage wall near you soon..."

[MaxBigfoot]

"In December 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope added a huge amount of detail to one of the most iconic space images of all time.

The stellar nursery dubbed the Pillars of Creation is a small region within M16, the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6500 light-years away. It's also blu-tacked to hundreds and thousands of teenage bedroom walls thanks to a 1995 Hubble Space Telescope image, which has gone on to be one of the most enduring of all its fabulous forays into deep space photography.

Here is the original picture:


It was taken on April 1, 1995 with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The color image is constructed from three separate images taken in the light of emission from different types of atoms. Red shows emission from singly-ionized sulfur atoms. Green shows emission from hydrogen. Blue shows light emitted by doubly-ionized oxygen atoms.

The James Webb Space Telescope has added a shedload (technical term, trust us) of additional detail by combining images already released and taken with two separate cameras; its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).

Here's that updated image:


A boatload (another technical term) of stars are now spread throughout the scene. The stars primarily show up in near-infrared light, thanks to the NIRCam. Near-infrared light also reveals thousands of newly formed stars; bright orange spheres that lie just outside the dusty pillars.

In mid-infrared light, the dust is on full display. MIRI showcases the layers of diffuse, orange dust that drape the top of the image, relaxing into a V. The densest regions of dust are cast in deep indigo hues, obscuring our view of the activities inside the dense pillars.

Dust also makes up the spire-like pillars that give the image its name, though in this image they look less like pillars and more like leaping animals: foam flecked horses in the sea or a plethora of jumping cats depending upon how your subconscious processes these things. Or goats.

Anyway, these young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, and will continue to form for millions of years. Also almost everything you see in this scene is local to the image. The distant universe is largely blocked from view both by the interstellar medium, which is made up of sparse gas and dust located between the stars, and a thick dust lane in our Milky Way galaxy.

And if you want to see the image in all its 7130 x 6675 glory, it's here. Coming to a teenage wall near you soon..."

Damn, I can stare at those pictures for hours...

[Shadowmuse Blown]

I always thought that this was a NASA proposal for a Moonsuit—I used to play with Major Matt Mason astronaut dolls as a kid and they had a version of this as an EVA suit.  I just found out the other day that it was a proposal from some fellow named Allyn Hazard.  I guess Mattel saw the pix of the thing and thought it was a cool idea.

[SamV]

"In December 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope added a huge amount of detail to one of the most iconic space images of all time.

The stellar nursery dubbed the Pillars of Creation is a small region within M16, the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6500 light-years away. It's also blu-tacked to hundreds and thousands of teenage bedroom walls thanks to a 1995 Hubble Space Telescope image, which has gone on to be one of the most enduring of all its fabulous forays into deep space photography.

Here is the original picture:


It was taken on April 1, 1995 with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The color image is constructed from three separate images taken in the light of emission from different types of atoms. Red shows emission from singly-ionized sulfur atoms. Green shows emission from hydrogen. Blue shows light emitted by doubly-ionized oxygen atoms.

The James Webb Space Telescope has added a shedload (technical term, trust us) of additional detail by combining images already released and taken with two separate cameras; its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).

Here's that updated image:


A boatload (another technical term) of stars are now spread throughout the scene. The stars primarily show up in near-infrared light, thanks to the NIRCam. Near-infrared light also reveals thousands of newly formed stars; bright orange spheres that lie just outside the dusty pillars.

In mid-infrared light, the dust is on full display. MIRI showcases the layers of diffuse, orange dust that drape the top of the image, relaxing into a V. The densest regions of dust are cast in deep indigo hues, obscuring our view of the activities inside the dense pillars.

Dust also makes up the spire-like pillars that give the image its name, though in this image they look less like pillars and more like leaping animals: foam flecked horses in the sea or a plethora of jumping cats depending upon how your subconscious processes these things. Or goats.

Anyway, these young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, and will continue to form for millions of years. Also almost everything you see in this scene is local to the image. The distant universe is largely blocked from view both by the interstellar medium, which is made up of sparse gas and dust located between the stars, and a thick dust lane in our Milky Way galaxy.

And if you want to see the image in all its 7130 x 6675 glory, it's here. Coming to a teenage wall near you soon..."

The greater detail is because James Webb works more in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum, plus it has a really huge primary mirror, in comparison to Hubble, which photographs only things that are visible to the human eye. But I wonder what ESA's Euclid telescope might produce if it was also to take photo's of the "Pillars of Creation".     

[solvegas]

Moon rover from the Apollo 17 mission driving by the Lunar Lander Capsule in the Moon. That was 50 years ago. 

[Shadowmuse Blown]

Speaking of Apollo, I came across some great pix taken during Apollo, each with the Earth in the background.  Here’s the first one with the LEM in the foreground.

[SamV]

IMHO the very best photograph ever taken in space was during the Apollo 8 mission when astronaut Bill Anders shot a photograph on December 24, 1968 while orbiting the moon. It's called "Earthrise", and is a photograph of Earth and part of the Moon's surface as seen from the command module as it emerges from the moon's "dark-side" to the light side. The way the partially sun lit Earth seems to be hanging there in the darkness of space seems to show IMO how insignificant this planet is in the vastness of space -- and yet it is the only planet we know of that has life on it. Still others have described it as "The most influential environmental photograph ever taken."

In either case, it does show that for us, this small world is the only one we got, and we should do our very best to take care of it, for both ourselves and future generations yet to come.

[solvegas]

From 40 years ago, Space Shuttle Atlantis. 

[Shadowmuse Blown]

Speaking of Apollo, I came across some great pix taken during Apollo, each with the Earth in the background.  Here’s the first one with the LEM in the foreground.

Here’s another

[Shadowmuse Blown]

Speaking of Apollo, I came across some great pix taken during Apollo, each with the Earth in the background.  Here’s the first one with the LEM in the foreground.

Here’s another

Another