Let's Jam this Bog with Roasts

[Dave Miles]

cool hubble pic of the horse head nebula in infrared. Hubble has limited infrared capabilities while the james webb telescope will be built to see mainly in that spectrum and is many times more powerful than the HST. since the oldest light in the universe is stretched so much it shifts out of the visible spectrum and into the infrared, that means the james webb telescope will be able to see much deeper into the universe at objects much older and farther back in time.
im pretty excited to see some awesome new pics and the JWST is bound to make some pretty amazing discoveries

http://i.imgur.com/Vd5YCrh.jpg

also here's a cool comparison of visible light and infrared



edit the image is huge and broke the forum so ill just post the link

[Shaun]

the technology in the Webb is absolutely bananas. The primary mirror is divided into 18 hexagonal segments like so:

(plated in an extremely thin layer of gold since gold reflects infrared most efficiently. its about the amount of gold in a wedding ring)


but the mirrors need to be perfectly aligned, down to hundreds of nanometers (the wavelength of infrared light) in order to act as one mirror. Think about the amount of planning and testing required. The have to fold it and load it onto a rocket, launch it into space where it has to endure high G forces, then take a long ride through the frigid vacuum (the temperature drop warps matter enough that you have to take it into account) to arrive 1.5 million miles from Earth, to be unfolded remotely. And it's not just the mirror, there's also the sunshield and smaller secondary mirror, and all this other technology that looks like it was designed by hyper-intelligent aliens. The Webb still has to endure another two years of testing in NASA's space simulation chamber because unlike Hubble they have to get it right the first time. Astronauts can't visit the Webb to make repiars. So they test every part, by itself or connected to other parts, over and over again.

Oh yeah and the reason the Webb must be so far away is that anywhere near Earth is just too bright for the miniscule amount of infrared light coming from stars and galaxies so far away. If it were on Earth it'd be like building a telescope out of lightbulbs. The satellite will sit somewhere called Lagrange point 2. That's one point where gravity from both the Earth and sun are equal and hold the satellite in a stable position

Dude thank Christmas Trump wasn't in office when NASA was facing a budget crisis over this thing, he would've canceled it. It's gonna make some wild discoveries. You think that seven-planet star system NASA found last week was a big deal wait til this fuckin' thing is fully operational. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we found life on other planets or at least evidence that it was once there

[Dungeon Snake]

sounds crazy! cant wait to see all the stuff that new thing will dig up. i hope we get to see aliens in my life time. and i hope the aliens are cool and not bad

[Dave Miles]

the james webb telescope will be capable of directly imaging exoplanets. the cool thing about that is we will be able to scan the light from the planet and accurately determine its chemical makeup. earth for instance has a specific spectral pattern that indicates there's biological activity. if we find an exoplanet with the same pattern we can pretty definitely say there is biological activity on that planet

[Damage Jackal]

this is immensely badass

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by Dave Miles

earth for instance has a specific spectral pattern that indicates there's biological activity. if we find an exoplanet with the same pattern we can pretty definitely say there is biological activity on that planet

yeah I remember reading some serious discussion to the effect of: If aliens pollute their planets the same way humans pollute Earth it will be an obvious indicator of their presence and that they are a highly evolved species. So let's hope aliens invent freon for hairspray or air conditioners or whatever, since that kind of pollutant lingers in the atmosphere and thus effects the light signature of the planet

[Tuna Hematoma]

I should learn how to make shitty video games and be able to draw. The independent porn making game game is some decent money.

[Dave Miles]

Originally Posted by Shaun

yeah I remember reading some serious discussion to the effect of: If aliens pollute their planets the same way humans pollute Earth it will be an obvious indicator of their presence and that they are a highly evolved species. So let's hope aliens invent freon for hairspray or air conditioners or whatever, since that kind of pollutant lingers in the atmosphere and thus effects the light signature of the planet

I wonder if radiation is detectable to see if they've ever detonated a nuclear bomb?




im enjoying these infared/visible light comparisons. the infared images are almost ghostly looking. its really amazing how we can use different spectrums to peer into thick clouds of gas to see what's on the other side

[Dave Miles]

http://i.imgur.com/qXyc9zL.jpg

[Slime]

[Dave Miles]

lol where is that?

[Yamles]

I really hope they find life in my lifetime. Even if it's just at a cellular or bacterial level, it would be amazing. It would cause some amazing debates and I'd die happy.

[Tuna Hematoma]

I was hoping for a loop

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by Dave Miles

I wonder if radiation is detectable to see if they've ever detonated a nuclear bomb?

hmmm good question. I think it would be theoretically possible to detect a nuclear explosion as it happened (huge hydrogen/energy release), but not detect evidence of a nuclear explosion that happened long ago. That's because nuclear fallout doesn't last too long, just a few years (Hiroshima and Nagasaki are fully recovered).

Say aliens were looking at us, though, and they saw Chernobyl. At Chernobyl there's a much longer window to detect that kind of radiation. (We're assuming aliens have instruments sensitive enough to target a single city from hundreds or more light years away.) Believe it or not there was waayy more radioactive material in the power station, over three thousand times more, than what undergoes fission in a bomb. And during the meltdown it wasn't the uranium itself exploding but the reactor exploding from too much steam pressure, and spreading the radioactive material all over the ground, so it sticks around much much longer, whereas with a bomb it's just vaporized. So if aliens saw Chernobyl they might wonder what the hell happened since the area's clearly irradiated but couldn't be from a bomb (or maybe they'll think it is, who knows??) Though whatever they think they'd probably conclude that it isn't natural and something did that

[Jesterfoot]

Radiation is very common in space

[Shaun]

yes that's true but the source of the radiation is different. Radiation in space (normal light radiation or cosmic rays) isn't a product of Uranium or Plutonium like at Chernobyl and Hiroshima.

When you analyze light spectre what you're looking for are things called "absorption lines" or "emission lines" that indicate the presence of whatever element, and every element has a different signature.

so it's theoretically possible to isolate and analyze the light given off at Chernobyl and you would see the signatures of Uranium and Plutonium and whatever else, and conclude it's not a natural source of radiation. Though if aliens are anything like us they would analyze the light of the entire planet and Chernobyl would be lost like a rounding error so it's all moot anyway

[Evil Ash]

So the USSR scared the aliens away? Great.

[Shaun]

yeah pretty much

anyway here's a hilarious comic my uncle posted on Facebook



see, this woman is choking to death. it is an opportune time for rape. and women are so dumb, they don't know he's doing it on purpose. lmao

[Old Rivers]

your uncle sounds cool. you should get him an account here.

[Slime]

lol! funny uncle

[Old Rivers]

maneuver is spelled wrong.

[Slime]

its to show that theyre dumb

[Damage Jackal]

Originally Posted by Old Rivers

maneuver is spelled wrong.

manoeuvre*

[Phil Williamson]

maneuver is the craziest US/UK spelling difference. they write it as "manoeuvre"

edit: well there you go ^^

[Damage Jackal]

either way that cartoon fucked it up badly