On the Nature of Things | Forum

Simple Minded wrote:good aliens to save us, bad aliens to conquer us, the big asteroid, the return of planet X, or cover up of the secret space program........

https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation- ... 45090.html

Cosmologists have predicted the existence of an oscillating signal that could distinguish between cosmic inflation and alternative theories of the universe’s birth.

With no luck so far in a six-decade search for signals from aliens, you’d be forgiven for thinking, “Where is everyone?”

A new calculation shows that if space is an ocean, we’ve barely dipped in a toe. The volume of observable space combed so far for E.T. is comparable to searching the volume of a large hot tub for evidence of fish in Earth’s oceans, astronomer Jason Wright at Penn State and colleagues say in a paper posted online September 19 at arXiv.org.

“If you looked at a random hot tub’s worth of water in the ocean, you wouldn’t always expect a fish,” Wright says.

Mr. Perfect wrote:Z8B_aQnpsAY

Honest scientist, big bang is not very solid.

The Mars InSight lander has touched down on the dusty Red Planet after sailing 548 million kilometres over a six-month voyage through deep space.

Key points:
InSight will be the first to study Mars' inner secrets
Spacecraft is equipped with instruments to detect planetary heat and seismic rumblings
InSight marks the 21st Mars mission launched by United States
The landing, which took place just before 7:00am AEDT, saw the NASA spacecraft hurtle through the top of Mars' thin atmosphere at 19,795km per hour.

By the late 1940s, a grand plan for conquering space was already on paper. Why it didn't transpire as planned offers food for thought today.

Colonel Sun wrote:Astronomy | Yesteryear's tomorrows

By the late 1940s, a grand plan for conquering space was already on paper. Why it didn't transpire as planned offers food for thought today.

Hoagland claims the source of a so-called NASA "coverup", with relation to the "Face on Mars" and other related structures, is the result of a report commissioned by NASA authored by the Brookings Institution, the so-called Brookings Report. The 1960 report, entitled "Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs," is claimed by Hoagland, on page 216 of the report, to instruct NASA to deliberately withhold from the public any evidence it may find of extraterrestrial activity, specifically, on the moon, Mars or Venus.

Hoagland has also proposed a form of physics he calls "hyperdimensional physics",[24][25] which he claims represents a more complete implementation of James Clerk Maxwell's original 20 quaternion equations,[26] instead of the original Maxwell's equations as amended by Oliver Heaviside commonly taught today.[27] These ideas are rejected by the mainstream physics community as unfounded.[28][29][30][31][32]

Hoagland claims the "Face on Mars" is part of a city built on Cydonia Planitia consisting of very large pyramids and mounds arranged in a geometric pattern.[33] To Hoagland, this is evidence that an advanced civilization might once have existed on Mars.[33] In the years since its discovery, the "face" has been near-universally accepted as an optical illusion,[11] an example of the psychological phenomenon of pareidolia.[28][34][35] Similar optical illusions can be found in the geology of Earth;[36] examples include the Old Man of the Mountain, the Pedra da Gávea, and Stac Levenish.[37]

Although the Pioneer 10 plaque was designed entirely by Carl Sagan, Linda Salzman Sagan, and Frank Drake,[38] Hoagland has inaccurately asserted that he co-created the plaque with Eric Burgess.[39] In 1990, Hoagland tried to take credit for the plaque, asserting that "Carl for many years has been taking public credit for the Pioneer plaque which, of course, Eric Burgess and I conceived."[40] Later that year Hoagland went so far as to claim he designed the plaque when he said "Carl... was involved with Eric Burgess and me in the design of [the] message."[40] Burgess' own account is at odds with Hoagland's design claims, stating that "The design itself was created by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake, with the artistic help of Sagan’s then-wife Linda Salzman Sagan", without mentioning Hoagland at all.[41] Sagan's own correspondense regarding the matter also contradict Hoagland's claims, specifically saying that "he did not contribute one bit of data towards the message design."[42] Burgess recalls similarly, adding that all Hoagland did with regard to the plaque "was support me and say it's a good idea."[40] And yet Hoagland's website still incorrectly credits him as 'co-creator of the "Pioneer Plaque"'[43]

noddy wrote:doin his bit to keep mars interesting i spose

Hoagland claims the source of a so-called NASA "coverup", with relation to the "Face on Mars" and other related structures, is the result of a report commissioned by NASA authored by the Brookings Institution, the so-called Brookings Report. The 1960 report, entitled "Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs," is claimed by Hoagland, on page 216 of the report, to instruct NASA to deliberately withhold from the public any evidence it may find of extraterrestrial activity, specifically, on the moon, Mars or Venus.

Hoagland has also proposed a form of physics he calls "hyperdimensional physics",[24][25] which he claims represents a more complete implementation of James Clerk Maxwell's original 20 quaternion equations,[26] instead of the original Maxwell's equations as amended by Oliver Heaviside commonly taught today.[27] These ideas are rejected by the mainstream physics community as unfounded.[28][29][30][31][32]

Hoagland claims the "Face on Mars" is part of a city built on Cydonia Planitia consisting of very large pyramids and mounds arranged in a geometric pattern.[33] To Hoagland, this is evidence that an advanced civilization might once have existed on Mars.[33] In the years since its discovery, the "face" has been near-universally accepted as an optical illusion,[11] an example of the psychological phenomenon of pareidolia.[28][34][35] Similar optical illusions can be found in the geology of Earth;[36] examples include the Old Man of the Mountain, the Pedra da Gávea, and Stac Levenish.[37]

Although the Pioneer 10 plaque was designed entirely by Carl Sagan, Linda Salzman Sagan, and Frank Drake,[38] Hoagland has inaccurately asserted that he co-created the plaque with Eric Burgess.[39] In 1990, Hoagland tried to take credit for the plaque, asserting that "Carl for many years has been taking public credit for the Pioneer plaque which, of course, Eric Burgess and I conceived."[40] Later that year Hoagland went so far as to claim he designed the plaque when he said "Carl... was involved with Eric Burgess and me in the design of [the] message."[40] Burgess' own account is at odds with Hoagland's design claims, stating that "The design itself was created by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake, with the artistic help of Sagan’s then-wife Linda Salzman Sagan", without mentioning Hoagland at all.[41] Sagan's own correspondense regarding the matter also contradict Hoagland's claims, specifically saying that "he did not contribute one bit of data towards the message design."[42] Burgess recalls similarly, adding that all Hoagland did with regard to the plaque "was support me and say it's a good idea."[40] And yet Hoagland's website still incorrectly credits him as 'co-creator of the "Pioneer Plaque"'[43]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_C._Hoagland

In April of 2017, all 8 of the telescopes/telescope arrays associated with the Event Horizon Telescope pointed at Messier 87.
This is what a supermassive black hole looks like, and the event horizon is clearly visible.
Event Horizon Telescope collaboration et al.

So, what did we learn?

Well, there are a bunch of things we've learned, and there will be many stories about the different details and nuances that come out over the coming days and weeks. But there are four big takeaways that anyone should be able to appreciate.

First and most importantly, black holes really do exist. People have concocted all sorts of bizarre schemes and scenarios to avoid them, but the first direct image of an event horizon should put all of those doubts to rest. Not only do we have all the indirect evidence from LIGO, gravitational measurements of orbits around the galactic center, and the data from X-ray binaries, but we now have an image of the event horizon directly.

Second and almost as mind-blowing, General Relativity wins again. Einstein's theory predicted that the event horizon would be spherical, rather than oblate or prolate, and that the region devoid of radiation would be of a particular size based on the measured mass of the black hole. The innermost stable circular orbit, predicted by General Relativity, shows the bright photons that are the last to escape from the black hole's gravitational pull.

Once again, General Relativity, even when subject to a new test, emerged undefeated.

Third, we learned that our simulations for predicting what the radio emissions around the black hole should look like were really, really good! This tells us that we not only understand the environments around black holes very well, but that we understand the dynamics of matter and gas that orbit it. That's a pretty spectacular achievement.

And fourth, we learned that the mass of the black hole that we inferred from gravitational observations are correct, and the mass of the black hole that we inferred from X-ray observations are systematically too low. For M87, these estimates differed by a factor of 2; for Sagittarius A*, they differed by a factor of 1.5.

Spacetime tells matter how to move; matter tells spacetime how to curve.

John A. Wheeler's succinct summary of Einstein's theory of general relativity

Nonc Hilaire wrote:And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
Exodus 33:23; KJV