Recent comments in /f/space

Zero7CO t1_j6e3m0l wrote

Reply to comment by OnlyAstronomyFans in Spotted strange cluster of objects traveling across the sky this evening by hawkz40

No it is not. I’ve seen 9 Starlink passes. The fastest I’ve seen a line pass-over is one that came over a few hours after launch. It took 3 minutes to do its pass. Always a straight line. This was an arrow-shaped formation with the point of the arrow leading the others, with one directly behind it. It traversed the entire sky in 15 seconds…over 15x faster than the fastest Starlink passover.

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pruntidjuu t1_j6e3eo1 wrote

Reply to Aldebaran and the legacy of Arabic star names by AstronomicVerse

If I’m not mistaken the majority of visible stars have Arabic or Arabic derived names. As do many older scientific terms, such as: zenith, azimuth, alchemy, Almagest,algebra, algorithm, decipher, alkaline, alcohol, benzene, boron, sodium, and many more. Not to mention the Arabic numerical system (which is actually Indian, but came to Europe via Muslim Spain). If it starts with “al” that’s a good indicator it comes from Arabic, as that is the Arabic word for “the”.

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Gold_and_Lead t1_j6dz8nk wrote

Reply to My Personal Story About Challenger by MoabEngineer

Thanks for sharing your story. I was in HS. One of our teachers was a finalist for the Teacher in Space program which Christa McAuliffe won. Consequently, it was live on every TV in the building. I was at lunch in the cafeteria so I wasn’t watching, but I had just got my tray and kids started saying it blew up. We watched coverage the rest of the day or talked through it in all my classes. Such a tragedy. Will never forget it.

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weathercat4 t1_j6dxa7f wrote

Reply to Spotted strange cluster of objects traveling across the sky this evening by hawkz40

I have many times seen lights flying fast and silent in a V formation. Everytime it has been geese flying, they don't honk much at night.

There are an insane amount of satellites now as well. Sometimes random ones just happen to appear flying in formation but it's just an illusion, with starlink trains as an obvious exception.

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KermitPhor t1_j6dw11l wrote

Reply to Hyperion is the largest of Saturn's irregular, nonspherical moons. Hyperion's mean radius is 135 km, but as it's potato-shaped, its shape can be described in terms of its diameter along its three axes: 410 x 260 x 220 km. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/SSI by MistWeaver80

Just to behold, some are 6 miles deep and eons old, only one of the stories Cassini told!

Alright had to double check, it is one of the images from Cassini’s targetted flyby in 2005. Absolutely wild how the craters of water ice and mineral appear and the raw curiosity this draws up.

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VertigoOne1 t1_j6dtgn8 wrote

Reply to comment by redstercoolpanda in What if our sun was a part of another constellation on another planet? by smilingpike31

Because our sun is a dwarf star, it is actually very puny. The only reason it is so bright is because it is so close, Sirius is 9 lightyears away and is 25 times more luminous, and absolute magnitude of 1.45, the sun is 4.85. Canopus is 300lj away, is the second brightest star in the sky. Our sun is very lightweight. If you put canopus at the distance of Sirius it would be brighter than the moon.

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Ok-Wrongdoer-9647 t1_j6dslrd wrote

Reply to comment by daveinmd13 in What if our sun was a part of another constellation on another planet? by smilingpike31

Depends on the size of their pupil and sensitivity of their eye equivalent features.. if they have a telescope then 5 billion light years because that’s how old the sun is… if their pupils were massive I believe they could technically see it with the naked eye but it would be incredibly tiny.. they just need to capture enough light from the source to be visible

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