Recent comments in /f/space

space-ModTeam t1_jc3gkaq wrote

Reply to Planets by theRuneGuard

Hello u/theRuneGuard, your submission "Planets" has been removed from r/space because:

  • Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.

Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.

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twohedwlf t1_jc3fpij wrote

Reply to Planets by theRuneGuard

Pretty much zero. At the very least because there will still be a range of temperatures from the equator to the poles.

This assumes the entire thing being frozen solid or burning hot is not habitable. But even then, you'll likely have some variety.

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Longjumping-Tie-7573 t1_jc3ahxf wrote

Reply to Planets by theRuneGuard

From what we see here in the Solar system, single-environment planets look to be the norm - except they're wildly out of spec to harbor carbon biology.

Many of the conditions for carbon biology require liquid water, which has a fairly narrow temperature range and wildly different qualities as temps approach the extremes of that range.

Taking that fact in hand, planets with carbon life *should* have varying biomes simply because the temp range is so narrow but fairly variable within that range, imho. Even eliminating the effect of atmospheric gasses helping to balance temps out, the simple curvature of Earth forces temperature variances in the planet's water and that effect should hold true regardless of the planet in question such that you'd get varying biomes at varying latitudes. IMHO. Somebody check my logic, please.

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Engelgrafik t1_jc38lrs wrote

Reply to The largest NASA Hubble Space Telescope image ever assembled, this sweeping bird’s-eye view of a portion of the Andromeda galaxy. Credit: NASA, ESA by Davicho77

I saw Andromeda once with my naked eye and the emotion it stirred in me is something I will never forget.

My parents lived in Wiepenkathen, a small village outside of Stade, Lower Saxony in Germany. Its's about 60km from the North Sea.

I had returned from a day in Hamburg (which is southeast of Stade) and took the bus from Stade and I think I took the wrong bus because for some reason I decided to get out in the middle of nowhere. I could see the village's lights across a very wide frozen farm field, so I thought "no big deal, I'll just cross through the field". As I'm crossing through the field I realize I've never seen so many stars. Our neighboring arm of the Milky Way was so incredibly bright, at some point I just stood there, freezing, and looking up into the sky. I even got the distinct sensation of depth and started feeling vertigo, as if I could fall into the sky and plunge deep into the starfield, so I had to look down towards the horizon again...

My heading was north or northwest, but when I scanned downward I noticed that in an otherwise completely clear and black sky, I could see this faint purple cloud in the northeast, not too close to the horizon, but not too high either. I thought that's weird, and wondered if maybe it was just steam or smoke that had come out of a power plant and maybe the lights of a village or city far away were lighting it up from below. This would explain this super small cloud... but this cloud must have been far away too because it wasn't really moving. I walked a bit more and the cloud was still there. So I stopped and really studied. It never moved at all. And it had a weird whirling spinning shape, with a bright center area. And that's when I realized what I was looking at. Andromeda. M31.

I immediately felt complete and utter awe. I realized that on this night I'm seeing thousands of stars, and most of those stars are relatively close to us. And then beyond those stars I can see clearly our neighboring arm of the Milky Way... which is even more stars further away all bunched together (comparatively). And then... even further than that... is an entirely separate galaxy with a trillion stars itself, and I'm seeing it right there with my own two eyes.

The sense of insignificance was incredible... and yet at the same time, paradoxically, the fact that I was there to witness it, to see it, made it so profound and important to me. It's hard to explain. It was not a religious experience, but it was definitely a humbling feeling. And I wish everybody could experience that.

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andygates2323 t1_jc386jv wrote

Reply to Planets by theRuneGuard

The "single biome planet" thing is a storytelling convenience, not an exobiological model.

It's like the "planet of the hats" where everyone wears specific hats: there to clue the viewer in rather than actually address timey-Earth millinery or Mirror Universe goatees.

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toatsblooby t1_jc34jap wrote

Reply to comment by iKillBugs4Work_AMA in Pillars of Creation - cropped them differently and rotated to show their "frame" by Rockclimber88

This section of space often called "the eagle nebula" is 7000 light years from earth. As I understand it the only thing bright enough to form those shining lights from such a distance would be other stars! (This nebula is still in the milky way so as I understand it those bright lights shouldn't be other galaxies, as they'd be hidden by dust and closer stars.)

I don't know exactly how big of "a spot" this would be in the sky, but my gut tells me this entire image would only take up a chunk of the sky about the size of a small pebble held in your outstretched hand. Space is unfathomably big.

One of the first James Webb images of the deep field shows thousands of GALAXIES in a single image, as well as some stars in our own galaxy in the foreground. They aimed the telescope at a very dark section of the sky for many hours to actually capture enough light to produce the image!

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