I live by the popular philosophy of “There’s no way we’re alone with that much out there”. If I had to guess there’s probably at least fifty thousand planets out there with Earth-like sustainment. We’ll just never see them or hear from them in our lifetime unless new theories/laws are discovered.
Heh. According to the estimates they made off Kepler data, its closer to 40 Billion in the Milky Way alone.
And there’s at least 150 billion galaxies. Some 200,000 times the size of the Milky Way. If all humans truly knew (or accepted) how insignificant Earth was.... everyone gets laid. There is no As Above, So Below. Just a big, mostly empty...thing. And the only ones who could be watching us is ourselves. But to those who think things are going to eventually get all Hitchhiker’s Guide in their lifetime..... well, to get a hockey puck up to light speed we’d have to suck the entire Earth’s energy dry for a week. And it would hit the next closest star in five years. We are staying here.
Don't forget, especially those on East Coast US, Super Blood Moon eclipse is Sunday night. It's supposed to be clear and cool in my neck of the woods, so it should be fantastic viewing.
The probability of biological life on other planets is infinitesimally close to 1. As for intelligent life, that seems just as likely but consider: We have a Fermi paradox right here on Earth. Why, over the course of a couple of billion years did none of the species on this planet even start using tools? We should have evidence if they did, right? Why is it that only 200,000 years ago a species like ours developed, and took another 190,000 years to get smart enough to settle down and start growing crops? I don't think Earth is something that's supposed to happen. I'm sure there are planets out there with horrific Lovecraftian maneating shit waiting to munch on us, that is completely non-sentient. As far as intelligent life goes, in the observable universe we might be it, or at least so rare that we'll never be able to contact the other one or two examples.
Great viewing last night! Clear skies and awesome. Although, with the moon straight overhead, it was a bitch trying to look through the telescope. I really need to get an adapter for my camera. Lol, this is what it looks like when I point my phone camera into the eyepiece. Spoiler: Super Blood Moon
What kind of telescope do you have? I've been really tempted to pick one up... something with a bit of auto-tracking enabled. Do you use yours lots? Any recommendations?
Lol, they don't even make my telescope anymore. It's a small Celestron PowerSeeker2 60mm. I think the closest current version is this one: https://www.opticsplanet.com/celestron-powerseeker-60-astronomical-telescope.html Mine has the 4mm and 20mm eyepieces and the 3x Barlow lens. I don't use it lots. I set it up a couple times a year. It's terrific for the moon. But, that thing never changes. With the 20mm eyepiece, most of the field of view will be filled by the moon. One of the reasons I don't use it a lot, and in the recommendations side of things, is it's a motherfucker to align. Mine is cheap and does NOT have auto-tracking, either. First of all, with cheap ones like this, it's hard to look at something straight overhead, because you can't crane your neck that way. Second, unless you know what you're looking for - moon, easy to find! - it's hard to get it lined up, even with the finder scope on the side. So, I get it lined up, then switch out the eyepiece to zoom in, and I've bumped it a tiny bit. And, now I'm off by like 10 galaxies. I'll say this though, I paid probably $50 for it almost 20 years ago, and I have gotten my money's worth. On clear nights, being able to zoom in on part of the moon is pretty freaking cool. And, it's humbling to just stare at it, honestly. I don't know enough - I think I would just read up on reviews to get a sense of pros and cons and features and differences in refractor / reflector. Or, maybe somebody else can weigh in here. You can get one that'll autotrack for less than $200 AND you can get a camera adapter for it, like this one: https://www.opticsplanet.com/celestron-astromaster-114eq-telescope-w-motor-drive.html
Opportunity didn't answer the last attempt by NASA to communicate with it. Shitty. https://arstechnica.com/science/201...swer-nasas-final-call-and-its-now-gone-to-us/
Falcon 9 launched a test dummy to the ISS in their crew module. Here's a really cool shot of what it looked like. (can't figure out how to imbed a gifv on here so I linked to it)
Crew module docks at ISS I'll be honest, that's a lot further than I thought they were gonna get on their first test of it. I figured one of the millions of things that had to go right would go wrong and they wouldn't be able to dock. Now they still have to de-attach, de-orbit, and successfully splash down, which makes landing boosters in unison looks like child's play if they can pull it off. But I wouldn't bet against them.
It plans to splash down in the Atlantic? Weak. I expect some Tesla shit where it drives itself all the way to the astronaut's house.
I can't believe they're seriously considering removing his security rating due to him having a toke on the Joe Rogan Podcast. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ance-said-to-get-pentagon-review-over-pot-use