What is the Universe expanding into..

Do you think there was anything before the big bang?

  • I don't think there was anything before the Big Bang

    Votes: 56 12.5%
  • I think something existed before the Big Bang

    Votes: 200 44.7%
  • I don't think the big bang happened

    Votes: 54 12.1%
  • I think the universe is part of a mutiverse

    Votes: 201 45.0%

  • Total voters
    447
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Sorry about that, it's just how I think.
I read your post and within fraction of a second thought through what I wrote. It is impossible to avoid.
Immediately fires up a simulation in my mind on ridiculously fast forward. Getting words out my mouth can be a challenge, sometimes I stumble in sentences because I mistakenly start perhaps on an "r" (completely random, but more frequently a consonant) near the end going halfway or not yet begun on the first word.
Text is impossibly slow and forces me to think stuff through perhaps a sentence several times for every word.


So... About that methane rain! Fuel, anyone?

Edit:
No, I don't stutter. Different thing.
 
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Speaking of rain, I'm more fascinated by the methane rains on Titan.
Fascinating indeed! Yet Titan’s monsoons are rare. They probably only occur once every Titanian year, or once every 29 Earth years.

There's more fascination here: What's the weather like on Titan? | Space | EarthSky And here is and an edited extract:

"Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the only moon in our solar system known to have a thick atmosphere. It’s also the only body in the Solar System, besides Earth, known to have stable bodies of surface liquid. During the Cassini mission, scientists think they saw waves on the surface of one of Titan’s methane lakes."

The attached near-infrared colour image shows a reflection from a methane lake on Titan. The faint pink colour areas just above the bright white reflection have been suggested to represent the first sea-surface waves ever detected outside Earth!
 

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...ice volcanoes and lakes of liquid methane.
Wonder what a lifeform coming from such an environment would look like.
Scientists have confirmed at least one cryovolcano on another of Saturn's moons, Enceladus. It is suspected that Titan may have a cryovolcano too, which may simply be replenishing the methane within the nitrogen rich atmosphere. However, scientists do not rule out the possibility that the ice volcano could be spewing out H2O from the interior of the moon.

Water is a prerequisite for life as we know it, making Titan a good place to search for life beyond Earth.

But, what kind of life? It's unlikely to be more complex than the bacteria which are found to live and reproduce within ice on Earth.

Last night, I was watching Professor Brian Cox studying the microbial life that survives in the solid ice of the ice caves in Iceland.

BBC Two - Wonders of the Solar System, Original Series, Aliens, Life in ice
 

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2030 is a log time to wait for Europa Clipper... I believe we get some NASA Juno pictures of Ganymede this week when they download from last Monday's flyby, followed by Europa and Io in the next couple of years.

NASA's Juno to make the closest visit to Jupiter's biggest moon Ganymede in 20 years | Space

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On Mars, the Ingenuity Helicopter threw a bit of a wobble on Flight 6, due to error in software, but didn't crash:

Surviving an In-Flight Anomaly: What Happened on Ingenuity’s Sixth Flight - NASA Mars

Solar Eclipse on Thursday, June 10. Visible in UK 10AM, Norway 11AM and Canada about 5.30AM.

'Ring of fire' eclipse 2021: When, where and how to see the annular solar eclipse on June 10 | Space

I thought you can look through a small pinhole in a piece of card to see it without blinding yourself... is that right? Might be able to set up the telescope too, projecting onto a screen. Done that before.
 
I used sunglasses on my sunglasses once. Perhaps it would work to add a binocular.
No! No! No! :eek:

Ordinary sunglasses, even very dark ones, are not safe for looking at the sun; they transmit thousands of times too much sunlight.

Adding binoculars will only focus the Sun's rays on the retina causing irreversible damage!

The only safe way to look directly at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed sun is through special-purpose solar filters, such as “eclipse glasses”.

safety_3.JPG


Personally I would avoid direct observation. It's much safer to employ photographic or telescopic projection methods.

Safety | Total Solar Eclipse 2017

Do NOT use sunglasses, polaroid filters, smoked glass, exposed colour film, X-ray film, or photographic neutral density filters.

EarthSky | Top 7 tips for observing the sun safely
 
I agree. Your eyesight is precious. I damaged mine looking at the Sun when I was 10. Looking at sunspots direct. Now got blind spots. I frequently misread words because letters are missing. :mad:

Remember the 6P's. Prior Planning Prevents P*** Poor Performance! :D

Clearly nothing short of professional equipment is to be trusted. Proper sun filters are 99.99% filtering and block ultraviolet.

My Binos were no good, because you need a tripod. I ran my toy telescope up the flagpole just now. Seems OK projecting onto paper. May build a shade for the telescope barrel itself out of cardboard and tape before Thursday. That is not a sunspot, BTW, it's an eyepiece fault. :rolleyes:
 

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I thought you can look through a small pinhole in a piece of card to see it without blinding yourself... is that right?
No, that is not right!

For safety's sake, there should be no direct observation of the Sun through the pinhole.

Instead, the pinhole is used to project an image of the Sun onto another piece of card/paper.

pinhole-projector-diy.png


How to View a Solar Eclipse: Make a Pinhole Projector

The smaller the pinhole, the sharper, but dimmer, the image.
 
Ordinary sunglasses, even very dark ones, are not safe for looking at the sun; they transmit thousands of times too much sunlight.

Yeah, quite a few years ago when I was a teenager, had one pair of some kind of cardboard sunglasses labelled and intended for the purpose that where somewhat lacking in quality. Darker than regular sunglasses but still not up to snuff, completely useless.

I also had access to some good quality sunglasses and used two pairs over each other, compared to a welding glass that was passed around the experience was relatively equal but slightly better. Not saying people should do that, but it worked fine in my limited testing scenario. This will inevitably vary pending on the type of glasses involved etc.
Also tried the pinholed cardboard thing, but that was not adequate/somewhat lacking in quality IMO.
 
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