Street lets us know that:
NASA has scheduled a media teleconference Wednesday, May 14, at 1 p.m. EDT, to announce the discovery of an object in our Galaxy astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years. This finding was made by combining data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory with ground-based observations.
Live audio of the teleconference will be streamed online: here.
What do you think they are going to announce? The winner gets to hook up with Scowly.
What has NASA Been Hunting?
Popularity: 25% [?]
Tagged as: announcement, discovery, nasa, rumor
Fuck, you’re fast, Thor.
i think they will reveal Thor’s true identity.
We’ve already found water. They wouldn’t tell us if it were aliens. I’m going with a white hole or an habitable planet.
Is poonani the new poontang?
Damn, wabbits is so good.. I wish I had thought of that one
P.S. I’m moving to the new planet if they have one.
i voted water, but i’m with Echo. “earth-like planet” or similar solar system is my guess.
@5 T’was the first thing that came to mind.
You know, why couldn’t they have waited ’til the 25th to make their announcement? That would have been perfect.
Hey, is this the reason the party is on may 25th?
trick question - NASA hasn’t been around for 50 years. Unless they’re counting NACA as well…
/think it’s a couple of months shy of 50
Meanwhile, across the pond.
/ the truth is out there, you pommy bastids
The winner gets to hook up with Scowly…
Yeah, but then Tuesday will kick your ass!
Well, no one gets to hook up with Scowly because no one guessed the remnants of a recent supernova.
Gosh, that was my second choice.
In case anyone wants pictures of the “discovery”.
I’m kinda disappointed.
dear the government,
we are not going to lie to you, this is a big letdown. we do not want remnants of deceased supernovae. we want war with space aliens, and sexual space alien war suits specially designed for sexy wars with space. please go back to your space drawing board, with your space pocket protectors, and create a sexy space war alien porn with leather suits. we will pay $19.95.
thank you,
the internet
if/when aliens are discovered, it won’t be a NASA newsconference, it’ll be a Presidential news conference.
just sayin’
/not dissapointed. Stars blowing up is pretty cool. As long as it’s not ours…
Yes, this is officially boring. Thanks, echo.
Stars blowing up is pretty cool. As long as it’s not ours…
In some sense, ours has already begun the process of blowing up, and one day it will scatter our atoms out across the far reaches of the universe.
(I swear I’m not high.)
in about 4 billion years….
we have a class G right? Is it big enough to go all nova’ish?
/been a loooong time since I read up on any of this kinda stuff
@20: The sun can’t go super nova. In about 6 billion years, it will expand and become a red giant. At this point, it will be big enough to fill half of our sky. Then it will collapse into a white dwarf.
/I think I got that right.
I think when it becomes a red giant, it will be big enough to consume our planet.
Yer a white dwarf.
yah, I believe the red giant phase will make it a little larger than 1 au in diameter. Since we’re at 1 au (which is kinda the definition), we’re kinda screwed.
let’s strap some big ass rockets on this baby and get outa this neighborhood…
er, 2 au in diameter …
This is one of the smartest threads we’ve had on here. Do they actually know how big the sun will get, or are the just guessing educatedly?
again, loooong time - but I believe it’s a fairly simple(ish) calculation. The mass of the sun (currently) is what determines its size, once that fuel (Hydrogen, right?) burns off to the point where its mass lessens its gravity, it will expand (red giant), then as that fuel runs out, it white dwarfs.
given that we know the current mass of the sun, we can calculate the rest
mass lessens its gravity? what a fugly phrasing…
the sun travels around the earth. doesn’t everyone know that!?!??!!
I FEEL LIKE IM TAKING CRAZY PILLS
It might have been ugly phrasing, but mass and gravity are directly proportional, so it makes sense.
From Wikipedia:
Earth’s fate is not clear. As a red giant, the Sun will have a maximum radius beyond the Earth’s current orbit, 1 AU (150,000,000,000 m), 250 times the present radius of the Sun.[28] However, by the time it is an asymptotic giant branch star, the Sun will have lost roughly 30% of its present mass due to a stellar wind, so the orbits of the planets will move outward. If it were only for this, Earth would probably be spared, but new research suggests that Earth will be swallowed by the Sun due to tidal interactions.
And now we know where all the dorks are.
I don’t believe in gravity, it is a flawed theory.
I believe in “intelligent falling”.
Welcome to the party shen.
HAHHAHAH slicey
dorks are the new hawt
but don’t we exist in a razor-thin margin of favorable temperatures for life? with all those changes (sun’s mass, orbit expansion) it’s far more likely that we’ll either cook off or freeze up long before anybody has a chance to deploy american troops to the surface of the sun and restore democracy.
Yes, the sun’s fate is a given. No, you don’t give a rip. Because it’s gonna be pretty much business as usual, sun-wise, for another 5 billion years, give or take a couple billion.
Shenzy, don’t throw stones. YOU are most assuredly a closet dork. The short skirts don’t fool anyone.
YOU might not give a rip, but I plan on being immortal.
Time to start building a dyson sphere (linkypoo), and get to work on dragging ol sol to a nebula so we can feed it hydrogen
@36: Whut? I’z stoopid az they cum.
@37 oytee- you’re the bean burrito fan, no? Feed you beans and you can sit inside your sphere and supply sol with methane. It would be a closed ecosystem. Just text me when you finish building the Dyson sphere and I’ll send beans.
@38: I didn’t say you were a SMART dork…
NASA’s been looking for URANUS!
Me big Uranus supporter. Yay! Up Uranus!
no offense Jay, but I’m really not interested in Uranus…
@43- gawd, I HOPE not.
Uranus is a gas, man!
Here’s some May 25th Space Madness. When did Hollywood infiltrate NASA?
NNNNNNYYYYYEEEEEERDS!
@11 I would kick their ass? Nah, I just take my revenge with a foursome…
Tuesday, I didn’t see you Tuesday. Were you there?
No
I am in Myrtle Beach for work. It’s lame…I hate missing Tuesdays. Next week though–it is on.
Enjoy Myrtle Beach. I may miss next week. Supposed to be in Pennsylvania Monday night, but there’s no telling when I’ll get back on Tuesday.
Next week though–it is on.
I hope so.
but there’s no telling when I’ll get back on Tuesday.
must…..resist….obvious….comment…
Never fear B yo! I will be there with bells on…okay, no bells, but a smile
Boo echo! You will be missed if you don’t make it. If you do I will save you a beer.
I was really hoping for bells.
Thanks Tuesday. I’ll do my best to at least make an appearance.