Topic: 16 year study of Milky Way's black hole

[arakish]

Here is an interesting video story about the ESOs 16 year study of the black hole at the center of our Milky Way.

http://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso0846b/

rmfr

[Wolfhound]

Interesting video.  Had read an article a month or two ago about this very study and found it interesting (had thought about posting a link to the article, but wasn't sure if anyone else would be as interested in it as I was).  Thanks for posting the link.

[yammahoper]

cool...but the music is far to loud.

[arakish]

Interesting video.  Had read an article a month or two ago about this very study and found it interesting (had thought about posting a link to the article, but wasn't sure if anyone else would be as interested in it as I was).  Thanks for posting the link.

Post anyway.  There is bound to be at least one person (me, in particular) here who would find it interesting.

cool...but the music is far to loud.

Totally agree.  However, usually, I browse the internet with sound muted due to the fact that I have ran across so many websites with bgsound set so high it literally embeds you into wall behind you, even with my volume set to only 2%.  Thus, I always mute my sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvfHNhkSOG0

rmfr

[Wolfhound]

Speaking of interesting articles about space, here is an article about the Kepler-62 system: http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2013/04/two-water-worlds-price-one?et_cid=3212805&et_rid=41410028&location=top

As well as Wikipedia's listing of planetary systems so far discovered or suspected: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_planetary_systems

[RandalThor]

Yeah, neat stuff; I like this kind of stuff, it spurs the imagination.

[arakish]

As well as Wikipedia's listing of planetary systems so far discovered or suspected: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_planetary_systems

I have a spreadsheet designed to convert the coordinates in this listing into 3D Cartesian coordinates.  I'll upload it to the vault when I get it done.

rmfr

[Wolfhound]

I have a spreadsheet designed to convert the coordinates in this listing into 3D Cartesian coordinates.  I'll upload it to the vault when I get it done.

rmfr

Looking forward to seeing it. 

That is one of the things that I always liked about SM over other sci-fi/space games, is that many others use 2-D maps for star systems, which really doesn't give you the full potential for options and depth of neighboring systems (while I liked Traveller, that was the thing I disliked the most about it and was happy to see how it was handled in SM when I started buying the books back in the 80's). 

That's also one of the great things about Eve-Online, is that it uses an actual 3-D map (and with a few planets in some stellar systems having orbits that are out of kilter with the rest of the system on occasion). 

[Wolfhound]

Another interestin garticle relative to planetary discoveries (using a little different technique than those commonly used): http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/05/14/einstein-planet-new-alien-world-revealed-by-relativity/.

[arakish]

I have a spreadsheet designed to convert the coordinates in this listing into 3D Cartesian coordinates.  I'll upload it to the vault when I get it done.

rmfr

Looking forward to seeing it. 

Wanted let y'all know that I am working on this.  Have a lot of data cleanup after exporting/importing from HTML to spreadsheet.

Anyone know of a good method or tool for doing this without the need for a ton of data cleaning?

rmfr

[arakish]

Finally, here is the spreadsheets.  Attached, and once approved, is the file StarsWithPlanetsCartesianCoordinates.zip.

I know I posted I had a spreadsheet, but I was wrong.  Sorry.  What I used was a database at UNM that outputs the final results in a CSV file.  Then, I import that into spreadsheet progams.  Sorry for any misleading or confusion...

Files in StarsWithPlanetsCartesianCoordinates.zip

FileList.txt - text file listing below
StarsWithPlanetsCartesianCoordinates.csv - Comma Separated Values file
StarsWithPlanetsCartesianCoordinates.ods - Open Document Spreadsheet (OpenOffice)
StarsWithPlanetsCartesianCoordinates.qpw - Quattro Pro Workbook (WordPerfect Suite)
StarsWithPlanetsCartesianCoordinates.txt - same as CSV file above but with TXT suffix
StarsWithPlanetsCartesianCoordinates.xls - Excel Spreadsheet (pre 2007)
StarsWithPlanetsCartesianCoordinates.xlsx - Excel Spreadsheet (2007+)

rmfr (arakish)

[Wolfhound]

Here is another interesting article about three confirmed super-earths within the life-zone of a nearby star, for those who are interested:

http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2013/06/three-planets-habitable-zone-nearby-star-0?et_cid=3334432&et_rid=41410028&type=headline

Haven't had the chance to look yet to see if these are included in the data provided above by arakish, as I just came across this article at work this morning. 

[markc]

 I saw that article myself. I am always amazed by just how many super earths they are finding. But then again if you have bad eyesight and you get new glasses it is the same thing.
MDC

[Wolfhound]

hehehe...  Yup, as technology and our observational tools improve, we discover more and understand more.  Although often times the answers also raise more questions, but that's part of the fun behind science. 

[Wolfhound]

This one is less science related and more economics related, but figured with this thread having several article links, might as well post it here for anyone who has not seen this yet.  PayPal Galactic-> pay your bills and make purchases while in space: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/06/paypal-creates-way-buy-things-space?et_cid=3337189&et_rid=54634990&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.laboratoryequipment.com%2fnews%2f2013%2f06%2fpaypal-creates-way-buy-things-space

At first I kind of laughed about it but if we are ever going to truly expand our society out to the stars this will be needed.

The article also includes a link to make monetary donations to SETI.  Or if you have computer hardware with spare time available, there are also options for donating computer time to SETI by installing BOINC software (this is something that I do with my home computer during the night while sleeping as well as while at work during the day).  Or there are many other scientific organizations that are looking for remote computer processing resources through the BOINC if SETI doesn't interest you including geologic, biologic, astrophysics, etc. research organizations).

[Wolfhound]

another interesting article that might be of interest to some people:
http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/07/sixty-b-planets-may-be-habitable-milky-way?et_cid=3345509&et_rid=54634990&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.laboratoryequipment.com%2fnews%2f2013%2f07%2fsixty-b-planets-may-be-habitable-milky-way

[Wolfhound]

And here is another one that might be of interest:  Hubble Sees an Actual Blue Planet (but not caused by water):

http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/07/hubble-sees-actual-blue-planet?et_cid=3362965&et_rid=54634990&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.laboratoryequipment.com%2fnews%2f2013%2f07%2fhubble-sees-actual-blue-planet

It appears (or so they suspect from the observations thus far) that the color could be caused by raining liquid silica (glass).

[markc]

 Yes a lot of people forget that glass is a super cool liquid.
MDC

[Wolfhound]

Claoking Device (at least a good start on the technology, which has been in development for nearing a decade now): 
http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2013/11/thin-active-invisibility-cloak-demonstrated-first-time?et_cid=3599289&et_rid=41410028&type=headline

[RandalThor]

And here is another one that might be of interest:  Hubble Sees an Actual Blue Planet (but not caused by water):

Hubble and other observatories have made intensive studies of HD 189733b and found its atmosphere to be changeable and exotic.

That is one way to put this:

On this turbulent alien world, the daytime temperature is nearly 2,000 F, and it possibly rains glass – sideways – in howling, 4,500-mph winds.

Sheesh! You don't need an umbrella so much as a force field! Very neat.