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Infrared Telescope Lifts Off
An anonymous reader writes "On its Delta 2 Heavy-Lift vehicle, the Space Infrared Telescope (SIRTF) successfully launched to its solar orbit at 1:35 AM (EDT). As a result of the expansion of the Universe, most of the optical and ultraviolet radiation emitted from stars, galaxies, and quasars since the beginning of time now lies in the infrared. How and when the first objects in the Universe formed will be learned in large part from this observatory's infrared observations."
Why is Slashdot silent about the DoS attack on SCO perpetrated by an open source zealot who apparently was inspired by ESR's ridiculous militant rant a few days ago?
Could we put this in geosynchronous orbit over Cowbay cheerleader camp?
GNAA REPRESENT REPRESENT!
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Now they can catch me speeding from outer space!
So, this means it will be able to see through those bikinis, eh?
So as we try to see farther and farther, we need to get more infrared pictures. And we need to send bigger and bigger fridges into space with bigger cameras inside.
Soon they'll try the ultimate, using the recent MIT laser cooling technique to bring down the temperature to below 1 kelvins. Now thats when the ambient cosmic background radiation will become a pain.
Ive photographed in the night, and I know you need to keep the shutter open for up to a minute or more. I wonder if those giant freezers can hold still as they orbit around a planet that orbits around the sun. They will soon be needing LONG exposure times.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Because if it was, I could use it to actually see my tiny dick.
Oh well, not even science can help me.
I work at Ball Aerospace... I thought some of you might like to see the BATC stuff.
And he was liking it very much.
Am I the only one who thinks that the SIRTF looks a bit like a high-end coffee machine?
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Optical (visible?), ultraviolet and infrared are distinct parts of the electronmagnetic spectrum. the optical and ultraviolet regions do not lie in the infrared region.
For more info see http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroo m/ir_tutorial/what_is_ir.html
Didn't VA Software Corporation (You know the mega conglomerate that runs Slashdot) fire ESR in like 2001 or something. They don't bother to publish his stories anymore now that he isn't helping them sell over priced x86 linuxboxes.
wow.
that looks just like an upside-down spy satellite!
lets hope the mirror didn't get mixed up with the 'real' mirrors this time.
[overused catchphrase about overlords goes here]
Major Carnagle: Where's the laser?
Professor Hathaway: It's coming.
Major Carnagle: It's coming? It's not even breathing hard.
- from the movie Real Genius, quoted from http://us.imdb.com/Quotes?0089886
I posted this as a news story yesterday. It was rejected.
Anyway,
Here's a nice article about SIRTF that I found to be pretty cool.
This is great. The more telescopes we can get in orbit, the better. Especially those in different spectrums. There's so much data that the earth is being bomarded wioth constantly that is untapped. We're slowly getting more and more of this data and leaning so much about the universe because of it. I lok foward to the findings of this telescope.
Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
God, I hope they calculate the trajectories right or there might be an interesting "meteor" shower in about 60 years...
CNN Article
Well, I suppose you know about the red shift due to the general expansion of the universe? The most distant objects in the universe are now receeding away from us at such a massive rate that the visible light they emitted has been so far red shifted as to wind up in the infrared region. There's a Doppler effect for light that causes light from an object moving very quickly away from an observer to reach the observer at a lower frequency than what was transmitted (the red shift), just like a car moving away from you makes sounds at a lower pitch than were it standing still or moving towards you. Because of Hubble's law, the farther away an object is, the faster it's moving away from us, and consequently, the greater the Doppler effect. This infrared probe is designed to view objects that have been so far "red shifted" as to apparently be emitting infrared radiation.
Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
he is write, my penis is very tinny too
Not a Campaign Stop
An odd assortment of cars and an armored truck converged at Engineer Springs in southern California on the evening of August 16, 1926. Each vehicle bore a campaign sticker for Charles C. Crail, Los Angeles County candidate for judge. The twelve dozen or so men each had a new canteen, weapons, and an assortment of tobacco products. Their purpose, though, was not electioneering; it was revolutioneering. Led by former Mexican General and politico Enrique Estrada, the band intended to spark yet another revolt in Mexico and so topple the government of President Callas. In what was one of the Bureau's largest cases that decade, the Bureau thwarted Enrique's insurrection and earned the gratitude of the Mexican government.
Although we get along well with Mexico today, stepping back to the 1920's we see that this friendship is of recent vintage. Especially in the years following the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the political situation along our border was volatile. Turmoil in Mexico often led to problems in the US, like the raids in which Mexican strongman Pancho Villa and his banditos killed several US citizens. For this reason, the US held to a policy of neutrality towards the competing parties in Mexican politics. It was the job of the FBI (known at that time as the Bureau of Investigation) to enforce this neutrality and many Agent case hours were spent following up the latest rumors of revolution.
You are exqueezed.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Page A1, Washington Post, December 30, 1983:
Possibly as Large as Jupiter; Mystery Heavenly Body Discovered
More on that article HERE.
Some of you won't be able to "get past" other parts of the "story" and so this will degenerate into a flame thread. In spite of that, I'm not gonna let this "news for geeks" website play ignorant again about science articles that may have more to them than meets the eye.
Question Everything.
What is the density of the universe (our solar system)?
Where does it end, when does a new one start?
Is the expanding universe slowing down expanding at n ever decreasing rate?
Tools like this can give us more substantial evidence in answering these questions. This knowledge is relevant in planning and preparing a space agenda for the near future.
The more we know about the physical properties of outer space, determined by measuring speed, direction and age of light/particles, the better we can launch more useful machines into space, as opposed to another pair of satellites for the next cable channel.
but what I REALLY want to know is:
WHERE IS MY SCO STORY FOR TODAY?!?!?!
Man, I am running thin here!
Head of the Dorks
The IR is where many molecular spectral signatures can be found. This is a critical region of the spectrum for studying molecules in interstellar clouds.
Whats with all this "outer space" nonsense. Anybody who believes in that crap is obviously really idiot. Seriously, if you having yet figured it out I suggest you pour a cup of earl grey and figure it out, the answer to the meaning of life is a good biscuit.
Lets see someone write a stupider(!) piece of crap before going to bed to get the flamebait award.
Here are some links to other projects that have similar goals - examining expansion of the universe, faraway objects, etc. They also have sophisticated infrared imaging capabilities. The James Webb Space Telescope (formerly Next Generation Space Telescope) is the successor to Hubble, and Supernova/Acceleration Probe which, from what I remember, locates potential supernovae by examining data taken at fixed ground locations then points an orbiting camera at the calculated location to collect radiation data. Really interesting stuff!
- "Thick" Java Client for proposals, planning and data retieval - yes folks, Java on the desktop does work
- Estimating and visibility servers - many computing drone managed by a J2EE server
- Web services access to all of the public data produced by SIRTF - Perl,
.NET, C++ is doesn't matter you can all get the data
Oh, I forgot the mention.... there is not a single Windows box in the operations system. It's all Unix based because... well you know why don't you?You remember this one? I do. Well sort of...Ouch!
Because that would've been a dupe just like this story is.
From the CNN.com article:
SIRTF's detectors are incredibly sensitive. If you could put a common household television remote control in deep space SIRTF could detect it at a distance of 25,000 miles.
Considering that taxpayers put up 1.9 billion for the observatory, do you think they could use it to find the remote cotrol that I lost in my living room?
Thank you, Captain Obvious!!!
Sorry, couldn't resist...
I said I beat his ass with a black pecker that's all.
Doesn't that require evaporation? I seem to recall from college chemistry that the reason pumping works is due to evaporative cooling. Kind of like a liquid helium swamp cooler. I would think that it'd be hard to get useful evaporative cooling in space due to that whole vacuum thing.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
It is worth noting that the SIRTF SWIRE survey may be able to detect solar system sized supercomputers, aka Matrioshka Brains. For discussion see the thread starting here and navigate using the icons in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
I seem to recall from college chemistry that the reason pumping works is due to evaporative cooling.
It sounds like he's just talking about straightforward refrigeration: pump a refrigerant to a low pressure, and it boils, absorbing heat from whatever you want cooled; then pump it back up to a high pressure, and it condenses, dumping the heat somewhere else. The refrigerant never actually gets used up unless there's a leak.
Around any pair of orbiting bodies are what we call the Lagrange points... points of relative stability where gravitational forces balance out.
L2 is, I believe, opposite the Sun on the other side of earth... I am unsure if it would be in shadow, as I'm not sure of the distance... but something sitting there will have a year the same length as the earth.
This is due to the earth's gravity added to the suns.. effectively something at L2 feels like it's orbiting a heavier mass, so it can orbit faster to keep up.
There are four other lagrange points... one towards the sun (where the SOHO solar observation satellite lives), (L1)
One on the opposite side of the Sun from us (always behind the sun from our point of view, so that's where the hidden planet X is)
And two ahead and behind our orbit, sort of (google up a diagram). these are sometiems called "Trojan points"... asteroids are found orbiting these points by Jupiter, Mars... not at earth, though large concentrations of dust have been found gathered there.
Ha! They give gravitational binding energy in Watts!!! Quite the reputable source.
If you were discussing the planetary dismantlement paper, that problem is now corrected.
Wouldnt it be the "infrared telescope extends into space"
Perhaps Cmdr Taco should tell Nasa who we select?
No answers on a post card, please...
See: this article in Space Today on SIRTF.
...-.-
I mean I understand it is a high stress job, but he made George Bush sound like a confident and interesting orator....
Dubyah has better script writers to.
Q.
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