Greetings
I love the website Astronomy Picture of the Day, have it bookmarked and visit it at least weekly. It's a great way to visualize the evolution and rapid advancement in technology and knowledge of the world we live in and how that has evolved throughout human history. It is a truly epic story and one that should make us all proud.

Sometimes a particular day's entry is a bit "run of the mill" for those of us who have witnessed even just some of Hubble's amazing photos, but some days are nothing short of the true meaning of "!! AWESOME !! and this one just knocked me for a loop even before I hit the "Full Screen" button. I find it hard to imagine anyone being unmoved by such an incredible document even if it was just a photo or two but a full motion HD movie of such an inconceivable event is just astounding. I find it humbling, uplifting, exciting and terrifying all at the same time.

How about you?

... A Medium Sized Flare ...

Very nice!

Another good website for such stuff is SpaceWeather: http://spaceweather.com/

This is one of the first websites I ever typed up, back in 2000, and long since abandoned. If you view the page source the authors name and the username in my screenshots are the same, jitte.

Solar Storm Monitor

The link code must have changed for my NASA ACE Satellite Real-Time Solar Wind Data Broadcast and NOAA POES Satellite Auroral Map gauges as they're not working now. (Yes, I misspelled Satellite on the last one. My own writing has always been the hardest to proofread.) Angelfire injection of their ads made my XHTML invalid, which irked me to no end, but my CSS still validates.

I got my own domain to remedy that situation and expanded the site to include significant Space Weather Bulletins among other things. The Bulletin button still works with bulletins issued from 2000-2004, and some other buttons too, but it takes a few seconds for archive.org to load them. This version uses XHTML Frameset 1.0 and my CSS buttons:

https://web.archive.org/web/20041125...omplex.com:80/

I already joined the Physics forum. Even post there. Probably Ruffled a few feathers using my country boy style.

I figure they will mention it sooner or later.

Thanks for the video link. Edit. Clicking on everybody's links. Think I will rate this thread.

Oops

the image of this

Loved that video! If people could really grasp that we are on this rock orbiting around other rocks the problems of this world would immediately seem so small in comparison.

Found this fantastic picture/wallpaper: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180403.html

While every forum has some percentage of tightasses the primary purpose of the physics forum, as you may have noticed, is education. A very high percentage of posts are from college and even high school and under students asking questions, proposing problems, seeking clarification, etc and there's even an area for Homework where the guidelines allow pointing in a general direction by highlighting errors (maintaining DIY while helping). Naturally since there is a component of self-induced distrust and even hostility from some elements who have other agendas than discovery and those get shut down rather quickly. It's really rare that feathers get ruffled since it becomes obvious rather quickly if someone has an interest in exploring and learning or has some manner of bible to thump. Those that wish to discover things are most often made welcome.

There are many scientists, even of historic renown, that were born simple Country Boys. Michael Faraday, Clyde Tombaugh, and Philo Farnsworth (inventor of television) are just a few. If you've ever watched the loose DocuDrama "October Skies" it displays the struggles of a West Virginia coal mining town boy and how he rose against severe odds to become a fairly high level employee of NASA involved in many historic Space shots. Country Boys are by no means a focus for disrespect. Attitude matters a lot but background matters little. I'm glad you joined.

I'm naturally pleased you enjoyed it and I concur with your observation. Now that we are in the 21st Century and landed men on the Moon over a half century ago which proved among other things that government, military and corporations could actually cooperate and achieve incredible things in many diverse fields not only within a single nation but globally and that all Mankind has benefited in incalculable ways in health, medicine, fabrics, fasteners, alloys, micro-electronics, computing, energy sources, and on and on, you'd think there would be greater emphasis and support for such endeavors but it seems a fairly high percentage of the population can't see past the tip of their nose. Hopefully we grow out of our Terrible Twos sooner rather than later.

Geez Trihexagonal, that's rather impressive. Kudos!

Thanks for the link! That one had somehow escaped me and it's tres cool.

Thanks for the video enorbet!

That was nothing short of AMAZING!! It always amazes me to see stuff like that, we are just so, so bloody tiny compared to the sun. I'm always interested by space, and just can't get my head around how BIG it is!

I've got a number of "space wallpapers" that I've downloaded and use in a "slideshow" for KDE, so I see a different one every 10 seconds, as my desktop wallpaper. I like the ones with all the different stars, I sometimes just leave the desktop wallpaper "slide-showing" along (if you know what I mean), so I can watch it like one.

Excellent idea for a thread enorbet!

FWIW naturally I shared this with my Family as well and a common response is the GASP! when the scale of the Earth pops in. Often what follows is a remark about "how insignificant we are" and my reaction is, "I agree it shows how small we are but I don't get insignificant. It's not that we are individually so important but it isdn't separate from Us. We are an inseparable part of it AND ... WE KNOW IT !!! "

T̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶a̶d̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶e̶a̶d̶,̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶w̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶e̶l̶s̶e̶ ̶I̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶m̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶.̶
h̶t̶t̶p̶:̶/̶/̶w̶w̶w̶.̶f̶o̶x̶n̶e̶w̶s̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/̶s̶c̶i̶e̶n̶c̶e̶/̶2̶0̶1̶8̶/̶0̶5̶/̶3̶1̶/̶s̶u̶p̶e̶r̶s̶o̶n̶i̶c̶-̶t̶i̶c̶-̶t̶a̶c̶-̶u̶f̶o̶-̶s̶t̶a̶l̶k̶e̶d̶-̶u̶s̶-̶a̶i̶r̶c̶r̶a̶f̶t̶-̶c̶a̶r̶r̶i̶e̶r̶-̶

moved here: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...9/#post5861925

Thank you for your gentlemanly conduct, Chuang Tzu and if you don't mind I'd prefer you move it since the link you've posted is of a completely unknown phenomenon upon which either some military person(s) or journalist(s) are engaging in mere speculation with nothing so far but hearsay. The event is from 2004 and 14 years later is still unsubstantiated and not understood at all. I prefer this thread stick to the non-speculative. Just FTR I seriously doubt the event was a hoax but I suspect a technology glitch, possibly similar to the artifacts once called "Flying Rods".

Additionally while I have no problem with Unidentified Flying Objects as mysteries, too often people substitute "Extraterrestrial" for "Unidentified" with little or no evidence because it makes the 6PM news. I'd prefer not to pander to such sensational predilections.

EDIT: Thank you, Chuang Tzu

In the vein of this thread we truly live in an Astronomy Golden Age with major discoveries coming in almost monthly and some of those are accomplished by amateurs done with homemade or commercially available telescopes. Now that an important step has been made just this week thanks to cooperation between ESA and NASA, among others, confirming the existence of crucial organic molecules on Mars combined with the rapidly approaching closest point between Earth and Mars we can be sure many amateurs and groups will be training telescopes on that heavenly body. Look here Mars Approach Apparent Size Change to see how dramatic it's size seems to change affording a view only possible over years of time, and the collection of photos is only for the previous month and closest point won't occur till the end of July. It's going to appear much bigger by then so don't miss it if you've never witnessed an actual telescopic event on this scale.

However the main reason for this addition to this thread is another BIGGY! There is quite a lot of skepticism online and elsewhere among mostly the untrained regarding the importance and even the validity of Gravity Wave Astronomy a la LIGO and the lid is now made to form that particular coffin because unlike the collision of two black holes that started the LIGO controversy since at that event the only instruments that could detect the event was LIGO or something like it and many wrote it off as just an anomaly that ship has now officially sailed. Recently two neutron stars were observed in visible light and other spectra AND LIGO also picked it up. Short story is that the event included many spectra both visible and "invisible" each complementing the other.
LIGO works.

The following link is of a gorgeous and scientifically accurate portrayal of the event as well as a thorough explanation and links to the actual data. Like the Medium Flare it is sped up since the animation covers in less than a minute what took days to occur and it is equally massive and fascinating, and more importantly needed evidence that Gravity Wave detection is only in it's infancy and will become exceptionally important in the coming years in the exploration of the world around us.

See it here -- NASA on Important Neutron Collision Event --