Anyone here know much about Space?

[dappa]

I read in an astronomy book that In 2-3 billion years the sun will run out of hydrogen and then start burning all its helium reserves causing it to become a red giant star. The book said that it would expand as far as the earth either devouring it or scorching really badly like mercury.

I also read that by calculating the speed of light and using it to work out how far light has travelled you could see back into the past, light which supposedly appeared 3 secs after the big bang but there is no earlier evidence of any light before this 3 seconds.

[John Smith]

The light provinient from the sun takes 8 minutes to reach the planet Earth.
The meteorite belt between Earth and Mars (Or is it Mars and Jupiter?) are beleived to be the remaints of the explosion of a planet that once existed in that orbit.

I love Space too

[Kat]

=o
i loveses astronomy <3
and i pretty much was going to say what Dappa said,in ~5 billion years the sun will become a giant,and the earth is about the size of a White Dwarf,and White Dwarfs are stars that are really bright but not really hot,just incase you were wodering what it was :Rolleyes:
i don't know alot about it,but i like learning about it.

[dappa]

I also read that two galaxies on either side of our galxy (cant remember their names) which are travelling at very fast speeds will eventually crash into our galaxy in milions of years time causing lets say plenty of reactions.

[dappa]

There is a theory that jupiter is a failed star. One astronomy magazine which I read said that if the chemical reactions of jupiter were stronger than what they are now. Jupiter would have enough power to turn itself into a star. Just aswell it cant though.

[ultimecia]

i found this on a website called www.space.com about when the delta 4 is going into space next,

MISSION UPDATE

Delta 4 Rocket to Launch Military Weather Satellite
For 4:25 p.m. EDT Friday, October 27:

A Boeing-built Delta 4 medium rocket is set to launch the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program 17 (DMSP 17) weather satellite into orbit in a space shot to lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The satellite is slated to launch between 8:53-9:03 a.m. EST (1353-1403 GMT) on Nov. 4 from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex-6.

Built for the U.S. Air Force by Lockheed Martin, the DMSP 17 satellite is aimed for a polar orbit to aid global weather prediction of the U.S. military. The spacecraft carries a sophisticated sensor suite capable of scanning cloud cover in the visible and infrared wavelengths, as well as measure precipitation, surface temperature and soil moisture. The vehicle is also designed to collect global meteorological, oceanographic and solar-geophysical data on weather conditions, according a Lockheed Martin description.

The military's DMSP satellite constellation currently consists of two spacecraft in near-polar orbits, and should be amplified by four additional elements slated to launch in upcoming years, Lockheed officials said. DMSP 17 is one of those four yet to fly, they added.

Tariq Malik, SPACE.com staff writer.



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About the Rocket
About the Launch Site

Built by Boeing, the Delta 4 family can trace its heritage back to the Air Force's Thor nuclear missile. It was designed as part of the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program and relies on a common booster core stage. It can be combined with various booster rockets and nose cones to handle a wide variety of satellite delivery missions. Military and commercial versions will be flown from the Cape and Vandenberg AFB. Learn more here. Vandenberg Air Force Base is located north of Los Angeles and sits along the Pacific Coast of California. Historically, Vandenberg is where the military practiced launching missiles after they were tested at Cape Canaveral and declared operational. In more modern times, Vandenberg also serves as a missile test site, as well as the main base for launching spacecraft into polar orbits over Earth.
Learn more here.

[ultimecia]

A Boeing Delta 4 rocket is to orbit the DMSP 17 weather satellite for the U.S. Air Force from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

[Phoenix Flame]

The vastness of space. Isn't it amazing!

Black holes are only formed from the largest of stars.

The more massive the star, the more matter/gravity it has. When the star exhausts it's fuel, it begins expanding before it collapses in on itself (as other's have said) turning into a black hole.

There are even super-massive black holes. One is believed to be at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

I once hypothesized that if you could control how gravity worked, you could travel faster than light. My thought is that gravity acts faster than light travels. If you placed an object with large mass in an area of the galaxy where another object's mass would tug at it - I believe that the trajectory of the two objects would change before the light from one would get to the other...

I thought it was a cool theory!

[dappa]

They also say that most of the mass of the universe is unseen dark matter.

[Axel]

There is a theory going around the scientific community that our universe is one among many, which is called a multiverse or multi-membrane. Our universe was formed due to two other universes colliding. Here is another random Space tidbit- there is a theory that if you fold the fabric of time and space you can travel between the folds, try searching for wormhole theory on wikipedia.org