Space, man

Okay, I watched a show on the Science Channel the other night about Jupiter and the Hubble telescope. It was late at night, and there wasn't anything else on, so I figured "what the hell" and decided to watch it. Well, that show proved to be the most genuinely interesting thing I've watched in quite some time.

It was absolutely fascinating. I have always been interested in space and the universe, but this just put me over the edge, so to speak. There is so much going on out there that people don't know about and for the most part don't even care about, I don't even know where to begin. I think it's cool that Jupiter, the biggest planet in our tiny little solar system, is made up of mostly gasses, rather than a solid planet like Earth.

I'm sure some people here are familiar with the big red spot on Jupiter, which is a trademark for it. Anyways, they said that spot is something like three times as big as planet Earth. That means Jupiter itself is gigantic, bigger than we could ever comprehend. But, as previously stated, most of the planet is just gas, so the size of the solid core (if there is one) is relatively unknown.

Also, it's amazing that Jupiter itself is almost like it's own solar system due to the moons that revolve around the planet. There's this one moon, I forget the name, but it's made of ice, with water underneath the frozen crust. They were asking themselve if there could be life under there; well, I don't think there's really any question that there probably is. They want to spend money to find out, but I don't think they should even bother.

One thing that bothered me though, when they couldn't use the Hubble anymore, they just crashed it into the planet of Jupiter. Now that may not seem like a big deal, but who knows what kind of catastrophic events that one action could cause in the distant future. I know they had to do something with it, but they should have thought it through a little better.

Anyway, is there anybody out there that finds the universe and planets and all that stuff interesting?? I could go on for hours & hours discussing & debating the many wonders of the unknown world.

Been a Sci-Fi fan since I learned to read. Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan and Robert A Heinlein till this very day, remain some of my most favourite authors.

There a nurse at a nursing forum I'm a part off - we regularly dwelve into these discussions. Sadly since I don't have a TV I've been quite out of touch for some years now. I try and follow with print media... but sometimes, ya just gots to have that visuals, y'dig?

Oh man, the visuals are incredible. That's what makes the universe so cool: being able to see everything.

I've always had a fascination for astronomy.

Here's an interesting link for likeminded folks:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

I'm currently using the "August 5, 05 -- triple sunset" for wallpaper.

I'm planning on getting a Ph. D in astrophysics, so you could say I have a bit of an interest in this stuff.

Reading what you said though...ever read Clarke's Space Odyssey series? It's science fiction, but it's based quite a bit on scientific realities (like the possibility of life existing on Europa or Jupiter turning into another star, etc).

Nice, I've decided to follow suit with the "Lagoon Nebula" image from the same month.

Woah, those pictures are very nice. I like "2005 May 28: Himalayan Horizon From Space"

When the Moon Was Young - http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050513.html

Is my current wallpaper

Wait, why is this in the Dark Side forum?

'cause Animal screwed up.

Anybody else notice Venus lately? It looks like a spotlight hanging up there.

I thought it was a bloody airliner.

Yep! Just imagine the view I get up here in the mountains!

No way, man. Nothing's darker than space.

Inside of a cave is darker than space.

At least in space you have starlight.

How about inside a black hole?