As neat as this all is, the bottom line is the same as it was back in 1996: we won't prove a damn thing until we discover this sort of thing *on Mars*.
I knew I shouldn't have peed on Mars when I was coming to Earth. But, hey, stupid engineers don't make decent bathrooms in spaceships, you know, and when you gotta go, you gotta go.
So this meteorite was found in Antarctica with Earth like bacteria. How do we know the bacteria simply didn't come from Earth itself and some how got onto the mertorite?
One day a scientist is going to get stoned and lick one of those mars meteorites, the bacteria in his mouth will interact with the dormant bacteria in the meteorite and some time not long after Will Smith will be walking down a street alone.
@Jassen: or the zombie plague will really happen and we won't be sick of all these krappy zombie films cause it will become reality thanks to some martian spooges.
Wow. I just find it amazingly cool that this picture looks like something that should be a clip from the latest Star Trek film, but it's actually real. I wanna be an astronomer!
@TotalFanGirl: 'real' is something of a misnomer here. x-rays dont have a color since they're not in the visable specturm. astronomy put the data together that made this picture possible but it took an artisit to put it togehter in this form.
@tetracycloide: I know the color is an artist's work and although it adds to the beauty of the image, it's just the idea of seeing that something this amazing in design alone exists that makes me love it! Although it's enhanced, at it's core is something real, not imagined entirely in someone's mind.
Space is so stunningly beautiful that i find it hard to believe we as a species isn't more willing to do whatever it takes to get out among the stars. And I am talking interstellar travel not going to the Moon and Mars.
@Makidian: I agree, however most of the time the pictures that are shown is not a representation of what it would look like with the naked eye, which saddens me...
@phiranaplant: The solution to both dilemmas is, of course, uploading our consciousness into eternal android bodies (at least until our consciousness is able to transcend a physical host).
Then we can fly to the stars, taking as long as we like, and see this stuff in all it's composite-spectrum glory!
@phiranaplant: Oh I know that but even still to look at it with our own eyes or with some contacts that can switch between the spectrum(s). I find the need to elaborate specifics in a community that understands these things without explanation kind of useless and it just goes without saying. One of my favorite parts of the end of BSG is when Cavil is going on about how much he hates being in a human body with eyes that can't see the true majesty of the universe. I feel that way also and detest being stuck on this planet at times.
@comrade_leviathan: I'm actually okay with that idea, and if that android body had and FTL drive in it that wouldn't rip you apart when activated I would be completely okay floating aimlessly through space and jumping to other place on the fly. @phiranaplant: Oh I know that but even still to look at it with our own eyes or with some contacts that can switch between the spectrum(s).
@tonilost: I know it's tragic. Really there are just too many of us and too many variations with wildly different ideals. If only our want and need for exploration hadn't ended with conquering most of the land mass on Earth had carried us into a want and need to explore the universe instead of a want and need to conquer the land someone else had.
@Lassus: If I had one wish it would be to exist outside of space and time so I could travel through it freely and go wherever I wanted without fear of anything. I would give my immortal soul for that as well, so at least you don't have to feel bad for wanting to sell your soul to travel through space.
11/25/09
Get. Your. Ass. To Mahs.
(I don't want to go to Saturn-- I said Mahs!)
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Where can I get eyes that see IR and x-ray?
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Then we can fly to the stars, taking as long as we like, and see this stuff in all it's composite-spectrum glory!
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@comrade_leviathan: I'm actually okay with that idea, and if that android body had and FTL drive in it that wouldn't rip you apart when activated I would be completely okay floating aimlessly through space and jumping to other place on the fly. @phiranaplant: Oh I know that but even still to look at it with our own eyes or with some contacts that can switch between the spectrum(s).
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HINT: Slow it down when you get to your destination!
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#@!
11/25/09
Hillbilly Astronauts!