Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

Apophis is suppose to come around and wipe us out, strange thing is, some of the same people that talk about 2012 are worried about 2036. However there actually might (slightly) be a danger "if" it passes by the Earth within a particular area 600 foot wide when it passes the Earth in 2029. However that hasn't stoped folk from digging out Bible quotes and the writings of Nostradamus to prove that we are going to be hit (I believe there are a couple that have told me there is a part of the Mayan calandar that says it also, I mean what is it, if 2012 oops then they put in a backup?) I suppose you can't rely on Planet X to do the job, which was suppose to be visible in the sky by now (so far, no show.)
As the old adage goes "if first your not destroyed, try try again".


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis

[quote="tnstaafl"]Apophis is suppose to come around and wipe us out, strange thing is, some of the same people that talk about 2012 are worried about 2036. However there actually might (slightly) be a danger "if" it passes by the Earth within a particular area 600 foot wide when it passes the Earth in 2029..../quote]

Sadly, I don't think any of this is going to go down. I'll be sixty-six in '36 and bored to death.

Well I've been told by the doc that I probably want last to 2012, so 2036 ain't much of a worry besides I'll be 100 that year, would that be one hell of a candle to blow out

Images of Apollo 17 spotted by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter:



More here:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/m ... pollo.html

Two down, 4 more to go. Do you think that even if they take pictures of the others that the "no Moon landing" crowd will shut up.......unfortunately neither do I.

Like you say. They'll probably say something like, they're just pictures, they're easy to fabricate.

But they're truly amazing pictures.

Indeed, one of the greatest steps man has made since he first looked up and wondered. So much has happened in such a small span of human time, Maybe thats it, if we were slower and stupider, they might be happy, knowledge, thinking and wonder makes some fear.

Its official NASA's LCROSS probe has found there is an abundant supply of water on the Moon, or at least at the South Pole area of the Moon.

Are those moon buggy tracks? How cool is that!?

Looks like it, but I suppose the group that says we didn't go will say it to is faked or mis read, not like that face on Mars .

Did the release quantify "abundant"?

"Significant amount" I believe was the words used in the titla and article, it was a lot more then they were expecting.



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33912611/ns ... ?GT1=43001

I suppose abundant would be stretching a bit, but considering its been though of as a desert before by many, forgive my excitement.

I was just hoping they'd put it in perspective.

Is it enough to provide a source of water to a moon base?

Is it enough to provide a source of hydrogen fuel?

Or, is it enough to just easily prove that it exists?

I'd say that would be the question. We have only this one site at the Pole to go by. It would be nice if there was enough for fuel and shielding. I believe we might need a word from our space expert Sagredo before I start builiding massive domes in my mind.

Least wise, they seemed to be excited.

An NY Times article says the current find amounts to 26 gallons, which is 98.4 l. That's more than they ever found in one location, in one time, so it is quite within reason to say there seems to be a lot. Although on the other hand, all you can really say for sure is that there was 98 l in that spot :-)

There were some recent results about water on the Moon, from 3 different missions (Cassini data from 10 years ago, Deep Impact, and the Indian Chandrayaan-1 mission), see another NY Times article, and the point there was that it is more wide-spread than just the polar areas, but also that it is thinly spread.

So whether or not it is enough for a base ... This find is a start, but with the previous data there is no hard proof that it really is abundant in more than one location. And I always wonder, especially the lunar south pole consists of rough terrain, so it doesn't seem like a good candidate for a manned base. But if that's where the highest concentrations are ...

But maybe there's more to Harrison Schmitt's idea of mining helium-3.

Nevertheless, finding such an amount of water, more than the few molecules that were thought to be on the Moon previously, is very exciting.

Did anyone get a view of the Leonid Meteor shower?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20091116/ ... daymorning



The skies in Okinawa were non-stop clouds and rain.

I was about to post about this!

I hope you didn't get up early to watch, because the peak hasn't occurred yet to my knowledge:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observin ... 50097.html



EST = UT - 5
JST = UT + 9
(UT = Universal Time)

so there's 14 hours difference between EST and JST, making Tuesday Nov 17th, 4am EST equal to JST 18 hours. We might be able to see something in the early evening.

About the 2nd outburst:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/communit ... 35909.html



JST = UT + 9 hours, so this peak is supposed to happen tomorrow early morning. Forecasts here are cloudy as well, but I might try, if I can manage to get up early (which is a problem nowadays :-) )

Still a few hours away here, plan on getting up and viewing, skys are clear, weather only a bit cool, perfect viewing conditions. Love setting out in a lawn chair and just looking up and seeing the wonder.

Did anybody see anything? Last night it was rainy here, so no luck. I got up this morning before 4, there was a patch of clear sky, but nothing to see. And by the time the second peak was predicted, it was already too light outside. Oh well. Maybe I'll get lucky in the next few days with some remaining meteors, as the skies have finally cleared up here a bit.

Got to see a few, in the early hours I got to see a half a dozen big ones and a couple of dozen little ones. I'm far away from city lights and no outside lights, sky was clear and cold (probably get a cold) got a few satellites as well LOL. I think a lot of people think the sky will be filled with streaking lights, like the 4th of July and get discouraged when they just see a couple then quit. Got to sit and watch, bring along something to keep you warm, mine comes in a bottle . Its a little cloudy and suppose to sprinkly tonight probably will let it pass.

Glad you got to see some, including satellites :-) Reminds me of Billy Bragg's A New England:



A couple of years ago (I thought 2000, my colleague corrected me and said 2001) it was like a sky filled with streaking lights. I remember being at a friend's house, and even though it was in the city, we saw a lot. Beautiful.

In our current place, there's still too much light pollution, unfortunately.

Such is progress We create light and lose the wonder of the heavens.