Posted on 07/14/2011 3:10:48 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Neptune rotates once on its axis in about 16 hours. So, spaced about 4 hours apart these 4 images of the solar system's most distant gas giant cover one Neptune day. Recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope in late June they combine exposures made with visible and near-infrared filters to show high-altitude clouds composed of methane ice crystals against the planet's normally blue cloud tops. Because Neptune's axis of rotation is tilted to its orbital plane by 29 degrees, compared to Earth's 23.5 degrees, Neptune experiences seasons analogous to Earth's. As early summer comes to Neptune's southern hemisphere and winter to the north, Hubble observations have shown cloud activity shifting to the northern hemisphere. In fact the progression of Neptune's seasons has come around once since its position was predicted by French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier and British mathematician John Couch Adams, and the planet was subsequently discovered by German astronomer Johann Galle on September 23, 1846. With an orbital period of approximately 165 years, this week on July 12, Neptune has been once around the Sun since its discovery date.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA)]
|
They've come very close to accomplishing this. The Shuttle is now history. There is no near-term replacement. Mars is off the table. The NASA team that kept the U.S. in the game is being dispersed, with a small remnant retained for work on the Orion project, scheduled to fly by 2016, though we'll see inevitable "slips" from year to year.
A favored liberal method of shutting down anything they are opposed to is the "replacement" technique. They insist on replacing the program in question with an alternative that is nowhere near as good but which mollifies the opposition. Then, once a little time has passed, they shut down the replacement while ridiculing opponents for trying to put over something so second-rate and useless. We saw this most recently with the F-22 v. F-35 debate. F-22 Raptor production was shut down on the grounds that the F-35 would act as a "replacement." Now, several years on, we're hearing that the F-35 is simply "not good enough." One of Panetta's first moves in the Department of Defense will be an attempt to shut it down. (For some reason, both the Republican Party and the conservative establishment have found it very difficult to wrap their collective minds around this process. The libs pull it time and again, and each time it comes as a surprise. I'm not sure why -- it doesn't strike me as being particularly complex.)......."
It's not complex, it's just "unexpected"...
Oh, duh! I forgot.
Good insight.
After all, what's the difference between SpaceX and Boeing? Aren't they both contractors? The regulatory atmosphere Bigelow, Orbital Sciences and SpaceX all face makes certifying a new passenger aircraft look like running a lemonade stand (outside any modern municipality, that is!).
Their agenda for the future of American manned spaceflight is as transparent as it is vague on destinations. The administration sought to bring a halt to Constellation primarily because its official architect was George W. Bush. Their profligacy will trillions make the cost overruns of the development of the Ares boosters and Altair lander look like bar-room spillage.
They have nearly succeeded in ceding on site resource utilization on the Moon and access to the surface of that natural "deep water" port to deep space to the Chinese, hobbling one of our very best infrastructural advantages, clipping our wings and draining our brain trust in an overt and demoralizing way.
Progressives and the Zero-Sum game central planners have openly despised NASA since Walter Mondale nearly crippled Apollo after the launchpad fire in January 1967.
One can guess what kind of reaction we can expect should the day come when one of these new contractors loses a vehicle and crew in a catastrophic accident
What you said!!
Dittos!
Bump!
But will we see Uranus ?
Why do we need the space program?
“When a place gets crowded enough to require ID’s, social collpase is not far away. It s time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it [will make] it possible to go elsewhere.” -Robert A. Heinlein, “The Notebooks of Lazarus Long.”
A year from now everybody on earth will be dead!!! If you live on Neptune.
September 23, Happy One Orbit of the Sun since humanity discovered you, Neptune, you gorgeous my-favorite-color marble.
The only decent way to pronounce that is oo-rah’-noose.
Practice. It’s not difficult.
Unions and a byzantine bureaucracy.
The administration sought to bring a halt to Constellation primarily because its official architect was George W. Bush. Their profligacy will trillions make the cost overruns of the development of the Ares boosters and Altair lander look like bar-room spillage.
Constellation was a regurgitation of a plan cooked up by W's father. Inexplicably, the big Ares boosters were going to take over fifteen years to develop in spite of reusing shuttle booster parts. Returning to the moon was going to take longer than the Apollo program did it over forty years ago. It deserved to get cancelled.
Neptune, the other blue planet.
ROFL my barack off. No, no! Some readers might have misunderstood what you meant, but I assure you, sir, that I was not one of them. My pronunciation guide was for those heathens who might say it incorrectly and giggle uncontrollably at your post to SunkenCiv, the most decent man on the entire Internet if one does not mention you, of course.
Of course. I’m sure SunkenCiv is most anxious to show me many pictures of Uranus.
I happen to have some photos of Pluto, but I’m not Charon’.
Oh, I thought that you were the one who Twittered all those pictures of Uranus to him.
That’s close to the Greek original, well done. The self-aggrandizing liar Carl Sagan claimed it was actually “YOUR unnus” (it isn’t, apparently he made it up) and for that matter, that Halley’s Comet was pronounced “Hal Lee” (another fabrication; in Britain, where Halley is from, it’s pron. “Hall ee”. Here in the US we pron. it “Haylee” and that antedates Bill Haley and the Comets, otherwise his name wouldn’t have been memorable).
Uranus -- the other, other blue planet
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
