Space...the final frontier news!

[Charger]

In just less than 18 minutes Blue Origins flight NS-18 takes off and on board is one living legend mr. WILLIAM SHATNER who will become the oldest person ever in space at the age of 90!!

90!!! Can you imagine that!? What a legend.

[Zzzptm]

I should be having as much fun as him when I'm 90!

Kirk's the OG Enterprise captain, for sure!

[Charger]

Yup!

Succesful mission and a life altering experience for 4 people...Bill was pretty damn moved by it all but he still managed to say some beautiful words as soon as he got out of the pod...incredible...

[Zzzptm]

I am truly happy for him, the guy's had a great run in life.

[Thelemech]

I still cannot believe that Shatner is 90!! A legend indeed!!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

He's certainly doing great for 90.

I wonder: if Leonard Nimoy was still with us, if they would both have had the invite and gone up together?

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Professor Brian Cox has a new series called Universe, the first episode has has just aired on the BBC. First episode covers the stars. I don't think the information is going to be new to close followers of the subject, but I discovered a couple of things I didn't know before.

[Zzzptm]

It's possible that the stars like Tabby's Star are all having natural phenomena causing them to appear to dim... but the intervals of dimming are regular... and all the stars with this pattern of dimming are proximate to each other... if it's not intelligent life activity doing these things, then it's a highly-localized stellar phenomenon that we're going to need more data in order to understand. It's a great story in astronomy to follow.

My equally-favorite story is the planned probe to check out the upper atmosphere of Venus for further evidence of possible biological activity.

[Charger]

Tabby's Star is an interesting phenomenon for sure. I think currently the majority believes it a dust cloud of some kind or a vast field of comets...but they are just theories...

It would be rather awesome if there would be some alien mega structure causing the dimming but I think that's a bit far fetched to be honest. I am 100% sure there are highly advanced alien races out there but building something that big doesn't seem sensible at all.

[Zzzptm]

True, it makes no sense to us... but we're also not quite at the level of doing more than contemplate the possibilities of such. 

And for the natural phenomenon side of the issue... the localized nature of it is what I find most baffling. Next most baffling is how it's cold but sharp-edged, so it's not like planets or dust...

[Zzzptm]

https://www.independent.co.uk/space/scientists-explosion-cartwheel-galaxy-supernova-b2035265.html

Or, rather, as it *happened*. Light-years and all...

[Charger]

Very cool indeed.

I merged this with the topic we already had for these types of news.


The power of these novas is quite phenomenal considering we can spot one from a galaxy over 500 MILLION light years away.!

[Zzzptm]

And then... the stuff of those explosions lands on planets... enriching them with metals and higher elements. Prerequisites for higher life as we understand its needs.

[Typhon]

The country of India making some really strides in space exploration.

https://rumble.com/v1jd4q0-isro-the-next-10-years.html?mref=6zof&mc=dgip3&ep=2

[Charger]

Yes India is becoming a space country as well rather quickly.

The race to Moon and Mars (and beyond) has fueled up several countries...especially with the US and now Russia falling behind...

But I do believe that the future of space travel doesn't lie with countries it lies with private companies... The large structures that might be built on orbit and on the moon might still be mainly funded by countries but the day to day flights might very well be operated by companies.