S@N Exciting New Result...

[Macavity]

Got me wondering now, Chris. 😉 NO -- PLEASE don't spoil it for me / us! 😎

 

Edited September 4, 2020 by Macavity

[DaveS]

Ooh, sounds interesting. Maybe the Little Green Men are going to land on the White House Lawn 🤣.

[markse68]

Interesting 🧐 

[Adreneline]

13 minutes ago, DaveS said:

Maybe the Little Green Men are going to land on the White House Lawn

That will be exciting if they take the current incumbent to a galaxy far, far away. 🤞

[DaveS]

Being serious for a moment, I wonder if NASA have found unequivocal evidence for past life on Mars?

[Carbon Brush]

I suspect something more mundane in terms of news. But important in science.
For example an agreement on UK access to European astronomy resources, now we are out of the 'common market' club. Yes showing age there.

It might just be extras pages in the S@N magazine. Nothing like being a pessimist.😕

The optimist in me hopes it will be a government announcement that all UK councils, business premises and homes have to stop light pollution.😁

[DaveS]

Well, leaving Politics aside, we currently are members of ESA, and, I think ESO, which have other members outside the EU.

[johninderby]

Worth temebering that ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, governed by an international treaty that’s in UK law and not an EU organisation. Canada and a few other countiries outside of the EU are members. 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Great. They do this the day I start camping with no mobile signal and the dodgiest of WiFi!

I wonder what it is? Aliens haven't landed - we'd know by now... Hmm.. Something that will be announced that day... DaveS I'm with you on this. Life on Mars or more likely, definitive evidence of past life.

 

 

 

[DaveS]

I hope so.

Hope it isn't a "Deep Impact" announcement, or even worse a "Songs of Distant Earth" announcement.

[AstroNebulee]

Hopefully that Stargazing live will be brought back this year please, please please, after the BBC decided to axe it

Edited September 4, 2020 by LeeHore7

[Paul M]

Sounds like the final touches are being put to some number crunching exercise.

Or maybe they are announcing a new exoplanet with an artist's impression showing oceans teaming with humanoid dolphins...

[DaveS]

Number crunching...

...I wonder. There was talk a while ago of imaging the Sgr A* black hole as a motion picture showing the variability of the accretion disk...

[DaveS]

2 hours ago, LeeHore7 said:

Hopefully that Stargazing live will be brought back this year please, please please, after the BBC decided to axe it

What's worse, our monthly S @ N was suspended for a couple of months, and I suspect it was so Chris et al could go gallivanting off to Oz to do their Stargazing Live which we don't get to see. That was a real slap in the face for us Bit astronomers.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Hmm. It may be something to do with black holes and gravitational waves. Not quite as exciting to the masses as life existing somewhere.

14th September is the 5th anniversary of the first direct observation of gravitational waves... Coincidence?

 

Edited September 4, 2020 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[DaveL59]

this, perhaps? tho it's already been disclosed in news of course

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53993937

[paul mc c]

Or maybe........just maybe......it will be clear in Belfast tonight..........na, probably just life elswhere😁

Edited September 12, 2020 by paul mc c

[jnb]

On 04/09/2020 at 13:49, DaveS said:

Well, leaving Politics aside, we currently are members of ESA, and, I think ESO, which have other members outside the EU.

Though I did hear one suggestions that it would be the UK government announcing that they are seeking a trade deal with Mars. 😉

 

[HutchStar]

On 05/09/2020 at 00:57, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Hmm. It may be something to do with black holes and gravitational waves. Not quite as exciting to the masses as life existing somewhere.

14th September is the 5th anniversary of the first direct observation of gravitational waves... Coincidence?

 

 There was a journalist on twitter saying it was to do with "astrobiology" but theres an embargo on reporting until Monday.

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, HutchStar said:

 There was a journalist on twitter saying it was to do with "astrobiology" but theres an embargo on reporting until Monday.

Exobiology, gotta love Star Trekky terms...🤣

[lukebl]

I very much doubt that it will be anything astounding.

I hardly think that the world scientific community would patiently wait for a slot on a minor TV show from a minor little country to announce something BIG!

[Tomatobro]

A photo of a fossilised bone sticking out of a shale rock on Mars? Now that would be something worth a "special report"

[globular]

11 minutes ago, lukebl said:

I very much doubt that it will be anything astounding.

I hardly think that the world scientific community would patiently wait for a slot on a minor TV show from a minor little country to announce something BIG!

The announcement isn’t on the show, the show has moved to after the announcement so they can talk about it.

Agree it probably isn’t that BIG though or else it would have been released by now.

[lukebl]

21 minutes ago, globular said:

The announcement isn’t on the show, the show has moved to after the announcement so they can talk about it.

Agree it probably isn’t that BIG though or else it would have been released by now.

I agree. I should have read the original post more thoroughly. Sorry!

[jnb]

In the nature of these things it will probably not be anything astounding (as far as the rest of the world goes)

Because of the long lead time it will be something that has turned up in data analysis rather than obvious in the data. If it was obvious in the data then many more people would have noticed it. Also last weekend in the Q&A at the Observatory Science Centre festival Dr Joanna Barstow made a comment about knowing the co-authors which implies a paper based on data and not the data itself.

It is also probably not exoplanets because in the same Q&A all the attendees were asked what excited them in astronomy at the moment. Chris Lintott made the comment that as he knows what the announcement is he couldn't say that but "someone has to say exoplanets" which kind of implies that it isn't an exoplanet discovery.

 

or we could just wait!

Edited September 12, 2020 by jnb
Quoted wrong author