The VLT Observes Comet LINEAR's "Shower" 59
mindpixel writes "Two nights ago, while operating the VLT (the world's largest optical telescope), we got a call into the control room asking us to follow up the Hubble's imaging of Comet Linear a few days prior.
As soon as we got the coordinates, I pointed the telescope at the very fast moving comet and started taking pictures. They came in quickly, and they were awesome! We couldn't believe the detail we were getting. The comet was completely shattered. Even in the unprocessed images we were able to count nine mini-comets.
Six minutes ago, they released it
The VLT Observes Comet LINEAR's "Shower")"
Re:Technology is getting crazy... (Score:1)
I also had the luck to be on the team to make one of the first IR observations using the starfire telescope, it was really amazing stuff.
Did anyone get any spectra? (Score:2)
Another Site With Some Info (Score:3)
How about slash cache? (Score:2)
Hey, there is a business plan here, slashcache.org or something of the sort... People would just have to set their browser proxy settings. And if was fast enough, they wouldn't change them back. So now you'd have to proxy all sorts of interesting stuff to the technical minded opensource crowd along with the hot grits freaks.
Just include me when you get it rolling, OK?
Does anyone has a mirror? (Score:1)
Re:Technology is getting crazy... (Score:2)
The single most important limiting factor on telescopes today has to do with the adaptive optics used on modern scopes. Hundreds of times a second, a computer analyzes the light entering the scope and adjusts elements within the scope to change the shape of the optics, compensating for distortions in the atmosphere. When you've got a huge telescope, you've got a huge wavefront to analyze. It's currently not possible to perform the analysis, but with faster computers it will be.
I can just about guarentee that within 10 years or so an instrument at least 50 meters wide will be built. There's quite a few projects underway right now.
Re:So what does this mean? (Score:3)
Apologies for any accidental misinfo in this.
HTH
Camaron de la Isla [flamenco-world.com] 'When I sing with pleasure, my
Re:Technology is getting crazy... (Score:3)
From one point of view, we already are at the barrier. We have telescopes that can resolve images at the theoretical resolution limit for their aperture size (as governed by diffraction), we have telescopes that can focus all or almost all of the light falling on their (filled) apertures on to their detectors, and we have detectors that can detect individual photons. In other words, our telescopes are approaching the best possible efficiency for whatever aperture size we choose to build.
From another point of view, we will have the potential for continued advancement for quite a while to come. Optical interferometry-based telescopes are just starting to come into their own, which will allow us to build telescopes with synthetic apertures arbitrarily long. Segmented mirror technology continues to improve, with the maximum size of segmented mirror systems growing incrementally larger. Space-based telescopes are still an immature technology; while space-based telescopes won't be more efficient per se than ground-based telescopes, they can view wavelength ranges that the atmosphere blocks. There is also a fair bit of work to be done on automated instrumentation (as of the last few articles I've read on the subject, galaxy spectra surveys are still slow and involve a lot of fiddling, for example).
In summary, while we're starting to approach perfect efficiency for the telescopes we've built, there is still a lot of engineering to be done in order to incrementally broaden the range of telescopes that _can_ be built.
new names? (Score:1)
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Re:ALREADY slashdotted? (Score:5)
Hubble does it too (Score:4)
these [stsci.edu] photos at about the same time. And I believe this site is more slashdot-ready.
s
Same with site (Score:1)
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Re:Wow... (Score:1)
Re:ALREADY slashdotted? (Score:1)
I'd ask if anybody got a mirror, but I don't see how they could have done so that quickly...
Technology is getting crazy... (Score:2)
A side though though (not quite on topic, but close...). Is it just my imagination, or is telescope technology evolving as fast as computer technology these days? We now have ridiculously precise lenses (first hubble aside =:-), we've got telescopes in space to avoid athmospheric interference, we've got micromotor controlled mirror arrays to make adjustments to images, and we've got all sorts of automated systems to alert humans if it looks like anything cool is happening in the sky at any particular location.
All in all, how much longer do people think before we get to some barrier to further advances, i mean people have been making steadily better and better telescopes for hundreds of years... (possibly thousands, i'm really not sure...) It seems that at some point we'll max out the technology...
Re:Technology is getting crazy... (Score:1)
The only barrier is your imagination... (Score:2)
Re:Technology is getting crazy... (Score:1)
I just looked up the HIPAS LIDAR specs here [alaska.edu]. They have a 2.7m liquid mercury telescope as part of their LIDAR diagnostics.
Re:Technology is getting crazy... (Score:2)
Another source... (Score:2)
Doug
Re:Technology is getting crazy... (Score:1)
Johan
No atmosphere in orbit. Nor weight (Score:1)
Now, a large mirror is heavy. You can't really take it appart to send it up into space, 'cause assembly would be a hassle. A liquid mercury mirror wouldn't have that problem. You can assemble the bucket in space, fill it with mercury carted up during a number of missions. Add some heating elements and you're all set.
or at least you would be if the whole point of the excersise wasn't to use the interplay between gravity and centripital force to form the mirror.
When you're weightless in orbit, there's not much gravity to play with. (well, there is gravity, it's just counterbalanced
Bummer!
Constant linear acceleration might work. Or just put it on the moon. Thoughts.
Re:VLT? (Score:1)
Bet it tastes like chicken.
Re:Technology is getting crazy... (Score:1)
Re:Have the VLT no respect for privacy?? (Score:1)
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
Did anyone observe www.eso.org's "Shower"? (Score:1)
After it's fly-by on Slashdot effect, how many smaller servers did www.eso.org break into?
If nothing else, all of that extra traffic has heated up the box's network card :).
Re:new names? (Score:1)
mini palm?
mini linux?
mini bsd?
mini taco?
Learn about the birth of our solarsystem (Score:1)
Re:Do you really think this is just coincidence? (Score:1)
VLT? (Score:1)
Re:Mirrored Most of the page (Score:1)
Re:Mirrored Most of the page (Score:1)
Mirrored Most of the page (Score:2)
The Hubble Photo (Score:2)
Mirroring may be a solution, but... (Score:2)
But i think the biggest obstacle would be: getting permission. It takes time. People may not check their mail. It may take a day or two to get a reply.
They may not have a very portable site, constructing the mirror may expose additional problems.
Your idea is interesting... but could prove to be impractical, and at the very least would create a barrier to timely news.
But don't get me wrong, i truly feel for all the small-time admins who've had their sites utterly crushed by madly clicking droves of slashdot minions.
Re:So what does this mean? (Score:2)
Do you really think this is just coincidence? (Score:1)
I mean, I'm sure we're going to coincidentally have all these powerful telescopes pointed at some obscure comet at just the right time...
Re:VLT? (Score:1)
Incidentally, I've just found "www.cannibal.org" is registered to NetworkSolutions. Ironic or what?! However, "www.cannibal.com" is still available, for any carnivores wanting a web-presence...
Grab.
Re:shelley's sex life... (Score:1)
Grab.
Cosmological Peeping Tom (Score:1)
bad idea (Score:1)
Re:Technology is getting crazy... (Score:1)
i built a small mercury mirror telescope in 1984 as a high school science project - only 12 inches. well, actually, it didn't have a secondary so it wasn't really a telescope. i decided even with the glycerin i added to coat the mercury when i spun it up, that it was just too dangerous to being fooling with.
my last thoughts on the project were that maybe i could spin it into shape, then freeze it solid by cooling of the mirror pan with liquid nitrogen. as long as it was frozen, it would be much safer and i could point it just like any telescope.
does anyone know if there is any literature on freezing ltm's? maybe they would be too heavy for earth, but imagine sending a telesscope in a bottle into orbit, where cooling is easy...
Help Create True Artificial Consciousness: Join the Mindpixel Digital Mind Modeling Project and get Free Shares in the Venture! [mindpixel.com]
Re:Does anyone has a mirror? (Score:1)
Enjoy!
Re:Does anyone has a mirror? (Score:1)
http://www.johncglass.com/mirror/comet.h tm [johncglass.com]
Enjoy!
Mirror Located at.. (Score:1)
MIRROR Located at: (Score:2)
Have fun!
Re:shelley's sex life... (Score:1)
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Re:Mirrored Most of the page (Score:1)
Re:Mirrored Most of the page (Score:1)
Astronomy & Such (Score:1)
Re:Technology is getting crazy... (Score:1)
Re:Technology is getting crazy... (Score:3)
There is currently an international collaboration to construct a 4m-class liquid mirror telescope. [ulg.ac.be] Interesting idea based on a simple principle of fluid mechanics. There have even been mutterings about placing a larger version on the moon. The main problem with LMT's is the limited directionality they have. They do seem to be okay for survey work, though.
Re:Technology is getting crazy... (Score:2)
As this problem is solved by various methods these days (putting telescopes in space, adaptive optics, computer reconstruction based on an "artifical star" that is projected in the upper atmosphere by a laser, ...) it is only a question of making the telescopes big enough to see how ever much detail we desire. This might be difficult from an engineering point of view, but as far as I am aware there are no physical limits to the resolution of a telescope.
is the world doomed? (Score:1)
I do hope you Americans voted for the guys with the best plan to protect earth against all this kinda stuff, us Brits depend on it
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Rename (Score:1)
Have the VLT no respect for privacy?? (Score:4)
So what does this mean? (Score:2)
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Re:Does anyone has a mirror? (Score:1)
Re:Mirroring may be a solution, but... (Score:1)
My thought would be to let them know that they might have won a flood of visitors. Let them know just a little bit in advance (matter of minutes or hours) and if they can write back before the time limit, great. If not, you could at least say you tried, even if it is futile.
I personally would be a little annoyed if my site was shut down and I had to figure out why. If I knew ahead of time, I'd at least know.. Maybe even have time to scream for a mirror if I wanted one..