*** The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread ***

Blackjack Davy said:
No, no, no. It is a limitation of the universe no object can travel through space faster than the speed of light.
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Not quite, our understanding is that nothing (with mass) can accelerate from below FTL speeds to above them, its a barrier not a maximum.

Theoretical particles, eg Tachyons, would already exist beyond that barrier and thus could travel FTL. But like with wormholes, warp fields etc they require negative energy, another theoretical property we've not detected (yet) but has a growing cohort of advocates.

Blackjack Davy said:
Now it may be possible to warp space and time around an object to create a bubble that will move faster than light i.e. "warp drive" but thats really science fiction at this point the amount of energy required is non achievable at this point.
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Yea, warp bubbles exploit loopholes in relativity, in that the object isn't travelling FTL, spacetime itself (the bubble) is. They also require negative energy to work

I was randomly watching some Sabine videos last night and her objection to warp drive wasn't the negative energy requirement (she's an advocate) but the amount of 'normal' energy required to warp spacetime.

To create a 1km bubble, that would comfortably fit the Enterprise, would require a mass 2/3 of a solar mass and that amount of mass in that size would be a black hole anyway.
 
Kind of cool looking east tonight - Mars and Jupiter quite clear with Aldebaran in a direct line to the right of Jupiter and Betelgeuse below (though at least where I am quite indistinct).

EDIT: Also the odd shooting star as well as Starlink train :s
 
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Blackjack Davy said:
No, no, no. It is a limitation of the universe no object can travel through space faster than the speed of light. Entanglement is not travelling through anything its spontaneous action at a dstance. Its true it may let information travel faster than light but thats not an object. Zero mass objects i.e. photons travel at the speed of light but anything with mass will travel less than. Now it may be possible to warp space and time around an object to create a bubble that will move faster than light i.e. "warp drive" but thats really science fiction at this point the amount of energy required is non achievable at this point.
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There is nothing in Einstein's laws that states that the speed of light can not be broken. It is a barrier, not a limit. We do not know of a way to exceed it, but that does not mean that there is not a way.

(I know that entanglement is not exceeding the speed of light and I am not talking about warping space either).

Look...

 
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Dunno what it is like elsewhere but looks pretty cool out with the supermoon and atmospheric haze and the landscape in that direction - almost like something out of Bladerunner. Shame I don't have anything capable of photographing it with me.
 
You know those nights where you don’t see anything? Been out for about half hour to look at the comet and seen:

An Apache fly past at about 300ft
A Hercules doing circuits
The comet
Air Force One on his way to Germany
A really nice tight ‘string of pearls’ Starlink pass

Just waiting on ISS, Aurora Borealis and Santa now to complete the set
 
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Anyone managed to take a decent photo of the Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) ? I managed a phone photo of it tonight but wasn't able to see if with the naked eye.

Not sure how much longer it'll be visible for before it fades out of view altogether, We're forecast decent weather Tuesday here so fingers crossed I can get the DSLR and 70-200 out for a better photo
 
I just looked up as I was walking home a few minutes ago and noticed a bright star directly above the moon and it's apparently Venus. Took a quick pic with my phone.

20250103-164748.jpg
 
I thought this had appeared (e: in above pic)- mentioned on beeb a few days back ... not sure what you have to follow for an alert when it does
Astronomers are eagerly anticipating a celestial event that only happens every 80 years. A guest star in the night sky, called T Cor Bor, can't normally be seen by the naked eye but is expected to become much brighter and more visible in the night sky.
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this was also an interesting new to me alignment https://calanais.org/the-major-lunar-standstill-2025-and-preparations-for-it-in-2024/
bbc had a tourism report from there
 
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SpellowHouse said:
Yes, I saw that. Spectacular.
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And just to the left is Saturn with a slightly orange tinge. Behind you is the very bright Jupiter and to the left of that lower down in the east is Mars. For completeness Neptune is to the left of Saturn and Uranus to the right of Jupiter. You can just see Mercury before sunrise too. I managed 7 planets and 8 moons a couple of nights ago.
 
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