UFO's... What do you think?

[riptides]

I'm positive that our solar system is contained in a small ornamental sphere and worn around a cat's neck.

Our universe. Not galaxy.

 

[ovrszd]

IMO...Monies (billions) could be saved and redirected...monies lost to gov. by fraud etc and unnecessary programs like the ones that hand out free cell phones etc.etc...as well as monies wasted by the DOD etc...

But...I don't think Any redirected funds to NASA/space exploration etc...should be spent (right now) on trying to develop a program/craft (and underlying technologies) specifically to reach other worlds etc...

...Given the ideal that we humans do not wipe our own selves out over the next 100 years or so (keep the faith)...IMO the utmost thought should be given to protecting the planet from "natural things" we are aware of that could destroy us or reek havoc on our lives etc...but we have no current defense against...

It's unfortunate that al gore and his AGW disciples have poisoned the well when it comes to (falsely) alarming the masses...because there are much worse things to realize and truly be alarmed about enough to demand our government protect our infrastructures from natural catastrophes that could come from our own Sun or elsewhere in space...
...We should be utilizing current technology to master inner space and protect our planet before we try to conquer outer space...BTW we have already polluted the space surrounding Earth...maybe some of that redirected money could go to a program/craft that could start cleaning up after ourselves...!

For any approaching advanced alien life...just to get close to earth an alien commanded craft would have navigate through a literal junkyard of debris we've left floating around out there...nice welcome mat huh?...!

We already have a program in place with the intent of furthering the ability to reach other Worlds, International Space Station. No other reason for it to be up there.

I agree with you that we need to focus on extending the life of our Planet first.

I would suspect any Planet that has intelligent life that has progressed in any sort of manner similar to ours also has space junk issues to deal with.

Lastly, if you and I have developed the ability to visit a planet with intelligent life in a far off Galaxy, we will not be deterred by a little trash in their "yard".

 

[/pine]

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has begun approaching Ceres ahead of a historic March arrival at the mysterious dwarf planet.

Dawn has officially entered the Ceres approach phase, after recently emerging from behind the sun relative to Earth and thus coming back into reliable communication range. The probe is now about 400,000 miles (640,000 kilometers) from Ceres and is cruising toward the 590-mile-wide (950 km) object at 450 mph (725 km/h), NASA officials said.

Dawn should enter orbit around Ceres the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter on March 6, 2015. When that happens, the spacecraft will become the first ever to orbit two different unexplored solar system bodies. (Dawn circled the protoplanet Vesta, the asteroid belt's second-largest object, from July 2011 through September 2012.) [Photos: Asteroid Vesta and NASA's Dawn Spacecraft]

Mission team members, and space scientists around the world, are eager to see Ceres up close.

"Ceres is almost a complete mystery to us," Dawn principal investigator Christopher Russell, of UCLA, said in a statement. "Ceres, unlike Vesta, has no meteorites linked to it to help reveal its secrets. All we can predict with confidence is that we will be surprised."

While Ceres and Vesta reside in the same general neighborhood, they appear to be quite different from each other. For example, the 325-mile-wide (525 km) Vesta is thought to be a dry body, while Ceres possesses an icy mantle and might even harbor a subsurface ocean of liquid water. (Indeed, Ceres might be capable of supporting life as we know it, some researchers say.)

This difference may result from slightly different formation times. Scientists think Vesta came together a bit earlier than Ceres did, when radioactive material was more abundant in the solar system. Vesta's interior therefore likely incorporated more radioactive stuff, which generated more heat and drove away more water, NASA officials said.

The $466 million Dawn mission does not rely on tradititional chemical thrusters but rather employs a super-efficient ion propulsion system, in which ionized xenon gas is accelerated out the back of the spacecraft to generate thrust.

"Orbiting both Vesta and Ceres would be truly impossible with conventional propulsion. Thanks to ion propulsion, we're about to make history as the first spaceship ever to orbit two unexplored alien worlds," Dawn chief engineer and mission director Marc Rayman, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in the same statement.

While March 6 marks the beginning of orbital operations at Ceres, another milestone will come by the end of January: At that point, Dawn's photos will be the best ever captured of the dwarf planet, NASA officials said.

Dawn launched in 2007 on a mission to learn more about the solar system's early days, and the planet-formation process, by studying Vesta and Ceres. The probe's prime mission is scheduled to end in July 2015.

Space and NASA News

 

[dave1949]

It will be interesting to see what they find at Ceres.

Figuring out the universe is a process of reverse engineering. It's like observing a machine, see what it does or doesn't do, take some measurements, do some verification tests, then deduce the parts it is constructed from and the rules it operates on. I think that is the case from Newtonian mechanics through quantum-scale particles.

But ... if what we see as our universe exists as some sort of anomaly that is nothing like the rest of whatever else is out there; how would we know? There could be an awesome keg party going on just around the cosmic corner and we are missing it. :laughing:


What lies beyond the edge of the Universe? | Space and Universe News
According to the “Theory of Cosmic Inflation”, the entire universe size is about 10 to the 23rd times larger than the size of the observable universe.

We are missing a lot of universe. The true thing is that – since we can’t see it or measure it, we don’t know what lies beyond the bounds of the observable universe. However, we have several theories.

First Theory

Astronomers think space outside of the observable universe might be an infinite expanse of what we see in the cosmos around us distributed pretty much the same as it is in the observable universe.

Now, if we say that – it is infinity. But “infinity” means that, beyond the observable universe, you won’t just find more planets and stars and other forms of material. You will eventually find every possible thing. “Every possible thing”, means that, somewhere out there, there is another person who is identical to you in every possible way. There is also you who is only *slightly* different from you in every possible way.

Second Theory

Another theory deals with the “Dark Flow”. Astronomers discovered something very strange and unexpected – galactic clusters were all streaming in the same direction at immense speed, over two million miles per hour. One possible cause: massive structures outside the observable universe exerting gravitational influence. As for the structures themselves, they could be literally anything: amazingly huge accumulations of matter and energy, or even bizarre warps in space-time that are funneling gravitational forces from other universes.

Third Theory

The another is “String Theory”. This theory asserts that our universe is but one space-time bubble among an infinite host of other parallel universes. So the whole of our universe would exist in a small “bubble” in the midst of a vast array of other bubbles. Theorists call this a “multiverse.” Interestingly, string theory supposes that these universes can come into contact with one another—gravity can flow between these parallel universes, and when they connect, a Big Bang like the one that created our universe occurs.

Final Verdict

These theories are just a few of the more popular hypotheses. There are a lot more out there. The concepts of dark matter and dark energy present frameworks for a plane of reality totally beyond our powers of observation. When it comes to finding the edges of the universe, we’ve really only just begun.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

I think God found the universe in a box of Cracker Jacks and said this is the beginning of something big!

 

[MossRoad]

Then a little kid choked on the universe, his folks sued Cracker Jack, they took the cool toys away and now its boring.

 

[dave1949]

Then a little kid choked on the universe, his folks sued Cracker Jack, they took the cool toys away and now its boring.

There's no prize in every box? WTH?

 

[MossRoad]

There's no prize in every box? WTH?

I guess I should have been more sensitive, as yes, the toys were a choking hazard. However, I really miss the cool toys I got from Cracker Jack when I was a kid.

My favorite was a little plastic whistle. I got several over the years. Like these...