by neufer » Wed Jun 17, 2009 5:07 pm
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http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071115.html wrote:
<<Explanation: In 1714, Edmond Halley noted that M13 "shows itself to the naked eye when the sky is serene and the Moon absent." Of course, M13 is now modestly recognized as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, one of the brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky. A system of stars numbering in the hundreds of thousands, it is one of the brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky. At a distance of 25,000 light-years, the cluster stars crowd into a region 150 light-years in diameter, but approaching the cluster core over 100 stars would be contained in a cube just 3 light-years on a side. For comparison, the closest star to the Sun is over 4 light-years away. This stunning view of the cluster combines recent telescopic images of the cluster's dense core with digitized photographic plates recorded between 1987 and 1991 using the Samuel Oschin Telescope, a wide-field survey instrument at Palomar Observatory. The resulting composite highlights both inner and outer reaches of the giant star cluster. Among the distant background galaxies also visible, NGC 6207 is above and to the left of M13 [and
K2 orange giant star HD 150998 to the left of M13]>>
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http://www.kopernik.org/images/archive/n6207.htm wrote:
<<Spiral Galaxy NGC 6207 in Hercules is very near globular cluster M-13, and it is a favorite of visual observers using 8 inch or larger scopes. There is a bright Milky Way star superimposed near the center. This galaxy has complex knotty spiral arms, faint outer arms, and a bright central lens without a definite nucleus.
Supernova 2004 A: Type: II
Magnitude 15.7 at discovery
The supernova is magnitude 17.64 in the Kopernik image, taken on June 24, 2004.
The expansion velocity is about 12,000 km/s.>>
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_149026 wrote:
HD 149026 has a transiting hot Jupiter planet and is one of the most prominent and studied.
<<HD 149026 is a yellow subgiant star approximately 257 light-years away in the constellation of Hercules. The star is thought to be much more massive, larger, and brighter than the Sun. In 2005 they discovered an unusual extrasolar planet orbiting the star. The planet, designated HD 149026 b, was detected transiting the star allowing its diameter to be measured. It was found to be smaller than other known transiting planets, meaning the planet is unusually dense for a closely-orbiting giant planet. The temperature of the giant planet is calculated to be 3,700°F (2,040° C), generating so much infrared heat that it glows. >>
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_(constellation) wrote:
<<Hercules was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 1st century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. It is the fifth largest of the modern constellations. The constellation was not always identified with Heracles/Hercules. In earlier times, for example in the Rudolphine Tables, an alternative Greek name was Engonasin, meaning "on his knees" or "the Kneeler".
Mu Herculis is 27.4 light years from Earth. The solar apex, i.e., the point on the sky which marks the direction that the Sun is moving in its orbit around the center of the Milky Way, is located within Hercules, close to Vega in neighboring Lyra.>>
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http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap000123.html wrote:
Arecibo M13 (1974) radio signal has already passed Mu Herculis.
Coordinates: 17h 46m 27.5s, +27° 43′ 14″
Arecibo M13 (1974) radio signal has gone 1/8th of the way to hot Jupiter planet of HD 149026
Coordinates: 16h 30m 29.619s, +38° 20′ 50.31″
Arecibo M13 (1974) radio signal has gone 1/52nd of the way to K2 giant star HD 150998
Coordinates: 16h 43m 04.22s, +36° 30′ 40″
Arecibo M13 (1974) radio signal has gone 1/750th of the way to M13.
Coordinates: 16h 41m 41.44s, +36° 27′ 36.9″
Arecibo M13 (1974) radio signal has gone less than a millionth of the way to NGC 6207.
Coordinates: 16h 43m 04.3ss, +36° 49' 59"
-----------------------------------------------
http://www.bigear.org/vol1no2/sagan.htm wrote:
"In the deepest sense the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a search for ourselves."
<<The communication of quite complex information is not very difficult, even for civilizations with extremely different biologies and social conventions. For example, arithmetical statements can be transmitted, some true and some false, and in such a way it becomes possible to transmit the ideas of true and false concepts which might otherwise seem extremely difficult to communicate.
But by far the most promising method is to send pictures. The message might consist of an array of zeros and ones transmitted as long and short beeps, or tones on two adjacent frequencies, or tones at different amplitudes, or even signals with different radio polarizations. Properly arranged in rows and columns, the zeros and ones form a visual pattern - a picture similar to those an imaginative typist can create by using the letters of the alphabet as a medium. Just such a message was transmitted to space by the Arecibo Observatory, which Cornell University runs for the National Science Foundation, in November 1974 at a ceremony marking the resurfacing of the Arecibo dish the largest radio/radar telescope on Earth. The signal was sent to a collection of stars called M13, a globular cluster comprising about a million separate suns, because it was overhead at the time of the ceremony. Since M13 is 24,000 light years away, the message will take 24,000 years to arrive there. If anyone is listening, it will be 48,000 years before we receive a reply. The Arecibo message was clearly not intended as a serious attempt at interstellar communication, but rather as an indication of the remarkable advances in terrestrial radio technology.
The decoded message forms a kind of pictogram that says something like this: "Here is how we count from one to ten. Here are five atoms that we think are interesting or important: hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus. Here are some ways to put these atoms together that we think interesting or important - the molecules thymine, adenine, guanine and cytosine, and a chain composed of alternating sugars and phosphates. These molecular building blocks are put together to form a long molecule of DNA comprising about four billion links in the chain. The molecule is a double helix. In some way this molecule is important for the clumsy looking creature at the center of the message. That creature is 14 radio wavelengths or 5 feet 9.5 inches tall. There are about four billion of these creatures on the third plant from our star. There are nine planets altogether, four big ones toward the outside and one little one at the extremity. This message is brought to you courtesy of a radio telescope 2,430 wavelengths or 1,004 feet in diameter. Yours truly." Especially with many similar pictorial messages, each consistent with and corroborating the others, it is very likely that almost unambiguous interstellar radio communication could be achieved even between two civilizations which have never met. Of course our immediate objective is not to send such messages, because we are very young and backward; we wish to listen.>>
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"Very old & backward" Art Neuendorffer
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[quote=" http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071115.html"]
<<Explanation: In 1714, Edmond Halley noted that M13 "shows itself to the naked eye when the sky is serene and the Moon absent." Of course, M13 is now modestly recognized as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, one of the brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky. A system of stars numbering in the hundreds of thousands, it is one of the brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky. At a distance of 25,000 light-years, the cluster stars crowd into a region 150 light-years in diameter, but approaching the cluster core over 100 stars would be contained in a cube just 3 light-years on a side. For comparison, the closest star to the Sun is over 4 light-years away. This stunning view of the cluster combines recent telescopic images of the cluster's dense core with digitized photographic plates recorded between 1987 and 1991 using the Samuel Oschin Telescope, a wide-field survey instrument at Palomar Observatory. The resulting composite highlights both inner and outer reaches of the giant star cluster. Among the distant background galaxies also visible, NGC 6207 is above and to the left of M13 [and [color=#FF8000][b]K2 orange giant star HD 150998[/b][/color] to the left of M13]>>[/quote]-----------------------------------------------
[quote=" http://www.kopernik.org/images/archive/n6207.htm"]
<<Spiral Galaxy NGC 6207 in Hercules is very near globular cluster M-13, and it is a favorite of visual observers using 8 inch or larger scopes. There is a bright Milky Way star superimposed near the center. This galaxy has complex knotty spiral arms, faint outer arms, and a bright central lens without a definite nucleus.
[img]http://www.kopernik.org/images/archive/n6207.jpg[/img]
Supernova 2004 A: Type: II
Magnitude 15.7 at discovery
The supernova is magnitude 17.64 in the Kopernik image, taken on June 24, 2004.
The expansion velocity is about 12,000 km/s.>>[/quote]------------------------------------------------------
[quote=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_149026"]
HD 149026 has a transiting hot Jupiter planet and is one of the most prominent and studied.
<<HD 149026 is a yellow subgiant star approximately 257 light-years away in the constellation of Hercules. The star is thought to be much more massive, larger, and brighter than the Sun. In 2005 they discovered an unusual extrasolar planet orbiting the star. The planet, designated HD 149026 b, was detected transiting the star allowing its diameter to be measured. It was found to be smaller than other known transiting planets, meaning the planet is unusually dense for a closely-orbiting giant planet. The temperature of the giant planet is calculated to be 3,700°F (2,040° C), generating so much infrared heat that it glows. >>[/quote]------------------------------------------------------
[quote=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_(constellation)"]
<<Hercules was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 1st century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. It is the fifth largest of the modern constellations. The constellation was not always identified with Heracles/Hercules. In earlier times, for example in the Rudolphine Tables, an alternative Greek name was Engonasin, meaning "on his knees" or "the Kneeler".
Mu Herculis is 27.4 light years from Earth. The solar apex, i.e., the point on the sky which marks the direction that the Sun is moving in its orbit around the center of the Milky Way, is located within Hercules, close to Vega in neighboring Lyra.>>[/quote]-----------------------------------------------
[quote=" http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap000123.html"]
Arecibo M13 (1974) radio signal has already passed Mu Herculis.
Coordinates: 17h 46m 27.5s, +27° 43′ 14″
Arecibo M13 (1974) radio signal has gone 1/8th of the way to hot Jupiter planet of HD 149026
Coordinates: 16h 30m 29.619s, +38° 20′ 50.31″
[color=#FF8000]
[b]Arecibo M13 (1974) radio signal has gone 1/52nd of the way to K2 giant star HD 150998
Coordinates: 16h 43m 04.22s, +36° 30′ 40″[/b][/color]
[b]Arecibo M13 (1974) radio signal has gone 1/750th of the way to M13.
Coordinates: 16h 41m 41.44s, +36° 27′ 36.9″[/b]
Arecibo M13 (1974) radio signal has gone less than a millionth of the way to NGC 6207.
Coordinates: 16h 43m 04.3ss, +36° 49' 59"[/quote]-----------------------------------------------
[quote=" http://www.bigear.org/vol1no2/sagan.htm"]
"In the deepest sense the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a search for ourselves."
<<The communication of quite complex information is not very difficult, even for civilizations with extremely different biologies and social conventions. For example, arithmetical statements can be transmitted, some true and some false, and in such a way it becomes possible to transmit the ideas of true and false concepts which might otherwise seem extremely difficult to communicate.
But by far the most promising method is to send pictures. The message might consist of an array of zeros and ones transmitted as long and short beeps, or tones on two adjacent frequencies, or tones at different amplitudes, or even signals with different radio polarizations. Properly arranged in rows and columns, the zeros and ones form a visual pattern - a picture similar to those an imaginative typist can create by using the letters of the alphabet as a medium. Just such a message was transmitted to space by the Arecibo Observatory, which Cornell University runs for the National Science Foundation, in November 1974 at a ceremony marking the resurfacing of the Arecibo dish the largest radio/radar telescope on Earth. The signal was sent to a collection of stars called M13, a globular cluster comprising about a million separate suns, because it was overhead at the time of the ceremony. Since M13 is 24,000 light years away, the message will take 24,000 years to arrive there. If anyone is listening, it will be 48,000 years before we receive a reply. The Arecibo message was clearly not intended as a serious attempt at interstellar communication, but rather as an indication of the remarkable advances in terrestrial radio technology.
The decoded message forms a kind of pictogram that says something like this: "Here is how we count from one to ten. Here are five atoms that we think are interesting or important: hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus. Here are some ways to put these atoms together that we think interesting or important - the molecules thymine, adenine, guanine and cytosine, and a chain composed of alternating sugars and phosphates. These molecular building blocks are put together to form a long molecule of DNA comprising about four billion links in the chain. The molecule is a double helix. In some way this molecule is important for the clumsy looking creature at the center of the message. That creature is 14 radio wavelengths or 5 feet 9.5 inches tall. There are about four billion of these creatures on the third plant from our star. There are nine planets altogether, four big ones toward the outside and one little one at the extremity. This message is brought to you courtesy of a radio telescope 2,430 wavelengths or 1,004 feet in diameter. Yours truly." Especially with many similar pictorial messages, each consistent with and corroborating the others, it is very likely that almost unambiguous interstellar radio communication could be achieved even between two civilizations which have never met. Of course our immediate objective is not to send such messages, because we are very young and backward; we wish to listen.>>[/quote]-----------------------------------------------
"Very old & backward" Art Neuendorffer