"Did someone say Billions"?
Posted on 02/23/2006 2:52:42 PM PST by bildabare
Specifically, the glow comes from two main sources, the scientists say.
One source is a paired-star arrangement called a cataclysmic variable. These setups involve one regular star and a burned out shell of a star called a white dwarf. The dwarf pulls matter from the companion, and the gas heats up and releases X-rays.
The other source: active stellar coronas. These also involve a binary arrangement, in which one star stirs up the other's outer atmosphere, or corona, causing flares akin to those produced by our Sun.
The unseen stars have not all been counted in the new study, however.
"When they're close enough, we can look at them and see what they're like," explained Jean Swank, project scientist for the Rossi mission at Goddard. "And then you can see how many there are in a certain volume of the galaxy."
That data was then extrapolated
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
What happened?! We should be out there by now, bouncing around/exporing. Instead it's the borders, healthcare and the middle east. I pity the kids of today without the dream we had back then. All they have to look forward to now is a new rap song, or a soft-porn cartoon or two.
"Did someone say Billions"?
It's hard to know how many stars there are in the Milky Way because (among other factors: (1) it's difficult to know how big any given star is (from much bigger to 1/10 the size of Sol); (2) we can't see much of the MW; (3) mass of the MW is somewhat of a guess as there appears to be "stuff" outside Sol's orbit, etc.
NASA's grand vision to have us go a max of 300 miles up. Makes for real excitement in our space program. ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
But I better keep my mouth shut or others will come and chastise me for daring to criticize NASA.
Pony up the $20,000,000 and you can go into orbit. All that's missing is the money.
ahhhh...The Man!
Flame away, NASA needs to do a much better job.
However, it's unmanned probe group is unmatched and top notch.
Space Ping candidate.
yeah, towards the end of the shuttle program, the experiments started sounding like the astronauts were taking bar bets.
Nasa does as well as any other government venture I suppose, and that's not very good. Where are the eccentric billionaires, or the up-an-coming nations that take a chance?
instead, we've got low-life hack politicians at Hooters, and fat guys sitting on pillows smoking hash out of a waterpipe. Pretty much the world in a nutshell.
ROFL! Hilarious description, thanks for that.
Have they looked under the couch cushions?
and 
I agree, our unmanned probes are unmatched and top notch.
It may start up again before too long, this time with private ventures. Burt Rutan, who was behind the "Spaceship One" project that won the X-Prize, has plans for a space tourism business which, once it gets going, ought to cause prices to lower.
Instead of pushing for more robotic probes to Neptune or wherever, what we really should be leaning on the federal government to do is find ways to relax rules and regulations to make it easier for private entities to launch rockets into space. I've heard that one of the substantial expenses involved with launching rockets is licensing fees.
(Note: The following old "Foxtrot" cartoon is funniest for people who have seen the cheesy old TV space series, "Space: 1999"):
There's gold in them thar asteroids! : ) Or actually ice, which will be a vauable commodity for fuel.
Where's the economic incentive? If there's money to be made, the people will follow. If space tourism is viable and takes off, and if there's money to be made mining the moon or asteroids, this century should see a permanent human presence established from the Earth to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter
Don't get me wrong- I'd love to see that. But excuse me if I sound jaded but- it's not going to happen. Instead of looking up, it just seems like we're looking down at the ground these days (with our domestic trouble), and we have to worry about some nutcase smuggling in a nuke in a U-Haul, so no- I don't think we'll be going into space after all. Before America came around, people didn't even have running water (exaggeration but you get my point)-- the world needs inventives to lead. Where are they goign to come from if not here? China? All they can do is steal. RUssia? They can't afford heating oil. The EU? If they put up a space system, it's just to track citizens or maybe a space weapon platform. But expolration for exploration's sake? That dies with us.
That dream is dead. Stick a fork in her, she's done. Gene Roddenberry's ashes are in space. That baby's in bed.
The first season was better; it seemed to have a real "Star Trek" feel to it. Once they got that shape-changing chick on board, the whole thing turned goofy.
Wasn't that- "Maya"? I liked Maya.... ha
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