Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2002 May 28 
Posted on 05/27/2002 9:37:39 PM PDT by petuniasevan
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2002 May 28
Explanation: The most photogenic array of radio telescopes in the world has also been one of the most productive. Each of the 27 radio telescopes in the Very Large Array (VLA) is the size of a house and can be moved on train tracks. The above pictured VLA, celebrating its twenty-second year of operation, is situated in New Mexico, USA. The VLA has been used to discover water on planet Mercury, radio-bright coronae around ordinary stars, micro-quasars in our Galaxy, gravitationally-induced Einstein rings around distant galaxies, and radio counterparts to cosmologically distant gamma-ray bursts. The vast size of the VLA has allowed astronomers to study the details of super-fast cosmic jets, and even map the center of our Galaxy. An upgrade of the VLA is being planned.
Cool! Thanks! :-)
Thanks for the very interesting discussion, RadioAstronomer and sleavelessinseattle.
RA, I've pretty much come to terms with the evolutionary mechanisms(not theory, kids) and genotypic representation in subsequent populations based on environment, and relative reproductive efficiencies constrained by limited resources and metabolic waste buildups in a given exobiological closed system(pre spaceflight, even though might occur in a cloud of Dark Matter, since we don't even know what that IS!)...
Given the current behavior of adherents of Wahhabi Fundamentalism's utter rejection of education, equal rights, Their disdain for the scientific method, has anyone done a Massively Parallel Processor Model on how Infinitesmally small the probability value is that a culture of sapient life forms could develop a cosmological view of other life forms and stay focused on R&D long enough to produce a SETI type search, much less Interstellar flight capability during the finite period of Humankinds technological age and coming to visit us for purposes of violent conversion to the ET's version of Sharia for our own good? I'm thinking that calculation won't take long, and the P value will be one of those theoretical numbers so close to null that some hungry grad students will get their advanced degree's based on dimensionalizing it down below the Planck Constant of the smallest unit of size possible in this Space Time continuum...For discussion purposes only ;-D RA, I'll be responding to your stimulating answers seriously as soon as I've establish that my Cerebrum has absorbed sufficient caffeine for my Reticular Activating system to remember to breath for me without conscious mental exertion!...LOL! looking forward to it!!!!
White Coats, no problem, The wierd cough syrup in the little paper cups they gave me at the Western State hospital lockup was curiously refreshing! If you said the men in night shirts and turbans were coming, They would get a different reception...you didn't mention that I couldn't wire my doorbell button to the Power line behind my apartment,*grin...If enough juice went through a Wahhabi(terran) would he be shocked into emitting microwaves? or do you have to light them up via High energy EM radiation? Rhetorical again...Coffee is not doing me any good cognitively!
Please answer the door ... it'll be OK. LOL &;-)
You forced my hand! &;-)
I'd like to see a LIGO observatory on the moon, as well eh? Talk about very large array! Plus I bet there might be an additional filter process from a nearly volcanically "dead" platform...I was SO excited to hear that Hanford held a lock for over two weeks...This is such a great time for physics/astronomy!!! Gravity waves correlated with GRB's...Maybe you guys will pick up some construction chatter from an area where some, Ahem, large Alien civil engineering projects are under way thousands of years ago< rant>Tense is such a uselessly imprecise tool for dealing with a relativistic Universe where Time passes at different rates depending on acceleration and Mass!!!!< /rant>...Drool..You might overhear a garbled digital exchange such as this vignette!
"Hey Dweezle, Drop that Strange Matter Quark dohicky over dere in that wimpy Quantum Black Hole and Lets Light this Candle!!!Zark!!! look at the mandibles on that tertiary adjunct breeder hoverin over there! I'd exchange long protein chains with THAT if you know what I mean!!!"(2Trievers will inevitably point out that Construction workers are the same all over the pleniverse*Yes, Dear!)
GOD, talking to you makes me wish my parents had forced me to do more math with a cattle prod!!! I envy you RA;-D Bad coffee, cramped quarters and all!
Whole new question! I read that a seismic event was recorded that might have been a near light speed strange matter collision with Earth correlated with entry and exit sites....Should I stop buying the Weekly World Globe??
Somehow I feel the curriculum is stacked against me here ... gotta' go be professorial myself ... TTFN! &;-)
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