MARS
the americans have just landed a probe on mars!
lets just put the distances involved into context:
the moon (which most people think is a long way away):
light (traveling at about half a billion miles an hour) takes about 0.25 of a second to get from the earth to the moon.
mars, on the other hand, is so far away, light takes 3 minutes to get from earth to mars (the sun is only about double this: 8 minutes).
this may not seem far, but believe me, it is a VERY long way away.... and the americans have got there!
consider what these light-travel times mean: most of the time we think that light gets from me to you instantly. but it dosent... it takes time to get there. infact, no information can travel faster than the speed of light. So, for example, this probe on mars: if a camera died on the probe, then the controllers on earth would not know for 3 minutes. alternatively, there is a 3minute lag on controls: consider playing a computer game, with a 3minute lag on getting your directions to the game, and a further 3minutes seeing the results of your actions!
they have called the probe "Pheonix", to signify the others they bodged up: there is about a 50% failure rate of mars probes... but this one made it.
it is really worth taking a look at the pictures on that link: they are images of the surface of another planet. a planet one third the size of earth. at night time, it has a surface temperature of about -200C.
it just incredible! go look at the pics!
Jon, are the black bits
Jon, are the black bits (like the one you can see here) where they Photoshop out the aliens?
interesting answer:
interesting answer:
the black bits are (or were) little green men, whom nasa (in their infinite wisdom) have photoshopped (or whatever expensive bit of kit they use) out, to protect our innocent little minds from the possibility of aliens & life on other planets. also, if they were to admit that the little green men exist, they would loose a lot of funding: why go look for something we know is there...?
the boring answer (which, ultimately, is the correct one) is that the camera pixels either dont work properly, or that piece of sky just wasnt exposed. those images are mostly composites of hundreds of images, all mashed together in a collage type thing.
I think that's proved beyond
I think that's proved beyond all doubt that you're part of the conspiracy as well - i wondered how long it would be before they planted a mole at camp.
Nah, nah, you've got it wrong...
You don't plant moles, you whack them.