APOD: Leaving Earth (2019 Aug 25)

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APOD: Leaving Earth (2019 Aug 25)

Post by APOD Robot » Sun Aug 25, 2019 4:17 am

Image Leaving Earth

Explanation: What it would look like to leave planet Earth? Such an event was recorded visually in great detail by the MESSENGER spacecraft as it swung back past the Earth, eight years ago, on its way in toward the planet Mercury. Earth can be seen rotating in this time-lapse video, as it recedes into the distance. The sunlit half of Earth is so bright that background stars are not visible. The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft is now in orbit around Mercury and has recently concluded the first complete map of the surface. On occasion, MESSENGER has continued to peer back at its home world. MESSENGER is one of the few things created on the Earth that has left and will never return -- at the end of its mission MESSENGER will be crashed into Mercury's surface.

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bystander
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Re: APOD: Leaving Earth (2019 Aug 25)

Post by bystander » Sun Aug 25, 2019 4:20 am

This text is really dated. MESSENGER is no longer orbiting Mercury. Its mission ended 2015 Apr 30 when it crashed into Mercury.

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/m ... /in-depth/

APOD: MESSENGER's Last Day on Mercury (2015 May 01)
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Re: APOD: Leaving Earth (2019 Aug 25)

Post by Case » Sun Aug 25, 2019 10:02 am

  • The Discuss link currently goes to August 18 unfortunately.

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orin stepanek
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Re: APOD: Leaving Earth (2019 Aug 25)

Post by orin stepanek » Sun Aug 25, 2019 10:50 am

The view of Earth from space is always very beautiful! A planet worth taking good care of! 8-)
Orin

Smile today; tomorrow's another day!

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Re: APOD: Leaving Earth (2019 Aug 25)

Post by Roger V » Sun Aug 25, 2019 11:16 am

There is a mistake in the description of MESSENGER. It is no longer in orbit around Mercury as stated in the caption. It was destroyed by crashing onto the surface of that planet in April of 2015.

However, the video presented in APOD today is beautiful and awesome.

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Re: APOD: Leaving Earth (2019 Aug 25)

Post by JohnD » Sun Aug 25, 2019 9:12 pm

And, quote, "MESSENGER is one of the few things created on the Earth that has left and will never return"

If the more than fifty missions to Mars, dozen to Jupiter, score to Venus and handful to Mercury, plus comet and asteroid probes, the landers of all Apollos that touched down, and all the other uncrewed landing and crashing Moon probes, are a "few things that have left and will never return", yes. Otherwise, a bathetic hyperbole.
John

RET

Re: APOD: Leaving Earth (2019 Aug 25)

Post by RET » Tue Aug 27, 2019 6:52 am

As already mentioned, there seems to be some old descriptions.

I understand that this article is a repost of 2013 Aug. 5.
May I ask you to edit the followings, when you have time?

* 8 years ago -> in 2005 (or something like this)
* ... currently in the orbit around Mercury and recently concluded the first complete map of the surface -> (appropriately)
* will be crashed -> was crashed (or ...)

kindly regards,

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Re: APOD: Leaving Earth (2019 Aug 25)

Post by neufer » Tue Aug 27, 2019 12:22 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
JohnD wrote: Sun Aug 25, 2019 9:12 pm
And, quote, "MESSENGER is one of the few things created on the Earth that has left and will never return"

If the more than fifty missions to Mars, dozen to Jupiter, score to Venus and handful to Mercury, plus comet and asteroid probes, the landers of all Apollos that touched down, and all the other uncrewed landing and crashing Moon probes, are a "few things that have left and will never return", yes. Otherwise, a bathetic hyperbole.
Most things that "leave the Earth" (e.g., arrows, baseballs, footballs, shuttlecocks, etc.) are expected to return.
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=few wrote:
<<few (adj.) Old English feawe (plural; contracted to fea) "not many, a small number; seldom, even a little," from Proto-Germanic *fawaz (source also of Old Saxon fa, Old Frisian fe, Old High German fao, Old Norse far, Danish faa). Always plural in Old English, according to OED "on the analogy of the adverbial fela," meaning "many." Phrase few and far between attested from 1660s. Unusual ironic use in quite a few "many" (1854), earlier a good few (1803).>>

bathetic (adj.) 1834, from bathos on the model of pathetic (q.v.), which, however, does not come directly from pathos, so the formation is either erroneous or humorous. Bathotic (1863, perhaps on model of chaotic) is not much better.>>
Art Neuendorffer

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