Russian Space Telescope Lifts Off, Will Be Biggest Telescope Ever

Combine the huge leap in resolution and that the earth being the closet to the center of the galaxy of the 26,000 year cycle, the timing is perfect. If you think of a calendar as a line, then the December 21, 2012 is coming to a end. And lots of people like to predict gloom an doom and make movies of the world ending. But if you think in terms of cycles, as in cycles of the moon, or cycles of seasons, then the Mayan Calendar is at a peak of repeating a new 26,000 year cycle. Some say we are entering a goldend age in the 26,000 year cycle. If there is a more advance society in the stars and us being so close to the center of the galaxy, the timing is great for them to contact us or we to see them. This is awesome timing.

but it won't see the color, like our hubble can.

I wish our own satellites, Hubble and this new Russian Telescope points at the constellation of Orion for the year 2012. The Egyptians believed there was something really important in that direction. The Egyptians built the pyramids in size, accuracy that our engineers today still cannot achieve.

If the US hadn't been wasting billions on the Shuttle then they would have been able to afford more real science like this. We really need to have a radio telescope that is far more distant, like at least the distance to the asteroid belt, to be able to resolve small objects, like earth-sized planets around other stars.

Oh and this has nothing to do with ridiculous Mayan calendars. The Mayan calendar does NOT end in 2012 anyway, and you don't need a radio telescope to tell you that. Those conspiracy theories were written purely with a colonoscope.

@bubba gump

Go to youtube.com and type in "qualia soup openmindedness" watch the first video. It's about 10 minutes. It'll save your life.

@sweepya, neat video. Nice to see you employee my way of thinking, lol.

@sweepya, you came to a conclusion about me and you ask no question to me. You did not setup a goal or clear difinitions and lines of communication. All you did was make a conclusion. You asked me nothing. I think you are the poster child of close mindness their sweepya. Consider this story. Jack and Robert were walking a path through the woods. The time was near sunset. Jack says to Robert, how far can you see. Robert looks back at him a little puzzled and shrugs his sholder. Jack says to Robert, squinting his eyes up the hilltop at a tree and says to Robert: " Robert, do ya see that red bird in the tree way up the hill? ". Now Robert looks hard at the tree, and after a while he does see the bird and says at Jack, wow you can see really far. Then Jack ask Robert, how far can you see. Robert scratches his head and spins about and looks here and there and finally he looks up as the stars are starting to come out. Robert says to Jack, I can see as far as the stars..... Making clear of your goal, difinitions, boundries and good communication is highly important. Jack was really ask Robert in the beginning, how far can you focus on a small object.

Revolutionary. This telescope will answer so many questions, and yet reveal new queries which will be debated and thought upon for years, it will lay waste to so many ideas, unleash a flood of new hypothesis', and open the doors to so many more possibilities. I'm looking forward to the results.

No shit! I had no idea that we had no idea how to build pyramids anymore! I guess we forgot math, or leverage, and a bunch of other engineering concepts. That doesn't really invalidate your opinion, but please don't be fooled by misinformers who say we can't do this or that anymore. Like, we can't put a heavy stone on top of two other stones. Please remember my response to people who say "Engineers today couldn't do what they did back then with the technology of the day!" which is: "GIVE ME A STICK AND A LADDER, AND I SHALL PROVE THEE A FOOL!" And please remember, we are smarter today because we're better fed, we're not more evolved. And I assure you, at no point in history were the autocracy of our civilizations anything but fat.

@i4got, I suggest you get a little more fiber in your diet.

The pyramids are exceptionally easy to explain, though fools can always confuse themselves and make easy things sound far harder than they are. The pyramids are not even remotely impressive in terms of height today. Modern machinery could easily construct such pointless things, but there is no incentive. Ancients used the partially constructed pyramid itself as a ramp to raise blocks to the top. they used tens of thousands of laborers for decades, when we would use heavy machinery and smaller crews today.

@BubbaGump: I am really impressed by your inciteful and articulate postings. But my history books must be wrong. I didn't think canines were uplifted until mid-23rd century.

@rettaH_daM,I am happy for you. It seems you have found a friend and you think its me. So sad to informyou, your love is one sided, your living a fantasy, bu bye.

"...us being so close to the center of the galaxy"

Actually, scientists calculate that "We are located on on one of its spiral arms, out towards the edge."

Source:

www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/solarsystem/where.shtml

Note: The web page above is meant for 3rd and 4th graders. But, adults can read it too.

Personal query: Anyone want to talk about -- you know -- radio astronomy?

BG was claiming that we were *closer* to the core than usual, not actually close in an absolute sense. That said, I'm still giggling at "inciteful," and strongly agree.

I can't really get emotionally engaged with this story on account of the fact that the James Webb is *so* much prettier. I mean, good God, there's just no comparison. I understand that they're working on different wavelengths, anyway, but *damn.*

On "seeing in color" mentioned in an earlier comment, it's worth noting that Spektr-R sees in a much broader spectrum of color than the human eye does.

@ -my name here-
Hubble doesn't actually see in color at all. The photos it takes are in black and white only; color is added after the fact and doesn't even represent what you'd see if you were to look at the objects with your own eyes. Most people don't realize it, but the color in Hubble's photos are a "best guess" as to what it would actually look like.

SRC: http://hubblesite.org/gallery/behind_the_pictures/meaning_of_color/