How Big is the Milky way?

[MIKA27]

Exactly Steve. Everything we look at is past history. Shoot, the warm sun on our face is 8 minutes old! I always thought it fasinating that what the astronomers see through their mega telescopes in earth time actually happened years ago! It does make your head hurt a little!

I've heard the same thing about the stars at night.

Alot of the stars no longer exist but its the light from them travelling such long distances that continue to travel through space/time that we see. It really is fascinating as many of those stars have been gone for hundreds if not thousands of years.

[OZCUBAN]

I've heard the same thing about the stars at night.

Alot of the stars no longer exist but its the light from them travelling such long distances that continue to travel through space/time that we see. It really is fascinating as many of those stars have been gone for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Exactly

[Disburden]

Thank you so much for posting this thread, I am a total space nerd and this stuff is right up my alley.

Now if we talk getting into M Theory, watch out!

[OZCUBAN]

Thank you so much for posting this thread, I am a total space nerd and this stuff is right up my alley.

my pleasure

[MIKA27]

Thank you so much for posting this thread, I am a total space nerd and this stuff is right up my alley.

Now if we talk getting into M Theory, watch out!

I'll play dumb here and ask.... "What is M Theory" D? (You know you want to tell us! )

[MIKA27]

Congratulations, it's a sun! Image reveals how stars are born

Source: thedailytelegraph.com.au

ITS name is a little unromantic, but this amazing picture released by NASA shows the place where stars are born and nurtured.

The NGC 2467 nebula is a vast cloud of gas, mostly hydrogen and strangely-shaped dust clouds.

The star-forming region is located in the southern constellation of Puppis and is a mere 13,000 light years away from Earth. To put it in perspective one light year is about 9.46 trillion kilometres.

Vast gas clouds containing hydrogen help serve as "an incubator for stars" which has been now been revealed in detail in a newly released image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Stellar nurseries like NGC 2467 can be seen out to considerable distances in the universe and their study is important in determining the distance and chemical composition of other galaxies, scientists say.

Some galaxies contain huge star-forming regions like NGC 2467 which may contain tens of thousands of stars, while others are almost barren.

The hot young stars, recently formed from dust and the mostly hydrogen gas clouds, are shown as bright blue dots, while many more young stars are hidden from view behind the hydrogen gas clouds.

Experts say the hydrogen gas clouds within NGC 2467 are believed to be only a few million years old.

Most of the radiation comes from a single hot and brilliant massive star called HD 64315.

Its fierce radiation has cleared the surrounding areas and is helping shape the structure of the whole nebular region.

[Wicky]

No disrespect to anyone. But could this be anything other than Gods work?

Sorry for turning that rock over.

[Chaki]

Come on! All that was made in 7 days (including 1 for rest), not billion years...

[OZCUBAN]

Meet the Titans: Dust Disk Found Around Massive Star

A new discovery has the potential to answer the long-standing question of how massive stars are born -- and hints at the possibility that planets could form around the galaxy's biggest bodies.

"Astronomers have long been unclear about how the most massive stars form," said Stefan Kraus, a NASA Sagan Exoplanet Fellow and astronomer at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. "Because they tend to be at very large distances and surrounded by dusty envelopes, it's very hard to separate and closely observe them."

To get a better look, Kraus' team used the Very Large Telescope Interferometer of the European Southern Observatory in Chile to focus on IRAS 13481-6124, a star located at a distance of 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus, and about 20 times more massive than our sun. "We were able to get a very sharp view into the innermost regions around this star by combining the light of separate telescopes," Kraus said, "basically mimicking the resolving power of a telescope with an incredible 85-meter [280-foot] mirror."

The team's observations yielded a jackpot result: the discovery of a massive disk of dust and gas encircling the giant young star. "It's the first time something like this has been observed," Kraus said. "The disk very much resembles what we see around young stars that are much smaller, except everything is scaled up and more massive."

The presence of the disk is strong evidence that even the very largest stars in the galaxy form by the same process as smaller ones -- growing out of the dense accumulation of vast quantities of gas and dust, rather than the merging of smaller stars, as had been previously suggested by some scientists. The results were confirmed by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. "We looked at archival images of the star taken by Spitzer, and confirmed that the star is flinging disk material outward from its polar regions, just as we see with smaller stars and their dust disks," Kraus said.

The discovery also opens up the possibility that planets, perhaps even Earth-like ones, may be able to form around massive stars like IRAS 13481-6124, in the same way that they formed around our sun when it was much younger. "In the future, we might be able to see gaps in this and other dust disks created by orbiting planets, although it is unlikely that such bodies could survive for long." Kraus said. "A planet around such a massive star would be destroyed by the strong stellar winds and intense radiation as soon as the protective disk material is gone, which leaves little chance for the development of solar systems like our own."

Still, huge stars like IRAS 13481-6124 provide the building blocks for life to arise elsewhere in the universe. "High-mass stars are where heavy elements necessary for life are created, so they are of major importance," Kraus said "This discovery is a clearer picture than we've had before and allows us to understand them better."

Spitzer previously detected dusty disks of planetary debris around more mature massive stars, further supporting the notion that planets may form even in these extreme environments. More information about that research is online at: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/news/230. More information about NASA's planet-finding missions is online at http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov.

The recent and previous Spitzer observations were made before the space telescope ran out of its liquid coolant in May 2009, officially beginning its warm mission.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

The Sagan Fellowship Program, administered by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI) at Caltech aims to advance the scientific and technical goals of NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program.

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

[email protected]

OZ

Would be really cool to see that moment when a Star switches on ,and starts burn hydrogen in a fusion process,then planets start to form from the left over debris in the dust cloud..

Amazing

cheers OZ

[Stalebread]

Amazing.

Here is a somewhat related article: LINK

Especially the stuff about black holes and "holographic universe"

[Stalebread]

Some people have probable seen these - voted the top ten pictures (so far) from the Hubble Telescope.

Astronomers Select Top Ten Most Amazing Pictures Taken by Hubble Space Telescope in Last 16 Years

I was showing these photos to my wife who is a science fiction fan from long ago.

She pointed out that long before the Hubble and its ilk, illustrators were putting very similar stuff on book covers.

I think she was referring specifically to what I think it #7.

Kinda creepy when you think about it.

[Disburden]

I'll play dumb here and ask.... "What is M Theory" D? (You know you want to tell us! )

You can see an article on M theory a wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-theory

I wouldn't use it as foundamantally 100% correct though but it's close. M theory, in basic terms, is the study of our 11 known dimensions (super gravity being one of them as well as 6 others we can't detect in our existance) and how they relate to our known universe. It derived from the problems known by Cosmologists in the 80s when they were working on String Theory, which only used 10 dimensions and then evolved into M theory as the 11th Dimension was discovered. The M stands for membrane due to the belief by scientists that our Universe is just a tiny little bubble floating on a big gigantic Membrane (like a mucus membrane) and on that membrane floats trillions and trillions of other universes. In string theory instead of a gigantic Membrane Cosmologists believe everything was on an infinite amount of strings that vibrated and created ripples in our realities, like a cello or a guitar string does. Thus the difference in the two theories. As our universe bubbles move along on this membrane in ripples (like waves of water) we clash and make contact with the other universes thus forming parallel universes of our own known universe therefore creating Parallel worlds and circumstances. For example there is an infinite amount of different universes like ours where slightly different things are known as basic or scientific fact, such as physics as we know it, Elvis being dead, humans having one head and brain, etc. There's pretty much a limitless amount of parallel realities.

It seems like fiction but it's fact. I hoped I summed it up well enough to fit in the forum size and make sense lol. If anyone is interested this is a good site for reading up on it: Superstringtheory.com

Now if those pictures in this thread made you feel small, think about how small we really are after reading this. lol.

[Stalebread]

. . .

It seems like fiction but it's fact. I hoped I summed it up well enough to fit in the forum size and make sense lol. If anyone is interested this is a good site for reading up on it: Superstringtheory.com

Very interesting.

This is an area for which, I think, the Large Hadron Collider might provide new information.

Hopefully.

.

[Disburden]

Also when the seperate membranes collide they supposedly create big bangs therefore big bangs are happening all the time in different universes.

[MIKA27]

Also when the seperate membranes collide they supposedly create big bangs therefore big bangs are happening all the time in different universes.

Your post on M-Theory was amazing, thanks for sharing.

It certainly makes one feel less than microscopic in the scheme of things.

Einstein himself stated there were multiverses which consisted of multiple dimensions and then later backed up by the Kaluza–Klein theory

The general formulation of M-theory will probably require the development of new mathematical language and should that occur, perhaps that in itself will allow science to develop new technologies to solve many things we all think at this moment is impossible.

I know this is slightly off topic, but even the existence of 'UFO's' and the like can be explained through M-Theory and that should they exist (I believe they do) it doesn't mean they necessarily travel through space, but rather time by 'bending' the membranes?

[Disburden]

Your post on M-Theory was amazing, thanks for sharing.

It certainly makes one feel less than microscopic in the scheme of things.

Einstein himself stated there were multiverses which consisted of multiple dimensions and then later backed up by the Kaluza–Klein theory

The general formulation of M-theory will probably require the development of new mathematical language and should that occur, perhaps that in itself will allow science to develop new technologies to solve many things we all think at this moment is impossible.

I know this is slightly off topic, but even the existence of 'UFO's' and the like can be explained through M-Theory and that should they exist (I believe they do) it doesn't mean they necessarily travel through space, but rather time by 'bending' the membranes?

I've thought about the ufo thing like that before too, also seeing ghosts and the after life...

Crazy!

[MIKA27]

25,000 new asteroids found by NASA's sky mapping

LOS ANGELES — Worried about Earth-threatening asteroids? One of NASA's newest space telescopes has spotted 25,000 never-before-seen asteroids in just six months.

Ninety-five of those are considered "near Earth," but in the language of astronomy that means within 30 million miles. Luckily for us, none pose any threat to Earth anytime soon.

Called WISE for Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the telescope completed its first full scan of the sky on Saturday and then began another round of imaging.

What's special about WISE is its ability to see through impenetrable veils of dust, picking up the heat glow of objects that are invisible to regular telescopes.

"Most telescopes focus on the hottest and brightest objects in the universe," said Richard Binzel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "WISE is especially sensitive to seeing what's cool and dark, what you could call the stealth objects of the universe."

Mission team members are elated with the discoveries of the $320 million project, which launched in December.

By the end of the year, researchers expect to have a cosmic census of millions of newfound objects that should help answer questions about how planets, stars and galaxies form.

Besides all those asteroids, WISE has also sighted 15 new comets. It has spied hundreds of potential brown dwarfs — stellar objects that are bigger than a planet but much smaller than a star — and confirmed the existence of 20 of them, including some of the coldest ever known.

The telescope also detected what's thought to be an ultraluminous galaxy, more than 10 billion light years away and formed from other colliding galaxies.

"We're filling in the blanks on everything in the universe from near-Earth objects to forming galaxies," said project scientist Peter Eisenhardt of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managing the mission. "There's quite a zoo."

WISE's 16-inch telescope was built by Utah State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory. It circles the Earth 300 miles high and takes snapshots every 11 seconds over the whole sky.

Since the sky survey began, the JPL team has reported the new near-Earth objects to the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, which keeps track of all small solar system objects.

WISE is discovering near-Earth asteroids that are on average larger than what's found by existing telescopes, which should help scientists better calculate their potential threat, said Harvard astronomer Timothy Spahr, who directs the Minor Planet Center.

The WISE mission comes a quarter century after the Infrared Astronomy Satellite made the first all-sky map in infrared wavelength in 1983.

Unlike its predecessor, WISE is far more powerful. It's expected to keep taking images covering half of the sky until October when it will begin to run out of coolant.

NASA has released a picture a week of WISE's myriad finds. But the full celestial catalog of what's out there will not be released to the public until next year after the team has had time to process the images and flag false alarms.

"The real discoveries will come when we let the whole world in on the data," Eisenhardt said.

[MIKA27]

Monster star R136a1 is whopping 265 times bigger than the Sun

- R136a1 may weigh 320 solar masses

- It is 10 million times brighter than the Sun

- Star born heavy and loses weight as it ages

A HUGE ball of brightly burning gas drifting through a neighbouring galaxy may be the heaviest star ever discovered - 265 times bigger than the Sun.

Those behind the find say the star, called R136a1, may once have weighed as much as 320 solar masses.

Astrophysicist Paul Crowther said the obese star - twice as heavy as any previously discovered - has already slimmed down considerably over its lifetime.

In fact it's burning itself off with such intensity that it shines with nearly 10 million times the luminosity of the Sun.

"Unlike humans, these stars are born heavy and lose weight as they age," said Dr Crowther, an astrophysicist at the University of Sheffield in northern England.

"R136a1 is already middle-aged and has undergone an intense weight loss program."

Dr Crowther said the giant was identified at the centre of a star cluster in the Tarantula Nebula, a sprawling cloud of gas and dust drifting through one of the Milky Way's neighbouring galaxies.

The star was the most massive of several giants identified by Dr Crowther and his team in an article in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

While other stars can be larger, notably the swollen crimson-coloured ones known as red giants, they weigh far less.

Still, the mass of R136a1 and its ilk means they're tens of times bigger than our sun, and that they're brighter and hotter, too.

Surface temperatures can surpass 40,000C, seven times hotter than the Sun.

They're also several million times brighter, a product of the fact that the greedy giants tear through their energy reserves far faster than their smaller counterparts.

That also means that massive stars live fast and die young, quickly shedding huge amounts of material and burning themselves out in what are thought to be spectacular explosions.

"The biggest live only three million years," Dr Crowther said. "In astronomy that's a very short time."

Small lifespans are one of several reasons why these obese stars are so hard to find. Another is that they're extremely rare, forming only in the densest star clusters.

Astronomers also have a limited range in which to look: In clusters that are too far away it isn't always possible to tell if a telescope has picked up on one heavyweight star or two smaller ones in close proximity.

In this case, Dr Crowther's team re-examined previously known stars to see if they could find an accurate measurement of their weight. The team reviewed archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope and gathered new readings from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope at Paranal in Chile.

Scientists who weren't involved in the find said the results were impressive, although they cautioned it was still possible, although unlikely, that scientists had confused two very close stars for a bigger, single one.

"What they're characterising as a single massive star could in fact be a binary system too close to be resolved," said Mark Krumholz, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Both he and Phillip Massey, an astronomer with the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, also cautioned that the star's weight had been inferred using scientific models and that those were subject to change.

But both scientists said the authors had made a strong case, arguing for instance that the solar material being thrown off from feuding stars in a binary system would produce much more powerful X-rays than have been detected.

Dr Crowther acknowledged that R136a1 could have a partner, but he said it was likely to be a much smaller star, meaning that its birth weight was still considerable - perhaps 300 solar masses instead of 320.

MIKA: What an amazing find and how HUGE is that star. Makes one wonder what else is out there?

On the same topic, whilst my family and I were in Chile earlier this year, we had the opportunity to visit the European Southern Observatory Paranal in Chile. I'll post a few pictures of this later tonight when I find them. An amazing place that apparently not many outsiders can visit normally however my wifes cousin manages their taxation and he had a special invite.

[OZCUBAN]

LRO Sees Apollo Landing Sites

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has returned its first imagery of the Apollo moon landing sites. The pictures show the Apollo missions' lunar module descent stages sitting on the moon's surface, as long shadows from a low sun angle make the modules' locations evident.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, was able to image five of the six Apollo sites, with the remaining Apollo 12 site expected to be photographed in the coming weeks.

The satellite reached lunar orbit June 23 and captured the Apollo sites between July 11 and 15. Though it had been expected that LRO would be able to resolve the remnants of the Apollo mission, these first images came before the spacecraft reached its final mapping orbit. Future LROC images from these sites will have two to three times greater resolution.

All images credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

Apollo 11 lunar module, Eagle.

Image width: 282 meters (about 925 ft.)

› Larger image http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/369440main_lroc_apollo11_lrg.jpg

Apollo 15 lunar module, Falcon.

Image width: 384 meters (about 1,260 ft.)

› Larger image http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/369442main_lroc_apollo15_lrg.jpg

Apollo 16 lunar module, Orion.

Image width: 256 meters (about 840 ft.)

› Larger image http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/369443main_lroc_apollo16_lrg.jpg

Apollo 17 lunar module, Challenger.

Image width: 359 meters (about 1,178 ft.)

› Larger image http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/369444main_lroc_apollo17_lrg.jpg

Apollo 14 lunar module, Antares.

Image width: 538 meters (about 1,765 ft.)

› Larger image http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/369441main_lroc_apollo14_lrg.jpg

"The LROC team anxiously awaited each image," said LROC principal investigator Mark Robinson of Arizona State University. "We were very interested in getting our first peek at the lunar module descent stages just for the thrill -- and to see how well the cameras had come into focus. Indeed, the images are fantastic and so is the focus."

This photograph shows Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin in front of the lunar module. The photo helps provide a scale to the LROC images shown above. Credit: NASA/Neil Armstrong

› Larger image http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/369227main_aldrinLM_full.jpg

Although these pictures provide a reminder of past NASA exploration, LRO's primary focus is on paving the way for the future. By returning detailed lunar data, the mission will help NASA identify safe landing sites for future explorers, locate potential resources, describe the moon's radiation environment and demonstrate new technologies.

"Not only do these images reveal the great accomplishments of Apollo, they also show us that lunar exploration continues," said LRO project scientist Richard Vondrak of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "They demonstrate how LRO will be used to identify the best destinations for the next journeys to the moon."

The spacecraft's current elliptical orbit resulted in image resolutions that were slightly different for each site but were all around four feet per pixel. Because the deck of the descent stage is about 12 feet in diameter, the Apollo relics themselves fill an area of about nine pixels. However, because the sun was low to the horizon when the images were made, even subtle variations in topography create long shadows. Standing slightly more than ten feet above the surface, each Apollo descent stage creates a distinct shadow that fills roughly 20 pixels.

The image of the Apollo 14 landing site had a particularly desirable lighting condition that allowed visibility of additional details. The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package, a set of scientific instruments placed by the astronauts at the landing site, is discernable, as are the faint trails between the module and instrument package left by the astronauts' footprints.

Launched on June 18, LRO carries seven scientific instruments, all of which are currently undergoing calibration and testing prior to the spacecraft reaching its primary mission orbit. The LROC instrument comprises three cameras -- two high-resolution Narrow Angle Cameras and one lower resolution Wide Angle Camera. LRO will be directed into its primary mission orbit in August, a nearly-circular orbit about 31 miles above the lunar surface.

Goddard built and manages LRO, a NASA mission with international participation from the Institute for Space Research in Moscow. Russia provided the neutron detector aboard the spacecraft.

Related Link:

› Additional information on LROC http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/

Supplemental Material

This graphic shows the approximate locations of the Apollo moon landing sites.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

› Larger image http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/369230main_apollolandinglocator_full.jpg

› View animation http://www.nasa.gov/mov/369229main_apollo_sites_halfres.mov

Grey Hautaluoma

NASA Headquarters

Andy Freeberg

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

OZ

The 20th of July marked the 41 st. anniversary of the moon landing any one that can remember the landing or the subsequent missions must be feeling their age now

[MIKA27]

LRO Sees Apollo Landing Sites

OZ

The 20th of July marked the 41 st. anniversary of the moon landing any one that can remember the landing or the subsequent missions must be feeling their age now

But did 'THEY' land on the moon...really?

Theres alot of sceptics out there and conspiracies on that. I myself believe they did however.

I guess your post with the images from the Apollo landings confirms this.

[OZCUBAN]

EXACTLY

[cigcars]

A universe within a black hole? Now that is indeed an interesting postulation.

*Hmm, maybe that might explain why we're so "tore up" in this world...

[Fuzz]

But did 'THEY' land on the moon...really?

Theres alot of sceptics out there and conspiracies on that. I myself believe they did however.

I guess your post with the images from the Apollo landings confirms this.

Those aren't pics of the Apollo lunar lander...

[Disburden]

When this star dies it will leave one hell of a black hole!!

Monster star R136a1 is whopping 265 times bigger than the Sun

- R136a1 may weigh 320 solar masses

- It is 10 million times brighter than the Sun

- Star born heavy and loses weight as it ages

A HUGE ball of brightly burning gas drifting through a neighbouring galaxy may be the heaviest star ever discovered - 265 times bigger than the Sun.

Those behind the find say the star, called R136a1, may once have weighed as much as 320 solar masses.

Astrophysicist Paul Crowther said the obese star - twice as heavy as any previously discovered - has already slimmed down considerably over its lifetime.

In fact it's burning itself off with such intensity that it shines with nearly 10 million times the luminosity of the Sun.

"Unlike humans, these stars are born heavy and lose weight as they age," said Dr Crowther, an astrophysicist at the University of Sheffield in northern England.

"R136a1 is already middle-aged and has undergone an intense weight loss program."

Dr Crowther said the giant was identified at the centre of a star cluster in the Tarantula Nebula, a sprawling cloud of gas and dust drifting through one of the Milky Way's neighbouring galaxies.

The star was the most massive of several giants identified by Dr Crowther and his team in an article in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

While other stars can be larger, notably the swollen crimson-coloured ones known as red giants, they weigh far less.

Still, the mass of R136a1 and its ilk means they're tens of times bigger than our sun, and that they're brighter and hotter, too.

Surface temperatures can surpass 40,000C, seven times hotter than the Sun.

They're also several million times brighter, a product of the fact that the greedy giants tear through their energy reserves far faster than their smaller counterparts.

That also means that massive stars live fast and die young, quickly shedding huge amounts of material and burning themselves out in what are thought to be spectacular explosions.

"The biggest live only three million years," Dr Crowther said. "In astronomy that's a very short time."

Small lifespans are one of several reasons why these obese stars are so hard to find. Another is that they're extremely rare, forming only in the densest star clusters.

Astronomers also have a limited range in which to look: In clusters that are too far away it isn't always possible to tell if a telescope has picked up on one heavyweight star or two smaller ones in close proximity.

In this case, Dr Crowther's team re-examined previously known stars to see if they could find an accurate measurement of their weight. The team reviewed archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope and gathered new readings from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope at Paranal in Chile.

Scientists who weren't involved in the find said the results were impressive, although they cautioned it was still possible, although unlikely, that scientists had confused two very close stars for a bigger, single one.

"What they're characterising as a single massive star could in fact be a binary system too close to be resolved," said Mark Krumholz, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Both he and Phillip Massey, an astronomer with the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, also cautioned that the star's weight had been inferred using scientific models and that those were subject to change.

But both scientists said the authors had made a strong case, arguing for instance that the solar material being thrown off from feuding stars in a binary system would produce much more powerful X-rays than have been detected.

Dr Crowther acknowledged that R136a1 could have a partner, but he said it was likely to be a much smaller star, meaning that its birth weight was still considerable - perhaps 300 solar masses instead of 320.

MIKA: What an amazing find and how HUGE is that star. Makes one wonder what else is out there?

On the same topic, whilst my family and I were in Chile earlier this year, we had the opportunity to visit the European Southern Observatory Paranal in Chile. I'll post a few pictures of this later tonight when I find them. An amazing place that apparently not many outsiders can visit normally however my wifes cousin manages their taxation and he had a special invite.

[MIKA27]

Those aren't pics of the Apollo lunar lander...