Topic: =/\= NASA's future goals...deep space, solar system formation filmed by amateur!

[stoneyface]

NASA has many missions planned for it's future, and most involve deep space exploration. (i can't help it, the buck rogers opening monologue is going thru my head...) this involved article outlines many of the future missions planned. pretty comprehensive and informative. read here: http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/government/leadership/232200131

next, an amateur astronomer has captured the formation of a solar system. this is the first direct observation of the solar accretion disk and actual planetary formation. i find it amazing and ironic that this first observation was made by an "amateur". read here for details and pics: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/11/26/amateur-astronomer-glimpses-an-alien-solar-system/

[knightstorm]

next, an amateur astronomer has captured the formation of a solar system. this is the first direct observation of the solar accretion disk and actual planetary formation. i find it amazing and ironic that this first observation was made by an "amateur". read here for details and pics: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/11/26/amateur-astronomer-glimpses-an-alien-solar-system/

Not really that amazing.  Digital compositing techniques have given amateur astronomers the ability to take pictures which would have required a professional observatory 25 years ago.

[stoneyface]

what is not amazing about the first ever captured images of this formation? also to be clear i was amazed that this first captured image was caught by an amateur, not amazed at the image itself. just to clear that up.

[knightstorm]

Like I said, it isn't really that amazing that an amateur was the one to photograph it first.  There's thousands of more amateurs than there are professionals, and the amateurs of today can do what would have required a professional observatory 25 years ago.  The thing that prevented the disk from being photographed before was that noone had been able to figure out how to block out the light from the parent star.  That's an area where amateurs are on the same footing with professionals, and with the greater number of amateurs, its really not that surprising that an amateur would find it first.