A STAR BEING EATEN BY A HUGE BLACK HOLE! DOES ASTRONOMY INTEREST YOU??

that budget is inside the overall NASA budget... which has remained unchanged... as I showed you.

it has more to do with NOT getting the budget INCREASE they would need to carryout those missions.

if you want to see us go to Mars, lobby congress to allocate more to NASA than the measly 0.5% that they currently give.

Obama did not merely cut the Nasa budget. He also changed its mission to that of a Muslim outreach. Granted, that ox-cart culture could use the influence, but it might be ever so slight a drag on Nasa's mission.

you are a crazy man-thing.

That's what the prostitute in the trunk said.

trunk monkey?

Yep, He's parked us on the sideline for sure.

It takes years for some of these NASA projects to be completed. All the upcoming missions were paid for from previous administrations.

NASA will have a huge Obama gap in exploration in the coming years.

amen. its disappointing.

Obama only requests a budget... congress passes a spending bill.. then congress also does the appropriations which determine how the money is really going to be spent (and does not always track with the budget bill that was passed)...

Republicans control the house which is where ALL spending bills originate, so they are in charge of NASA spending, not Obama.

And, Obama did not cut the NASA budget... in fact his requests have been pretty consistent... higher than the last few years of the GWB admin.

FY2012 Request: $18.7 billion
FY2011 Request: $19.0 billion
FY2010 Enacted: $18.7 billion

2009 [6] 17,782
2008 17,318
2007 15,861

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Wiki scrubs for Obama so they are not reliable.

Wow, looks like I need not comment at all since others jumped all over your response. All I know is the Solar System is beyond words and needs looking into for many reasons. Thanks for posting it!

Astronomy fascinated me since I was very young. I suspect I will own a telescope of some sort in my old age.

Heck yes. It was one of my majors in college. I double majored in Astronomy and Physics.

Very much so...there is so much to see and learn.

Very little, except for the info they aren't making public:

It's cool. Too bad Obama killed Nasa and most of the Space Exploration project.

YES!!

Awesome!

Hell Yes, Astronomy (and related fields) is a key ingredient to human civilization and is responsible for our existence as we know it. Also its just freaking awesome

I attended Space Camp when I was younger. One of my fondest memories. I even was the shuttle commander in the simulations. I always wish I could have been an astrophysicist.

never ceases to amaze me

I catch myself staring at the stars at night and stopping in the middle of my sentence to find the big dipper or little one.

It is an amazing science

Its really cool :)

and scares me

it does fascinate me

If there really is some sort of consciousness behind or within the machinations of the universe, I wonder what black holes are thinking? Are they some sort of galactic predator?

If that Black Hole will work its way to the Milky Way Galaxy and get busy swallowing up Stars, who wouldn't like to watch that?

There are scientists that claim that ALL Galaxies contain "Black Holes" in their centers.. They say that without them there would not be enough gravity to hold the Galaxy together..

Makes sense to me.

Love learning about the universe
you realize
we are a speck of Dust in the universe
and makes you truly appreciate how amazing our world is

I am endlessly fascinated by the universe. The article said the black hole is 2.1 billion light years away so we are actually looking into the distant past and seeing it as it was. The distances involved are mind boggling.

Very interresting and very thought provoking considering that you're looking at an image of something that took place 2.1 Billion Years ago..

What was happening here on Earth at the time this Image began it's journey towards our detection??

Well,, Scientists have just made a discovery that may very well shed some light on that..

CUDA Spotlight: Our World: 2.1 Billion Years Ago

An international team has discovered multi-cellular organisms in Gabon, Africa that are 2.1 billion years old -- with assistance from the GPU. This discovery was recently highlighted in Nature. To learn more, we contacted Arnaud Mazurier of ERM in Poitiers, France and Francois Curnier, CEO of Digisens.

NVIDIA: Arnaud, why is this discovery a breakthrough?
Arnaud: The first chapter of the history book on life now needs to be rewritten! This discovery is quite astonishing because the fossils (which are 1-12 centimeters long and look a bit like cookies) reveal that large organisms were growing in a coordinated manner 2.1 billion years ago, rather than ˜600 million years ago as previously thought.

The entire Dark Energy and Dark Matter issue is fascinating. Because the origin of Dark Energy and Dark Matter is a mystery, and because the fate of matter and energy consumed by black holes is also a mystery, then perhaps matter and energy consumed by black holes is actually transformed into Dark Energy and Dark Matter. This may conform to the Law of Thermodynamics.

heavy man.

no, really heavy...

It does. The Universe is vast and full of wonders.

No end of fascination !

soon we will be the ones being eaten by the black hole.

The evolution of the universe.