Astronomy - Page 2

***Jonathan*** · 08-28-2006, 02:46 PM

Practically all known exoplanets are gas giants and I guess a reliable presumption is that their masses have been sufficient to "clear the neighbourhood" and all, thus making them planets. But that would be hard to verify using today's telescopes.

However if an exoplanet has too large a mass (enough to start fusion processes), it would have to be considered a "brown dwarf" rather than a planet.

Astronomers have also found a couple of celestial bodies that don't seem to orbit around a star. They've been called "free floating planets" but with the new planet definition, perhaps they should be called "free floating objects" or something?

But perhaps there are different criteria for planets outside our solar system.

hectorberlioz · 08-28-2006, 02:49 PM

You guys have probably already been talking about it, but I have found out that Pluto has been announced a non-planet. I guess that means those three "planets" won't be added to our textbooks after all?

trolls' bane · 08-28-2006, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

You guys have probably already been talking about it, but I have found out that Pluto has been announced a non-planet. I guess that means those three "planets" won't be added to our textbooks after all?

No, that hasn't come up at all in the last few days.

***Varnafindë*** · 11-26-2010, 08:14 AM

Are you sure that's not Narnian?

inked · 11-29-2010, 06:52 PM

Looking for someone to hold responsible for the source of global warming (sic)?

Found her:

Spanish Woman Claims She Now Owns Sun

Updated: Friday, 26 Nov 2010, 2:16 PM EST
Published : Friday, 26 Nov 2010, 2:16 PM EST

(AFP) - After billions of years the Sun finally has an owner -- a woman from Spain's soggy region of Galicia said Friday she had registered the star at a local notary public as being her property.

Angeles Duran, 49, told the online edition of daily El Mundo she took the step in September after reading about an American man who had registered himself as the owner of the moon and most planets in our solar system.

There is an international agreement which states that no country may claim ownership of a planet or star, but it says nothing about individuals, she added.

"There was no snag, I backed my claim legally, I am not stupid, I know the law. I did it but anyone else could have done it, it simply occurred to me first."

The document issued by the notary public declares Duran to be the "owner of the Sun, a star of spectral type G2, located in the centre of the solar system, located at an average distance from Earth of about 149,600,000 kilometers."

Duran, who lives in the town of Salvaterra do Mino, said she now wants to slap a fee on everyone who uses the sun and give half of the proceeds to the Spanish government and 20 percent to the nation's pension fund.

She would dedicate another 10 percent to research, another 10 percent to ending world hunger -- and would keep the remaining 10 percent herself.

"It is time to start doing things the right way, if there is an idea for how to generate income and improve the economy and people's wellbeing, why not do it?" she asked.

Copyright 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpps/new...26-gc_10808147

So, for all those sunburns, wilted plants, melanoma and basal cell cancers, your lawyer will now have the Sun's owner to contact and sue.

And, if you think we may be headed for another Maunder Minimum, you know who to sue for crop failure, snow and ice traffic accidents, falls, and destruction of human construction due to weight.

Feel better, now?

***Earniel*** · 11-30-2010, 06:33 AM

Quote:

So, for all those sunburns, wilted plants, melanoma and basal cell cancers, your lawyer will now have the Sun's owner to contact and sue.

Eh, good point. I don't think she thought that through entirely.

***Varnafindë*** · 11-30-2010, 09:14 AM

Perhaps she will decide that it's better to try to sell it

***Earniel*** · 11-30-2010, 02:32 PM

Mind you, there have been stranger things for sale on Ebay...

Insidious Rex · 11-30-2010, 02:42 PM

Ra is not amused!

inked · 12-02-2010, 12:30 AM

A rare treat this solstice-time! That'd be December 21/22 for the astronomy non-buffs!

"The oddest celestial event? This year there's an easy winner. It's the millennium's first total lunar eclipse completely visible from all of North America and Hawaii. And whoa, beat the drums, it happens right on the solstice.

This was exactly the kind of spectacle that inspired the fun-loving Mayans to push their most annoying relatives off pyramids. (Does any scholar actually know how they selected people for sacrifices? "Annoying" seems logical.) These days, our own citizenry is much too overweight to engage in such energetic rituals. But if you're tempted, be sure to first check local ordinances before you perform even a single goat sacrifice."

See it all at: http://astronomy.com/en/Columnists/B...20eclipse.aspx

***Earniel*** · 12-02-2010, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by inked

(Does any scholar actually know how they selected people for sacrifices? "Annoying" seems logical.)

Thought so. Enemy warriors, I think I remember. I take it those ranked as 'annoying'. Probably after they already had run out of mother-in-laws...

***Rían*** · 12-14-2010, 03:43 PM

that's cool! Go Voyager!

***Jonathan*** · 12-14-2010, 04:34 PM

Next, I want to see it make the jump into hyperspace

Insidious Rex · 12-14-2010, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Next, I want to see it make the jump into hyperspace

and then come back in the future as Vger searching for its maker and try to wipe us off the creators planet.

The Gaffer · 12-14-2010, 05:45 PM

Blimey.

I can remember it being launched. It's an astonishing feat of engineering.

I wonder if the unmanned Mariner programme taught us more than the manned Apollo ones. They sent probes to the inner planets too.

And great pics. Volcanic eruption on Io:

Cheerio Voyager!

inked · 12-20-2010, 09:58 AM

TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE tonight!

http://astronomy.com/Home/News-Obser...20eclipse.aspx

Lotesse · 06-07-2012, 12:17 AM

Valandil & Earniel, that site is mesmerising! I've been reading it for the last straight hour. LOVE.

***Earniel*** · 08-05-2012, 09:58 AM

Within 15 to 16 hours, a new Mars rover Curiosity will be joining her two siblings on Mars. So excited!

I've been wondering whether anything would be broadcast live. There's off course a far greater delay in communication with Mars, then say, with the Moonlanding, but I think it would be awesome to see.

Trouble is, the landing is scheduled during my local very early morning and I have to babysit a very active toddler on Monday. Not sure if it's a good idea...

And if it's not anywhere on TV, the computer is right next door to bedrooms, so I'm going to have to be very quiet too. Not ideal. *sigh*

Will anyone be watching?

***Rían*** · 08-06-2012, 02:25 AM

yay Curiosity!

I missed it, but my sister and her hubby have some NASA friends and they've been watching it. Can't wait for pictures! Maybe they'll be good enough for our Entmoot photo thread

***Earniel*** · 08-06-2012, 10:41 AM

Well, it landed safely, that's a start! Couldn't watch, sadly. But I'm too looking forward to pictures! Those of Spirit and Opportunity were quite interesting. I think I even have stored somewhere a picture or two of Huygens' when he landed on Titan. So cool to look at those pictures and actually realise that's another world they're taken on!

08-28-2006, 02:46 PM	#1
*Jonathan* Entmoot Attorney-General, Equilibrating the Scales of Justice, Administrator ♎ Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 3,891	Practically all known exoplanets are gas giants and I guess a reliable presumption is that their masses have been sufficient to "clear the neighbourhood" and all, thus making them planets. But that would be hard to verify using today's telescopes. However if an exoplanet has too large a mass (enough to start fusion processes), it would have to be considered a "brown dwarf" rather than a planet. Astronomers have also found a couple of celestial bodies that don't seem to orbit around a star. They've been called "free floating planets" but with the new planet definition, perhaps they should be called "free floating objects" or something? But perhaps there are different criteria for planets outside our solar system. Last edited by Jonathan : 08-28-2006 at 02:48 PM.

08-28-2006, 02:49 PM	#2
hectorberlioz Master of Orchestration President Emeritus of Entmoot 2004-2008 Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Lost in the Opera House Posts: 9,328	You guys have probably already been talking about it, but I have found out that Pluto has been announced a non-planet. I guess that means those three "planets" won't be added to our textbooks after all? __________________ ACALEWIA- President of Entmoot hectorberlioz- Vice President of Entmoot Acaly und Hektor fur Presidants fur EntMut fur life! Join the discussion at Entmoot Election 2010. "Stupidissimo!"~Toscanini The Da CINDY Code The Epic Poem Of The Balrog of Entmoot: Here ~NEW! ~ Thinking of summer vacation? AboutNewJersey.com - NJ Travel & Tourism Guide

11-26-2010, 08:14 AM	#4
*Varnafindë* Princess of the Noldor (and Administrative Empress of the Lone Islands) Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Imladris (and sometimes Norway) Posts: 3,304	Are you sure that's not Narnian? __________________ Signature picture art - Bard the Bowman - by vigshane Avatar art - Footsteps of Spring (a young Luthien) - by Henning Janssen

11-29-2010, 06:52 PM	#5
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	Looking for someone to hold responsible for the source of global warming (sic)? Found her: Spanish Woman Claims She Now Owns Sun Updated: Friday, 26 Nov 2010, 2:16 PM EST Published : Friday, 26 Nov 2010, 2:16 PM EST (AFP) - After billions of years the Sun finally has an owner -- a woman from Spain's soggy region of Galicia said Friday she had registered the star at a local notary public as being her property. Angeles Duran, 49, told the online edition of daily El Mundo she took the step in September after reading about an American man who had registered himself as the owner of the moon and most planets in our solar system. There is an international agreement which states that no country may claim ownership of a planet or star, but it says nothing about individuals, she added. "There was no snag, I backed my claim legally, I am not stupid, I know the law. I did it but anyone else could have done it, it simply occurred to me first." The document issued by the notary public declares Duran to be the "owner of the Sun, a star of spectral type G2, located in the centre of the solar system, located at an average distance from Earth of about 149,600,000 kilometers." Duran, who lives in the town of Salvaterra do Mino, said she now wants to slap a fee on everyone who uses the sun and give half of the proceeds to the Spanish government and 20 percent to the nation's pension fund. She would dedicate another 10 percent to research, another 10 percent to ending world hunger -- and would keep the remaining 10 percent herself. "It is time to start doing things the right way, if there is an idea for how to generate income and improve the economy and people's wellbeing, why not do it?" she asked. Copyright 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpps/new...26-gc_10808147 So, for all those sunburns, wilted plants, melanoma and basal cell cancers, your lawyer will now have the Sun's owner to contact and sue. And, if you think we may be headed for another Maunder Minimum, you know who to sue for crop failure, snow and ice traffic accidents, falls, and destruction of human construction due to weight. Feel better, now? __________________ Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941

11-30-2010, 09:14 AM	#7
*Varnafindë* Princess of the Noldor (and Administrative Empress of the Lone Islands) Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Imladris (and sometimes Norway) Posts: 3,304	Perhaps she will decide that it's better to try to sell it __________________ Signature picture art - Bard the Bowman - by vigshane Avatar art - Footsteps of Spring (a young Luthien) - by Henning Janssen

11-30-2010, 02:32 PM	#8
*Earniel* The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium) Posts: 14,363	Mind you, there have been stranger things for sale on Ebay... __________________ We are not things.

11-30-2010, 02:42 PM	#9
Insidious Rex Quasi Evil Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Maryland, US Posts: 4,634	Ra is not amused! __________________ "People's political beliefs don't stem from the factual information they've acquired. Far more the facts people choose to believe are the product of their political beliefs." "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

12-02-2010, 12:30 AM	#10
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	A rare treat this solstice-time! That'd be December 21/22 for the astronomy non-buffs! "The oddest celestial event? This year there's an easy winner. It's the millennium's first total lunar eclipse completely visible from all of North America and Hawaii. And whoa, beat the drums, it happens right on the solstice. This was exactly the kind of spectacle that inspired the fun-loving Mayans to push their most annoying relatives off pyramids. (Does any scholar actually know how they selected people for sacrifices? "Annoying" seems logical.) These days, our own citizenry is much too overweight to engage in such energetic rituals. But if you're tempted, be sure to first check local ordinances before you perform even a single goat sacrifice." See it all at: http://astronomy.com/en/Columnists/B...20eclipse.aspx __________________ Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 Last edited by inked : 12-02-2010 at 12:32 AM. Reason: title

12-14-2010, 03:43 PM	#12
*Rían* Half-Elven Princess of Rabbit Trails and Harp-Wielding Administrator (beware the Rubber Chicken of Doom!) Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Not where I want to be ... Posts: 15,254	that's cool! Go Voyager! __________________ . I should be doing the laundry, but this is MUCH more fun! Ñá ë?* óú éä ïöü Öñ É Þ ð ß ® ç å ™ æ ♪ ?* "How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! ... For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside." (from Psalm 84) * * * God rocks! Entmoot : Veni, vidi, velcro - I came, I saw, I got hooked! Ego numquam pronunciare mendacium, sed ego sum homo indomitus! Run the earth and watch the sky ... Auta i lómë! Aurë entuluva!

12-14-2010, 04:34 PM	#13
*Jonathan* Entmoot Attorney-General, Equilibrating the Scales of Justice, Administrator ♎ Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 3,891	Next, I want to see it make the jump into hyperspace __________________ An unwritten post is a delightful universe of infinite possibilities. Set down one word, however, and it immediately becomes earthbound. Set down one sentence and it’s halfway to being just like every other bloody entry that’s ever been written. ☻

12-14-2010, 05:45 PM	#15
The Gaffer Elf Lord Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: In me taters Posts: 3,288	Blimey. I can remember it being launched. It's an astonishing feat of engineering. I wonder if the unmanned Mariner programme taught us more than the manned Apollo ones. They sent probes to the inner planets too. And great pics. Volcanic eruption on Io: Cheerio Voyager!

12-20-2010, 09:58 AM	#16
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE tonight! http://astronomy.com/Home/News-Obser...20eclipse.aspx __________________ Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941

06-07-2012, 12:17 AM	#17
Lotesse of the House of Fëanor Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,150	Valandil & Earniel, that site is mesmerising! I've been reading it for the last straight hour. LOVE. __________________ Few people have the imagination for reality. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

08-05-2012, 09:58 AM	#18
*Earniel* The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium) Posts: 14,363	Within 15 to 16 hours, a new Mars rover Curiosity will be joining her two siblings on Mars. So excited! I've been wondering whether anything would be broadcast live. There's off course a far greater delay in communication with Mars, then say, with the Moonlanding, but I think it would be awesome to see. Trouble is, the landing is scheduled during my local very early morning and I have to babysit a very active toddler on Monday. Not sure if it's a good idea... And if it's not anywhere on TV, the computer is right next door to bedrooms, so I'm going to have to be very quiet too. Not ideal. sigh Will anyone be watching? __________________ We are not things.

08-06-2012, 02:25 AM	#19
*Rían* Half-Elven Princess of Rabbit Trails and Harp-Wielding Administrator (beware the Rubber Chicken of Doom!) Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Not where I want to be ... Posts: 15,254	yay Curiosity! I missed it, but my sister and her hubby have some NASA friends and they've been watching it. Can't wait for pictures! Maybe they'll be good enough for our Entmoot photo thread __________________ . I should be doing the laundry, but this is MUCH more fun! Ñá ë?* óú éä ïöü Öñ É Þ ð ß ® ç å ™ æ ♪ ?* "How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! ... For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside." (from Psalm 84) * * * God rocks! Entmoot : Veni, vidi, velcro - I came, I saw, I got hooked! Ego numquam pronunciare mendacium, sed ego sum homo indomitus! Run the earth and watch the sky ... Auta i lómë! Aurë entuluva!

08-06-2012, 10:41 AM	#20
*Earniel* The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium) Posts: 14,363	Well, it landed safely, that's a start! Couldn't watch, sadly. But I'm too looking forward to pictures! Those of Spirit and Opportunity were quite interesting. I think I even have stored somewhere a picture or two of Huygens' when he landed on Titan. So cool to look at those pictures and actually realise that's another world they're taken on! __________________ We are not things.

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