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The doubling of posts happens when a post is created that has already been published once. It doesn't count as a new post.
Ceres is not the only dwarf planet in the solar system, it shares that status with Pluto. There may be others, too, that have not yet been identified. I think it is safer not to use the term "dwarf planet" until the term is redefined, though this may take several years, perhaps decades.
The doubling of posts happens when a post is created that has already been published once. It doesn't count as a new post.
Ceres is not the only dwarf planet in the solar system, it shares that status with Pluto. There may be others, too, that have not yet been identified. I think it is safer not to use the term "dwarf planet" until the term is redefined, though this may take several years, perhaps decades.
Of late, the double post seems to be created, while one is still working on the first post. I hope someone is looking after it.
I still prefer to consider Pluto as a planet. From the astrological point of view he is one of the most powerful, related to earthquakes, water-quakes and other radical processes of change.
That is why I prefer not to call Pluto a dwarf planet. I have every confidence that this odd concept of "dwarf planet" will be replaced by the next generation of astronomers.
This thread is not about Astrology, its about Astronomy, they are two quite different concepts, so lets not contribute to confusion.
That is why I prefer not to call Pluto a dwarf planet. I have every confidence that this odd concept of "dwarf planet" will be replaced by the next generation of astronomers.
This thread is not about Astrology, its about Astronomy, they are two quite different concepts, so lets not contribute to confusion.
No, it was just a comment.
Sneezey's a dwarf planet, though. So's Bashful.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreamwoven
https://www.space.com/40830-nasa-ext...sion-2021.html
NASA's Juno spacecraft will continue studying Jupiter for another three years.
The $1.1 billion Juno mission has been extended through at least July 2021, NASA officials announced yesterday (June 6). The agency will fund Juno into 2022, to cover the cost of data analysis and close-out activities.
"With these funds, not only can the Juno team continue to answer long-standing questions about Jupiter that first fueled this exciting mission, but they'll also investigate new scientific puzzles motivated by their discoveries thus far," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. "With every additional orbit, both scientists and citizen scientists will help unveil new surprises about this distant world." [In Photos: Juno's Amazing Views of Jupiter]
I`m always divided about those fund announcements. Research must go on, ok, but there are so many earthly situations badly in need of funds.
Very exciting stuff. I hope they uncover why the psychology of Jupiter causes such instability in water. Jove is known to implant a deep yearning for knowledge. I have always considered it a benignant planet, as I am sure you have as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreamwoven
Thanks, DJ!
Now this seems important too and preocupying.
https://www.space.com/40827-senators...ransition.htmlQuote:
Senators Reiterate Opposition to International Space Station Transition Proposal
Senators Reiterate Opposition to International Space Station Transition Proposal
WASHINGTON — Members of the Senate space subcommittee used a June 6 hearing to once again express opposition to the administration's proposal to end NASA funding of the International Space Station in 2025.
In the second in a series of hearings on the future of the ISS, witnesses from industry and other organizations said either transitioning the ISS to commercial operators, or shifting to new commercial space stations, may not be feasible by that time, and that even consideration of the proposal may scare away potential station users.
"We understand that commercialization is imminent, and we are fully supporting this process. However, to achieve this goal, enough time must be given both for a smooth transition and for the nation to realize a return on investment," said Cynthia Bouthot, director of commercial innovation and sponsored programs at the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), which operates the portion of the ISS designated a national laboratory.
I guess I never gave any detailed thought before to how the transition from government project to personal enterprise would take place. The corporations cannot wait to start charging everybody. Now that my eyes are open it is natural to assume the focus of space research in the immediate decades will become almost entirely commercially oriented. People simply have to pay for sunlight. They have been getting free sunlight for way too long. Don't laugh. Bechtel found a way in Bolivia to make it illegal to collect rainwater for personal consumption once they had control of the municipal water supplies.
Personally, I do not trust corporate mentality and ethics to be in charge of space research, national parks or morals. They can probably handle the mail, though.
http://earthsky.org/space/no-planet-...r-solar-system
Perhaps there is no planet 9?
"Astronomers have been searching for a Planet Nine – a world about 10 times Earth’s mass – for about 2 years and have yet to spot it. Maybe there’s another explanation?"
"As recently as late May, an international team of researchers presented new evidence for an unknown Planet Nine at the fringes of our solar system. The evidence came from analysis of an oddball object in the outer solar system – 2015 BP519 (aka Caju) – whose unusual orbit had been predicted by computer models used by astronomers who’ve been searching for Planet Nine since 2016. Last week, however, other astronomers – members of the Eccentric Dynamics group at University of Colorado, Boulder – presented evidence that Planet Nine might not need to exist, after all. Ann-Marie Madigan, who leads the group, presented the group’s findings at last week’s American Astronomical Society meeting, which ran from June 3-7, 2018 in Denver. Her team’s statement said:
"Bumper car-like interactions at the edges of our solar system — and not a mysterious ninth planet — may explain the the dynamics of strange bodies called “detached objects”.
In the new study, Madigan and colleagues Jacob Fleisig and Alexander Zderic, also of CU Boulder, looked carefully at the orbits of some of these objects. For example, they looked at the small outer solar system body 90377 Sedna, which orbits our sun at a distance of nearly 8 billion miles (13 billion km). The orbits of Sedna and a handful of other bodies at that distance look separated – or detached – from the rest of the solar system. These strange orbits are what led Caltech astronomers Mike Brown and Konstanin Batygin to propose a Planet Nine in the first place."
"Brown and Batygin had suggested that an as-yet-unseen ninth planet – four times the size of Earth and 10 times Earth’s mass – may be lurking beyond Neptune. They suggested the unknown planet’s gravity was influencing the orbits of the “detached objects.” Since 2016, astronomers around the world have been searching for Planet Nine, but no one has found it yet."
"Meanwhile, Madigan, Fleisig and Zderic have explored a new idea about the orbits of these outer solar system bodies. The new calculations show the orbits might be the result of these bodies jostling against each other and debris in that part of space. In that case, no Planet Nine would be needed. Madigan said:
There are so many of these bodies out there. What does their collective gravity do? We can solve a lot of these problems by just taking into account that question."
"Madigan pointed out that the outer solar system is:
… an unusual place, gravitationally speaking.
Once you get further away from Neptune, things don’t make any sense, which is really exciting."
Her team’s statement explained:
"Among the things that don’t make sense: Sedna. This minor planet takes more than 11,000 years to circumnavigate Earth’s sun and is a little smaller than Pluto … Sedna and other detached objects complete humongous, circle-shaped orbits that bring them nowhere close to big planets like Jupiter or Neptune. How they got out there on their own remains an ongoing mystery."
I think the search for Planet 9 illustrates how little we know about our own solar system, quite laughably little...
Yes, I agree, DW. I think I said that before, all these fantasies about life in another planet, ETs, etc. remind me of the reveries Europeans had about the ocean and the unknown continents in the Middle Ages.