That's a very good question. It highlights a weakness in our current understanding. i guess the answer is that water came to Planet Earth millions of years ago, when space was much more turbulent than today (is this even true?).
Printable View
That's a very good question. It highlights a weakness in our current understanding. i guess the answer is that water came to Planet Earth millions of years ago, when space was much more turbulent than today (is this even true?).
This post on Ceres and its white spots is of interest:
http://www.space.com/33302-ceres-bri...mposition.html
This post on the Juno Mission gives lots of new information: http://www.space.com/33298-nasa-juno...ion-facts.html
This post one Pluto - http://earthsky.org/space/pluto-spac...w-mission-mu69 - has some interesting facts around the 2-year extension to its mission, as well as the picture of Pluto's surface.
It is interesting that the computer aboard Juno can't hold as much memory as my laptop, not that I really use my laptop memory as much as I used to with the cloud being available. (Probably I should consider backing up what I have on the cloud somewhere else?)
That they might have got the explanation for the bright spots on Ceres wrong is to be expected. Sometimes we take speculations as if they are facts. It is good to be surprised by new speculations and evidence.
A new dark spot on Neptune: http://earthsky.org/space/a-new-dark-spot-on-neptune
It is amazing how much of the knowledge of our solar system is recent. We should send more probes out.
There are several already, Mars exploration, New Horizons, and still getting material from the probe Dawn, to Ceres, and much work with telescopes, both from Earth and space-based telescopes. Here is also a discussion of growing food on Mars, on a permanent base (one-way only, for people to spend their lives on Mars) as a private initiative: http://earthsky.org/space/can-we-grow-food-on-mars
We might as well give all of these a try. I would think we should first experiment with the Moon.
There are more that I missed. Cassini at Titan has been at work for nearly 20 years, just on Saturn and its moon Titan. It is quite hard to keep up with NASA but in addition there are new countries, like India.
This is the link to the Titan research: http://www.space.com/15257-titan-sat...ery-sdcmp.html
This is a link to a discussion about "how can the universe expand faster than the speed of light?": http://www.space.com/33306-how-does-...han-light.html. Certainly hard to wrap anyone's mind around...
The Juno probe has successfully entered Jupiter's orbit. Read about it here: http://www.space.com/33343-nasa-juno...s-jupiter.html
The article said that Juno made a flyby of earth to increase speed to get to Jupiter. So it must have come back to earth, but earth would have been at a different position in the solar system by then.
... yup, it was quite a dance; the math must have been very dicey.Quote:
The article said that Juno made a flyby of earth to increase speed to get to Jupiter. So it must have come back to earth, but earth would have been at a different position in the solar system by then.
Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY
Just read about it: New planet with 3 suns. The movements are very curious:
http://phys.org/news/2016-07-newly-planet-suns.html
That is, indeed a strange system of suns and planet, Danik!
They must have pulled it off, I wondered why NASA was so worried about the outcome.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tailor STATELY
I didn't know there were solar systems with three suns before. I wonder if there are solar systems with a larger number of suns.
It is possible. I've not been able to work out how much light any of the suns shed on the planet. I think the planet takes half a millenium to complete an orbit. Some of the suns may be so far away from the planet that they look like stars.
I guess we are witnessing a new kopernican revolution. Our solar system that for a very long time was the only one, has become one of many. I wonder what new astronomical discoveries are in store.
Yes, it is s very exciting time in astronomy. There are even blogs in astronomy - "Eagle's Eye in the Sky" is one.
EXTREME TRANS-NEPTUNIAN OBJECTS AND PLANET 9
Plataforma SINC
In an effort to discover a ninth planet in the Solar System (Pluto no
longer having that distinction, being demoted), scientists in various
countries have been trying to calculate its orbit from the paths
followed by small bodies that move well beyond Neptune. Now,
astronomers from Spain and Cambridge University have confirmed, with
new calculations, that the orbits of the six extreme trans-Neptunian objects
that served as a reference to announce the existence of Planet Nine are
not as stable as it was thought. At the beginning of this year, astronomers
announced that they had found evidence of the existence of a giant planet
with a mass ten times larger than the Earth's in the confines of the Solar
System. Moving in an unusually elongated orbit, the planet would take
between 10,000 and 20,000 years to complete one revolution around the
Sun. To arrive at that conclusion, the team ran computer simulations with
input data based on the orbits of six extreme trans-Neptunian objects
(ETNOs): Sedna, 2012 VP113, 2004 VN112, 2007TG422, 2013 RF98
and 2010 GB174. Now, however, the team has considered the question
the other way round: how would the orbits of those six ETNOs evolve if a
Planet Nine, such as the one proposed, really did exist? With the orbit
indicated by the Caltech astronomers for Planet Nine, calculations show
that the six ETNOs would move in lengthy, unstable orbits. Those objects
would escape from the Solar System in less than 1.5 billion years, and in
the case of 2004 VN112, 2007 TG422 and 2013 RF98 they could
abandon it in less than 300 million years; what is more important, their
orbits would become unstable in just 10 million years, a really short time in
astronomical terms.
According to the new study, based on numerical (N-body) simulations, the
orbit of the new planet would have to be modified slightly so that the
orbits of the six ETNOs analysed would be really stable for a long time.
Those results also lead to a new question: are the ETNOs a transient and
unstable population or, on the contrary, are they permanent and stable?
The behaviour of those objects in one way or the other affects the
evolution of their orbits and also the numerical modelling. If the ETNOs
are transient, they are being continuously ejected and must have a
stable source located beyond 1,000 astronomical units (in the Oort
cloud) where they come from. But if they are stable in the long term,
then there could be many in similar orbits although we have not observed
them yet. In any case, the statistical and numerical evidence obtained
by the authors, both through this investigation and previous work, leads
them to suggest that the most stable picture is one in which there is
not just one planet, but rather several more beyond Pluto, in mutual
resonance. The situation is reminiscent of the one leading to the
discovery of Neptune, in which the French mathematician Urbain Le
Verrier was the first to "discover" a new planet by means of laborious
hand calculations based on the positions of Uranus, whereupon the German
astronomer J. G Galle directly observed it. If Neptune was the first
planet discovered by pen and paper, Planet Nine could be the first to
be discovered entirely from computerized numerical calculations.
It is interesting that the orbits of the six trans-Neptunian objects are more erratic than expected.
Another Dwarf Planet has been discovered in the kuiper belt far beyond Pluto: http://www.space.com/33387-dwarf-pla...015-rr245.html
It looks like the odds favor many dwarf planets rather than one big planet 9.
Here is a possible candidate. I'm impressed at the quantity of new discoveries.
http://www.space.com/33387-dwarf-pla...015-rr245.html
I don't think the large planet 9 idea is considered by anyone to be dismissed. See this link: http://www.news.com.au/technology/sc...ar/news-story/Quote:
Originally Posted by YesNo
Yes, Danik, the smaller Pluto was found when New Horizons were looking to find another kuiper belt object worth investigating. It may even have its own moons, too, like Pluto does.
I couldn´t open your link, DW, maybe because of international restrictions. I wonder what kind of impact all these findings will have on other sciences that have the untilnow known solar system for reference.
The Three Body Problem has been an unsolved nightmare for three centuries. The calculations are horrendous. Some might say it is finally solved, but the solution itself is horrendous and not some beautiful thing you can behold in a neat formula.
Isn't the fictional system in Game of Thrones a multi-sun system? I believe that is why they have their long winters, and why the occurrence of these winters is unpredictable and a matter of great concern to the citizens of that world. I notice a lot of darkness in the productions, which could be unrealistic, depending on the locations and masses of the suns.
I'm afraid I don't know the story of the Game of Thrones desiresjab, but it sounds interesting...
The game of thrones is a TV show. I have only seen one episode of it with my daughter and since I don't watch TV, I probably won't see any more. There is a lot of violence with beautiful people in medieval settings behaving nobly and ignobly and dragons breathing fire. I can see how someone could get attracted to it even it if had only one sun. I don't know the underlying story either.
Juno is now in orbit round Jupiter. It is still a long way from Jupiter itself, but has to be careful not to be dragged into the planet itself, its field of gravitation being so great. So it is in an elliptic orbit, swinging closer to get information, the pulling away using Jupiter's powerful gravity to slingshot out again.
It all must be very delicate, to get it just right. No wonder the staff at NASA was a bit nervous...
See http://www.space.com/33406-juno-jupi...rst-photo.html
Hello again,
If someone is interested in the indo german/nurse roots of "Game of Thrones", so he or she should read the "Thule", especialy the Edda Saga, that is the whole truth about the Song of Fire and Ice. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is concepted the same way, but a bit more interesting, I guess... I read the "Thule" entirely, also the Edda Saga of indo german "apocalypse". But I am very lucky to be able to read old german, nowadays, I don't even know one person under 30 besides of me, who is able to read it, without being paid for it as historians or as scientists. Besides, their exist another funny thing,
called "The Guelphen Saga". It was written down the first time nearly 700 years ago, I guess... My old manhunter family is the best, beleave me... We hate and murder each other even sometimes today... We are indeed ol' dirty bastards of murder and mayhem... Can you imagine us at Christmas diner ?! It's great and more cold than in Sebiria in terms of emotions.
The Thule sounds interesting. I haven't read any of them even in English. The Game of Thrones did remind me of Tolkien.
I'm puzzled what this has to do with astronomy?
Probably nothing. I guess there was a wonder if the Game of Thrones was a fictional world with more than one sun.
I was referring to August Guelfen's post. I'm at a loss to know what it has to do with astronomy.
Just to finish this off topic. I never watched Game of Thrones but I loved this description"There is a lot of violence with beautiful people in medieval settings behaving nobly and ignobly and dragons breathing fire.":D
I still hope to read a complete narrative and not just a comment by you, Yes/No.