Astronomy

I believe that much that is said, written and forecasted by astronomy and cosmology still belongs to the realm of fantasy and speculation. But that´s what makes it so interesting from a literary point of view.

It is story telling even when it is not viewed as science fiction.

Yes, I believe there is a relation between science fiction and science itself. Some actual experiments probably gave rise to imaginary situations in the past.

Now I suddenly have several posts to contribute from one of the websites I am following.

http://earthsky.org/earth/whales-dol...man-like-lives. I thought this was interesting.

Whales and dolphins live ‘human-like’ lives
"The long list of behavioral traits dolphins and whales share with humans and other primates includes:

– Working together for mutual benefit
– Teaching others how to hunt and cooperative hunting
– Using tools
– Complex vocalizations -‘talking’ to each other – including regional group dialects
– Signature whistles that are unique to individuals
– Name recognition
– Interspecific cooperation (working with humans and other species)
– Adult animals looking after youngsters that aren’t their own
– Social play"
http://earthsky.org/earth/whales-dol...man-like-lives

Sure. I'm linking it to the thread "About animals" that is buried somewhere.

Yes, you should do that!

https://www.universetoday.com/137566...ng-oort-cloud/

The Oort Cloud is the vast region of space beyond the Kuiper Belt. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oort_cloud.

"The Dutch astronomer Jan Oort calculated that there must be an even vaster cloud of ice even farther out beyond the Kuiper Belt – between 5,000 and 100,000 astronomical units from the Sun. Just a reminder, 1 astronomical unit is the distance from the Earth to the Sun, so we’re talking really really far away."

The Kuiper Belt, where Pluto is, is currently being explored by the New Horizons probe. This will take it some years to do a simple investigation into objects in the Kuiper Belt. But beyond the Kuiper Belt is the Oort cloud, much more vast still. Kuiper Belt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt

I didn´t know about the Oort cloud. Noticed that the Kuiper Belt has become an important exploration area.

As for the moon, gone are the times, when the moon was an object of the nostalgia of the romantics. Currently moons are proliferating. These Saturn moons at least gained decent Greek names:

http://www.astronomy.com/news/2017/1...-stay-in-place

The Oort Cloud is much to far away and large for us to explore it. Even Kuiper Belt is too far away, which is why the New Horizons probe was sent further into it after having sent back the first ever image of Pluto. That was, what, 3 or 4 years ago? Continuing its fast rate of travel it has still not reached its first target, never mind explored anything beyond Pluto. There are thousands of KBOs (Kuiper Belt objects) to investigate. New Horizons will just begin this task.

Your post about the 7 rings of Saturn which keep that planet's rings in place is also interesting. It shows the importance of the moons for keeping the rings in place. I didn't know that.

I didn´t use the word explore correctly. I meant that they had become an object of interest for the scientists.

This is interesting: http://earthsky.org/space/near-earth...3-confirmation

The quasi-satellite is in a sense Earth's second moon. Even though its very tiny and can't be seen without advanced equipment.

EarthSky has some interesting space topics in it.

That´s very curious indeed. Moons are suddenly proliferating.

That is curious too.
:NASA's MAVEN mission finds Mars has a twisted magnetic tai:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...1019181855.htm

That is quite bizarre, a twisted magnetic tale, and its invisible! I find it hard to believe.

They probably used some special kind of measurement for magnetic fields to detect it.