Astronomy

[YesNo]

It looks like the earth has a tiny moon we didn't know about.

[Dreamwoven]

Here is another astounding fact:

The SOCIETY for POPULAR ASTRONOMY

Electronic News Bulletin No. 426 2016 July 17

DWARF PLANET MAKEMAKE HAS MOON
Southwest Research Institute

Scientists have discovered a dark moon orbiting Makemake, one of the
'big four' dwarf planets populating the Kuiper-Belt region at the edge
of the Solar System. The moon -- presently called MK2 -- is 1,300
times fainter than the dwarf planet. A nearly edge-on orbital
configuration helped it evade detection, placing it deep within the
glare of the icy dwarf during a substantial fraction of its orbit.
Makemake is one of the largest and brightest known Kuiper Belt Objects
(KBOs), second only to Pluto. The moon is probably less than 100
miles in diameter while Makemake itsef is about 870 miles across.
Discovered in 2005, Makemake is shaped like a football (notice that
this item was drafted in America, where footballs are not spheres) and
sheathed in frozen methane. With a moon, we can calculate Makemake's
mass and density and contrast the orbits and properties of the parent
dwarf and its moon, to understand the origin and history of the
system. We can compare Makemake and its moon to other systems, and
broaden our understanding of the processes that shaped the evolution
of the Solar System. With the discovery of MK2, all four of the
currently designated dwarf planets are known to have one or more
satellites. The fact that Makemake's satellite went unseen despite
previous searches suggests that other large KBOs may have hidden
moons. Before this discovery, the lack of a satellite for Makemake
suggested that it had not suffered a severe impact in the past. Now,
scientists will be looking at its density to determine whether it was
formed by a collision or whether it was grabbed by the parent dwarf's
gravity. The apparent ubiquity of moons orbiting KBO dwarf planets
supports the idea that collisions are a near-universal feature in the
histories of those distant objects.

[Pompey Bum]

It looks like the earth has a tiny moon we didn't know about.

So can we pretend to land on that one, too? ;-)

[YesNo]

So can we pretend to land on that one, too? ;-)

Well that one is rather small and it might not stick around.

[Pompey Bum]

Yes, but could we fake not going there?

[YesNo]

We could pretend it's the planet where le petit prince came from. Being only 100 meters in size where size is what? Diameter or circumference?

[Pompey Bum]

Be my guest, YN. Once the pretending begins, why should the sky be an obstacle?

[YesNo]

That's how I look at the pretend manned Moon landings of the early 1970s. Land one of them and you might as well land another handful of them in rapid order.

[Pompey Bum]

So why should faking this little moon be any harder? Surely fake rocket telemetry has only improved since 1969?

[desiresjab]

Interesting about the near earth companion. Wise money has to go down on the side that says it is only a matter of time before our observations and calculations uncover cosmic calamity waiting for us that is still decades away. We will have time to act like fools.

Our solar system orbits the galaxy every 200,000 years. There could be a lot of "strange" space ahead of us. At least there will be a different view in 100,000 years. I can't wait.

[YesNo]

I think it is more difficult to fake a moon landing today because of improved technology. Also there is no political reason to do so.

Regarding having a different view 100,000 years from now, aren't all the objects in the solar system and our portion of the galaxy coming along with us as we circle the galaxy?

[Pompey Bum]

I think it is more difficult to fake a moon landing today because of improved technology. Also there is no political reason to do so.

Well, I sure don't want Chinese faking getting ahead of ours.

[YesNo]

The fact that information can be faked requires skepticism as well as skepticism against skepticism. It is usually good to ask why someone wants you to believe something. Do they have a political, metaphysical or religious position they want to promote? If so, focus on that. Are they trying to sell you a stock? Are they trying to distort their country's gross domestic product to keep investors happy. Are they trying to claim there are weapons of mass destruction to get their people demanding a war of intervention?

What impresses me about the links that Dreamwoven provides in this thread is how little we know about the universe. Sure, we know simple things, as well as we can know them, such as the microwave background, because there is little there to know, but we are not aware of the objects in our solar system let alone the immediate region of our galaxy.

[Dreamwoven]

Thank you YesNo, much good sense.

[Dreamwoven]

http://earthsky.org/space/protoplane...t-mare-imbrium

There are lots of large asteroid blasts on the moon and other rocky planets. This is one that has been discussed.