The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

[Dave_S]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

That picture is freaking hella cool.

[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

NASA has said that Planet 9 most likely exists. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...OES-exist.html

This is kind of a formality more than anything. Astronomers have been 99% sure that Planet 9 exists for a while now.

Pretty cool though. It's still up for debate about what type of planet it actually is. The best guess would be a "Mini Neptune" type planet.

[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

We also just found a bunch of missing matter. https://www.newscientist.com/article...finally-found/

[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

Orionids meteor shower starts to peak tonight around midnight. The peak will last into early Sunday morning.

I'm hoping I can see a few. But I'm in like that 3rd category of light pollution.

[steelerfan]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

Orionids meteor shower starts to peak tonight around midnight. The peak will last into early Sunday morning.

I'm hoping I can see a few. But I'm in like that 3rd category of light pollution.

And Uranus was visible last night. [emoji16]

[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

And Uranus was visible last night. [emoji16]

It’s visible tonight too. About 45 degrees high in the southern sky right now. I can’t see it though.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

I ended up seeing a few meteors last weekend. One was reddish and streaked across the sky super fast, then I saw a slow moving green one.

Just an amazing thing to see.

[TripleCrown9]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

Something I was just thinking about.

All the planets are named after the mythological gods, but Uranus is the only one that uses the Greek name. The rest are all Roman.

Mercury- Hermes
Venus- Aphrodite
Earth- Gaea (although this one doesn't really apply. Gaea is Greek, Tellus is Roman)
Mars- Ares
Jupiter- Zeus
Saturn- Cronos
Caelus- Uranus
Neptune- Poseidon
Pluto- Hades

[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

Something I was just thinking about.

All the planets are named after the mythological gods, but Uranus is the only one that uses the Greek name. The rest are all Roman.

Mercury- Hermes
Venus- Aphrodite
Earth- Gaea (although this one doesn't really apply. Gaea is Greek, Tellus is Roman)
Mars- Ares
Jupiter- Zeus
Saturn- Cronos
Caelus- Uranus
Neptune- Poseidon
Pluto- Hades

It is interesting. William Herschel discovered it and actually wanted to name it after King George III. But people outside of England didn't take kindly to it.

Uranus, or Caelus, is actually the father of Cronos also known as Saturn. So that's where it comes from. But I have no idea why they didn't name it Caelus.

[TripleCrown9]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

Yeah, Uranus/Caelus is the God of the Sky.

[Caulfield]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

Something I was just thinking about.

All the planets are named after the mythological gods, but Uranus is the only one that uses the Greek name. The rest are all Roman.

Mercury- Hermes
Venus- Aphrodite
Earth- Gaea (although this one doesn't really apply. Gaea is Greek, Tellus is Roman)
Mars- Ares
Jupiter- Zeus
Saturn- Cronos
Caelus- Uranus
Neptune- Poseidon
Pluto- Hades

scientists hate the name Uranus, for obvious reasons. there's currently a movement afoot to rename it something more dignified.
that early frontrunner name? Urectum.

[BurghFan]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

Scientists discover star system with eight planets just like ours

Only a handful of star systems have more than a single planet. With eight worlds, our solar system has long taken the prize for the biggest lineup. But no longer.

Our corner of the galaxy now shares the record with another system, Kepler 90, NASA and Google researchers announced Thursday. A Google algorithm uncovered a scorcher of a planet, a rock 30 percent larger than Earth, orbiting a star a few thousand light-years away. This planet, Kepler 90i, brought the total number of planets circling its star to eight - just like our solar system’s octuplets.

“For the first time, we’ve discovered an eighth planet in a distant planetary system,” Paul Hertz, head of NASA’s astrophysics division, said during a media briefing. This discovery required an advanced technology to comb through the gargantuan amount of data obtained by the Kepler space observatory.

[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

Scientists discover star system with eight planets just like ours

Saw this yesterday. With the sheer vastness of the universe this probably means there are a ton of systems like this.

This should be a great target to look at with the James Webb next year after looking at TRAPPIST.

[jfsolo]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

Saw this yesterday. With the sheer vastness of the universe this probably means there are a ton of systems like this.

This should be a great target to look at with the James Webb next year after looking at TRAPPIST.

I think that most people who only have a very mild interest in Astronomy don't have any idea how large the observable universe actually is. Just contemplating it for too long actually makes my head hurt.

[PVarck31]

Re: The Astronomy and Physics thread. And things of the like.

I think that most people who only have a very mild interest in Astronomy don't have any idea how large the observable universe actually is. Just contemplating it for too long actually makes my head hurt.

I think you're right. There are videos out there you can watch that try to show how big the universe actually is but even those don't really capture it well.

And I'm glad you said observable universe, because we're pretty sure it doesn't just end there. There is most likely plenty more matter after that.

I always start with this when trying to explain it; our closest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri which is 4 light years away, would take 81,000 years to get there with current propulsion technology.

That is almost unfathomable considering getting to the edge of the observable universe is over 46 billion light years from Earth.