Starship Asterisk*

hoohaw wrote:

Boomer12k wrote:

Solar wrote:Pluto is not the ninth planet. That’s Pallas:
But as with Pluto, they were RE-classified, and are considered asteroids...especially when considering how far out of the Ecliptic Plane that it is...there are no missions that are planned to go there for this reason, as the energy required it too great.
:---[===] *

Should we call the smaller ones "half-asteroids" ?

hoohaw wrote:Should we call the smaller ones "half-asteroids" ?

Chris Peterson wrote:

hoohaw wrote:
Should we call the smaller ones "half-asteroids" ?

Hemiroids?

• Not to be confused with ephemeral "Themiroids" like 171 Ophelia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themis_family wrote:
<<The Themis or Themistian asteroid family is a Hirayama found in the outer portion of the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. At a mean distance of 3.13 AU from the Sun, it is one of the more populous asteroid families. It consists of a well-defined core of larger asteroids and a surrounding region of smaller ones. This core group includes (and is named after) the asteroid 24 Themis, discovered on April 5, 1853 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis. The Themis family is one of the largest and longest-recognized dynamical families of asteroids, and is made up of C-type asteroids with a composition believed to be similar to that of carbonaceous chondrites. To date, the Themis family comprises approximately 535 known asteroids.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/171_Ophelia wrote:
<<171 Ophelia is a large, dark ["Themiroid"] that was discovered by French astronomer Alphonse Borrelly on January 13, 1877, and named after Ophelia in Shakespeare's play Hamlet.

• Ophelia is also the name of a moon of Uranus.

A 1979 study of the Algol-like light curve produced by this asteroid concluded that it was possible to model the brightness variation by assuming a binary system with a circular orbit, a period of 13.146 hours, and an inclination of 15° to the line of sight from the Earth. Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Leura Observatory in Leura, Australia during 2006 gave a rotation period of 6.6666 ± 0.0002 hours and a brightness variation of 0.50 ± 0.02 in magnitude.>>

neufer wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote:

hoohaw wrote:
Should we call the smaller ones "half-asteroids" ?

Hemiroids?

• Not to be confused with ephemeral "Themiroids" like 171 Ophelia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themis_family wrote:
<<The Themis or Themistian asteroid family is a Hirayama found in the outer portion of the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. At a mean distance of 3.13 AU from the Sun, it is one of the more populous asteroid families. It consists of a well-defined core of larger asteroids and a surrounding region of smaller ones. This core group includes (and is named after) the asteroid 24 Themis, discovered on April 5, 1853 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis. The Themis family is one of the largest and longest-recognized dynamical families of asteroids, and is made up of C-type asteroids with a composition believed to be similar to that of carbonaceous chondrites. To date, the Themis family comprises approximately 535 known asteroids.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/171_Ophelia wrote:
<<171 Ophelia is a large, dark ["Themiroid"] that was discovered by French astronomer Alphonse Borrelly on January 13, 1877, and named after Ophelia in Shakespeare's play Hamlet.

• Ophelia is also the name of a moon of Uranus.

A 1979 study of the Algol-like light curve produced by this asteroid concluded that it was possible to model the brightness variation by assuming a binary system with a circular orbit, a period of 13.146 hours, and an inclination of 15° to the line of sight from the Earth. Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Leura Observatory in Leura, Australia during 2006 gave a rotation period of 6.6666 ± 0.0002 hours and a brightness variation of 0.50 ± 0.02 in magnitude.>>

ks8661 wrote:Would it be interesting to see a rotating Pluto?

neufer wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote:

hoohaw wrote:
Should we call the smaller ones "half-asteroids" ?

Hemiroids?

• Not to be confused with ephemeral "Themiroids" like 171 Ophelia.

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:
Ah ha. Now I know where Them came from.

It wasn't the radiation after all.

• And Them were, in fact, immune to cyanogen/cyanide gas!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047573/goofs?ref_=tttrv_ql_2 wrote:
Them! (1954) Goofs: <<The ants are destroyed in the original nest using cyanide (HCN) gas. HCN works by attacking hemoglobin and changing it into cyanohemaglobin, which holds tightly to oxygen and won't release it to tissues. [However,] insects have no hemoglobin, so they would be immune to HCN.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halley's_Comet wrote:
<<The 1910 approach [of Halley's Comet] was notable for several reasons: it was the first approach of which photographs exist, and the first for which spectroscopic data were obtained. Furthermore, the comet made a relatively close approach of 0.15 AU, making it a spectacular sight. Indeed, on 19 May, Earth actually passed through the tail of the comet. One of the substances discovered in the tail by spectroscopic analysis was the toxic gas cyanogen [(CN)₂], Like other inorganic cyanides, cyanogen is very toxic, as it readily undergoes reduction to cyanide, which poisons the cytochrome c oxidase complex, thus interrupting the mitochondrial electron transfer chain. Astronomer Camille Flammarion to claim that, when Earth passed through the tail, the gas "would impregnate the atmosphere and possibly snuff out all life on the planet." His pronouncement led to panicked buying of gas masks and quack "anti-comet pills" and "anti-comet umbrellas" by the public. In reality, as other astronomers were quick to point out, the gas is so diffuse that the world suffered no ill effects from the passage through the tail.

The comet added to the unrest in China on the eve of Xinhai Revolution that would end the last dynasty in 1911. As James Hutson, a missionary in Sichuan Province at the time, recorded,

• "The people believe that it indicates calamity such as war, fire, pestilence, and a change of dynasty. In some places on certain days the doors were unopened for half a day, no water was carried and many did not even drink water as it was rumoured that pestilential vapour was being poured down upon the earth from the comet."

The comet was also fertile ground for hoaxes. One that reached major newspapers claimed that the Sacred Followers, a supposed Oklahoma religious group, attempted to sacrifice a virgin to ward off the impending disaster, but were stopped by the police.>>

Tszabeau wrote:Does anyone have an idea on how the spiral structures inside many of the craters formed? Like the larger crater at about 7:45. If you zoom-in there are like structures in some of the smaller ones too. I don't recall seeing that in craters elswhere.

starsurfer wrote:
I'm so happy that we've been able to see how Pluto truly looks! I hope we get to see closeup images of Nix and Hydra and its other recently discovered moons.

neufer wrote:

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starsurfer wrote:
I'm so happy that we've been able to see how Pluto truly looks! I hope we get to see closeup images of Nix and Hydra and its other recently discovered moons.