APOD and General Astronomy Discussion Forum
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I don't think that Ann has set another puzzle - it is an erudite comment on the joke I posted about the StarTrek crew driving through the boozy cloud! Odysseus had himself tied to the mast so that the voices of the sirens couldn't lure him to his death.Beyond wrote:Hmm... this would seem to be a 'Trojan' clue.
Kirk however had Spock to do the driving!
It was a Trojan clue after all. It had nothing to do with a puzzle, but was a pictorial comment. 
Hercules is not the correct answer.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odysseus wrote:
It was later learned that the war could not be won without the poisonous arrows of Heracles, which were owned by the abandoned Philoctetes.
He did? Where did you read that?Beyond wrote:
Odysseus first met Hercules in the underworld.
http://suite101.com/article/greek-myth- ... ld-a198557Ann wrote:He did? Where did you read that?Beyond wrote:
Odysseus first met Hercules in the underworld.
Ann
So the answer is Betelgeuse! Ah, but - ¿a double?Orion is mentioned in the oldest surviving works of Greek literature, which probably date back to the 7th or 8th century BC, but which are the products of an oral tradition with origins several centuries earlier. In Homer's Iliad Orion is described as a constellation, and the star Sirius is mentioned as his dog.[3] In the Odyssey, Odysseus sees him hunting in the underworld with a bronze club, a great slayer of animals;
Margarita, I think you're right. Almost. Ann wanted the constellation the star was in. So.............MargaritaMc wrote:EUREKA!
From WikipediaSo the answer is Betelgeuse! Ah, but - ¿a double?Orion is mentioned in the oldest surviving works of Greek literature, which probably date back to the 7th or 8th century BC, but which are the products of an oral tradition with origins several centuries earlier. In Homer's Iliad Orion is described as a constellation, and the star Sirius is mentioned as his dog.[3] In the Odyssey, Odysseus sees him hunting in the underworld with a bronze club, a great slayer of animals;
M
MargaritaBetelgeuse’s exact angular diameter remains a mystery. This is because it is a variable star, shows limb darkening and angular diameters that vary with wavelength. What makes things even more complicating is the fact that Betelgeuse has a complex assymetric envelope caused my severe mass loss involving huge plumes of gas being expelled from it’s surface. Some studies even speak of stellar companions, orbiting within the gaseous envelopes, which would contribute to the red giant’s eccentric behaviour.*
Have a sort of Betelgeuse-colored flower! , I'm posting the whole section!MargaritaIn 1985, Margarita Karovska, in conjunction with other astrophysicists at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, announced the discovery of two close companions orbiting Betelgeuse. Analysis of polarization data from 1968 through 1983 indicated a close companion with a periodic orbit of about 2.1 years. Using speckle interferometry, the team concluded that the closer of the two companions was located at 0.06 ± 0.01" (~9 AU) from the main star with a position angle (PA) of 273 degrees, an orbit that would potentially place it within the star's chromosphere. The more distant companion was estimated at 0.51 ± 0.01" (~77 AU) with a PA of 278 degrees.[123][124]
In the years that followed no confirmation of Karovska's discovery was published. In 1992, a team of collaborators from the Cavendish Astrophysics Group questioned the finding. They published a paper noting that the brightness features on the surface of Betelgeuse appear to be "too bright to be associated with a passage of the suggested companions in front of the red giant." They also noticed that these features were fainter at 710 nanometers compared to 700 by a factor of 1.8, indicating that such features would have to reside within the molecular atmosphere of the star.[125] Despite this, that same year Karovska published a new paper reconfirming her team's exegesis, but also noting that there was a meaningful correlation between the calculated position angles of the orbiting companion and the reported asymmetries, suggesting a possible connection between the two.[126] Since then, researchers have turned their attention to analyzing the intricate dynamics of the star's extended atmosphere and little else has been published on the possibility of orbiting companions, although as Xavier Haubois and his team reiterate in 2009, the possibility of a close companion contributing to the overall flux has never been fully ruled out.[78]Dommanget's double star catalog (CCDM) lists at least four adjacent stars, all within three arcminutes of this stellar giant, yet aside from apparent magnitudes and position angles, little else is known.[127]
More from good old Wikipedia - just because I have an addiction for intriguing facts. Here again, as in your puzzle, Ann, Antares and Betelgeuse are seen as connected/contrasted.The opposed locations of Orion and Scorpio, with their corresponding bright variable red stars Betelgeuse and Antares, were noted by ancient cultures around the world. The setting of Orion and rising of Scorpio signify the death of Orion by the scorpion. In China they signify brothers and rivals Shen and Shang.[22] The Batak of Sumatra marked their New Year with the first new moon after the sinking of Orion's Belt below the horizon, at which point Betelgeuse remained "like the tail of a rooster". The positions of Betelgeuse and Antares at opposite ends of the celestial sky were considered significant and their constellations were seen as a pair of scorpions. Scorpion days marked as nights that both constellations could be seen.
Interesting. I've never heard the term exegesis used in that context before. Perhaps that announcement was her was work on a PhD?MargaritaMc wrote:Thank you for the flowers, Ann - I'll split them with Stephen!
I've found this on Wikipedia - and, partly because it's really interesting and partly because of the name of the researcher
MargaritaIn 1985, Margarita Karovska, in conjunction with other astrophysicists at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, announced the discovery of two close companions orbiting Betelgeuse. Analysis of polarization data from 1968 through 1983 indicated a close companion with a periodic orbit of about 2.1 years. Using speckle interferometry, the team concluded that the closer of the two companions was located at 0.06 ± 0.01" (~9 AU) from the main star with a position angle (PA) of 273 degrees, an orbit that would potentially place it within the star's chromosphere. The more distant companion was estimated at 0.51 ± 0.01" (~77 AU) with a PA of 278 degrees.[123][124]
In the years that followed no confirmation of Karovska's discovery was published. In 1992, a team of collaborators from the Cavendish Astrophysics Group questioned the finding. They published a paper noting that the brightness features on the surface of Betelgeuse appear to be "too bright to be associated with a passage of the suggested companions in front of the red giant." They also noticed that these features were fainter at 710 nanometers compared to 700 by a factor of 1.8, indicating that such features would have to reside within the molecular atmosphere of the star.[125] Despite this, that same year Karovska published a new paper reconfirming her team's exegesis, but also noting that there was a meaningful correlation between the calculated position angles of the orbiting companion and the reported asymmetries, suggesting a possible connection between the two.[126] Since then, researchers have turned their attention to analyzing the intricate dynamics of the star's extended atmosphere and little else has been published on the possibility of orbiting companions, although as Xavier Haubois and his team reiterate in 2009, the possibility of a close companion contributing to the overall flux has never been fully ruled out.[78]Dommanget's double star catalog (CCDM) lists at least four adjacent stars, all within three arcminutes of this stellar giant, yet aside from apparent magnitudes and position angles, little else is known.[127]
