Starship Asterisk*

Look at this, and then at this.

Slashdot had a few good jokes about the similarity: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl? ... 13&tid=160

Boldra

looking at this pic, crater looks m-mmuch more flat...

I have noticed that Herschel Crater on Mimas also has a strange similarity of a "Geode" which I found.

after looking for images of geode, I 've found several things:





(click to enlarge)

What are they?

makc wrote:after looking for images of geode, I 've found several things:

What are they?

The large one is an omnimax theater, maybe in france. The smaller one looks as though it could be some type of sundial or it could just be eye candy, just not sure. I was once told that the small versions people put in their yards are suppossed to scare away evil spirts or something, maybe it is a larger version of one of them.

Noctuas_Universe wrote:

makc wrote:after looking for images of geode, I 've found several things:

What are they?

The large one is an omnimax theater, maybe in france. The smaller one looks as though it could be some type of sundial or it could just be eye candy, just not sure. I was once told that the small versions people put in their yards are suppossed to scare away evil spirts or something, maybe it is a larger version of one of them.

What Is A Geode?
The mysterious earth-shaped geodes have long challenged geologist to explain how they are formed. Geodes are a variable phenomenon and, therefore, many theories exists to explain how they are created. The term geode is derived from the Greek word Geoides which means "earthlike."

A geode is a sphere shaped rock which contains a hollow cavity lined with crystals. A geode which is completely filled with small compact crystal formations such as agate, jasper or chalcedony is called a nodule. The only difference between a geode and a nodule is that a geode has a hollow cavity, and a nodule is solid.

How Geodes Are Created

Geodes begin as bubbles in volcanic rock or as animal burrows, tree roots or mud balls in sedimentary rock. Over time, the outer shell of the spherical shape hardens, and water containing silica precipitation forms on the inside walls of the hollow cavity within the geode. The silica precipitation can contain any variety of dissolved minerals, the most common being quartz, but amethyst and calcite are also found.

Over a period of thousands of years, layers of silica cool, forming crystals of different minerals within the cavity. Different types of silica cool at varying temperatures, thus creating layers of different types of mineral crystals.

Each geode is unique in composition and can only be truly discovered when cracked open or cut with a rock saw. The size and formation of crystals and different shades of color within the crystals make each geode special. The rough exterior of the geode gives no indication of the secrets held within its core. The anticipation never fades for those who curiously collect buckets full of round geodes and eagerly expose the secrets of each individual sphere-shaped rock. The most prized contain rare amethyst crystals or black calcites.

Perhaps we should crack open Mimas and the Omnimax Theater and find out its composition. Best just have "Luke" handle it....The Force is with him!.....I think it is a Bee

Here's a fairly typical geode you might see in a new age shop:


And then there's the Almeria geode in Spain http://home.freeuk.net/smk/caving/geode.htm which is so big you can crawl inside it.

But back to the original topic, Makc. Did you notice that the second picture you posted of Mimas is from the 1979 voyager fly by? Considering the orginal Star Wars was 1977, we probably missed the first round of jokes about this by 25 years :(

I wonder where space-geeks shared jokes in 1977? I suppose people at NASA had Internet acceess (for what it was worth back then). Were the hobbiests left to HAM radio and telescope meets?

Boldra

Boldra wrote:But back to the original topic, Makc. Did you notice that the second picture you posted of Mimas is from the 1979 voyager fly by? Considering the orginal Star Wars was 1977, we probably missed the first round of jokes about this by 25 years

I wonder where space-geeks shared jokes in 1977? I suppose people at NASA had Internet acceess (for what it was worth back then).

Investigation mode ON.

- first idea: usenet
- this and this show that Google is not our friend here (oldest related post dated 1990)
- this confirms the above
- 1st mention of SW6... I dunno, it seems usenet is not that old
- there were 50+ usenet sites back in 1980 but when did this all started?
- this yields new query string "Unix User Network" (smth dated 1979)
- this reveals two more places to look:

It is generally considered to have begun in 1979 as a series of scripts written by University of North Carolina (UNC) grad student Steve Bellovin to facilitate Unix to Unix Copy Protocol (UUCP) communication between UNC and Duke University.

So, the question now is: was any of these univercities connected to NASA/Voyager/Mimas project. This is the only chance that there is something on our original subject dated 1979 in the Internet today.

Sorry, my time is out.

Investigation mode OFF.

Nice investigative work. I gave up when I saw that RFC 977 was dated 1986.

But apart from all that, there must have also been mailing lists, which could also be archived somewhere. Quite probably compressed and not indexed by the search engines, so I'm going to give up the search and just assume that someone made the connection a long time ago.

That and the kids are fighting again.

Boldra

Very interesting, makc. Indeed, the Death Star from "Star Wars" was modeled after Mimas. I read this on a daily astronomy calendar that I had a few years ago.

"That's no moon, it's a space station."

Orca wrote:"That's no moon, it's a space station."

Han Solo (or Obi Wan Kenobi, I can't remember) from "Star Wars IV - A New Hope".

ETX_90 wrote:...the Death Star from "Star Wars" was modeled after Mimas...

"death star mimas site:starwars.com" @google yields no relevant results. I wonder if there is a place online to read about it. And Boldra said above that SW are 2 years older for oldest Mimas image...

Ok I got another one for you guys about geodes. Do yu think there could be giant "planet sized" geodes in space? If so what could you imagian living in one?

I think Iapetus Is a much better looking Death Star.

at makc

Kevin7276 wrote:Ok I got another one for you guys about geodes. Do yu think there could be giant "planet sized" geodes in space? If so what could you imagian living in one?

crystals. and then the occasional lithivore.


It would seem giant "planet sized" geodes would collapse during formation.

It would not necessarily collapse during formation, the crystalline inner wall lining is simply a precipitate left behind do to evaporation, if the exterior substrate was strong enough to handle the rate of evaporation of the interior materials, and it could work. But they usually form in H2O.