Eris shocks astrophysicists.... AGAIN!

[hirley0]

FULL12-27NEW Moon

Thu Sep 22/06:17 AM 4 60 10 above SW 39 above E best ever

Fri Aug 26/09:26 PM 2 45 27 above NW    31 above ENE {:26-28
Wed Aug 31/09:24 PM 3 20 14 above W    17 above SSW seen \ Not recorded

?18?_the sight time has moved from AM to PM (xpect delay
page begins with NEWS of the loss of the supplys' rocket ? ^ read bottom UP ^

[hirley0]

NEW-FULL I ss

201110: - Clouds / Rain {no OBs
20110913 nhk SPEECH? no mention of Gps
----TEAL=Tuesday----
9/5 ONLY DAYS WITH SIGHTING OPPORTUNITIES ARE LISTED
9/5 yeah?YeaH in the easy to confuse mode
9/4 thinking this over {{{ HOW to get NasTa data | 4 1
and whats the point in having just one point of view in space | Stereo?
Can the Stereo SETs be upgraded? who knows NoT A NasTA FAN acTUAlly

FROM FRI SEP 02 TO SAT SEP 17
Fri Sep 02/09:03 PM 2 12  10 above WSW    10 above SSW
Sat Sep 03/08:08 PM 1 13 13 above S    11 above SSE total - -

Cosmic ray hunter installed on space station

[hirley0]

falling-nasa-sat

that's the best my slow computer could come up with today | Lots of BS though




M26 NAVY rebooting = delays \ physics class dream (TREE LEAVES}
W28 LuLL
U29 LATE mLt ?/?

Sat 10/1 Moving along from Inop'N

[hirley0]

S2 CURRENTLY THINKING Sun Set Time
M3 Ct 9:12 pdT x.php?topic=3 DEL ( PHPSESSID=j993i7mf7ra9gp46l6r9dfkjj1& )
T4 TEAL t
W5 CLOUDY/rain /delay
U6 C  StiLL & 2delays2 AsToRo b-BvS-s
F7 MORE CLOUDS report of La Ninia? Pacific HoT Asia cool SA
s8 P clouds 8am

[hirley0]

s15 pink EoP
F14 4:23:12  orange Pi  MBROWN
U13 4:08:51 purple?
W12 7:16:02 BROWN
T11 5:14:11 AM  TEAL FULL MOON? {Moon was seen (East) 8pm
M10 NAVY? Quiet Clouds
S9 LIME MAROON

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/10/plutos-rival-is-tinier-but-shi.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

[hirley0]

S16 the weather has changed Eo iSS start. clouds v TOP DOWN V Fort Night V
B17 i'LL recline, to avoid the D'bait  & oppose BROWN Wed.
T18 Ye'ss`UM: i did look: ROSAT RE-ENTERED Oct. 23rd
W19 THE girls sat at a table(s) looking at each other
the guys sat around several tables facing N (the projection screen
U20 Astronomy? when will the 1000Yr parameters be published
F21 -ro
s22 should check the end of this thread before i type {oh my
S23 Reply #42 on: October 17, 2011, 07:59:52
M24 Haze /clouds ? Horizon | Watched / did not see ?
T25 AM -| West hills radio Tower in clouds ?7:42PM L-o 9S
W26 7AMc&pC2 U27 {only worse F28 s29

[Kai]

I stand with ND Tyson on this. The Jovian-Terrestrial-dwarf-planetoid classification makes it easier to talk about planetary objects in this and other systems. They're definitions for scientific, not cultural, reasons.

[AFK]

I stand on ND Tyson's neck on this!

Eat rancid space food Astro Boy!

[Doktor Howl]

You're all ignoring the only important question:

"Do any of these planets/whatever have Amazon warrior queens from electrical dimension X, who are bent on carrying off Earth's men for use as sex slaves?"

Because if the answer is "no", then who gives a fuck?

[Luna]

You're all ignoring the only important question:

"Do any of these planets/whatever have Amazon warrior queens from electrical dimension X, who are bent on carrying off Earth's men for use as sex slaves?"

Because if the answer is "no", then who gives a fuck?

You are not cleared for that information, as you are reportedly in possession of a penis.  Negotiations for exactly which males will be exported continue, haggling over the exchange rate is still an issue.  (The question of how many interdimensionally powered vibrators per male is a sticking point.)

[AFK]

I have to say that overall this stuff about Eris and Pluto really doesn't phase me all that much.  I mean, it's not that big a deal really.

But I have to say I was really sorry to hear about Uranus. 

[Doktor Howl]

I have to say that overall this stuff about Eris and Pluto really doesn't phase me all that much.  I mean, it's not that big a deal really.

But I have to say I was really sorry to hear about Uranus. 

"Faze".

Unless you're talking about the electro-Amazons, in which case "phase" might work.  At least I, for one, hope so.

[Telarus]

.....and AGAIN AND AGAIN.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-eris-20111027,0,6101561.story

By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times

October 27, 2011

Eris, the dwarf planet whose 2005 discovery led to Pluto losing its status as a planet, has passed in front of a star, providing astronomers with the clearest view of it since it was identified.

It is about the same size as Pluto and is one of the brightest objects in the solar system, according to the new analysis, released Wednesday by the journal Nature.

Scientists' picture of Eris had remained fuzzy because its distance from Earth is so vast: It is about three times farther out from the sun than Pluto. Some estimates pegged Eris as about 25% larger than Pluto, but it was too far away to tell for sure.

"It's very difficult, because it's so small in the sky," said lead author Bruno Sicardy, a planetary scientist at Pierre and Marie Curie University and Observatory in Paris.

With such small, far-off objects, astronomers wait for what's known as a stellar occultation, in which the object will cross over a star, essentially casting a shadow over the Earth. The amount of starlight blocked by the object allows scientists to calculate the object's size.

Witnessing this stellar occultation last year required being in the right place at exactly the right moment during the brief time window that Eris was scheduled to block the star.

To spot the star-crossing, Sicardy's team asked telescope operators at 26 different sites around the world to make observations. Just three telescopes at two of those sites, both in Chile, managed to catch the event.

From the data, the researchers were able to calculate that the dwarf planet's diameter is about 1,445 miles — on a par with Pluto, which is somewhere between 1,429 and 1,491 miles across.

The fact that Eris is smaller than previously estimated means that the amount of light scientists had detected coming from it originated from a smaller-than-anticipated surface area — and therefore its surface is brighter than anyone had thought.

In fact, the new calculations make Eris one of the brightest objects in the solar system, even though its surface should have been darkened from bombardment by cosmic rays and micrometeorites.

The authors think its shininess is due to a millimeter-thick layer of methane-and-nitrogen frost coating the dwarf planet's surface. This frost, they say, was probably once an atmosphere 10,000 times thinner than Pluto's that froze onto the surface in the frigid temperatures as Eris traveled away from the sun on its 557-year orbit.

Though they have Eris' size narrowed down, scientists still don't know whether it's smaller or larger than Pluto — because Pluto's size is not known precisely.

But even if Eris ends up being the smaller, "Pluto is never going to go back to being a planet," said Amanda Gulbis, a planetary scientist at the South African Astronomical Observatory who was not involved in the study. "The definition has been set."

Regardless of the question of size, Eris is about 27% heavier than Pluto. This means it must contain relatively more rock and less ice, said Caltech astronomer Mike Brown, whose team discovered Eris in 2005.

This could be because Eris was once a much larger planet whose less dense outer layers were blown off by an impact — much as is thought to have happened with the small but uncommonly heavy Mercury, the sun's closest planet.

"We really think [Eris and Pluto] should have been made at the same time out of the same materials — so really, it's bizarre that they're so different," Brown said.

[Triple Zero]

But even if Eris ends up being the smaller, "Pluto is never going to go back to being a planet," said Amanda Gulbis, a planetary scientist at the South African Astronomical Observatory who was not involved in the study. "The definition has been set."

O YEAH? WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT! #OCCUPYSOLARSYSTEM