NASA records the death of a star

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Side note- I dig red dwarves due to their long lives. At first I thought that colonizing yellow dwarf systems were our best target, but for staying power, it's all about the red dwarves. Red dwarves alive now will still be around now will last until all of the Sun type stars have died and stopped forming. There is the problem with tidal locking in the habitable zone though.

This spurs another side rant: The term "red dwarf" also pisses me off. It's just a small main sequence star. It's nothing like a white dwarf or a brown dwarf, which are dead of failed stars, respectively. It's just a regular M class star. But again, probably just me.

I see your point. I think that the term was just chosen for relative size. Personally, if we were to define terms like that, I would prefer dwarf for the main sequence stars, to match giants and supergiants, and call a white dwarf a white remnant and a brown dwarf a brown protostar.

[Doktor Howl]

and call a white dwarf a white remnant

David Duke Star?

[Nephew Twiddleton]

and call a white dwarf a white remnant

David Duke Star?

Cum stain star?

[Dimocritus]

Side note- I dig red dwarves due to their long lives. At first I thought that colonizing yellow dwarf systems were our best target, but for staying power, it's all about the red dwarves. Red dwarves alive now will still be around now will last until all of the Sun type stars have died and stopped forming. There is the problem with tidal locking in the habitable zone though.

This spurs another side rant: The term "red dwarf" also pisses me off. It's just a small main sequence star. It's nothing like a white dwarf or a brown dwarf, which are dead of failed stars, respectively. It's just a regular M class star. But again, probably just me.

I see your point. I think that the term was just chosen for relative size. Personally, if we were to define terms like that, I would prefer dwarf for the main sequence stars, to match giants and supergiants, and call a white dwarf a white remnant and a brown dwarf a brown protostar.

Lets get rid of the term dwarf entirely, I say. To call all main sequence stars dwarfs is misleading, because they range in mass from 0.1Mo to 60Mo and in size from 0.1 solar radii to 10 solar radii. Dwarf is relative. Lets identify each main sequence star according to their class (O, B, A, F, G, K and M.)

White dwarfs, low-mass stellar corpses, should be called "electron stars" (because electron degeneracy pressure is the only thing preventing further collapse) like a higher-mass stellar corpse is called a "neutron star" (because neutron degeneracy pressure is the only thing preventing further collapse).

Brown dwarfs should be called Gary Coleman.

On account of him being a failed star, of course. What did you think I meant?

[Doktor Howl]

Lets get rid of the term dwarf entirely, I say.

Yes.  It's demeaning.

[Dimocritus]

Lets get rid of the term dwarf entirely, I say.

Yes.  It's demeaning.

We need to be more universally sensative. We wouldn't want to offend a human being by describing a non human object.

Also, quoted for posterity:

Brown dwarfs should be called Gary Coleman.

On account of him being a failed star, of course. What did you think I meant?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Lets get rid of the term dwarf entirely, I say.

Yes.  It's demeaning.

They prefer "Little Star".

ALSO, OMG WHAT

A white dwarf, also called a degenerate dwarf, is a small star composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_dwarf

[Triple Zero]

On topic side-rant: The term "pulsar" pisses me off. A pulsar is just a neutron star "pointed" towards the Earth. Like, a laser-pointer is called a laser-pointer regardless of what direction it's pointing in, right? A neutron star is a neutron star. Fuck a fucking "pulsar." It's sort of an antiquated term from before they realized "pulsars" are just neutron stars "pointed" at us. I hate it. But then again, it's probably just me.

No. If it's pointed just anywhere it's called "a laser pointer". If it's pointed at me it's called "asking for trouble". If it's pointed at a cinema screen it's called "being a cunt".

Seriously though, would it make you feel better if you think of a "neutron star" as the actual object that is (most probably, cause you can't actually go there and check it out) floating in space zillions of kilometers away, and a "pulsar" as a feature of the observed space sky hemisphere?

Kind of like how star constellations aren't really "real" except for when they're projected at our particular 2D hemisphere, except slightly more sciencey.

BTW that's one thing that annoys me: most astronomy students I know can't for the life of them point out any star constellations except maybe the Big Dipper (Ursa Major/Grote Beer). I mean, fuck, even I can point you at Orion and the Pleiades (not sure if you got the same ones on your continent btw? Orion and the Big Dipper are always visible here).
I guess it's not "hip" because it's too much like astrology and baaaaw. But you can use that shit to NAVIGATE. Plus it looks pretty. And you can impress girls with it.

Or the moon, can you tell if it's waxing or waning? (if it's shaped like a < it's getting smaller and a > means it's getting bigger--see it even uses science notations!)

[Luna]

Hey, Dimo, check it out:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/02/scitech/main20101040.shtml?tag=newsvine

For the first time scientists have imaged a pair of black holes found in a spiral galaxy very much like our own Milky Way. Equally important, this also constitutes the nearest known pair of supermassive black holes to Earth identified to date.
The discovery was made in a spiral galaxy codenamed NGC 3393, which is an estimated 160 million light years away from Earth. The pair are believed to represent the remains of what astronomers described as a merger between two galaxies of unequal mass more than a billion years ago.

[Dimocritus]

No. If it's pointed just anywhere it's called "a laser pointer". If it's pointed at me it's called "asking for trouble". If it's pointed at a cinema screen it's called "being a cunt".

Seriously though, would it make you feel better if you think of a "neutron star" as the actual object that is (most probably, cause you can't actually go there and check it out) floating in space zillions of kilometers away, and a "pulsar" as a feature of the observed space sky hemisphere?

Kind of like how star constellations aren't really "real" except for when they're projected at our particular 2D hemisphere, except slightly more sciencey.

I see what you're saying, I was just being difficult.

BTW that's one thing that annoys me: most astronomy students I know can't for the life of them point out any star constellations except maybe the Big Dipper (Ursa Major/Grote Beer). I mean, fuck, even I can point you at Orion and the Pleiades (not sure if you got the same ones on your continent btw? Orion and the Big Dipper are always visible here).
I guess it's not "hip" because it's too much like astrology and baaaaw. But you can use that shit to NAVIGATE. Plus it looks pretty. And you can impress girls with it.

Or the moon, can you tell if it's waxing or waning? (if it's shaped like a < it's getting smaller and a > means it's getting bigger--see it even uses science notations!)

I can Identify a handful of constellations, Orion, Big dipper, Cassiopia, Leo, Taurus, some others. Constellations, depite them not being real, have a use. Each constellation is like the border of a "country" in the sky, and knowing which "country" an object is in is the first step in observing said object. Personally, it's not that exciting to me, because most of what I am interested in isn't readily observable by the naked eye. But again, mostly in agreement here.

Hey, Dimo, check it out:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/02/scitech/main20101040.shtml?tag=newsvine

Yeah, I was reading about this, however, a related article caught my attention. Remember when I said that black holes are "relatively harmless?" Well, it turns out that if two galaxies of the same or similar size collide, the super-massive black holes at their centers, under the right conditions, can merge and launch the new combined black hole out of the galaxy. First, reaching the escape velocity of a galaxy is pretty amazing on its own, but once these high-velocity, super-massive black holes burn off all the gasses around them, there would be no way to detect it. Black holes don't kill people, high velocity super-massive black holes kill people.

Give me a minute, I'll see if i can find the link.

[Dimocritus]

The prediction.

Possible observation.

Black holes careening about at 2,500 miles a second? Well, good luck Future Earth, not even Bruce Willis can save you from that.