I suppose this will really muddy up the waters for definition of a planet. As if it wasn't already screwed up.
But still, it is pretty cool to still be finding this kind of stuff.
B.J.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Still? I'd say, with no real data to back me up, that the majority of the most interesting things in our solar system, not to mention others, have been discovered in the past 30 years or so.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Er....like what exactly? There have been many cool discoveries with planets and moons that we already knew about, but I dont recall much coolness in with the most "new" stuff.
Though, once we actually start exploring the system (privately probably) , our descendants will look back on the past 30 years as mostly unproductive and wasteful.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Name an interesting fact about the solar system and I bet it is something recent. Volcanic activity on Io? The potential for vast quantitites of liquid water on Europa and maybe other Jovians? The Kuiper Belt? The stream of bizarre images coming in from Saturn as we speak? The existence of extrasolar planets?
Then you've got Mars looking more curious everytime we take a closer look, asteroids with moons, and on and on. And that's just planetary science.
Basically, prior to, say, Voyager 1, we knew there were some bright lights in the sky.
This is the golden age of learning where the solar system is concerned.
Posted by Toadkiller (Member # 425) on :
Well, yeah, but it would still be really nice if we had people out there doing some of the golden age stuff.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"I suppose this will really muddy up the waters for definition of a planet."
Not really. If having one satellite doesn't make it a planet, having three certainly won't.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
I like Jupiters "Death Star" Moon
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
My Cat's breath smells like catfood.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Actually, it's Saturn that has the "Death Star"...
Also, I'm pretty sure that at least one of the bigger asteroids out there in the main belt has a smaller asteroid orbiting around it... like a moon, might one say?
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
quote:Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: Actually, it's Saturn that has the "Death Star"...
Also, I'm pretty sure that at least one of the bigger asteroids out there in the main belt has a smaller asteroid orbiting around it... like a moon, might one say?
Correct on both counts. Saturn's moon Mimas is the one that looks like the Death Star, and the asteroid pair you're thinking of is probably Ida and Dactyl.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
I stand corrected. Still it looks cool.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
There's also at least one asteroid with two moons, sometimes called a triple asteroid. 87 Sylvia has the "moons" Romulus and Remus, as I posted here .