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Sol, we will tell them about the price of gas, or, since we'll be quite senile (sp?) by then we can tell them how great Bush II was for our ruler.
The dunes don't seem very exciting though, compared to Jr anyway.
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
I don't understand why they sped up the end of the video. I'd think if anything that'd be the part we'd want to see more of. Also all the beeping and flashing confuses my tiny cave-man brain. Neat science though.
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
All the zips and zings apparently correspond to some instrument or readout or something, but I certainly haven't been able to decode them, despite the instructions provided.
And is the end of it sped up? More so than the rest, I mean? I don't think the batteries lasted all that long once it got to the surface. Wikipedia has this to say:
quote:The main mission phase was a parachute descent through Titan's atmosphere. The batteries and all other resources were sized for a Huygens mission duration of 153 minutes, corresponding to a maximum descent time of 2.5 hours plus at least 3 additional minutes (and possibly a half hour or more) on Titan's surface. The probe's radio link was activated early in the descent phase, and the orbiter "listened" to the probe for the next 3 hours, including the descent phase, and the first thirty minutes after touchdown. Not long after the end of this three-hour communication window, Cassini's high-gain antenna (HGA) was turned away from Titan and toward Earth.
quote:second paragraph: The almost four-hour-long operation of the camera is shown in less than five minutes. That's 40 times the actual speed up to landing and 100 times the actual speed thereafter.
I guess after it landed there wouldn't be all that much to see. (except when that terrible space monster came by and poked it with a stick)
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
Cool! Unfortunately, I think they're all too close to the star to support human life. But I do find it interesting that they think the two inner planets are rocky planets similar to Mercury, yet they're the mass of Neptune. Those are some big boulders!
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Just as soon as Bush's "science" advisors finish wrestling with the theological and philosophical implications of looking too closely at the crystal spheres of the Firmament.
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I think what they mean is that the worlds are LIKE Mercury, in that they are rocky planets with no real atmospheres due to their proximity to their star (Mercury has an orbital period of 88 days). We can't tell their size - only their mass, but if they weigh in like Neptune, they're gonna be bloody big rocky worlds... Much larger than Earth, which is the largest rocky planet around here.
And seeing these planets will be pretty well impossible. We can't see Mercury directly because it's too close to OUR sun. We'll have to improve our telescopic capability a LOT in order to see something far closer to a star forty light years away!
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: I think what they mean is that the worlds are LIKE Mercury, in that they are rocky planets with no real atmospheres due to their proximity to their star (Mercury has an orbital period of 88 days). We can't tell their size - only their mass, but if they weigh in like Neptune, they're gonna be bloody big rocky worlds... Much larger than Earth, which is the largest rocky planet around here.
Isn't that what I said?
Registered: Jul 2002
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We really do need faster space travel. Even an umanned probe travelling near c could yield some cool pics in a decent amount of time. I'd be dead, probably my kid too, but his kids could see them.
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
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quote:The newly found planets have minimum masses between 10 and 18 times the mass of the Earth. Extensive theoretical simulations favour an essentially rocky composition for the inner planet, and a rocky/gas structure for the middle one. The outer planet has probably accreted some ice during its formation, and is likely to be made of a rocky/icy core surrounded by a quite massive envelope. Further calculations have also shown that the system is in a dynamically stable configuration.
The outer planet also appears to be located near the inner edge of the habitable zone, where liquid water can exist at the surface of rocky/icy bodies. Although this planet is probably not Earth-like due to its heavy mass, its discovery opens the way to exciting perspectives.
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
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![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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