The rotational axes of Uranus and Pluto are very tilted:
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I like how Venus is 177° instead of 3° on this illustration to account for the retrograde rotation.
The rotational axes of Uranus and Pluto are very tilted:
View attachment 483074
-Venus rotates in retrograde, very slowly. Its sidereal rotation period is longer than its year at 243 and 225 earth days, respectively. The solar day as viewed from the surface is 117 earth days and the sun would rise in the west and set in the east if it was visible from the surface.
-Jupiter and Saturn have rotation periods of only about 10 hours. All that mass rotating so rapidly makes them noticably ovoid, squashed at the poles and bulging at the equator.
-Uranus was discovered entirely by accident by English astronomer William Herschel in 1781, and after realizing he had discovered a new planet, wanted to name it George's Star after George III, King of England and his patron. This didn't sit well with the international astronomical community and the planet was officially named Uranus, since he was the father of Saturn, who was the father of Jupiter. Some English organizations kept calling it George's Star until 1850.
-Astronomers pronounce Uranus "YER-ah-nus," with the stress on the first syllable and short a sound in the second syllable. I have habitually used this pronunciation after months working at Space Camp teaching kids about the solar system.
-Neptune was actually first spotted by Galileo as it moved near Jupiter relative to Earth. He was observing the moons of Jupiter and noted a faint star behind Jupiter. Whether Galileo thought it was just a star or recognized it as a planet is not known for sure, but reading his notes reveals that Galileo did notice that Neptune moved relative to the background stars.
The Earth not only rotates, but
If anyone knows where I can find a desk globe displaying this (like a gyroscope with an Earth model as a rotor), I want one. Why? Because for too long I was mislead by regular globes into thinking the axis of rotation was fixed in space and it irks me.
- over 41 000 years, its axis of rotation oscillates between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees, and
- over 26 000 years, its axis of rotation precesses (wobbles) a full circle (base of a cone).
Oh, no, I'm 65 as well and I think we'll be back before then... Of course, there are some issues with theI saw all of the launches from Mercury to Apollo. When 2001 came out I looked at it as a prediction of the future. As we got closer in time to the real 2001 I became more and more sure it wouldn't happen in my lifetime. I am bummed. The only hope I have left is that ET comes for a visit in my lifetime. I'm 65.
Kinda like the people on it. Maybe our heads are raising the average!My fun fact:
Earth has the highest density of any known object in our solar system.
Meanwhile, Saturn would float if placed in water, some speculate that Saturn might not even have a solid core.Earth has the highest density of any known object in our solar system.
There's an XKCD for that:Meanwhile, Saturn would float if placed in water, some speculate that Saturn might not even have a solid core.
And I believe it was Arthur C. Clarke who conjectured that it might be possible for Jupiter's core to be a diamond the size of Earth.
The Sun has an atmosphere; an incredibly hot atmosphere but an atmosphere none the less.
Now sound can travel within an atmosphere and being that the Sun is an enormous and ongoing thermo-nuclear explosion, imagine how loud it must be.
We're talking Spinal Tap loud.
Where? Where did you hear that?I heard that Herschel wanted to name the new planet George’s Star, but the astronomical community said, “You can’t name it after Mad King George...
No, Disaster Area loud.We're talking Spinal Tap loud.
@Funkworks, is there some kind of right-hand rule or other convention going on there? Why couldn't Pluto be 60° and Uranus 82°??? North Pole orientation reLative to...?
Where? Where did you hear that?
No, Disaster Area loud.
Hi @jqavins and everyone else.Ə ə are called "schwa", and are pronounced like a soft grunt. Like the double 'o' in "good".
Hi @jqavins and everyone else.
Actually, the vowel sound in the English-language word good does not describe the schwa sound well. A better example is the vowel sound in the English-language word but.
Stanley
From Wikipedia:
- a: balloon
- e: problem
- i: family
- o: bottom
- u: support
- y: analysis
From Merriam Webster:An example in English is the vowel sound of the ⟨a⟩ in the word about.
(underline added)1: an unstressed mid-central vowel (such as the usual sound of the first and last vowels of the English word America)
2: the symbol ə used for the schwa sound and less widely for a similarly articulated stressed vowel (as in cut)
The atmosphere on Mars is so thin that flying the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars is like flying a helicopter on Earth at an altitude of 100,000 ft.
Hi @jqavins and everyone else,From readingrockets.com, examples of the schwa sound include:From Wikipedia:From Merriam Websterunderline added)
The 'u' in but and in cut is a "short u", denoted by ŭ.
Happens 1-2 times per billion years. No water, no plate tectonics.-Venus does not have tectonic plates. Every 10,000 years or so (IIRC, that number might be wrong) the pressure from the mantle under the crust reaches a point where the crust cracks all over the place and the planet explodes in volcanism for a while before it hardens again.
The height is also 3 times the height of the largest on Earth, Mauna Kea at about 40k feet. If both were any higher, they would exceed the strength of the rocks and slump. Mars' gravity is also 1/3 (.38) x the Earth's.-The base of Olympus Mons on Mars is about the size of Arizona.
The sun's magnetosphere extends well beyond Pluto and the Voyagers are just passing through the Heliopause at the edge of the Sun's magnetic field.-Jupiter's magnetosphere is the largest thing in the solar system. If it was visible, it would be 2-3 times the size of the sun/moon as seen from Earth.
They should last as long as the geysers on Enceladus keep the G ring replenished. Then the particles drift inward.-Saturn's rings are only 100 million years old and they will slowly fade away until they are gone in 300 million years.
Looks like Miranda was disrupted by impact and gently reassembled. Too small to round out so the chunks are still visible.-Uranus's moon Miranda has the highest vertical cliff in the solar system at 33,000 feet, and the gravity of Miranda is low enough that you could jump off it and safely land on a cushion at the bottom.
Blue Cheer loud!Where? Where did you hear that?
No, Disaster Area loud.
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