The Pluto family is a little dysfunctional.
June 3, 2015 3:26 PM Subscribe
Pluto and its moons just got a whole lot stranger A new analysis of data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope suggests that Pluto's four smallest known moons have been thrown into chaos because of Pluto's relationship with its largest moon Charon.
They're a bit codependent.
All the more reason Pluto should be a planet, so it has access to the resources available to help with this issue.
We will never forget, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, you bastard.
posted by Etrigan at 4:22 PM on June 3, 2015 [10 favorites]
We will never forget, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, you bastard.
posted by Etrigan at 4:22 PM on June 3, 2015 [10 favorites]
This is nothing more than transparent viral marketing for the New Horizons flyby next month. The name of mashable.com used to be synonymous with independence, skepticism, the highest journalistic ethics. But now they have sold out to the big JPL advertising machine. For shame.
posted by officer_fred at 4:33 PM on June 3, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by officer_fred at 4:33 PM on June 3, 2015 [6 favorites]
Yeah. I hear Charon is a shoo-in for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Sure, it's a bit colder than most football venues, but the stadiums will have seat heaters.
Here's the schedule for the encounter, by the way.
posted by Devonian at 4:40 PM on June 3, 2015 [4 favorites]
Here's the schedule for the encounter, by the way.
posted by Devonian at 4:40 PM on June 3, 2015 [4 favorites]
I thought Charon had been voted "best place to send the FIFA administrators...."
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:27 PM on June 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:27 PM on June 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Fiddle Styx!
posted by clavdivs at 5:32 PM on June 3, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 5:32 PM on June 3, 2015 [5 favorites]
Planet X
perhaps the first time I ever encountered a URL in a song (1997)...
posted by mikelieman at 6:00 PM on June 3, 2015
perhaps the first time I ever encountered a URL in a song (1997)...
posted by mikelieman at 6:00 PM on June 3, 2015
Pluto didn't clear its orbit and shares a center of gravity with a similarly-sized object. No es planet-o
posted by aydeejones at 6:01 PM on June 3, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by aydeejones at 6:01 PM on June 3, 2015 [5 favorites]
I saw Pluto and Goofy at Goofy's Kitchen in Disneyland (Anaheim CA) recently but they both appeared separately during our brunch. It was pretty badass in that Minnie and the chipmunks were there too.
But the thing is, I didn't even realize I encountered both canid entities because they both were bipedal and only realized it later when looking at the pictures. I think I even did a Goofy impression for Pluto. It was the last day and I was tired
posted by aydeejones at 6:04 PM on June 3, 2015
But the thing is, I didn't even realize I encountered both canid entities because they both were bipedal and only realized it later when looking at the pictures. I think I even did a Goofy impression for Pluto. It was the last day and I was tired
posted by aydeejones at 6:04 PM on June 3, 2015
Cool! We should be able to get much more complete surface maps if they're gonna flip over during the flyby.
posted by sexyrobot at 6:27 PM on June 3, 2015
posted by sexyrobot at 6:27 PM on June 3, 2015
They are described as footballs but they look like little potatoes to me.
I am so ridiculously excited about the fly-by that I am taking a couple of days off work so I don't miss anything. For anyone interested, there is a new, free Pluto Safari app that keeps you up to date on news and lets you see the approach from the New Horizons perspective along with a various other features.
posted by colt45 at 10:08 PM on June 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
I am so ridiculously excited about the fly-by that I am taking a couple of days off work so I don't miss anything. For anyone interested, there is a new, free Pluto Safari app that keeps you up to date on news and lets you see the approach from the New Horizons perspective along with a various other features.
posted by colt45 at 10:08 PM on June 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
Pluto is not and never has been a planet. It was mistakenly categorised as one.
I was delighted to hear they'd finally fixed that.
Treating it like a planet is just going to confuse matters and give you weird science.
There are probably other big rocks in that orbit that we've ignored because of the mindset of Pluto as a planet.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:12 AM on June 4, 2015
I was delighted to hear they'd finally fixed that.
Treating it like a planet is just going to confuse matters and give you weird science.
There are probably other big rocks in that orbit that we've ignored because of the mindset of Pluto as a planet.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:12 AM on June 4, 2015
Pluto is not and never has been a planet. It was mistakenly categorised as one.
I was delighted to hear they'd finally fixed that.
Treating it like a planet is just going to confuse matters and give you weird science.
There are probably other big rocks in that orbit that we've ignored because of the mindset of Pluto as a planet.
I really wish that they had come up with a term for the primary planets to accompany the term "dwarf planet". Then everyone could have gone home happy and I wouldn't have to face the occasional choice of walking out of the room or having to try to explain to my relatives why Pluto "can't be a planet anymore".
posted by dances with hamsters at 5:22 AM on June 4, 2015
I was delighted to hear they'd finally fixed that.
Treating it like a planet is just going to confuse matters and give you weird science.
There are probably other big rocks in that orbit that we've ignored because of the mindset of Pluto as a planet.
I really wish that they had come up with a term for the primary planets to accompany the term "dwarf planet". Then everyone could have gone home happy and I wouldn't have to face the occasional choice of walking out of the room or having to try to explain to my relatives why Pluto "can't be a planet anymore".
posted by dances with hamsters at 5:22 AM on June 4, 2015
The original paper shows something utterly weird and wonderful that isn't captured by the blurb here:
Pluto’s five moons show a tantalizing orbital configuration: the ratios of their orbital periods are close to 1:3:4:5:6. This configuration is reminiscent of the Laplace resonance at Jupiter, where the moons Io, Europa, and Ganymede have periods in the ratio 1:2:4.
But, and this is the wonderfully weird part, they actually aren't locked in that resonance:
Kerberos contributes to the chaos [... and ...] perturbs each moon during each passage. The harmonics of a second three-body resonance also appear ... the second strongest resonance found in our search; at the orbit of Styx, the two resonances are separated by just 4 km. This is reminiscent of the Uranus system, where chains of near-resonances drive the chaos in that system.
The New Horizons spacecraft will fly past Pluto on 14 July 2015. At that time, many of the questions raised by this paper will be addressed ... Independent of the new discoveries in store, we have already learned that Pluto hosts a rich and complex dynamical environment, seemingly out of proportion to its diminutive size.
The dynamicists are having trouble settling down from all the excitement!
posted by RedOrGreen at 10:08 AM on June 4, 2015
Pluto’s five moons show a tantalizing orbital configuration: the ratios of their orbital periods are close to 1:3:4:5:6. This configuration is reminiscent of the Laplace resonance at Jupiter, where the moons Io, Europa, and Ganymede have periods in the ratio 1:2:4.
But, and this is the wonderfully weird part, they actually aren't locked in that resonance:
Kerberos contributes to the chaos [... and ...] perturbs each moon during each passage. The harmonics of a second three-body resonance also appear ... the second strongest resonance found in our search; at the orbit of Styx, the two resonances are separated by just 4 km. This is reminiscent of the Uranus system, where chains of near-resonances drive the chaos in that system.
The New Horizons spacecraft will fly past Pluto on 14 July 2015. At that time, many of the questions raised by this paper will be addressed ... Independent of the new discoveries in store, we have already learned that Pluto hosts a rich and complex dynamical environment, seemingly out of proportion to its diminutive size.
The dynamicists are having trouble settling down from all the excitement!
posted by RedOrGreen at 10:08 AM on June 4, 2015
I'm fairly sure I know the answer here (that being: of course not, don't be silly) but with such relatively small moons in such a complexly balanced orbit, is there likely to be any appreciable effect from flying a tiny probe close to them.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 10:20 AM on June 4, 2015
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 10:20 AM on June 4, 2015
Even the smallest one almost certainly masses billions of tons, and the probe masses half a ton. The gravitational effect would be like the gravitational effect of you throwing an iphone through a squadron of very large cruise ships.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:06 AM on June 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:06 AM on June 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
The dynamicists are having trouble settling down from all the excitement!
Sounds like...
[sunglasses icon]
they're a little chaotic.
posted by disconnect at 12:28 PM on June 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
Sounds like...
[sunglasses icon]
they're a little chaotic.
posted by disconnect at 12:28 PM on June 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
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