Summary
Astronomers have discovered 128 new moons around Saturn, bringing its total to 274, far surpassing Jupiter’s 95.
The moons, formally recognized by the International Astronomical Union, are small, irregularly shaped objects detected using the “shift and stack” technique.
Scientists believe they are remnants of larger celestial bodies shattered by collisions within the last 100 million years.
The discovery sheds light on the early solar system’s chaotic history and could help explain the origins of Saturn’s rings. Meanwhile, ESA’s Hera spacecraft will conduct a close flyby of Mars’s moon Deimos.
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Great. More places for the protomolecule to hang out.
I’ve seen the expanse 3 times and I’m STILL confused how the protomolecule tjrns frona fungus type thing monster to a wormhole gate lol. Maybe the books will explain it better.
It basically needs critical mass.
The monsters were humans trying to engineer with thr molecule, that sample of protomolecule was not bound to become the ring.
On Eros, it was let loose specifically so that it could get enough mass to do what it was going to do. Think of it like a transistor- a few transistors can get you a NAND gate, but a LOT of them can give you a processor.
Once it had the critical mass and went to Venus, it was big enough that it could assimilate whatever it wanted into itself and gain the necessary mass to form the ring.
expanse was one of the very rare instances where the show was better than the books. And in reading the books you really get the sense that they were written to be a script.
I read the entire series before the show was even announced and still need to watch the show. The first two books are some of the better sci-fi I have ever read. After that its a decent into madness that felt like it had gone from science fiction to pure science fantasy.
The books (and ultimately the show) were based on a TTRPG idea, so, yeah, they were kind of the script. Also, you can see some D&D character archetypes show through (looking at you, Jimbo “sad paladin” Holden)
I view it like It’s a tool. Think “monolith” from 2001.
When is universe sandbox 2 going to update?
An excellent question!
Ring simulations are hard though, I don’t expect to see a lot in that area.
Is Saturn just a nerd that likes collecting moons or something?
Saturn cheated by breaking regular moons up into many irregularly shaped moons with wonky orbits.
The truth is that there isn’t a strict definition of a moon like there is now for planets. The IAU has chickened out.
Pluto is a planet and you will never convince me otherwise.
Okay!
But that means you have to recite all the planets:
- Mercury
- Venus
- Earth
- Mars
- Ceres
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Uranus
- Neptune
- Pluto
- Eris
- Haumea
- Makemake
- Gonggong
- Orcus
- Quaoar
- Varda
- Sedna
- Possibly more…
Our moon could bully Pluto.
Edit:
Then it’s a 10th planet. Ceres deserves its own spot!
A real celestial hoarder.
They also discovered two cheeks around Uranus!
Kind of wild that with as far as technology has come they’re just now seeing the crack.
And rich in hydrogen sulfate gas. Like your mom.
I’d announce when I found just one but that wasn’t good enough for some nerd
how about some fucking modesty, saturn?
Are those regular moons, or ‘minor’ moons?
I believe they’re called moonlets. They’re tiny moons, rocks that would be large enough to be called asteroids, but floating around in the rings.
“Moons”. What do they count as moon? Anything they can track and identify? Anything larger than a football?
They took away Plutos planet status, but call every dirt blob a moon.
Same question.
