Science Tidbits #5

[RJDiogenes]

Yeah, it could be some sort of overlap or cumulative effect of adjacent branes. I've wondered in the past if gravity might have a spectrum, like electromagnetism, and maybe have different strengths at different wavelengths.

[RJDiogenes]

Now this is really cool. Some strong evidence of a moon around an exoplanet is cool enough, but this is a Neptune-sized moon of a Superjupiter. It's practically a double planet. I've often wondered about double Gas Giants (and it would be a nifty thing to use in a story) and this indicates that such a thing is indeed possible. It also proves that the bigger the planet, the bigger the moons can be, which means that large Gas Giants can indeed have habitable Earth-sized moons. And just to make all this even cooler, this planet and moon are in the Goldilocks Zone. Now the next question is whether the giant moons can have moons of their own.

In other interesting news, there's a Goblin in the outer Solar System that provides more evidence for a massive Planet X.

[Lupine]

Now this is really cool. Some strong evidence of a moon around an exoplanet is cool enough, but this is a Neptune-sized moon of a Superjupiter. It's practically a double planet. I've often wondered about double Gas Giants (and it would be a nifty thing to use in a story) and this indicates that such a thing is indeed possible. It also proves that the bigger the planet, the bigger the moons can be, which means that large Gas Giants can indeed have habitable Earth-sized moons. And just to make all this even cooler, this planet and moon are in the Goldilocks Zone. Now the next question is whether the giant moons can have moons of their own.

I saw this yesterday. Ironically I had been thinking about Super-Jupiters having Neptune-sized moons after our previous discussion about moons here. I imagine that with further discoveries like this there will eventually be a debate on just what qualities as a Moon and what is a double-planet.

In other interesting news, there's a Goblin in the outer Solar System that provides more evidence for a massive Planet X.

It would be nice if they could find it soon, but as it was pointed out this world would be very far out and hard to see.

[RJDiogenes]

I imagine that with further discoveries like this there will eventually be a debate on just what qualities as a Moon and what is a double-planet.

And the IAU will come up with some nonsensical definition. Some people already consider the Moon-Earth and Pluto-Charon systems to be double planets. Personally, I think one body can't be any less than 50% of the mass of the other to be considered double.

[Lupine]

I'd go by barycenter and whether it's within the larger of the two bodies. But the IAU will probably come up with some tortured definition that will insisted that a moon can't be a moon even if they call it a moon.

[RJDiogenes]

I'd go by barycenter and whether it's within the larger of the two bodies.

That would make the double planet designation dependent on the distance between the bodies, which is dynamic. The barycenter of the Earth-Moon system is a bit under the surface of Earth now, but the Moon is slowly inching away, which means we could become a double planet in the future even though we aren't now. The ratio of size or mass would be a constant (although what the threshold should be is certainly up for debate).

[Lupine]

^Good thought on the barycenter shifting over time. I'll have to look that up.

[RJDiogenes]

Whoo! An astronaut and a cosmonaut had to make an emergency landing when their spacecraft malfunctioned. As far as we know, they are both okay, thank goodness.

In less happy news, a Neanderthal kid was eaten by a giant bird.

[Lupine]

^Wow! (on both counts).

Glad the astronauts and cosmonauts are OK.

My guess that the bird in question was a vulture. I don't know of any large birds of prey in Europe at that time and few would probably try to take on a human, even a young one.
But it also brings up an interesting question: was the child abandoned in the wild for some reason or was he/she ceremonially fed to the vulture(s), ala Sky Burial?

[scottydog]

^^ Good question. I suspect an accident but wouldn't it be interesting if this were some sort of ritual?

[Lupine]

^It's possible as Neanderthals most likely had some kind of spiritual life. Nothing is certain obviously but it's not something that should be dismissed.

[RJDiogenes]

I assumed it was one of those giant terror birds of the distant past, but I guess not. In that case, the kid probably died from other reasons and was scavenged. A ritual brings up interesting story ideas, though.

[Orpheus]

It's been a running joke in anthropology. longer than I've been alive, that any unknown object will eventually be ascribed a ritual/religious function (until its true function is identified). To be fair, I think that was much more common in the 19th/early 20th century and decreased over my lifetime.

Wait? Does that mean that if they ever stop, I will die? Am I just a metaphysical gas gauge?

[RJDiogenes]

You're like one of the characters in American Gods. Orpheus, the God of Unknown Rituals.

[Lupine]

An interesting article on how Mercury might have formed with three scenarios covering various impact hypothesizes.
Personally I've been kicking around the idea that the impactor that formed our Moon might have in fact been Mercury. It's possible that in the distant past Earth and Mercury shared a similar orbit and eventually they had a glancing blow that formed the Moon and stripped Mercury of it's crust.