Month: January 2016

THIS IS THE PAPER ABOUT PLANET 9

christinetheastrophysicist:

If you have been following astronomy news today, you probably saw a lot of talk about a ninth planet in our solar system. Caltech astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown have used mathematical modeling and computer simulations to show that a planet-sized object could exist in the outer solar system and that this object could be influencing the elongated orbits of Sedna-like bodies.

This planet would be about 10 times the mass of the Earth and 20 times farther from the Sun than Neptune. At this distance, the planet would take between 10,000 and 20,000 years to complete one orbit.

This paper is free for 30 days, so if you want to look at it, you better get it now. Keep in mind that this is a prediction of a new planet, NOT the discovery of one.

Happy reading!

The original Mike Brown, the most prolific planet hunter in the history of humankind.

THIS IS THE PAPER ABOUT PLANET 9

thedemon-hauntedworld:

Saturn at Equinox
How would Saturn look if its ring plane pointed right at the Sun? Before August of 2009 nobody knew. Every 15 years, as seen from Earth, Saturn’s rings point toward the Earth and appear to disappear. The disappearing rings are no longer a mystery — Saturn’s rings are known to be so thin and the Earth is so near the Sun that when the rings point toward the Sun, they also point nearly edge-on at the Earth. Fortunately, in this third millennium, humanity is advanced enough to have a spacecraft that can see the rings during equinox from the side. The Saturn-orbiting spacecraft, Cassini, was able to snap a series of unprecedented pictures of Saturn’s rings during equinox. A digital composite of 75 such images is shown above. The rings appear unusually dark, and a very thin ring shadow line can be made out on Saturn’s cloud-tops. Objects sticking out of the ring plane are brightly illuminated and cast long shadows. Inspection of these images may help humanity understand the specific sizes of Saturn’s ring particles and the general dynamics of orbital motion.

Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, ISS, JPL, ESA, NASA

Status call with my boss and colleagues at the head-office.

It devolves into a discussion of relative attractiveness of various female
clients whom they looked up on LinkedIn (and presumably other social
media). I hear things like “she changed her profile picture and doesn’t
look hot anymore – childbirth must have taken its toll”, though apparently
I am the only one finding this disrespectful and unprofessional.

At a loss for words, I say that I can’t believe I’m hearing this.

In response, I am first told not to worry and reassured that I’m among men,
then mockingly asked to describe the Indian guy I’m working with at one of
my clients.
I say that I’m done with my status update and leave the call.

I wonder what response would have been more effective. Not that I have any
illusions about any career progress at this company, nor do I care for it,
but if I did, this kind of self-ostracism would, without a doubt, have been
a career-limiting move.
This would have been unimaginable at my old company. As a result, I have
zero experience dealing with this crap. This is when I regret having zero
responsibility or power – though I don’t know what I’d do if I did.

stoweboyd:

unwrapping:

Goodbye, Fan Mail!
Tumblr is discontinuing Fan Mail in favor of Messaging. Late last year, Tumblr hid the “Send Fan Mail” button from your Inbox as soon as you could use Messaging. But there were workarounds to keep sending and replying to Fan Mail. Those loopholes are closing. For example, if you try to reply to an existing Fan Mail from the Desktop Dashboard, you’ll be prompted to “Please use the new Messaging to talk to a Tumblr.” According to Tumblr Help, any Fan Mail messages you have in your Inbox will remain.

Will Tumblr next add slash commands and/or bots to Messaging?