New Dwarf Planet Discovered In Outer Solar System (seeker.com) 119
astroengine quotes a report from Seeker: Astronomers have found another Pluto-like dwarf planet located about 20 times farther away from the sun than Neptune. The small planet, dubbed 2015 RR245, is estimated to be about 435 miles in diameter and flying in an elliptical, 700-year orbit around the sun. At closest approach, RR245 will be about 3.1 billion miles from the sun, a milestone it is expected to next reach in 2096. At its most distant point, the icy world is located about 7.5 billion miles away. It was found by a joint team of astronomers using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) on Maunakea, Hawaii, in images taken in September 2015 and analyzed in February. The discovery was announced on Monday in the Minor Planet Electronic Circular.
Nibiru? (Score:2, Funny)
THis could possibly be Nibiru, finally. Hoagland vindicated.
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What's a mile?
It's a unit of length equal to 17.6 football fields.
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it would be neither, since a regulation soccer pitch is 115 yards long, and an American football pitch is 120 yards long.
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it would be neither
I am using the golden standard [hypertextbook.com] of American science: 100 yards from goal line to goal line, without the end zones.
an American football pitch is 120 yards long.
In America, we have the liberty to throw balls as short or long of a distance as we like. It makes our games (like baseball [wikipedia.org]) much more interesting.
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what's a yard?
Re: What's a mile? (Score:1)
You mean a garden?
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1 / 22 chains, you mean. Or half a fathom.
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It is what scammers call a "meter".
Re: What's a mile? (Score:1)
and athletes are admired.
Shit; how can we argue with that?!
Just kidding; the above reasoning alone shows you to be a fucking moron. No, really.
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Butthurt much, fatso nerdo? Sports are here to stay. They're immensely popular and athletes are admired. Gey over it.
We think of the US as being sports-minded, but that comment referenced a fan rowdiness problem that is far worse in Europe. We have no experience with hordes of brawling fans who take over entire trains and trash airline flights.
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International, nautical, Roman, Italiian, Arabic, long, British, Irish, Welsh, Scots, English, US Survey, or "metric"... can you be a little bit more specific as to which mile you are referring?
Hopefully this table will shed some light on on the complexity of the question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Re:What's a mile? (Score:4, Interesting)
On space.com they provide the measurement in kilometer alongside mile
The exact size of 2015 RR245 is not yet known, but the researchers think it's about 435 miles (700 kilometers) wide. Pluto is the largest resident of the Kuiper Belt, with a diameter of 1,474 miles (2,371 km).
Therefore, this is most likely an international mile. However, who cares? They also provided the diameter in a present day standard for length.
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A present day standard? The km was standardized in the late 18th century. The US Statute Mile wasn't standardized till the late 19th century....
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It is not the age, which makes the mile odd, it is the fact that everyone else uses the metric system, but not the US and two other countries. It is an idiosyncrasy.
Re:What's a mile? (Score:4, Insightful)
Agreed. I'm working with an engineer from the US on a project and the difference is a constant headache for us. It's not just about calculations, it's also about intuitive understandings (if I say a beam that's 40x80mm, or he says one that's 3"x3", it's important that the other get an immediate sense of what exactly that means). It's about knowledge of the market, whether elements in particular dimensions are actually available. It's about the ability to double check other people's calculations just by looking at them, without having to run everything through a bunch of conversions. It's about the need to constantly insert conversions into everything you write just to make sure that the other person is on the same page. And yes, it's about mistakes. I wasted a lot of time on an approach that depended on M10 screws when the other person had intended #10 screws... my fault on that one, but still, it's frustrating that this difference in measures and standards exists.
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Back in my day, our steam tables were in BTUs per pound! But no, we didn't like it.... because it was thermodynamics. Fuck that shit.
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(pulls out a tape measurer)
I have large feet and they're only 9" long.
I don't know what you're defining as "the first thumb joint". On my hand, depending on how it's defined, I can get measurements from 1 1/4 inches to nearly 2 inches.
My arm is 2/3rds of a yard long.
These are some pretty lousy "standards". Furthermore, one could use this to justify any system of measurements. Example: My pinky nail is 1cm wide. Heel to my hip is 1 meter. Creases on my fingers are 1mm. And these are actually pretty a
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It is not the age, which makes the mile odd, it is the fact that everyone else uses the metric system, but not the US and two other countries.
Actually the US, Myanmar, Canada, India, and several others still use imperial units for certain things. If you ask someone in Canada how much they weigh, they'll tell you in lbs. The speed limit signs in the UK are still in MPH. Gas/petrol is still sold by the gallon in several countries.
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If politicians weren't retards they would list BOTH units on speed signs to help people transition over. Would cost a ton of money for sign replacement but that can be amortized over the years.
--
WTB: Apple ][ ThunderClock Plus peripheral card
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If politicians weren't retards they would list BOTH units on speed signs to help people transition over. Would cost a ton of money for sign replacement but that can be amortized over the years.
I actually support putting both units on signs as they need replacement, though not for the reason you suggest. How many millions of tourists visit the US per year and have troubles with our signage in miles?
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> as they need replacement
Yes, that was implied. Thanks for clarifying that!
The tourist is an interesting angle! That's a great idea that complements this one.
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The biggest problem is that cities are laid out in mile grids, so saying 'go 4 miles' is the same as saying go four stop lights. Same goes for freeway ramps. Seven miles - take the 7th offramp. Saying get off in 11.2km would be very confusing for most people and necessaril
Re: What's a mile? (Score:2)
Take the 4th right, take exit number x, or the exit for downtown. Also, not all city blocks are based on miles on all US cities. Manhattan has rectangular blocks, so heading up 5th 4 blocks wouldn't even be a mile (it might be a kilometre).
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I got a GPS for my car ten years ago and haven't looked at a road mileage sign in a decade. What would be the point of renumbering all the road signs if we're all going to have self driving cars next year. Other than being a jobs program?
The biggest problem is that cities are laid out in mile grids, so saying 'go 4 miles' is the same as saying go four stop lights. Same goes for freeway ramps. Seven miles - take the 7th offramp. Saying get off in 11.2km would be very confusing for most people and necessarily pointless.
Self-driving cars are still far-enough away that we do need signs. Signs are also helpful for bicyclists and pedestrians. GPS is a non-issue as users can specify desired units in their preferences. Map services are getting better all the time, but I wouldn't trust Google Map 100% of the time over road signs.
Some places use the grid system, but not all; Utah does. There are 8 "city blocks" to the mile, and 100 house numbers per "city block". Often there is an ordinal saying the relationship to the center of
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Try telling the government your weight and at least in Canada, they'll want your mass in kg. Same when making a purchase, the price might be advertised in lbs but it'll be sold in grams or kg.
We're just bilingual
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They always ask me my weight when I renew my drivers license (every 5 years), I answer in lbs and they convert it. That's my Provincial government and the other Provincial ID I have (medical coverage) doesn't have my weight on it. Don't have any Federal ID such as a passport but I'd guess it also has weight and height.
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The US Statute mile was standardized in 1959.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Pluto is the largest sized TNO by volume. Eris has ~27% more mass than Pluto. Eris is actually the largest resident of the KB. Eris is also the third-most distant known TNO.
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What they take, if you give them an inch.
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What's a mile?
It's the distance light travels in roughly 1/186282 seconds.
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it's a unit of length approximately equal to 1.609E+13 angstroms.
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A mile was a unit of linear measure. It was used until the early 21st century. It was equal to 5,280 feet, or 1,760 yards.
The only "real" mile is the nautical mile, which is 6000 feet. 8-}
Spoken as a sailor...
Re:What's a mile? (Score:5, Informative)
Miles - latin :D )
From "Mille" thousand
and the "s" is probably from "steps" (har har har
So it means 1000 steps (which is actually half right but wrong).
It actually means 1000 paces (and a pace originally is a double step, now more or less synonymous to a step)
So, as the english have short legs the old english mile is shorter than the current american one, but I believe meanwhile both have the same length. Probably because either the irish or welsh have short legs, or the americans grew long legs to run from the british?
Than we have nautical miles, used in aviation and sea fare. Would make sense to use it in astronomy, too. Don't you think so? A nautical mile is significantly longer than a "paces mile". Probably because you can not walk over water or in thin air ... who knows?
On the other hand: in news like this I had preferred a distance given in AU or Light seconds/minutes, too.
A orbit varying between 3.x billion miles and 7.y billion miles or 4.5 billion km and 13 billion km says me: hm .... must be far.
Re:What's a mile? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: What's a mile? (Score:2)
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3.1 Billion miles is roughly 2,931,582,089,552 Smoots, (~3 Terasmoots), the only proper unit of measurement for Astronomical distances... even if it's named after another Smoot...
Captcha: planets
Re:What's a mile? (Score:4, Informative)
Than we have nautical miles, used in aviation and sea fare. Would make sense to use it in astronomy, too. Don't you think so? A nautical mile is significantly longer than a "paces mile". Probably because you can not walk over water or in thin air ... who knows?
A nautical mile is one arc-minute of latitude. There are 60 nautical miles in one degree of latitude.
This makes calculations of track lengths and therefore positions on a global scale *much* easier, which is why the unit was invented.
A mile isn't far... (Score:2)
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A "pace" is from one left footprint to the next left footprint. Or it will work with the right.
Mechanical pedometers click when the foot hits the ground, so they measure paces. And it is easier to count when hiking.
If you are reading hiking guides or old maps, don't get them confused with steps. It could be a pain... 8-)
Re:What's a mile? (Score:5, Funny)
What's a mile?
It's a river in mortherm Africa, the lomgest im the world. It crosses mamy coumtries amd emds im a big delta mear Cairo.
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That brought a snile to my face
I think you neant "ny".
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It's the smallest allowed distance between two milestones.
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More details (with animated gif) here (Score:5, Informative)
More details (with animated gif) here: http://cfht.hawaii.edu/en/news... [hawaii.edu]
(include measurements in SI units)
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But AU isn't exactly 'sciencey', is it?
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Not 20 times farther (Score:5, Informative)
located about 20 times farther away from the sun than Neptune
It's perihelion is only 34 AU, aphelion 120 AU. Ie, it's between 1.13 and 4 times as far as Neptune.
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I noticed that issue as well. Googleing for Neptune, shows it is roughly 2.8 billion miles from the sun, and this new object is stated to range from 3.1 billion to 7.5 billion.
I don't know where they get the 20 factor.
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Which unfortunately makes it a lot less interesting. I was hoping that they'd found a new sednoid. This planet has been almost certainly scattered by Neptune, rather than some undiscovered distant object.
Still, it really drives the point home about how little we know about our own solar system, given that we're still finding things this large, this close. Our ability to detect them is based on how much lig
But... (Score:2)
Yes but (Score:2)
does it run Linux ?
Bigger than you might think (Score:2)
With a diameter of 435 miles, the surface area is almost the size of Alaska![0]
[0] 594,468 vs 663,267
A Rogue Jupiter more and more likely... (Score:2, Interesting)
In my opinion...
The bigger it is the slower the periodic cycle but the more dramatic the events it would deliver would be. Say on the order of 200,000 years.
Even it it doesn't collide with another planted it could send thousands of asteroids on trajectories that could impact the earth in tens of thousands of years.
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The bigger it is the slower the periodic cycle but the more dramatic the events it would deliver would be.
No it isn't. The mass of the object does not affect its orbital period at all. A speck of dust has the same orbital velocity and period as a giant jupiter.
Though it is slightly more complicated than that as the object also influences the object it orbits around.
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I suspect he meant that the bigger it is, the farther away it has to be to have not been detected. Which implies a longer orbit for a larger object....
Re: A Rogue Jupiter more and more likely... (Score:2)
it could send thousands of asteroids on trajectories that could impact the earth in tens of thousands of years.
Presumably it would already have done that.
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i blame the Klingons.
Are they sure... (Score:1)
Beware: the article is NSFW (Score:2)
There is a whole section titled ''Where Do Baby Planets Come From?'', the sort of thing that would be banned on facebook. It then gets worse, the video presenter (Dr Ian O'neill) starts by saying ''from the ashes of your dead parents'', he has obviously been reading too many novels by Stephen King.
:-)
OMG, its orbit is ELLIPTICAL? (Score:2)
Now, there's a shocker!
Since the summary stated a period for the orbit, we can assume it isn't hyperbolic. A truly circular or parabolic orbit would be news, since exact numbers like that are hard to come by. And if it were a radial (i.e. intersecting) orbit, well, that would be big news.
Maybe they were looking for "highly eccentric"?
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With a perihelion distance (~34AU) fairly close to the distance of Neptune (30AU), then the orbit of 2015 RR245 will be controlled by Neptune, rather than the hypothesised Brown-Batygin "Planet 9."
Nope. (Score:3)
Ceres is almost twice that size, *almost* the size of our Moon.
Meanwhile, for many decades, the books for kids and teens always said that the Earth and Moon could be considered a double-planet system.
Pluto is almost half again the size of our Moon.
"Equal rights for Pluto! Pluto is a planet!" - young Plutonian alien in Worldcon masquerade, 2008
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Also, for many decades books for adults about kids waned that masturbation can make you go blind. Did that make it true?
solar system size (Score:1)
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One fairly popular suggestion is to use the heliopause - the area swept of interstellar gas by the exudations of the Sun - as a boundary. In which case, the magnetometers and plasma instruments on Voyager 1 do appear to be detecting the "edge". By that definition.
Of course, there is no reason I'm aware of to