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Two Totally Unique Star Systems Discovered
esocid writes "Astronomers have spied a faraway star system that is so unusual, it was one of a kind — until its discovery helped them pinpoint a second one that was much closer to home. In a paper published in a recent issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters, Ohio State University astronomers and their colleagues suggest that these star systems are the progenitors of a rare type of supernova. In research funded by the National Science Foundation, they found a star system that is unusual, because it's what the astronomers have called a 'yellow supergiant eclipsing binary' — it contains two very bright, massive yellow stars that are very closely orbiting each other. In fact, the stars are so close together that a large amount of stellar material is shared between them, so that the shape of the system resembles a peanut."
"Dude, I can't find you."
"What do you mean you can't find me? Did you follow my directions?"
"I already flew by there five fucking times, I can't find you!"
"Jeezus Christ! It's the one that looks like a peanut you pendejo! How many of them look like a peanut? How could you miss that!?"
Good to hear... I got tired of looking at partially unique ones.
A peanut? SPACEBALLS, more like.
hahaha. I was looking forward to seeing someone get animated over that pun.
But the fact is, it's actually semantically proper to modify the work "unique." The basic meaning "one of a kind" obviously can't be modified, but in today's world, Unique has other meanings, including "very unusual," which obviously can be modified.
so it's possible to say "very unique," and, in fact, saying it is a great way to provoke nutty folk.
Not to mention that "two unique" could also mean "two things that aren't similar to eachother".
If you have two of something, by definition it is no longer unique...
That's no peanut
To be honest it's a welcome change. 1st of April deteriorated to a very bad level after everyone felt compelled to create a joke for the day. I'll feel happy to know if slashdot is not doing anything today.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
I mean, it's not so hard to imagine two stars circling one another. Don't they study how would that work without waiting to find an instance?
Actually, I supposed astrophysicist first studied the effects of an unobserved configuration and from the results they described what data to expect from such a configuration. Actually finding it was the last step, in my supposition created world.
The article, however, seems to describe the discovery as quite a surprise.
Sorry i have already patented this idea, and it's a $10,000 license fee to use the term.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Come on, guys, pick up your game. There's a peanut on the lens.
Na na na na, na na na na na...
Na na na na, na na na na na...
Katamari Damacy...
node-def: a tactical hacking sim. Now in open beta.
This year's April 1st jokes are just a bit too esoteric, I think. Celestial peanut? What?
You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big space is. ..but that's just peanuts to space
gtkaml.org
The article unfortunately doesn't say what rare type of supernovae these rare stars become. After a quick google I'm guessing they may be the type IIP ones, but I'm only familiar with type IA ones personally (and for relatively low values of "familiar" at that). We get our own not-quite-unique things over in type-IA land, too, like the super-Chandrasekhar-mass ones. SN2007if, discovered last year, was only the second one of those to be found.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Should it actually read "Totally Unique Two-star System Discovered"?
Damnit, now you got me thinking.
If I have a peanut in the shell, I refer to it in the singular, even though there are two kernels inside. And yet, when I have those two kernels removed from the shell, I refer to them as two shelled peanuts.
So should a peanut in the shell be called a "double-nut"? Or should peanuts outside the shell be called "half-nuts"?
I'm going to stop now before my brain implodes.
I wonder about the stability of the peanut shape. Why would the two stars not simply merge into a single star with a greater rotational speed? I guess if stars get this close together they must rotate (around themselves) at the same speed due to the tidal forces.
Wait, there's more. Why do we say that a peanut has been shelled when the shell has been removed? Is it not now unshelled?
Oops, Let me try that again.
Why do we say that a pair of half-nuts have been shelled when the shell has been removed? Is the double-half-nut not now unshelled?
found a peanut, found a peanut,
found a peeeeeanut just now,
just now I found a peanut,
Found a peanut just now.
(feel free to share the rest of the lyrics with the class)
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Now, imagine the size of the squirrel!
factor 966971: 966971
I DARE someone to fly in between them. I DOUBLE-DOG dare ya.
You can decide any word means anything but the purpose of language is to communicate ideas clearly, and the only reasons for muddying a definition seem to be ignorance, attention-seeking, or malice ("it is a great way to provoke nutty folk"). We already have other words that mean "very unusual", use them. And of course you can have two unique things if they are different, but the title is referring to two things which are the same.
Colour me provoked.
No, it's an unwelcome change. Slashdot is not just about tech news but also about humor and tradition. Yes, the humor is mostly lame, and the traditions just a few years old. But still....
That would be the ultimate April Fool's joke: good stories, grammatically correct summaries, no dupes, etc. And at the end they'd say "April Fools! Just kidding!"
Ahem. That's THE Ohio State University. I have relatives who've graduated from there. Thank you.
sigfault (core dumped)
Charlie Brown and Snoopy
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
First you have one peanuts, then you have two peanuts. Of course this ignores the fact that some peanuts only seem to contain one kernel.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Despite the obvious importance of his work to a celestial arrangement of this kind, the article doesn't refer to Edourad Roche or the Roche Lobethat forms in the region between these two stars. When Roche Lobes overlap, it is a Contact Binary
I need a wheelchair van for my son. Help me get the word out. https://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair-van-for-jj
You can decide any word means anything but the purpose of language is to communicate ideas clearly, and the only reasons for muddying a definition seem to be ignorance, attention-seeking, or malice
Or evolution in the language, in which unique has come to mean "very unusual".
1. existing as the only one or as the sole example; single; solitary in type or characteristics: a unique copy of an ancient manuscript.
2. having no like or equal; unparalleled; incomparable: Bach was unique in his handling of counterpoint.
3. limited in occurrence to a given class, situation, or area: a species unique to Australia.
4. limited to a single outcome or result; without alternative possibilities: Certain types of problems have unique solutions.
5. not typical; unusual: She has a very unique smile.
Now granted, it's the 5th definition of 5, but nevertheless, it is a legitimate definition of the word that exceeds the parameters you have laid down, and does allow for (a) a multiplicity of "unique" ("very unusual") items, as well as modifiers such as "very unique", etc.
The language has evolved beyond your notion of what it should be. Get over it.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Of course, if you are hacking on about scientific meanings of words then perhaps you meant to say similar.
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
The problem is, it was considered completely "unique" until they found a second one.
"The number 'two' is impossible." Isaac Asimov in The Gods Themselves. The point being that in cosmology there may be zero of something or one of something, but once you know there is more than one of something, you should assume that the number is infinite.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Like this. Then all will be right with the universe again.
Wait why do we call is a 'pea' 'nut' when it's neither a pea, nor a nut. (it's a legume, specifically a indehiscent legume) while normal peas are indeed normal legumes they're not even closely related to peanuts...
Pea:
Subfamily: Faboideae Tribe: Vicieae Genus: Pisum Species: P. sativum
Peanut:
Subfamily: Faboideae Tribe: Aeschynomeneae Genus: Arachis Species: A. hypogaea
so now they're half-not-pea-not-nuts-not-shelled-but-deshelled
oh my... Everything is wrong about peanuts.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
Steven Hawking: Your idea of a peanut shaped star intrigues me, Homer. I may have to steal it.
If it's unique, why are there two?
The oxygen in the air, without which you would die, is poisoning your cells and attacking your DNA. That which gives life is also a leading cause of death.
The rest of the cosmos is no different. All things are their own opposites and are self-destructive. A star, to remain a star, must undergo nuclear fusion. In large stars, this creates elements that, when fused, require more heat than is released, thus ultimately destroying the star. That which allows it to exist will - literally - rip the guts out and blast the remainder in a supernova across great swathes of space.
If solar systems did, indeed, look like atoms, planets would regularly smash through the sun and the rest of the time exist so far out that they would freeze. 99.9% of an atom is nothing. Totally Bohring. (Ok, quantum foam, but statistically that's nothing.) The electrons, far from following circular orbits, are probability waves whose position is not only indeterminate, it doesn't even exist. It's not even clear the nucleus can be said to "exist" in the centre, as that would violate the uncertainty principle.
The only "balance" that will ever exist will be at the heat-death of the final particle of matter, when nothing remains and nothing will ever happen again. That is the Universe as it really is.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
You're right of course. Language is a muddy thing, and gets muddier. That's why you can't say "unique" and expect people to realize you mean "one of a kind" and not "very unusual".
That's not my fault. I'm just the messenger. My dictionaries tell the same story, too. English is a language built on absorbing new words and repeatedly changing. That's why it's both the best and worst language in human history.
Fact is, words change. I would barely be able to communicate with an English speaker from 300 years ago. There are dead languages, such as latin, that are kept dead specifically do they don't change like this. But with English, you are speaking the language of Paris Hilton, Keanu Reeves, and the US president. It isn't a pretty picture, and if people going with English's constant fluid change as I do provokes you, you're just not "getting it." I certainly don't mean that as an insult, but it is in your interest to expect words to lose meaning, to expect grammatical rules to be revoked, etc etc etc. Fighting it is like fighting a river with a spoon, my friend.
What's even more interesting, is what they think happens if systems like these collide. The results of the simulation can be found here.
[OffTopicPendantry]
Given that everything is unique, it's pretty pointless to point out that something is unique. Unique is not a synonym for special or interesting (contrary to dating website profiles). Furthermore there are no degrees of unique, it's binary and absolute. Something is either unique, or it is not. There is no such thing as kind of unique or very unique. In the case of physical objects, whatever it is... it's unique.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
Repackage hydrogen into different shapes, and suddenly it's "totally unique". Just like primetime television shows.
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