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!?"
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
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.
This year's April 1st jokes are just a bit too esoteric, I think. Celestial peanut? What?
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.
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?
Abuse of words like "unique" is commonplace in these days of grammar ignorance, but this article really does excel. The trouble is, I can't decide if it was deliberate irony on behalf of the author, or just plain ignorance.
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.
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!"
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
You do realise that Nazi is a proper noun, not an acronym, and therefore should not be capitalised?
HTH. HAND.
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
Is that the same kind of ignorance that comes from not knowing what a word means, or were you trying to win some kind of award for creative use of the term irony?
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.