Captured Comet Becomes Moon of Jupiter

An anonymous reader writes 'Jupiter's gravity captured a comet in the mid-20th century, holding it in orbit as a temporary moon for 12 years. The comet, named 147P/Kushida-Muramatsu, is the fifth body known to have been pulled by Jupiter from its orbit around the Sun. The discovery adds to our understanding of how Jupiter interferes with objects from the 'Hilda group,' which are asteroids and comets with orbits related to Jupiter's orbit.'

Comments

The comet's shape

[R2.0]

The comet's shape was revealed to be rectilinear, with an aspect ratio comprising the squares of the first 3 non-zero positive primes.

Re:The comet's shape

[LaminatorX]

My God, it's full of stars.

Re:The comet's shape

[jollyreaper]

The comet's shape was revealed to be rectilinear
Though some thought it a doorway with stars in here
with an aspect ratio comprising the squares
of the first 3 non-zero positive primes.
Burma shave

Re:The comet's shape

[rattaroaz]

The comet's shape was revealed to be rectilinear, with an aspect ratio comprising the squares of the first 3 non-zero positive primes.

I thought only Uranus was rectalinear.

Re:The comet's shape

[danwesnor]

Yeah, I wrote that article when I was on acid. Might not want to take it so seriously.

Re:The comet's shape

[Anonymous Coward]

No, you're thinking of rectumlinear.

But...

[njfuzzy]

"That's no moon!"

Re:Good catch Jupiter

[navygeek]

Jupiter is like VICE Cops on a rampage...

Deep Thought

[ciderVisor]

"Whether they ever find life there or not, I think Jupiter should be considered an enemy planet." - Jack Handey

"in the mid-20th century"

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot
History for nerds. Stuff that mattered.

I'll bet if I go back 50 years, I'll find a dupe in the archive.

Re:This should be NASA's focus

[clone53421]

Yeah, and it's been thrown around the table a few times, but we still haven't figured out what sort of payment Jupiter will accept (or how to get it there). Hiring out gas giants for protection turns out to be less easy than you'd expect.

Re:Good catch Jupiter

[Anonymous Coward]

What an intelligent design to put it there, to dispose of all the garbage.

Re:Good catch Jupiter

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Actually, had there been no Jupiter in our Solar system, the aliens would have probably parked the monolith in the orbit of Iapetus instead of Europa. Europa only made commuting easier for them.

Re:This should be NASA's focus

[Junior J. Junior III]

NASA should be spending most - if not all - of its budget preparing to avert a comet/asteroid from hitting earth.

Everything else is moot if we let that happen.

Unfortunately Congress is more concerned with steroids in baseball.
Sometimes I think we deserve to become extinct.

If we just gave enough steroids to the baseball players, they could probably hit any threatening meteors, asteroids, or comets out of the solar system, thereby solving both problems.