NASA Compared Pluto's Moon Charon To 'The Incredible Hulk' (nasa.gov)

MarkWhittington writes: NASA's New Horizon spacecraft has shown Pluto to be an active world that is far more interesting to scientists than anyone imagined when the probe was launched about ten years ago. Pluto's moon Charon has also proven to be a world of interest, not the least because of how it formed and then expanded billions of years ago.

The surface of Charon is covered with ridges, scarps, and valleys. One of the latter is, at least, four miles deep. Scientists suggest that in the distant past Charon expanded, pulling about much like the comic book character Bruce Banner bursting through his clothes as he changes into the Incredible Hulk.

Comments

Dwarf Hulk

[Anonymous Coward]

They must mean they are comparing it to the Incredible Dwarf Hulk.

A Marvelous analogy

[dbIII]

Better a Marvel analogy than a car analogy.
Went off like an airbag doesn't have the same ring.

Re:A Marvelous analogy

[k6mfw]

You really don't want Bruce to get mad. Don't make Charon mad by removing its Moon status like Pluto lost its Planet status?

Re:A Marvelous analogy

[Aighearach]

Wow, what are you, some sort of nazi?

Is a dwarf human a human? OK, so is a dwarf planet a planet?

Pluto didn't "lose status," dwarf planets have the same rights as other planets. They are simply not in the same sub-group on every trait. It doesn't mean they're not planets.

Re:A Marvelous analogy

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, what are you, some sort of nazi?

Is a dwarf human a human? OK, so is a dwarf planet a planet?

Pluto didn't "lose status," dwarf planets have the same rights as other planets. They are simply not in the same sub-group on every trait. It doesn't mean they're not planets.

So, they are separate but equal, is that what you're saying?

Re:A Marvelous analogy

[Anonymous Coward]

No, a dwarf planet is a planetoid. They aren't planets any more than brown dwarfs are stars or neutron stars are black holes.

is there a need for 'popular' analogies

[sittingnut]

it seems news about science generally, and astronomy in particular, require lots of eye and mind candy, with absurd metaphors and artist renderings.
do such polarizations serve any purpose?
those who are really interested probably can do without the sugra, and those who are only superficially interested probably get confused idea about the concepts, not to mention bad sugary substance inside their brain.

Re:is there a need for 'popular' analogies

[sittingnut]

oops "popularizations

Re: is there a need for 'popular' analogies

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of the PR people think over the top analogies are needed to get people's attention, and they can end up being like gate keepers of what news comes out of some institutes and conferences. Our group has submitted things after major progress points and papers, buy they have been consistently rejected because involving giant lasers isn't enough to get people's attention according to the PR office. Another group, who do good work, but often get minor papers publicized because they ham up their suggestions and analogies for the PR office, who then take it even further.

Re:is there a need for 'popular' analogies

[Aighearach]

Feynman called it Baubleology or something like that, holding up baubles (pretty pictures at a different scale than humans normally see) and pretending that it is part of science. The purpose mainly seems to be to provide entertainment that gives the viewer the illusion of participating in science, but without having to participate in anything or learn anything. All you have to do is see the beauty in the picture, and gush, "isn't science awesome?!"

That said, all I cared about was the actual depth of the features comparative to Earth, and the false-color altitude image gave me exactly the data that is useful to me because I often work with GIS software and elevation maps. I was curious if the feature is comparable to Earth scarps and valleys, or if it is a gimmicky measurement that is really just a fissure that isn't fully fused, or whatever. And it is comparable, and impressive. The false color image makes clear the scale of the ridge compared to the curvature of the planet; it really does improve the visualization of the data.

As an aside, you might want to consider how being very lazy in your writing and not even using capitalization and punctuation might affect the connections you form in your brain when you communicate. You could be causing literal brain damage to yourself, at least in comparison to the alternative. Does it serve any purpose?

Bad article.

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't even link to a reputable source like forbes.Instead it links to some shady 'nasa' site. Please get your act together.

Re:Bad article.

[whipslash]

Link's updated to primary source now

Re:Bad article.

[MightyMartian]

I always go to Forbes for my science news. It's good I know AGW is false!

Re:Bad article.

[Alomex]

Thanks guys. One of the reasons Slashdot is faltering is because it didn't listen to the complaints from its users. Linking to better sources and unicode support are two well known ones. Thanks for working on those

May I suggest a third one? Edit post button.

I'm aware there is room for abuse to such functionality (mostly spamming by replacing original highly ranked content), but this can easily be obviated with simple rules such as: 20min window from first posting to make a change, only small diffs allowed.

Re:Bad article.

[whipslash]

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah editing posts with a small-ish window is on our list of things to build, as well as unicode support and https (soon)

Re:Bad article.

[Anonymous Coward]

Edit post button.

I'm aware there is room for abuse to such functionality (mostly spamming by replacing original highly ranked content), but this can easily be obviated with simple rules such as: 20min window from first posting to make a change, only small diffs allowed.

That will turn this place into a never ending shitstorm. Slashdot has never supported this, and I hope never will.

You're just trying to troll the new admin into permitting a security vuln. Stop it.

Re:Bad article.

[Hognoxious]

Don't do it by time, or at least not by time alone.

If it's been replied to, it should be set in stone.

Re:Bad article.

[whipslash]

Thanks for the feedback. Also, maybe it's time to change your signature ;)

Re:Bad article.

[Anonymous Coward]

Aren't you getting tired of being slapped around by apk cutting thru your wet paper bag htaccess filter wet paper bag "got your ass whippedslash" http://slashdot.org/comments.p... like a meson shear?

Kinda wish the probe stuck around

[Anonymous Coward]

I kinda wish that, instead of letting the probe continue out of the solar system, they put it into a permanent orbit around Pluto. Would that have even been possible, or was it moving too fast by the time it got to Pluto?

Re: Kinda wish the probe stuck around

[Anonymous Coward]

Orbiters are much harder than flybys. You have to carry a whole lot of fuel plus propulsion system to slow down enough to orbit. This means either a probe of the same size with much less science payload, or much larger probe launched from a much larger rocket and requiring many times the budget.

So can they finally answer the mystery

[Megahard]

How Hulk's pants stay on while every other article of clothing is ripped asunder.

Re:So can they finally answer the mystery

[BeauHD]

I've always been amazed by this as well. He's all upper body with pencil legs.

Re:So can they finally answer the mystery

[Tablizer]

How Hulk's pants stay on while every other article of clothing is ripped asunder.

Because selling drawings of nude men to minors is not legal.

Hmmm, I wonder if his yanker gets bigger also? Maybe it gets smaller, and that's why his pants stay on. See, maybe Bruce Banner has a huge package, but it DEcreases when he's angry, counter-compensating for muscle gain. Solved! Where's my Nobel.

Question

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it means that we may find a lot of radioactive minerals on Charon? (or alien girls, please be alien girls! uhu)

Ah, boy, You need to check Google's timestamp with some pages doing queries... I used Mythbusters newest episode and I found an interesting pattern observing the results from this morning and this afternoon.

Oh how I love my currupted mind :)

Soon trump will shut down NASA

[Anonymous Coward]

Then you space nerds can go back to jerking of to episodes of star trek

Why it happened

[Gravis Zero]

Charon hulked-out because everyone keeps misspelling her name. It's spelled SHARON, you idiots!