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Study of Recent Interstellar Asteroid Reveals Bizarre Shape (bbc.com)
JoeRobe writes: A few weeks ago an interstellar asteroid, now named "Oumuamua," was discovered passing through our solar system. Being the first interstellar asteroid to ever be observed, a flurry of observations soon followed. This week, an accelerated article in Nature reveals that Oumuamua is more bizarre than originally thought: it is elongated, with a 10:1 aspect ratio, and rapidly rotating. This conclusion is based upon comparisons of its time-dependent light curve to those from 20,000 known asteroids.
Let's not name it or decide how weird it is yet, thanks.
There are all these objects flying all over the place to various destinations, most of which we have no clue about. And they are traveling fast. Without propellant. On a fairly confident trajectory.
Would it be plausible for us to find an incoming object that is near enough not only to Earth when it passes by, but then also, say, near Mars, or Jupiter's moons?
I am by no means at all knowledgeable about space-fairing. But it seems to me this would be a, somewhat, easy shortcut. We've already landed on an asteroid, the next logical piece is to find a way to launch from it.
We will not be coming this time.
So a massive, rock-hard, spinning space phallus is penetrating our solar system? Hopefully it avoids us and finds its way to a Black Hole.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
The story leaves out the most important part, one we know by direct empirical evidence is more newsworthy than anything else: What kind of shirt was the spokesman wearing when he made the announcement? This critical piece of information is missing and we cannot possibly judge the impact of this news release without it.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Johnson: [Noticing Dr. Evil's spaceship on radar] Colonel, you better have a look at this radar
. Colonel: What is it, son?
Johnson: I don't know, sir, but it looks like a giant--
Jet Pilot: Dick.
Dick: Yeah?
Jet Pilot: Take a look out of starboard.
Dick: Oh my God, it looks like a huge--
Bird-Watching Woman: Pecker.
Bird-Watching Man: [raising binoculars] Ooh, Where?
Bird-Watching Woman: Wait, that's not a woodpecker, it looks like someone's--
Army Sergeant: Privates! We have reports of an unidentified flying object. It has a long, smooth shaft, complete with--
Baseball Umpire: Two balls.
[looking up from game]
Baseball Umpire: What is that. It looks just like an enormous--
Chinese Teacher: Wang, pay attention!
Wang: I was distracted by that giant flying--
Musician: Willie.
Willie Nelson: Yeah?
Musician: What's that?
Willie Nelson: [squints] Well, that looks like a giant--
Colonel: Johnson?!
Johnson: Yes, sir?
Colonel: Get on the horn to British Intelligence and let them know about this.
Later, as Dr. Evil is escaping: Basil: Did we get Dr. Evil?
Johnson: No, sir. He got away in that rocket that looks like a huge--
Schoolteacher: Penis. The male reproductive organ. Otherwise known as tallywhacker, schlong or--
Dad: Weiner? Any of you kids want another weiner?
Son: Dad? What's that? points at rocket
Dad: I don't know, son, but it's got great big--
Peanut seller: Nuts! Hot salty nuts! Who wants some-- Lord Almighty!
Woman: That looks just like my husband's--
Ringmaster: One-eyed monster! Step right up and see the One-Eyed Monster!
One-eyed Monster: jumps out and scares crowd, then points to the rocket Hey, what's that? It looks like a big--
female Fan: Woody! Woody Harrelson? Can I have an autograph?
Woody Harrelson: Sure thing. [Sees rocket] Oh my lord.
Female fan: It's big!
Woody: Nah, I've seen bigger, it's--
Dr. Evil: (To Mini-Me) Just a little prick. It's a flu shot. You've been in the coldness of space.
the invasion is coming...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Is it rotating at 4 RPM? Is it around 34 miles long? Unfortunately, we don't have any craft like the solar survey vessel Endeavour to intercept it. There will be another extrasolar intruder almost like this in about another 70 years.
RAMA!
The plot of Star Trek IV : The Voyage Home can be summed up as
[cetacean needed].
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Only the maximum and minimum moments of inertia are stable in rotation. If you try to spin an object around any other axis, it will tumble - the axis of rotation varies relative to the body. Every spacecraft or satellite that's launched had some poor slob whose job was to get the exact mass, location, and inertia tensor of every single component put into the spacecraft, and put it into a huge spreadsheet. Then he uses that to calculate the minimum and maximum moments of inertia of the spacecraft. If the desired spin axis doesn't line up with either of these moments, then he has to change the location of some of the components of the spacecraft until it does (like positioning weights on a tire when you balance it)..
With round or nearly round objects, the min/max moment of inertia isn't very different from from the inertia around other axes, so this oscillation tends to be very slow and not noticeable. But it's much more likely to be pronounced with an elongated and flattened body.
...and they're slightly off, it doesn't have a 10:1 aspect ratio, it's 9:4:1.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
All I've seen are somewhat vague artists' renderings. From the description, it could be shaped like a giant Bugles snack.
#DeleteChrome
It's posts like yours that make me wish I had mod points this week!
The plot of Star Trek IV : The Voyage Home can be summed up as
[cetacean needed].
Bravo!
This is the essential Slashdot joke. You should be gifted a month of all your posts at +5!
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
It's not a space ship, it is a monitor from the future that has fallen back through time. They were using the past as a way to throw away their outdated equipment when they went to the new and more productive 12:1 aspect ration on their screens.
From the description, it could be shaped like a giant Bugles snack
This, this could be a problem.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.