RE: 11 New Moons For Jupiter
I too am tired of the discrimination against the smallest members of our Sol system just because they are too small to stand on. Even this sounds oppressive! I say we write to the IAU and DEMAND that our tiny in size but giant in spirit space bretheren receive the proper respect that they have lacked since the days of Galileo! Who's with me?! At 09:28 AM 01/22/2001 +1100, Clements, Robert wrote: The minor planet people have a smaller ( simpler) definition already: if you can stand on it, its an asteroid (effectively, this works out at about 10m; a bit larger than the object the AsterAnts proposal would attempt to collect). A ring object is in a different class simply because it's a part of a ring. Not that your definition isn't a bad cutoff; but does it really matter that Jupiter has 172 nonring moons? Only to cataloguers, i venture All the best, Robert Clements [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From:Pam Eastlick [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent:Monday, January 22, 2001 9:38 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 11 New Moons For Jupiter I am in TOTAL agreement with this. If the criterion for 'moon' is 'orbits a planet' then Saturn has MILLIONS of moons. Is something the size of a football field a 'moon'? a school bus? a basketball? I really feel that someone (the IAU?) needs to set a lower limit on 'moon' size. I personally vote for 'moon' being something that has at least one axis that's over 1 km long. That's big enough to land a spaceship on. Anything smaller could be a 'moonlet' or 'Big Rock or Big Ice Ball'. How does everyone else feel? I'm getting tired of no longer knowing the answer when kids ask "How many moons are there?" Pam == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/ == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/ == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
Re: 11 New Moons For Jupiter -- Renaming Petition?
My Oxford defines a moon as a "natural satellite of any planet" Your Oxford was written in a time and place which had little comprehension of space studies. In any event, it still doesn't address asteroid dust or ring particles. For that matter, it wouldn't address the contents of the shuttle septic tank, if it were emptied out in space. Alright, let's take the bull by the horns: is it possible, by starting a petition drive, to get whomever is 'in charge' of space terminology to rethink the various terms for moon / moonlet / asteroid / particle / mote? I'd imagine that this Europa website probably has 50 scientists and space technologists. Each of them likely knows the email addresses of another 20 persons, who might be persuaded to mention a renaming proposal to 10 other people. That's 10,000 people, optimistically speaking, who might be in favor of redefining the term 'moon'. It's a small thing, perhaps not worthy of time, but it's also like a little pebble that gets stuck in your shoe... sure, you can walk with it, but it's sure uncomfortable. -- John Harlow Byrne == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
New Cassini Images Available
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 14:44:27 -0800 (PST) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: New Cassini Images Available Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: undisclosed-recipients:; New Cassini Images http://ciclops.LPL.Arizona.EDU/ciclops/images_jupiter.html January 22, 2001 Himalia http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/ciclops/Graphics/himalia.jpg The brightest of Jupiter's outer satellites, Himalia, was captured and resolved, for the first time, in a series of narrow angle images taken on December 19, 2000 from a distance of 4.4 million kilometers during the brief period when Cassini's attitude was stabilized by thrusters instead of reaction wheels. This particular 1.0 second exposure was one of the sharpest, with a resolution of ~ 27 km/pixel, and was taken through a near-infrared spectral filter at 1:07 UTC (spacecraft time). The arrow indicates Himalia. North is up. The inset shows the satellite magnified by a factor of 10 and a graphic indicating Himalia's size and phase (the sunlight is coming from the left). It is likely that Himalia is not spherical: it is believed to be a body captured into orbit around Jupiter and as such, is likely to be an irregularly shaped asteroid. At the time this image was acquired, the dimensions of the side of Himalia facing the cameras is roughly 160 km in the up/down direction. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona Released: January 22, 2001 Io Transit http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/ciclops/Graphics/bigjupionofilt.jpg The Galilean satellite Io floats above the cloudtops of Jupiter in this image captured on the dawn of the new millennium, January 1, 2001 10:00 UTC (spacecraft time), two days after Cassini's closest approach. The image is deceiving: there are 350,000 kilometers -- roughly 2.5 Jupiters -- between Io and Jupiter's clouds. Io is the size of our Moon, and Jupiter is very big. True/False Color http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/ciclops/Graphics/juptruefalse.jpg These color composite frames of the mid-section of Jupiter were of narrow angle images acquired on December 31, 2000, a day after Cassini's closest approach to the planet. The smallest features in these frames are roughly ~ 60 kilometers. The left is natural color, composited to yield the color that Jupiter would have if seen by the naked eye. The right frame is composed of 3 images: two were taken through narrow band filters centered on regions of the spectrum where the gaseous methane in Jupiter's atmosphere absorbs light, and the third was taken in a red continuum region of the spectrum, where Jupiter has no absorptions. The combination yields an image whose colors denote the height of the clouds. Red regions are deep water clouds, bright blue regions are high haze (like the blue covering the Great Red Spot). Small, intensely bright white spots are energetic lightning storms which have penetrated high into the atmosphere where there is no opportunity for absorption of light: these high cloud systems reflect all light equally. The darkest blue regions -- for example, the long linear regions which border the northern part of the equatorial zone, are the very deep `hot spots', seen in earlier images, from which Jovian thermal emission is free to escape to space. This is the first time that global images of Jupiter in all the methane and attendant continuum filters have been acquired by a spacecraft. From images like these, the stratigraphy of Jupiter's dynamic atmosphere will be determined. Lightning http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/ciclops/Graphics/light1357.jpg Day and night side narrow angle images taken on January 1, 2001 illustrating storms visible on the day side which are the sources of visible lightning when viewed on the night side. The images have been enhanced in contrast. Note the two day-side occurrences of high clouds, in the upper and lower parts of the image, are coincident with lightning storms seen on the dark side. The storms occur at 34.5 degrees and 23.5 degrees North latitude, within one degree of the latitudes at which similar lightning features were detected by the Galileo spacecraft. The images were taken at different times. The storms' longitudinal separation changes from one image to the next because the winds carrying them blow at different speeds at the two latitudes. Methane polarization http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/ciclops/Graphics/mtpolar.jpg These images taken through the wide angle camera near closest approach in the deep near-infrared methane band, combined with filters which sense electromagnetic radiation of orthogonal polarization, show that the light from the poles is polarized. That is, the poles appear bright in one image, and dark in the other. Polarized light is most readily scattered by aerosols. These images indicate that the aerosol particles at Jupiter's poles are small and likely consist of aggregates of even smaller particles, whereas the particles at the equator and covering the Great Red Spot are larger. Images like these will allow scientists to ascertain the
McDonald's in Tiananmen Square?
In a message dated 1/22/2001 2:07:23 PM Alaskan Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Its a start. You don't expect them to go from subsistence agriculture to Antoine's of New Orleams? China is an ancient culture, with a great cuisine already. No, I don't expect them to go for Antoine's (although, what with predicted water levels rising, and New Orlean's subsiding into the ground...that may be an impossibility in 50 years); but I'd hope that Chinese families would see the value of what they already have, and not ruin their cultural centers and their health with Big Macs. Eight years ago, I treated an entire Russian family in Moscow to a McDonald's meal for the 'staggering price' of $14, mostly because that was something that the two kids had always wanted to do. Russians loved the speed, the efficiency, and the friendly atmosphere of McDonald's, so different than the surly service and heavy atmosphere of typical Russian restaurants. It was the experience, not the food, that they craved. I suppose that by being there, and forcing competition on the Russians, McDonald's did a sort of service, right in the middle of post-Soviet Russia. China may go the same route as Russia -- it already has, according to Robert Clements. Contrast this with France, a country that defiantly refuses to 'Americanize', and actually burned a McDonald's to the ground a year ago. One hundred years ago, the Chinese burned down every Western institution they could find, during the Boxer Revolt. Those days are long gone in modern China, a country which is determined to catch up to the West, no matter at what cost. Sure, McDonald's brings fast, efficient service, but it comes with a heavy price. Perhaps I'm just being snooty, but I hate to see ancient cultural centers turn plastic, even when that plastic culture represents the 'cutting edge' of Western Culture. Yes, yes, I know that our discussion has wandered far from science. Or has it? Science is all about progress. The West is all about progress. But, progress, and science, has a price -- the destruction of old ideas, old ways, old traditions. The link which draws all this together is simple: can science, progress, and Western values spread, without destroying all that came before, or do we destroy that which we love, simply by trying to improve on what we already have? Presume that we discover life on Europa -- complex life. Doesn't that destroy an underlying tenet of nearly every Earthside religion? Presume that biotechnology advances, that it is possible to create an artificial human, an artificial biosphere... what then of Old Earth? More food (substantial food?) for thought. John Harlow Byrne == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
