Starship Asterisk*

http://www.keckobservatory.org/recent/entry/NIRES

http://www.admissions.caltech.edu/conte ... irst-light

I'm embarrassed to admit that I can't remember how to do this particular calculation (I think that I once knew, but the elderly brain is getting slow and rusty), so I'd be very grateful if someone would give the equation needed. And possibly explain the physics? Momentum of the Earth = M E x V E = ...

Ditto. saved me from doing the math myself. I'm embarrassed to admit that I can't remember how to do this particular calculation (I think that I once knew, but the elderly brain is getting slow and rusty), so I'd be very grateful if someone would give the equation needed. And possibly explain the p...

neufer wrote:

• For reference: The Earth orbits at 2,978,000 cm/s so the
  (333,000 Earth mass) Sun must travel ~9 cm/s in the opposite direction

Thanks Art, that is most helpful.

See http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=37760 for the ESO science release about this

I haven't read the research paper, Why? VARIABLE DYNAMICS IN THE INNER DISK OF HD 135344B REVEALED WITH MULTI-EPOCH SCATTERED LIGHT IMAGING Tomas Stolker, Mike Sitko,et al ABSTRACT We present multi-epoch Very Large Telescope/Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch observations of the ...

There's a good article here from AAVSO about W Hydrae https://www.aavso.org/vsots_whya But no mention of its mass. However, we know that W Hydrae is on the Asymptotic Giant Branch so we can infer that it is an intermediate mass star, a category which comprises stars which have between either 0.6–10 ...

BDanielMayfield wrote:Viva Mexican and Texan Astronomy!

Margarita

Thanks MargaritaMc. (I have no idea why the quote function didn’t work for me, except possibly that I’m using an IPad. I made several attempts to fix it to no avail.) Bruce You needed to use the URL button - top line of buttons about half way across - and put the web address - the URL - within the ...

This here ‘roid ain’t from ‘round here. Eric Mamajek (Submitted on 31 Oct 2017) The initial Galactic velocity vector for the recently discovered hyperbolic asteroid A/2017 U1 is calculated for before its encounter with our solar system. When the velocity is compared to the local stars, A/2017 U1 ca...

Many thanks, bystander, for all the links to relevant threads.

https://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/3059-comet-mission-reveals-missing-link-in-our-understanding-of-planet-formation RAS: Comet Mission Reveals "Missing Link" in our Understanding of Planet Formation The missing link in our understanding of planet formation has been revealed by the firs...

The makings of the ground-breaking gravitational waves discovery The scientists behind the telescopes tell their stories: Interview with: Stephen Smartt and Stefano Covino 20 October 2017: Have you heard the game-changing news? For the first time ever, astronomers have observed the visible counterp...

The Sky & Telescope article by Govert Schilling (who as always is an excellent read)
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronom ... ron-stars/

Thank you, Margarita. It sounds like a marvelous course. I guess it is not available online at all times, but is offered next on January 1 (?) I know that attached to APOD and Asterisk right here is Robert Nemiroff's astronomy course as well. Re Science of the Solar System - yes, I'd guess that's r...

I'm just beginning to wonder about this topic, and the questions are coming like popping popcorn. I think it's great that you are having all these questions pop, Mark! I know the feeling. It's exciting and frustrating at the same time. You might enjoy this marvellous (free) internet course, run by ...

BDanielMayfield wrote:
Alchemy is easy, if you have enough time and material.

Bruce

That's very nice, Bruce. Thank you!

neufer wrote:
This was all understood mathematically almost a century ago.

I'd be interested to know more, Art. Many thanks

The intro to the special issue at ApJL was good. Yes, it was. I've made PDFs of both that one and the one by McLaughlin for ease of reference. (And I can make notes on them) Actually, the New York Times piece was good too - very useful to pass on to friends who want to know what I am so very excite...

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/10/astronomers-say-they-ve-found-many-universe-s-missing-atoms Astronomers say they’ve found many of the universe’s missing atoms If you get frustrated when you can't find your keys, imagine how astronomers feel. For years they’ve been unable to locate roughly ha...

I'll add this article from Physics, the APS journal.
Viewpoint: Neutron Star Merger Seen and Heard
Maura McLaughlin, 
https://physics.aps.org/articles/v10/114
which I found to be a particularly succinct and informative summary

Yoicks, bystander - is there any science publication that HASN'T published on this?!
Remember, you saw it here ↓ first
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 26#p274199

Sox duly blown off

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=37665

I've just discovered that Wikipedia has a separate detailed examination of the contested discovery of Haumea in 2005, which involved Michael Brown of Caltech and the first named author of the current paper.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controv ... _of_Haumea

Wouldn’t such a rapid rotator’s shape be closer to a disc than to an elongated rugby ball? Bruce This, below, from Wikipedia is - I think- rather what Neufer said above. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haumea Haumea displays large fluctuations in brightness over a period of 3.9 hours, which can onl...