APOD: The Largest Rock in our Solar System (2023 Jan 01)

[APOD Robot]

The Largest Rock in our Solar System

Explanation: There, that dot on the right, that's the largest rock known in our Solar System. It is larger than every known asteroid, moon, and comet nucleus. It is larger than any other local rocky planet. This rock is so large its gravity makes it into a large ball that holds heavy gases near its surface. (It used to be the largest known rock of any type until the recent discoveries of large dense planets orbiting other stars.) The Voyager 1 spacecraft took the featured picture -- famously called Pale Blue Dot -- of this giant space rock in 1990 from the outer Solar System. Today, this rock starts another orbit around its parent star, for roughly the 5 billionth time, spinning over 350 times during each trip. Happy Gregorian Calendar New Year to all inhabitants of this rock we call Earth.

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[DL MARTIN]

Thanks to all who develop the APOD and those who provide insightful replies. HAPPY NEW YEAR.

[Starlake]

That's us. Happy new year, everybody

[De58te]

Happy New Year. The headline is true as far as we know currently. But there seems to be some speculation that Jupiter may have a rocky or metallic hydrogen core that is larger than the Earth. Wiki says that Jupiter's core might have a mass 4 to 25 times Earth's mass. That means there is a larger rock in the Solar System! But with our current technology we have no way to prove it. Let's keep it at that.

[stevie]

Is there a digitally enhanced image that removes the light beam so that we can see the pale blue dot amid the inky blackness of space?

It must be the sheer importance of the image, but the write up just makes me warm inside. Happy 2023 Robert, Jerry, APOD and everyone.

[johnnydeep]

Very nice collection of links in this APOD. One complaint: the "planets orbiting other stars" link shows a very detailed 3D model of Proxima-B which is pure fantasy, and that fact is only revealed after clicking the link to the model - https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/resources/2 ... -3d-model/ - and scrolling all the way down to notice that the credit is given to "NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD)", though I suppose even that might not be quite enough to reveal the trick to some.

Also, it's a shame Sagan didn't chose "Pale Blue Mote" instead of "Pale Blue Dot". 'Mote' is so much more evocative and descriptive a word than 'Dot'! At least to me. And as an added bonus, it has four letters, ends in the letter 'e' and also has two vowels, all just like the other two words!

mote (n.)
"small particle, as of dust visible in a ray of sunlight," Old English mot, of unknown origin; perhaps related to Dutch mot "dust from turf, sawdust, grit," Norwegian mutt "speck, mote, splinter, chip." Hence, anything very small. Many references are to Matthew vii.3.

Well, ok, 'dot' has an interesting etymology too I suppose:

dot (n.)
"point or minute spot on a surface," Old English dott, once, "speck, head of a boil," perhaps related to Norwegian dot "lump, small knot," Dutch dot "knot, small bunch, wisp," Old High German tutta "nipple;" a word of uncertain etymology.

Known from a single source c. 1000; the word reappeared with modern meaning "mark" c. 1530; not common until 18c. Perhaps this is a different word imitative of "the mark of a mere touch with the pen" (Wedgwood). In music, the meaning "point indicating a note is to be lengthened by half" is by 1806. Morse telegraph sense is from 1838. On the dot "punctual" is 1909, in reference to a clock dial face. Dot-matrix in printing and screen display is attested by 1975.

PS - Happy New Year to all! And "Keep Looking Up" as Jack Horkheimer, the "Star Hustler" would say!

[johnnydeep]

Happy New Year. The headline is true as far as we know currently. But there seems to be some speculation that Jupiter may have a rocky or metallic hydrogen core that is larger than the Earth. Wiki says that Jupiter's core might have a mass 4 to 25 times Earth's mass. That means there is a larger rock in the Solar System! But with our current technology we have no way to prove it. Let's keep it at that.

I considered mentioning the conjectures about the cores of the ice giants, but to be fair, Earth is still the largest known rock in the solar system!

[orin stepanek]

PaleBlueDotOrig_Voyager1_960.jpg

Pale Blue Dot is hard to see here!

asteroidscomets_lakdawalla.jpg

I thought Vesta was the largest asteroid! I edited this for error!

bff5d074d399bdfec6071e9168398406--so-funny-funny-pics.jpg

Kitty looking pretty smug here!

[zendae]

Thank You Forever, Dr. Sagan. The first time I saw this photo I cried like a baby, and am tearful now. Thank you APOD scientists for the best thing you could have posted, and Happy New Year to all.

[bystander]

...
I thought Vega was the largest asteroid!
...

I thought Vega was a star. NASA's Dawn mission visited Vesta in 2011, making it the largest asteroid visited until 2015, when Dawn reached Ceres. Ceres and Vesta are the largest two objects in the Solar system's main asteroid belt.

[johnnydeep]

...
I thought Vega was the largest asteroid!
...

I thought Vega was a star. NASA's Dawn mission visited Vesta in 2011, making it the largest asteroid visited until 2015, when Dawn reached Ceres. Ceres and Vesta are the largest two objects in the Solar system's main asteroid belt.

And perhaps coincidentally, Vega likely has its own asteroid belt based on evidence from 2013: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-esa- ... round-vega

[orin stepanek]

...
I thought Vega was the largest asteroid!
...

I thought Vega was a star. NASA's Dawn mission visited Vesta in 2011, making it the largest asteroid visited until 2015, when Dawn reached Ceres. Ceres and Vesta are the largest two objects in the Solar system's main asteroid belt.

I meant Vesta! I'll correct my post! The APOD refereed that Asteroid Lutetia was the largest! ( as I understood it!) I'm so embarrassed!

[bystander]

...
I thought Vega was the largest asteroid!
...

I thought Vega was a star. NASA's Dawn mission visited Vesta in 2011, making it the largest asteroid visited until 2015, when Dawn reached Ceres. Ceres and Vesta are the largest two objects in the Solar system's main asteroid belt.

I meant Vesta! I'll correct my post! The APOD refereed that Asteroid Lutetia was the largest! ( as I understood it!) I'm so embarrassed!

At the time of that APOD, 2010 July 26, Lutetia was the largest asteroid then visited.
Vesta wasn't visited until the next year, 2011 July 16, and then Ceres, 2015 March 06.

[Cousin Ricky]

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

[Fred the Cat]

Building on lessons learned, Lucy will carry on exploring the making of our solar system and perhaps view our home planet from afar.

And we'll get a view from inside a real trojan horse.

[johnnydeep]

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

That Sagan quote never gets old. I wish every member of the U.S. Congress - and indeed, all politicians and leaders the world over - would read it and take it to heart. And I guess I'll cut Sagan some slack since he did use the word 'mote' in this passage!

[johnnydeep]

Building on lessons learned, Lucy will carry on exploring the making of our solar system and perhaps view our home planet from afar.

And we'll get a view from inside a real trojan horse.

<sigh> It's always frustrating to me how long we have to wait for results from these years-long missions. Oh well, that's the price of living in a humongously vast universe.

[Sa Ji Tario]

Buena suerte y mejor año
Boa sorte e mellor ano
Viel Glück und ein besseres Jahr
حظا سعيدا وسنة أفضل
Bona sort i millor any
祝你好運，更好的一年
Held og lykke og bedre år
Zorte on eta urte hobea
Bonne chance et meilleure année
Καλή τύχη και καλύτερο έτος
בהצלחה ושנה טובה יותר
Good luck and better year
Buona fortuna e anno migliore
幸運とより良い年
Сәттілік пен жақсы жыл
Bonus et optimus fortuna annos singulos
Lykke til og bedre år
Boa sorte e melhor ano
Удачи и хорошего года
Lycka till och bättre år
İyi şanslar ve daha iyi yıl
Chúc may mắn và năm mới tốt lành
Inhlanhla nonyaka ongcono

[bystander]

2023Agenda.jpg