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Anxieties and inadequacies

  • Nov. 14th, 2007 at 8:25 PM
zombie
The Sun is no longer the largest object in our solar system.

For some reason, I am very freaked out about this.

(via Lisa)

***

I've learned the same kick at four different schools by four different names: windmill kick, crescent kick, smash kick, and now, at the new school, fan kick.

I get worse at them with each new name.

Comments

( 27 comments — Leave a comment )
[info]_stranger_here wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 04:59 am (UTC)
Aaugh! Anything bigger than the sun that hurtles through our solar system at 1100 mph is SKARY.
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[info]buymeaclue wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 01:13 pm (UTC)
Yeah, that.

(But it's _beautiful._
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[info]jamiam wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 06:27 am (UTC)
Yes, but it's FLUFFY! Think of it as an oversized space-hamster.
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[info]dustchick wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 06:35 am (UTC)
That's a horrible HORRIFYING image. I'm gonna have nightmares now.
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[info]jamiam wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 02:42 pm (UTC)
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[info]snurri wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 04:36 pm (UTC)
You realize that has to be your new default icon, right?
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[info]jamiam wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 05:14 pm (UTC)
Hang on, give me second to tweak the original... that's better.
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[info]gregvaneekhout wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 05:15 pm (UTC)
::sob::
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[info]snurri wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 05:54 pm (UTC)
Is it pulsing, or are my eyes crazy?
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[info]gregvaneekhout wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 05:08 pm (UTC)
Why does this make me think of some great, apocalyptic Mayan god? Which is to say, not comforting!
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[info]jamiam wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 10:17 pm (UTC)
"Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this hamster!"
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[info]jonhansen wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 07:06 pm (UTC)
I always knew Cute Overload would kill us all someday.
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[info]silk_noir wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 12:29 pm (UTC)
You're sick and wrong.

But I like that in a person.
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[info]susansugarspun wrote:
Nov. 16th, 2007 12:28 am (UTC)
Yeah, did I read that right? That's it's basically a ball of dust, larger than the sun, that's billowing out of a ball of rock that's only two miles across? I feel like I must have read that wrong, but I read it a few times to be sure, so I'm just confused.
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[info]jamiam wrote:
Nov. 16th, 2007 12:56 am (UTC)
I think that's pretty much the jist of it. A giant ball of dust from some ice bouldre only two miles across--comet tails are actually often larger than that.

Edited at 2007-11-16 12:56 am (UTC)
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[info]jamiam wrote:
Nov. 16th, 2007 01:26 am (UTC)
Okay, so, 106 miles in diameter. Let's assume (arbitrarily) that that represents 5% of the original 2 mile-wide comet, and that the density of the comet is comparable to water, ie. 1 gram per cubic centimeter. Which is, let's see, 3.3 x 1022 molecules/cm3. So it has expanded by a factor of:

(106 miles/(.05 * 2 miles))3 = (106/10-1)3 = 1021

The density will go down by a corresponding amount, so a factor of 10-21. So now we are down to a density of about 30 molecules per cubic centimeter. I'm having a hard time digging up numbers for bright comet dust-tail particle densities, but this is a pretty typical number for the cold interstellar medium, or the edges of a star-forming region. So, something like the denser (though not the densest) parts of interstellar dust clouds.

Today's solar wind, by comparision, has a local density of 2.6 protons/cm3.
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[info]silk_noir wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 12:28 pm (UTC)
The only thing that wigged me out was at the end, where the report said that in some thousands of years it may hit a planet. I didn't like that part.

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[info]dfable wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 02:27 pm (UTC)
I guess when there's no place to hide, you have to face your fears. ; )
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[info]pxcampbell wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 02:32 pm (UTC)
It's a Sign!

The end is near!

Repent!

(Or get really, really drunk.)
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[info]_stranger_here wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 03:35 pm (UTC)
Pär's response to the "aiii" email I sent him:

"oh no we are doomed to be struck by a gigantic ball of nothing :/ "

That kind of calmed me down.
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[info]gregvaneekhout wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 05:10 pm (UTC)
Tell your viking that it's a gigantic ball of nothing that's BIGGER THAN THE SUN!!!!!

And may be concealing a giant Mayan apocalyptic hamster.
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[info]_stranger_here wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 05:12 pm (UTC)
Signs and rodents of the times.
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[info]affinity8 wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 07:40 pm (UTC)
I suck at side kicks.

Meanwhile, I saw your evil twin today! Minus the glasses. But if we set him loose on Kelleys Island, no local would be able to tell the two of you apart. Swear.

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[info]gregvaneekhout wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 08:06 pm (UTC)
Of course on Kellys Island they infamously can't tell Marvin and Al Rocker apart ...
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[info]affinity8 wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 08:11 pm (UTC)
I almost said that. :-)

Then again, they can't tell my twin and I apart -- hey, no, wait! That's my darn fellow workshoppers!!!
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[info]gregvaneekhout wrote:
Nov. 15th, 2007 08:15 pm (UTC)
It is confusing. Are you the one who turns into purple animals, or a bucket of water?
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[info]trogon wrote:
Nov. 16th, 2007 01:48 am (UTC)
(Here from [info]jamiam).

This is a very press-releasy definition of "object", such that it can include a rapidly dispersing, non-gravitationally-bound puff of dust from a comet but not include other rapidly dispersing, non-gravitationally bound things like the solar wind.

Not that that helps, I'm sure.
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( 27 comments — Leave a comment )