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"That's no moon" :-). But more seriously, just another giant lump of stuff swinging around the solar system. I am not an astronomer, so I'm not sure about some
by ChuckMcM 1y ago
"That's no moon" :-). But more seriously, just another giant lump of stuff swinging around the solar system. I am not an astronomer, so I'm not sure about some of the things I'm reading in that report but to me, it seems to be in the solar ecliptic. But its far enough away even at perigee that the only thing of note it might interact with would be Pluto.
I suppose that flying through the Oort cloud it might periodically launch ice balls into the inner solar system.
- brudgers 1y agoonly thing of note it might interact with would be Pluto Is Pluto a planet again, or not? Honest question because I don't keep up on these things because they have no practical effect other than drama...and I try to avoid drama.
- kulahan 1y agoNo. It’s smaller than other moons in our solar system. It’s never going to be a planet again, but a planetoid, dwarf planet, or even asteroid is appropriate.
- GMoromisato 1y agoJust to be pedantic, Mercury is also "smaller than other moons in our solar system" And never is a long time, especially for something as fickle as human classification.
- kulahan 1y agoYou’re right, it’s about gravitational domination.
- GMoromisato 1y agoAgreed. My (uninformed) guess is they will eventually reclassify all non-moon objects in hydrostatic equilibrium (anything round) as planets, which will make Pluto a planet again and bring in a half-dozen new objects.
- rich_sasha 1y agoIt boggles my mind when I look up at the Moon, that in fact it's a massive rock travelling at something like 2,000 mph, always trying to fall onto the Earth, and missing it all the time.
- yieldcrv 1y agoits getting further away, if it helps your understanding of the situation better “falling into” was never part of the equation
- mgiampapa 1y agoIf my goal was to fall into the earth and kept missing I would be depressed too. Each try it misses by slightly more and it's orbital distance increases. How sad is that? Also, I like to anthropomorphize inanimate objects because secretly they hate it.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- BurningFrog 1y agoEarth is also constantly failing at falling into the Moon. Why did we have to evolve in such a loser system??
- dabluecaboose 1y ago> But its far enough away even at perigee Minor astrodynamics nit: "perigee" is a term specific to Earth. The generic term for all bodies is "periapsis", and the term for the Sun is "perihelion" (Astrodynamics terms generally take from the Greek, rather than Latin)