201–210 of 330 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Somewhat unintuitively, thanks to the Oberth effect, it can be easier to reach escape velocity closer to an object, (Humorously portrayed in https://xkcd.com/1242 ). Aside: if you are looking to learn more, I cannot recommend Kerbal Space Program enough.
Are you sure that the right xkcd link?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been aware of people talking about Kerbal Space Program for years and years, but I lost interest in playing it when I heard it didn't do real N-body gravitational calculations because they were too intensive. I still find that inexplicable. To me, it sounds like saying "our calculator only does basic arithmetic on four core machines, square roots are too slow".
There's mod though! https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/162200...
I say we catch that sucker, tow it into our neck of the woods as a second moon, and use it as a space port. Are there a million problems with this proposal? Yes. But would it be totally rad to do this? Also yes.
But why? Don't we already have a moon?
Is this something we could plan and manage to launch an orbiter/lander to in time? Has anyone thought about the possibility of slapping something like a telescope on that and letting it beam back data and images from veryyyyy far out eventually?
I assume its orbital period is long enough that it won't be back near the central solar system for a very long time. But similar objects could have interesting uses.
One thought experiment is to consider what it would take to be able to live on such an object, perhaps even a rogue planet just floating between the stars.
It would be very cold. Presumably you'd be reliant on nuclear fission or fusion for power, so you'd need a significant fuel supply that could effectively last indefinitely. And you'd want to have a ready supply of all the basic elements you need. Which seems more realistic the bigger the object is. Like, an Earth or Mars-sized rogue planet might be ideal.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So pretty much between Saturn and Uranus.... Even as an adult that still always makes me chuckle. I can't help it.
It’s pronounced your-uh-ness by pretty much everyone (or your-ah-noose if your going by the greek god and not the Latin copy/paste.)
This just sounds like "urine us". Potato, potato?
I say we catch that sucker, tow it into our neck of the woods as a second moon, and use it as a space port. Are there a million problems with this proposal? Yes. But would it be totally rad to do this? Also yes.
What sort of propulsion mechanisms (even those that are currently physically plausible but entirely outside our technology, so, for example, solar sails or nuclear torchships, but not, say, warp drive) could possibly be used to achieve such a task?
Maybe "fat asteroid" is a better term than "dwarf planet" ?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s pronounced your-uh-ness by pretty much everyone (or your-ah-noose if your going by the greek god and not the Latin copy/paste.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQTKGXmITZg This just sounds like "urine us". Potato, potato?
Apologies if this is an obvious question but I'm not familiar with astronomy. Will this dwarf planet just pass through our solar system or is there a chance it will start to orbit our sun?
According to TA it is orbiting the sun. The closest point out will be at beyond Saturn's orbit, the farthest will be 30-50k AU. Of course, there are some error bars on these numbers that I can't interpret, and given that it orbits that far out, its orbit might actually be influenced by neighboring stars as well.