Eol said:
It's hard to say but it's certainly a possibility though Makemake was the first natural satellite discovered since 2013 which was discovered in 2016.
Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection
- Thread starter Laura
- Start date
It's hard to say but it's certainly a possibility though Makemake was the first natural satellite discovered since 2013 which was discovered in 2016.
That deviation chart reminded me of a very long term one covering all the ice ages in ... number of millions of years... and it showed a tipping point, critical point that we had already crossed... which made me think of that image of the Coyote off the cliff chasing the Road Runner... looking over at the camera/viewer/us in acknowlegement of the obvious before crashing down. Haven't seen that chart since... but it was very self-evident I thought... the pattern of shift to ice age, already started... collapse of the curve begun... just enough time to look over and say wave goodbye. ;)
Not sure if it was temps or gases or what though... but obvious nonetheless.
Not sure if it was temps or gases or what though... but obvious nonetheless.
Released today: CERN experiment [CLOUD] points to a cloudier pre-industrial climate
From attached pdf file:
From attached pdf file:
http://press.cern/sites/press.web.cern.ch/files/file/press/2016/05/_cloud_nature_press_briefing_13may16.pdf said:
Another "active asteroid" 324P/La Sagra observed by Hubble:
Source: _http://phys.org/news/2016-07-asteroid-324pla-sagra-hubble.html
The renowned Hubble Space Telescope (HST) plays a leading role in uncovering distant locations of the universe, but it could be also a helpful tool for studying nearby objects, like space rocks whizzing through our solar system. Recently, a team of astronomers used Hubble to get a glimpse of the active asteroid 324P/La Sagra in order to unravel dynamic processes occurring on its surface. Their findings, published June 28 in a paper on arXiv.org, could improve our understanding of active asteroids.
Active asteroids like 324P/La Sagra, are bodies with asteroid-like orbits, which also show transient, comet-like activity. This activity could be caused by various physical processes, including impact, thermal fracture, rotational instabilities and ice sublimation. However, scientists still argue about whether these objects should be called "main-belt comets" (as they orbit the sun within asteroid belt) or rather asteroids exhibiting dust activity. Observing these bodies via powerful space telescopes such as Hubble could provide new insights into these processes and therefore the real nature of these objects.
[...]
Source: _http://phys.org/news/2016-07-asteroid-324pla-sagra-hubble.html
New Dwarf Planet Discovered Far Beyond Pluto's Orbit
Pluto isn't quite as lonely as scientists had thought.
Astronomers have discovered another dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy objects beyond Neptune. But this newfound world, dubbed 2015 RR245, is much more distant than Pluto, orbiting the sun once every 700 Earth years, scientists said. (Pluto completes one lap around the sun every 248 Earth years.) You can see an animation of the new dwarf planet's orbit here.
"The icy worlds beyond Neptune trace how the giant planets formed and then moved out from the sun," discovery team member Michele Bannister, of the University of Victoria in British Columbia, said in a statement. "They let us piece together the history of our solar system." [Meet the Solar System's Dwarf Planets]
"But almost all of these icy worlds are painfully small and faint; it's really exciting to find one that's large and bright enough that we can study it in detail," Bannister added.
The exact size of 2015 RR245 is not yet known, but the researchers think it's about 435 miles (700 kilometers) wide. Pluto is the largest resident of the Kuiper Belt, with a diameter of 1,474 miles (2,371 km).
The research team first spotted 2015 RR245 in February of this year, while poring over images that the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii took in September 2015 as part of the ongoing Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS).
"There it was on the screen — this dot of light moving so slowly that it had to be at least twice as far as Neptune from the sun," Bannister said.
OSSOS has discovered more than 500 objects beyond Neptune's orbit, but 2015 RR245 is the first dwarf planet that the survey has found, the scientists said.
Dwarf planets are massive enough to be crushed into spheres by their own gravity, but they have not "cleared their neighborhood" of other objects, which differentiates them from "normal" planets such as Earth and Saturn. This definition, which was devised by the International Astronomical Union in 2006, led to Pluto's controversial reclassification as a dwarf planet.
Astronomers are still working out the details of 2015 RR245's highly elliptical orbit, but the object appears to come as close to the sun as 34 astronomical units (AU), and farther away than 120 AU. (One AU is the average Earth-sun distance — about 93 million miles, or 150 million km.)
2015 RR245 — which will get a catchier, official name at some point — will make its closest approach to the sun in 2096, the researchers said.
Other confirmed dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt region include Pluto, Eris, Haumea and Makemake. Several other objects in this distant realm, including Sedna, Quaoar and 2007 OR10, probably meet the dwarf-planet criteria as well, scientists have said.
Source: _http://www.space.com/33387-dwarf-planet-discovery-2015-rr245.html
Pluto isn't quite as lonely as scientists had thought.
Astronomers have discovered another dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy objects beyond Neptune. But this newfound world, dubbed 2015 RR245, is much more distant than Pluto, orbiting the sun once every 700 Earth years, scientists said. (Pluto completes one lap around the sun every 248 Earth years.) You can see an animation of the new dwarf planet's orbit here.
"The icy worlds beyond Neptune trace how the giant planets formed and then moved out from the sun," discovery team member Michele Bannister, of the University of Victoria in British Columbia, said in a statement. "They let us piece together the history of our solar system." [Meet the Solar System's Dwarf Planets]
"But almost all of these icy worlds are painfully small and faint; it's really exciting to find one that's large and bright enough that we can study it in detail," Bannister added.
The exact size of 2015 RR245 is not yet known, but the researchers think it's about 435 miles (700 kilometers) wide. Pluto is the largest resident of the Kuiper Belt, with a diameter of 1,474 miles (2,371 km).
The research team first spotted 2015 RR245 in February of this year, while poring over images that the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii took in September 2015 as part of the ongoing Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS).
"There it was on the screen — this dot of light moving so slowly that it had to be at least twice as far as Neptune from the sun," Bannister said.
OSSOS has discovered more than 500 objects beyond Neptune's orbit, but 2015 RR245 is the first dwarf planet that the survey has found, the scientists said.
Dwarf planets are massive enough to be crushed into spheres by their own gravity, but they have not "cleared their neighborhood" of other objects, which differentiates them from "normal" planets such as Earth and Saturn. This definition, which was devised by the International Astronomical Union in 2006, led to Pluto's controversial reclassification as a dwarf planet.
Astronomers are still working out the details of 2015 RR245's highly elliptical orbit, but the object appears to come as close to the sun as 34 astronomical units (AU), and farther away than 120 AU. (One AU is the average Earth-sun distance — about 93 million miles, or 150 million km.)
2015 RR245 — which will get a catchier, official name at some point — will make its closest approach to the sun in 2096, the researchers said.
Other confirmed dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt region include Pluto, Eris, Haumea and Makemake. Several other objects in this distant realm, including Sedna, Quaoar and 2007 OR10, probably meet the dwarf-planet criteria as well, scientists have said.
Source: _http://www.space.com/33387-dwarf-planet-discovery-2015-rr245.html
Newly Discovered Solar System Objects Resonate with Neptune, 20 July 2016
The search for distant solar system objects has found two more small worlds far outside the orbit of Neptune. The new objects are located beyond the Kuiper Belt, which is a belt of small icy objects just beyond Neptune, of which Pluto is a member. They have the third and fourth most-distant perihelia, which is when an object has its closest approach distance to the Sun, of any known solar system objects.
In addition, the orbital motions of these objects are in resonance with Neptune’s orbit, which was somewhat unexpected. Their orbital paths imply that these worlds either have interacted with Neptune in the past or are continuing to do so – despite their great distances from the ice giant planet.
This latest discovery is based on observations made with the Subaru Telescope in Hawai'i and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) telescope in Chile, and is described in a paper published in the July 2016 edition of Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Dr. Scott S. Sheppard (Carnegie Institution for Science) and his collaborators Dr. Chadwick Trujillo (Gemini Observatory at the time of the research) and Dr. David J. Tholen (University of Hawai'i) have been conducting the widest, deepest survey ever to search out distant solar system objects. The team members started their survey using the Suprime-Cam imager at the Subaru Telescope several years ago. Their main goal is to find extreme Trans-Neptunian objects and they already have successfully found several. Now with the new Hyper Suprime-Cam on Subaru, they are able to cover a lot more of the sky than in the past in their searches for faint distant worlds.
The Story Behind the Discovery
In 2014, the team predicted the existence of a Super-Earth-mass planet orbiting beyond a few hundred astronomical units (AU) away from the Sun. Its gravitational influence appears to be pushing the extreme Trans-Neptunian objects into similar types of orbits. The team is continuing a survey looking for this massive distant planet, but need to find more of the smaller objects, which can then lead them to the bigger object.
In their paper, the team members describe the discovery of the two new objects, and how these two new objects have very distant perihelia but don't have extreme semi-major axes or eccentricities like the other high-perihelion extreme trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) such as Sedna and 2012 VP113. In fact, these newly found worlds occupy a region of space just beyond what is known as the "Kuiper Belt edge," which lies about 50 AU from the Sun. Until this most recent discovery, only one object was known to have a low-to-moderate semi-major axis and a perihelion beyond this edge. The team discovered several more of these objects with high perihelion but moderately eccentric orbits. Their semi-major axes are in the range of about 60 to 100 AUs.
Figure 1: Above animation shows how the scientists discovered 2015 FJ345 from the images with Hyper Suprime-Cam at the Subaru Telescope. The observation took place on March 17, 2015, and the interval between the individual images is 2 hours. (Credit: Scott S. Sheppard/David Tholen/Chad Trujillo)
What was surprising is that these new objects are all near Neptune Mean Motion Resonances (that is, the locations of their orbits have specific period ratios with respect to that of Neptune). One of the new objects goes around the Sun once every time Neptune goes around 4 times, while the other new objects go around once every time Neptune goes around 3 times. The new objects also have significant inclinations in their orbits and thus are effected by the Kozai resonance, which was first shown to effect high inclination objects by Yoshihide Kozai in 1962. This finding suggests these worlds were captured into this rare orbital region through interactions with Neptune while that planet was migrating outwards in the solar system in the distant past. Neptune was born much closer to the Sun than its current position, and its migration outwards disturbed other, smaller objects into these distant orbits we see today. Thus, these objects give us insights into the movement of Neptune during the very early history of the solar system.
The discovery and characterization of these objects and their orbits are described in the "Beyond the Kuiper Belt edge: New high perihelion Trans-Neptunian Objects with moderate semimajor axes and eccentricities" by Scott S. Sheppard, Chadwick Trujillo, and David J. Tholen, published July 1, 2016 in Astrophysical Journal Letters (Volume 825).
Authors:
Scott S. Sheppard: Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution for Science
Chadwick Trujillo: Gemini Observatory, now Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northern Arizona University
David J. Tholen: Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaiʻi
Source: _http://subarutelescope.org/Pressrelease/2016/07/20/index.html
The search for distant solar system objects has found two more small worlds far outside the orbit of Neptune. The new objects are located beyond the Kuiper Belt, which is a belt of small icy objects just beyond Neptune, of which Pluto is a member. They have the third and fourth most-distant perihelia, which is when an object has its closest approach distance to the Sun, of any known solar system objects.
In addition, the orbital motions of these objects are in resonance with Neptune’s orbit, which was somewhat unexpected. Their orbital paths imply that these worlds either have interacted with Neptune in the past or are continuing to do so – despite their great distances from the ice giant planet.
This latest discovery is based on observations made with the Subaru Telescope in Hawai'i and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) telescope in Chile, and is described in a paper published in the July 2016 edition of Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Dr. Scott S. Sheppard (Carnegie Institution for Science) and his collaborators Dr. Chadwick Trujillo (Gemini Observatory at the time of the research) and Dr. David J. Tholen (University of Hawai'i) have been conducting the widest, deepest survey ever to search out distant solar system objects. The team members started their survey using the Suprime-Cam imager at the Subaru Telescope several years ago. Their main goal is to find extreme Trans-Neptunian objects and they already have successfully found several. Now with the new Hyper Suprime-Cam on Subaru, they are able to cover a lot more of the sky than in the past in their searches for faint distant worlds.
The Story Behind the Discovery
In 2014, the team predicted the existence of a Super-Earth-mass planet orbiting beyond a few hundred astronomical units (AU) away from the Sun. Its gravitational influence appears to be pushing the extreme Trans-Neptunian objects into similar types of orbits. The team is continuing a survey looking for this massive distant planet, but need to find more of the smaller objects, which can then lead them to the bigger object.
In their paper, the team members describe the discovery of the two new objects, and how these two new objects have very distant perihelia but don't have extreme semi-major axes or eccentricities like the other high-perihelion extreme trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) such as Sedna and 2012 VP113. In fact, these newly found worlds occupy a region of space just beyond what is known as the "Kuiper Belt edge," which lies about 50 AU from the Sun. Until this most recent discovery, only one object was known to have a low-to-moderate semi-major axis and a perihelion beyond this edge. The team discovered several more of these objects with high perihelion but moderately eccentric orbits. Their semi-major axes are in the range of about 60 to 100 AUs.
Figure 1: Above animation shows how the scientists discovered 2015 FJ345 from the images with Hyper Suprime-Cam at the Subaru Telescope. The observation took place on March 17, 2015, and the interval between the individual images is 2 hours. (Credit: Scott S. Sheppard/David Tholen/Chad Trujillo)
What was surprising is that these new objects are all near Neptune Mean Motion Resonances (that is, the locations of their orbits have specific period ratios with respect to that of Neptune). One of the new objects goes around the Sun once every time Neptune goes around 4 times, while the other new objects go around once every time Neptune goes around 3 times. The new objects also have significant inclinations in their orbits and thus are effected by the Kozai resonance, which was first shown to effect high inclination objects by Yoshihide Kozai in 1962. This finding suggests these worlds were captured into this rare orbital region through interactions with Neptune while that planet was migrating outwards in the solar system in the distant past. Neptune was born much closer to the Sun than its current position, and its migration outwards disturbed other, smaller objects into these distant orbits we see today. Thus, these objects give us insights into the movement of Neptune during the very early history of the solar system.
The discovery and characterization of these objects and their orbits are described in the "Beyond the Kuiper Belt edge: New high perihelion Trans-Neptunian Objects with moderate semimajor axes and eccentricities" by Scott S. Sheppard, Chadwick Trujillo, and David J. Tholen, published July 1, 2016 in Astrophysical Journal Letters (Volume 825).
Authors:
Scott S. Sheppard: Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution for Science
Chadwick Trujillo: Gemini Observatory, now Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northern Arizona University
David J. Tholen: Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaiʻi
Source: _http://subarutelescope.org/Pressrelease/2016/07/20/index.html
Dodge City Supercell Timelapse - 8+ Tornadoes in 54 Seconds! May 25, 2016
7-19-16 North Carolina Microburst - Severe Storms
Phoenix-area Incredible Microburst and Weak Dust Storm - July 18, 2016
Bennington II - an extraordinary 90 minute EF4 tornado Jul 2, 2016
7-19-16 North Carolina Microburst - Severe Storms
Phoenix-area Incredible Microburst and Weak Dust Storm - July 18, 2016
Bennington II - an extraordinary 90 minute EF4 tornado Jul 2, 2016
Electric Winds on Electric Worlds, Part 1 | Space News
Published on Jul 27, 2016
Bruce Haffner @chopperguyhd Jul 18 Phoenix, AZ
Here's a high-res aerial photo of an amazing microburst over south Phoenix #azwx #monsoon
3TV Phoenix, CBS 5 News, NWS Phoenix and Penguin Air
https://twitter.com/chopperguyhd/status/755242101835653120/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Dan Piech @DanPiech Jul 25 Manhattan, NY
This #lightning strike just happened in #nyc, spanning the Hudson River. #thunderstorm #newyorkcity #photography
https://twitter.com/DanPiech/status/757725526593269760
Bruce Haffner @chopperguyhd Jul 22 Phoenix, AZ
Lightning illuminates curtains of rain against an Arizona sunset. #azwx Photo: @geraldferguson
https://twitter.com/chopperguyhd/status/756704195336634369
Published on Jul 27, 2016
Bruce Haffner @chopperguyhd Jul 18 Phoenix, AZ
Here's a high-res aerial photo of an amazing microburst over south Phoenix #azwx #monsoon
3TV Phoenix, CBS 5 News, NWS Phoenix and Penguin Air
https://twitter.com/chopperguyhd/status/755242101835653120/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Dan Piech @DanPiech Jul 25 Manhattan, NY
This #lightning strike just happened in #nyc, spanning the Hudson River. #thunderstorm #newyorkcity #photography
https://twitter.com/DanPiech/status/757725526593269760
Bruce Haffner @chopperguyhd Jul 22 Phoenix, AZ
Lightning illuminates curtains of rain against an Arizona sunset. #azwx Photo: @geraldferguson
https://twitter.com/chopperguyhd/status/756704195336634369
The Watchers 8-3-16
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/
Earl forms near Jamaica as 5th tropical cyclone of the season, moving toward Belize
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/earl-forms-near-jamaica-as-5th-tropical-cyclone-of-the-season-moving-toward-belize/
Soberanes Fire - Massive wildfire burns over 17 500 hectares in California, thousands threatened
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/soberanes-fire-massive-wildfires-burns-over-17-500-hectares-in-california-thousands-threatened/
Big sinkhole filled with swirling water opens near Ipswich home, Australia
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/big-sinkhole-swirling-water-appear-near-ipswich-home-australia/
18 287 households in Nepal living under high landslide hazard risks
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/18-287-households-in-nepal-living-under-high-landslide-hazard-risks/
Tropical Storm "Howard" forms in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 8th named storm of the season
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/tropical-storm-howard-forms-in-the-eastern-pacific-ocean-8th-named-storm-of-the-season/
Typhoon "Nida" shuts down Hong Kong, severe flooding possible across southern China
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/typhoon-nida-shuts-down-hong-kong-severe-flooding-possible-across-southern-china/
Video shows tornado destroying a town in northern Vietnam
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/video-shows-tornado-destroying-a-town-in-northern-vietnam/
Giant sinkhole swallows 4 people and 3 cars in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/giant-sinkhole-swallows-4-people-and-3-cars-in-the-chinese-city-of-zhengzhou/
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/
Earl forms near Jamaica as 5th tropical cyclone of the season, moving toward Belize
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/earl-forms-near-jamaica-as-5th-tropical-cyclone-of-the-season-moving-toward-belize/
Soberanes Fire - Massive wildfire burns over 17 500 hectares in California, thousands threatened
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/soberanes-fire-massive-wildfires-burns-over-17-500-hectares-in-california-thousands-threatened/
Big sinkhole filled with swirling water opens near Ipswich home, Australia
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/big-sinkhole-swirling-water-appear-near-ipswich-home-australia/
18 287 households in Nepal living under high landslide hazard risks
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/18-287-households-in-nepal-living-under-high-landslide-hazard-risks/
Tropical Storm "Howard" forms in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 8th named storm of the season
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/tropical-storm-howard-forms-in-the-eastern-pacific-ocean-8th-named-storm-of-the-season/
Typhoon "Nida" shuts down Hong Kong, severe flooding possible across southern China
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/typhoon-nida-shuts-down-hong-kong-severe-flooding-possible-across-southern-china/
Video shows tornado destroying a town in northern Vietnam
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/video-shows-tornado-destroying-a-town-in-northern-vietnam/
Giant sinkhole swallows 4 people and 3 cars in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/02/giant-sinkhole-swallows-4-people-and-3-cars-in-the-chinese-city-of-zhengzhou/
Hawaii County Civil Defense Hurricane Madeline Update (Aug. 29, 2016)
Big Island Video News
Hurricane Madeline heads toward Hawaii Aug 30, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkICss7nenU
HURRICANE WATCH ISSUED FOR FLORIDA Aug 30, 2016
The Peak of Northern Hemisphere's 2016 Tropical Cyclone Season August 30, 2016
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/30/the-peak-of-northern-hemispheres-2016-tropical-cyclone-season/
Snip:
Big Island Video News
Hurricane Madeline heads toward Hawaii Aug 30, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkICss7nenU
HURRICANE WATCH ISSUED FOR FLORIDA Aug 30, 2016
The Peak of Northern Hemisphere's 2016 Tropical Cyclone Season August 30, 2016
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2016/08/30/the-peak-of-northern-hemispheres-2016-tropical-cyclone-season/
Snip:
Twenty Two-Finalists From 2016's Weather Photographer of the Year Contest
Society's Amateur Meteorologists' Conference on September 10. With so many stunning entries depicting rare and unusual weather phenomena,
_http://www.mentalfloss.com/photos/86220/22-finalists-2016s-weather-photographer-year-contest
Photographer Tim Moxon wasn’t the only person attracted to this slow-moving tornado forming over Colorado. He captured another spectator who had pulled over to take in the sight. For this photo, Moxon was awarded Overall Weather Photographer of the Year.
Society's Amateur Meteorologists' Conference on September 10. With so many stunning entries depicting rare and unusual weather phenomena,
_http://www.mentalfloss.com/photos/86220/22-finalists-2016s-weather-photographer-year-contest
Photographer Tim Moxon wasn’t the only person attracted to this slow-moving tornado forming over Colorado. He captured another spectator who had pulled over to take in the sight. For this photo, Moxon was awarded Overall Weather Photographer of the Year.
Powerful storm rips through Shuswap, Canada (Video)
https://watchers.news/2016/09/19/powrful-storm-rips-through-shuswap-canada/
Posted by TW on September 19, 2016
Very dangerous Typhoon "Malakas" to hit Kyushu, bring flooding rain to mainland Japan
https://watchers.news/2016/09/19/very-dangerous-typhoon-malakas-to-hit-kyushu-bring-flooding-rain-to-mainland-japan/
Posted by TW on September 19, 2016
https://watchers.news/data/uploads/malakas%20jtwc%20ft%2009z19sep2016.gif
Typhoon "Malakas" forecast track by JTWC at 09:00 UTC on September 19, 2016
Featured image: Typhoon "Malakas" approaching Kyushu on September 19, 2016. Credit: JMA/Himawari
Paine becomes 11th hurricane of the season, moving north toward Baja California
https://watchers.news/2016/09/19/paine-becomes-11th-hurricane-of-the-season-moving-north-toward-baja-california/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+adorraeli%2FtsEq+%28The+Watchers+-+watching+the+world+evolve+and+transform%29
Posted by TW on September 19, 2016 En español
https://watchers.news/2016/09/19/powrful-storm-rips-through-shuswap-canada/
Posted by TW on September 19, 2016
Very dangerous Typhoon "Malakas" to hit Kyushu, bring flooding rain to mainland Japan
https://watchers.news/2016/09/19/very-dangerous-typhoon-malakas-to-hit-kyushu-bring-flooding-rain-to-mainland-japan/
Posted by TW on September 19, 2016
https://watchers.news/data/uploads/malakas%20jtwc%20ft%2009z19sep2016.gif
Typhoon "Malakas" forecast track by JTWC at 09:00 UTC on September 19, 2016
Featured image: Typhoon "Malakas" approaching Kyushu on September 19, 2016. Credit: JMA/Himawari
Paine becomes 11th hurricane of the season, moving north toward Baja California
https://watchers.news/2016/09/19/paine-becomes-11th-hurricane-of-the-season-moving-north-toward-baja-california/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+adorraeli%2FtsEq+%28The+Watchers+-+watching+the+world+evolve+and+transform%29
Posted by TW on September 19, 2016 En español
Astronomers discover five new Neptune trojans, September 20, 2016
The spatial distribution of all PS1 detected Trojans. The solid triangles are the newly discovered Neptune Trojans, and open triangles are the known ones detected by PS1. The positions of Neptune Trojans correspond to their first detections of PS1. The blue circles show the locations of Neptune from 2010 to 2013, and the crosses show the corresponding Lagrange points. Notice that the Galactic Center (GC) overlapped with L5 during 2010 to 2012. Credit: Lin et al., 2016.
An international team of astronomers led by Hsing-Wen Lin of the National Central University in Taiwan has detected five new so-called "Neptune trojans" – minor bodies sharing the same orbit as the planet Neptune. The discovery was made by the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) survey and is described in a paper published Sept. 15 on arXiv.org.
The PS1 survey, which utilizes the first Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) telescope in Hawaii, designated PS1, is one of the best tools to search for Neptune trojans. The survey, lasting from May 2010 to May 2014, has made a strong contribution to knowledge of the solar system's minor bodies due to its very wide survey area and its optimized cadence for searching moving objects.
"PS1 survey has a very wide survey area that is deep enough to cover a large part of the Neptune trojan cloud. PS1 currently is the only one with the capability to detect several Neptune trojans in a single survey," Lin told Phys.org.
The researchers found four new L4 trojans, meaning that they orbit Neptune's L4 Lagrangian point 60 degrees ahead of Neptune; they also found one L5 trojan – orbiting the L5 region 60 degrees behind the planet. The newly detected objects have sizes ranging from 100 to 200 kilometers in diameter.
What drew the attention of the astronomers is the fact that the new L5 trojan is dynamically more unstable than the other four, indicating that it could be temporarily captured into the Neptune trojan cloud.
"Our orbital simulations show that the L5 trojan stably librates for only several million years. This suggests that the L5 trojan must be of recent capture origin. On the other hand, all four new L4 trojans stably occupied the 1:1 resonance with Neptune for more than 1 billion years. They can, therefore, be of primordial origin," the paper reads.
The team also found that there are no Neptune trojans with orbital inclination between 10 to 18 degrees; therefore, the trojan population has a bimodal inclination distribution. That is why the researchers assume that there are probably two groups of Neptune trojans: a group of trojans with lower orbital inclinations (less than 10 degrees), and the other group with very high orbital inclinations (more than 18 degrees).
"There is a dynamically unstable zone between 10 and 18 degrees inclination, but the real reason for two groups of trojan is still unknown," Lin said.
Lin noted that the PS1 trojan database could provide many new important discoveries in the future as it is the first large enough dataset from a single survey, and therefore very good for probing the orbital distribution of Neptune trojan population. So far, the PS1 data allowed the team to find that the trojan cloud is wide in orbital inclination space, but not as wide as previously thought. The inclination width of trojan cloud is important because the different width could apply to different formation scenario of trojans.
However, the researchers are currently focusing on obtaining the colors of the newly detected Neptune trojans, which could help them confirm the existence of two groups of trojans.
"Currently, the PS1 data do not have good color measurements for these new trojans, but the additional color information could be important to understand if there are really two group of trojans," Lin said.
More information: The Pan-STARRS 1 Discoveries of five new Neptune Trojans, arXiv:1609.04677 [astro-ph.EP] arxiv.org/abs/1609.04677
Abstract
In this work we report the detection of seven Neptune Trojans (NTs) in the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) survey. Five of these are new discoveries, consisting of four L4 Trojans and one L5 Trojan. Our orbital simulations show that the L5 Trojan stably librates for only several million years. This suggests that the L5 Trojan must be of recent capture origin. On the other hand, all four new L4 Trojans stably occupy the 1:1 resonance with Neptune for more than 1 Gyr. They can, therefore, be of primordial origin. Our survey simulation results show that the inclination width of the Neptune Trojan population should be between 7∘ and 27∘ at > 95% confidence, and most likely ∼11∘. In this paper, we describe the PS1 survey, the Outer Solar System pipeline, the confirming observations, and the orbital/physical properties of the new Neptune Trojans.
Source: _http://phys.org/news/2016-09-astronomers-neptune-trojans.html
The spatial distribution of all PS1 detected Trojans. The solid triangles are the newly discovered Neptune Trojans, and open triangles are the known ones detected by PS1. The positions of Neptune Trojans correspond to their first detections of PS1. The blue circles show the locations of Neptune from 2010 to 2013, and the crosses show the corresponding Lagrange points. Notice that the Galactic Center (GC) overlapped with L5 during 2010 to 2012. Credit: Lin et al., 2016.
An international team of astronomers led by Hsing-Wen Lin of the National Central University in Taiwan has detected five new so-called "Neptune trojans" – minor bodies sharing the same orbit as the planet Neptune. The discovery was made by the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) survey and is described in a paper published Sept. 15 on arXiv.org.
The PS1 survey, which utilizes the first Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) telescope in Hawaii, designated PS1, is one of the best tools to search for Neptune trojans. The survey, lasting from May 2010 to May 2014, has made a strong contribution to knowledge of the solar system's minor bodies due to its very wide survey area and its optimized cadence for searching moving objects.
"PS1 survey has a very wide survey area that is deep enough to cover a large part of the Neptune trojan cloud. PS1 currently is the only one with the capability to detect several Neptune trojans in a single survey," Lin told Phys.org.
The researchers found four new L4 trojans, meaning that they orbit Neptune's L4 Lagrangian point 60 degrees ahead of Neptune; they also found one L5 trojan – orbiting the L5 region 60 degrees behind the planet. The newly detected objects have sizes ranging from 100 to 200 kilometers in diameter.
What drew the attention of the astronomers is the fact that the new L5 trojan is dynamically more unstable than the other four, indicating that it could be temporarily captured into the Neptune trojan cloud.
"Our orbital simulations show that the L5 trojan stably librates for only several million years. This suggests that the L5 trojan must be of recent capture origin. On the other hand, all four new L4 trojans stably occupied the 1:1 resonance with Neptune for more than 1 billion years. They can, therefore, be of primordial origin," the paper reads.
The team also found that there are no Neptune trojans with orbital inclination between 10 to 18 degrees; therefore, the trojan population has a bimodal inclination distribution. That is why the researchers assume that there are probably two groups of Neptune trojans: a group of trojans with lower orbital inclinations (less than 10 degrees), and the other group with very high orbital inclinations (more than 18 degrees).
"There is a dynamically unstable zone between 10 and 18 degrees inclination, but the real reason for two groups of trojan is still unknown," Lin said.
Lin noted that the PS1 trojan database could provide many new important discoveries in the future as it is the first large enough dataset from a single survey, and therefore very good for probing the orbital distribution of Neptune trojan population. So far, the PS1 data allowed the team to find that the trojan cloud is wide in orbital inclination space, but not as wide as previously thought. The inclination width of trojan cloud is important because the different width could apply to different formation scenario of trojans.
However, the researchers are currently focusing on obtaining the colors of the newly detected Neptune trojans, which could help them confirm the existence of two groups of trojans.
"Currently, the PS1 data do not have good color measurements for these new trojans, but the additional color information could be important to understand if there are really two group of trojans," Lin said.
More information: The Pan-STARRS 1 Discoveries of five new Neptune Trojans, arXiv:1609.04677 [astro-ph.EP] arxiv.org/abs/1609.04677
Abstract
In this work we report the detection of seven Neptune Trojans (NTs) in the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) survey. Five of these are new discoveries, consisting of four L4 Trojans and one L5 Trojan. Our orbital simulations show that the L5 Trojan stably librates for only several million years. This suggests that the L5 Trojan must be of recent capture origin. On the other hand, all four new L4 Trojans stably occupy the 1:1 resonance with Neptune for more than 1 Gyr. They can, therefore, be of primordial origin. Our survey simulation results show that the inclination width of the Neptune Trojan population should be between 7∘ and 27∘ at > 95% confidence, and most likely ∼11∘. In this paper, we describe the PS1 survey, the Outer Solar System pipeline, the confirming observations, and the orbital/physical properties of the new Neptune Trojans.
Source: _http://phys.org/news/2016-09-astronomers-neptune-trojans.html
