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Bizarre Dwarf Planet Wrapped in Ice Blanket
Space.com ^
| 25 July 2011
| Charles Q. Choi
Posted on 07/29/2011 11:10:53 PM PDT by Windflier
Radioactivity and gravity may be why the strange football-shaped dwarf planet known as Haumea and its moons are unexpectedly sheathed in crystalline ice, shining in space, researchers suggest.
Haumea, named after the Hawaiian goddess of childbirth, orbits the sun beyond the path of Neptune, with two moons in orbit around it named Hi'iaka and Namaka, two of the deity's daughters.
Haumea is a bizarre dwarf planet world shaped like a cigar, or perhaps an American football, measuring about 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) long, and makes one full rotation in less than four hours. This is one of the fastest rotation speeds in the solar system, which gave Haumea its odd shape.
TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS: haumea; hiiaka; namaka; planets; space; xplanets
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To: Windflier
Die Rockin’. I hit a couple Morrissy threads today that sent me back to the good old days. Some times when I hear an old tune I get nostalgic. Steely Dan was my default music for good times.
21
posted on
07/29/2011 11:48:26 PM PDT
by
Lazlo in PA
(Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
To: Republic_of_Secession.
A game which consists entirely of pretending to have no hands for nine hours is not a serious athletic sport to be played or viewed by adults.
[OK, before you send me your "corrections," I know an actual soccer game is only eighty-seven seconds long. It only seems like nine hours.]
Soccer is crap.
At best.
22
posted on
07/29/2011 11:55:51 PM PDT
by
FredZarguna
(At the last minute, they reached a compromise, and the country was saved: 10 more years of football.)
To: Lazlo in PA; Windflier; <1/1,000,000th%; Captain Beyond; Republic_of_Secession.; smokingfrog; ...
Click the picture.
Please help keep the lights on at Free Republic by making a donation today.
23
posted on
07/29/2011 11:58:18 PM PDT
by
bd476
To: Windflier
The Canadians play American Football with slightly modified rules; so do the Australians. The European Football league is an American Football league (NFL franchises) also. All of them use American Footballs.
24
posted on
07/29/2011 11:58:20 PM PDT
by
FredZarguna
(At the last minute, they reached a compromise, and the country was saved: 10 more years of football.)
To: Lazlo in PA; Windflier
Please desist in these distractions. This is a thread about football.
25
posted on
07/30/2011 12:00:30 AM PDT
by
FredZarguna
(At the last minute, they reached a compromise, and the country was saved: 10 more years of football.)
To: <1/1,000,000th%
Taken collectively, this solar system’s celestial bodies must number in the thousands. It’s so much bigger than we were once taught - and so much more interesting.
26
posted on
07/30/2011 12:03:31 AM PDT
by
Windflier
(To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
To: Lazlo in PA
Die Rockin’. I heard that.
I've been cruising YouTube lately, listening to all of my favorite bands from the 70s. The last two weeks, I've been on an R&B tear. I think I'll wind my way through the rock videos next.
I might not ever come back! LOL
27
posted on
07/30/2011 12:06:21 AM PDT
by
Windflier
(To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
To: FredZarguna; Windflier
Sorry for my distraction. Football it is.
28
posted on
07/30/2011 12:06:36 AM PDT
by
Lazlo in PA
(Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
To: FredZarguna
Please desist in these distractions. This is a thread about football. LOL!
I'm wondering why the astronomers who discovered that little planet didn't have the courage to name it after some prominent football legend.
Lombardy would have been a great name for it. I can think of others.
29
posted on
07/30/2011 12:09:50 AM PDT
by
Windflier
(To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
To: Windflier
I love You Tube. I watch obscure movies on my Sony Blue Ray on there and just fantastic stuff like this. I am a wagon guy.
66 Country Squire Built
30
posted on
07/30/2011 12:12:22 AM PDT
by
Lazlo in PA
(Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
To: Lazlo in PA
That is still not football. [I've never been sure exactly what it is, but it is NOT football.]
31
posted on
07/30/2011 12:15:15 AM PDT
by
FredZarguna
(At the last minute, they reached a compromise, and the country was saved: 10 more years of football.)
To: FredZarguna
32
posted on
07/30/2011 12:21:57 AM PDT
by
Lazlo in PA
(Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
To: Windflier
I believe this "discovery" to be a hoax.
Real astronomical objects in our solar system are named after either 1) the Roman appellations of Greek Gods or 2) synonyms for dirt.
Hawaiian Goddesses -- even those with heads or other body parts shaped like footballs -- have no place in this pantheon.
33
posted on
07/30/2011 12:22:43 AM PDT
by
FredZarguna
(QED. And I don't mean Quantum Electrodynamics.)
To: Lazlo in PA
One of the first albums I ever owned:
My mother did not believe I bought it because of a Taste of Honey. She was -- in this rare case -- mistaken.
34
posted on
07/30/2011 12:29:39 AM PDT
by
FredZarguna
(I won't say the album art was exactly a turn-off, either.)
To: <1/1,000,000th%
I would think this planetoid like object would be massive enough to form a sphere.
Unless there is some strong tidal forces at work from an unknown object I would guess this object had a huge impact event sometime in the past.
35
posted on
07/30/2011 12:34:19 AM PDT
by
LukeL
(Barack Obama: Jimmy Carter 2 Electric Boogaloo)
To: FredZarguna
I have Herb Albert in my '69 Caddy ragtop factory 8-track at all times since 1988. The other one I keep is Sly and the Family Stone. Those fit the car.
36
posted on
07/30/2011 12:38:38 AM PDT
by
Lazlo in PA
(Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
To: FredZarguna
37
posted on
07/30/2011 12:43:03 AM PDT
by
Lazlo in PA
(Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
To: Lazlo in PA
I have that one on vinyl as well. I think the night Sly was on Dick Cavett he was the most wrecked anyone has ever been on TV who could actually walk on and off the stage without assistance.
38
posted on
07/30/2011 12:53:07 AM PDT
by
FredZarguna
(I won't say the album art was exactly a turn-off, either.)
To: Windflier
That’s...that’s a cigar shape??
39
posted on
07/30/2011 1:01:08 AM PDT
by
WKUHilltopper
(And yet...we continue to tolerate this crap...)
To: FredZarguna
Hilarious. He was an old DJ. Made great music. Knew how to funk out.
Mine is yellow.
40
posted on
07/30/2011 1:01:27 AM PDT
by
Lazlo in PA
(Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
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