All Hail The Sacred Chao!
Posted on 07/28/2015 1:50:21 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Ask a person what Dysnomia refers to... But in addition to being a condition that affects the memory (where people have a hard time remembering words and names), it is also the only known moon of the distant dwarf planet Eris.
In fact, the same team that discovered Eris a decade ago – a discovery that threw our entire notion of what constitutes a planet into question – also discovered a moon circling it shortly thereafter.
...
The actual size of Dysnomia is subject to dispute, and estimates are based largely on the planet’s albedo relative to Eris. For example, the IAU and Johnston’s Asteroids with Satellites Database estimate that it is 4.43 magnitudes fainter than Eris and has an approximate diameter of between 350 and 490 km (217 – 304 miles)
However, Brown and his colleagues have stated that their observations indicate it to be 500 times fainter and between 100 and 250 km (62 – 155 miles) in diameter. Using the Herschel Space Observatory in 2012, Spanish astronomer Pablo Santo Sanz and his team determined that, provided Dysnomia has an albedo five times that of Eris, it is likely to be 685±50 km in diameter.
...
Currently, there is no direct evidence to indicate what Dysnomia is made of. However, based on observations made of other Kuiper Belt Objects, it is widely believed that Dysnomia is composed primarily of ice. This is based largely on infrared observations made of Haumea (2003 EL61), the fourth largest object in the Kuiper Belt (after Eris, Pluto and Makemake) which appears to be made entirely of frozen water.
Astronomers now know that three of the four brightest KBOs – Pluto, Eris and Haumea – have one or more satellites. Meanwhile, of the fainter members, only about 10% are known to have satellites.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
A practical neurological solution: Say “what does it do?” Most people have difficulty with the abstraction of nouns, but when their brains are perked up with a verb prompt, they will immediately reply with the name.
Interesting!
All Hail The Sacred Chao!
The Sacred Chao goes "Mu!"
Thanks BenLurkin, extra to APoD.
Around here, bacon — is the sacred chow.
Note: this topic is from 7/28/2015. Thanks BenLurkin. Beats me why I didn't add this to X-Planets before this.
Thanks .
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