Posted on 07/12/2016 8:03:24 AM PDT by BenLurkin
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.)
"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."
...
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
I don’t even know how many shoe stores there are. I know of PayLess because they are in the same shopping center as Walmart.
And though Zappo’s is located here (Vegas) in the old City Hall, I have never even checked them out online.
But it’s more than that: When I have the extra money for shoes, I don’t need them, and when I need them, I don’t have the money. *sigh*
As they say in the Navy: Boats and no Liberty; Liberty and no boats. Yes. That’s me. That’s my life.
Yes. And all our limbs!
The girls get new shoes about every other year. They prefer worn-out ones or none.
We have wetness. We also had wetness yesterday but that system is now blessing the codfish in the Atlantic. Today’s wetness is contained within a green line on the weather radar app that shows it extending from almost-Mobile to just-about-Kennebunkport.
Of course the usual wetnessthings are happening - the rivulet is running across the basement floor, the sump pump is getting excessive exercise, the advanced grass substitute squishes underfoot (has to do with it growing on a colloidal suspension commonly called clay), the lake is forming, or more correctly has formed at the foot of the east drive partially due to the depressed area at that point impeding runoff and even more, due to my diversion canal being clogged with massive quantities of mapletree droppings.
And it looks as if Tax Chick will soon get to experience the southern end of the greenline if not already happening.
And for some strange reason all of our inoutdoor felines are in. Although The Smudge is sitting on her window seat looking out on the back yard while doing her ‘I’ll think about it tomorrow’ Scarlet O’Hara impression. And our resident feral Tom has not ventured onto the porch for his offering of obeisance from his indentured humans.
And..
We seem to have a rodentcritter escaping the wetness. It seems to be skittering around in the false ceiling in the kitchen area. Where four black cats (joined occasionally by one or more of otherly marked furbeasts) are sitting on floor, cabinet, top of refrigerator, and other points of access peering intently skyward, er, ceilingward in expectation of an advent of sorts.
Eventually rodentcritter will find its way into the area below the sink and check in to one of my comfortable hotels for a snack of chocolate chip cookie.. I will know when it is skittering around in the undersink area because all four black cats (joined again occaisionally by one or more otherly marked frubeasts) will be eagerly nasally investigating the undersink doors..
Yes, raining here, too, at last. I’m told there was a tornado warning while we were all at the gym, but I don’t wear my glasses in the gym, so I missed it.
I’m waiting my turn in the shower now.
We had wetness here. We started with fog, then heavy rain, darkness all day, and rain and fog again.
But it’s mild as far as the temperature goes.
I noticed that many motorists were learning about physics the hard way, and that tow-truck and rollback operators were giving silent blessings to physics.
Slow down, people. You’ll get there quicker if you don’t take that shortcut through the ditch.
Not to my knowledge, no. The timing is wrong for that, although several time-travel fics have been written, taking Harry back to when Tom Riddle was a child and that sort of thing.
Also the timing is wrong for writing something now with the Hildebeast as a character. Why fish something out of the dustbin of history just to advertise how unpleasant it is?
Good observation, Bob.
We don’t have as many tumbling tumbleweeds as AZ, but that’s probably because there is more flatland there, until you get to the eastern part of the state.
But that’s pretty clever, by all means. It actually took me back to my childhood in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho. “Russian thistle,” for sure!
What a pretty curious kitteh! I like those big eyes!
He’s very interested in whatever you have!
Sunbeam has arrived here. I need to go upstairs and open some blinds for Jake and Shannon.
Happy December Oneth!
It’s a little early to open the blinds, yet. It’s still very dark and cold “out there.”
35 degrees, 19%, no wind.
Shannon is waiting for the hi-beam to hit the carpet at the bottom of the stairs.
I’m always happy when a new month starts.
Two days of wetness here finally over. The sidewalks and storm drains are full of leaves, as are the carpets in our building.
I thought he was interested in post 6350, which he nabbed quite competently.
I have the feeling he still wants to ask a question or two.
As many of you may know, the physicists, who are those who make their living pondering how things work, as opposed to the engineers who actually ponder how to make things work, have been searching for a Grand Unified Theory (or GUT) for - well for a long time anyway.
I am pleased to announce that as an amateur ponderer of how things work that I have finalized my version of the GUT, which I am sure will be the cause for me to receive a Nobel Prize.
Since you are all dear friends I will be sharing my GUT with you first. Here it is:
Chaos reigns.
Thank you all. I will now retire and wait for a call from Oslo.
I was kinda anticipating your theory had something to do with cats.
Which would lead to a catGUT string theory. And thus you have a starting point for the chaos.
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