Re:A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the ne...
by dzink on Sunday June 20, 2021 @09:12PM
(#27575327)
Love the creativity! That said, the moon stabilized earth’s rotation angle, giving us the seasons, and it also drives huge chunks of life ecosystems and weather with the tides. So adding a second body in rotation to Earth with such superpowers would muck with a lot of stuff along the way. Maybe put it around Mars instead?
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Re:A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the ne...
by krasin on Sunday June 20, 2021 @10:25PM
(#27575685)
The diameter of this asteroid is estimated to be ~160 km, which is 21.7 times less than Moon with d=3474 km. Assuming similar density, the mass of the new asteroid is 10000 less than Moon and it's unlikely to affect much.
Re:A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the ne...
by rob74 on Sunday June 20, 2021 @11:45PM
(#27576109)
Ah, ok, good to know! When I read "dwarf planet", I automatically assumed it to be bigger than (or at least comparable in size to) the moon, which is a mere sattelite of a small planet. Then again, even Pluto, which was considered for a long time to be an "actual" planet, is smaller than the moon...
Re:A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the ne...
by cbkeller on Monday June 21, 2021 @12:58AM
(#27576437)
Earth's moon is freakishly large by moon standards, as it turns out!
> At about one-quarter the diameter of Earth (comparable to the width of Australia), it [the Moon] is the largest natural satellite in the Solar System relative to the size of its planet, the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System overall, and is larger than any dwarf planet.
Re:A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the ne...
by niyikiza on Tuesday June 22, 2021 @10:15PM
(#27600030)
Honorable mention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNtTylNR7ks
Re:A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the ne...
by raxxorrax on Monday June 21, 2021 @07:40AM
(#27578229)
Crash it on mars to revive it's geologic activity. Poor man's terraforming, just have to wait a few million years for it to cool down.
Re:A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the ne...
by PhasmaFelis on Sunday June 20, 2021 @11:20PM
(#27575976)
I'm gonna level with you, I stopped reading at "superpowers" and as a result this sounds like a great idea.