Posts by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
(DIR) Post #AIr9ZGODkOgX9IpsQq by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2022-04-26T23:17:48Z
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I feel like I should share my science, but there's only so much public interest into fine details of gas giant interiors 😂
(DIR) Post #AItCDcQbofy9JAF9Jw by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2022-04-27T21:57:24Z
0 likes, 4 repeats
If you weren't aware, astronomers don't have a great relationship with Musk. A big issue for us is the Starlink satellites, which due to their low altitude and high number, already regularly interfere with ground-based observations. #starlinked on Twitter has endless examples.We get told it's the "price of progress" and that SpaceX will make space telescopes cheap anyway. But that's BS: development of advanced space tech is much more expensive than the launch.https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22396388/space-x-elon-musk-starlink-too-bright-astronomy-stars-pollution
(DIR) Post #AItCDeVI6Eu1kGRutc by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2022-04-27T22:00:18Z
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Maybe people will consider the tradeoff worthwhile, I couldn't say. But it seems like the whole Starlink project went forward without even considering the effect on ground-based astronomy or how people will feel about a night sky crawling with satellites.https://www.deepskywatch.com/Articles/Starlink-sky-simulation.html
(DIR) Post #AJIKO0mdNGce19tEbQ by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2022-05-10T02:02:10Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
The main thing Mastodon is missing from Twitter is misleading ads for extremely easy mobile puzzle games being played by someone impossibly stupid.
(DIR) Post #AJIKO2NBSrS8wnzwDA by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2022-05-10T02:05:30Z
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"Only 1% can solve!!1!". Bro more than that fraction of orangutans could solve that puzzle
(DIR) Post #AJX6PebGL2VroDrIno by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2022-05-16T23:51:43Z
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To be completely honest, my job is basically just understanding this plot in as much detail as I possibly can, lolFor the curious, these are the known giant exoplanets with well-determined masses and radii, plotted and colored by incident stellar flux (the amount of light coming in from the parent star). I threw in the solar system giants for good measure.
(DIR) Post #AJX6PgCWNzuWm4IZW4 by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2022-05-16T23:55:40Z
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- The light ones at the top are hot Jupiters- The most massive hot Jupiters don't puff up as much for a given flux.- The cooler planets (which we know of fewer) are clustered around a Jupiter radius.- Lower-mass planets than Saturn are generally smaller, regardless of their flux, which is suspicious.- For a given sub-Saturn-mass planet, there's a radius they never seem to exceed. Also sus.Anyway, if any part of this plot piques your interest, I can explain it further
(DIR) Post #AKLUoY6amgfglOYNfc by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2022-06-10T06:51:45Z
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Star wars squadrons really is quite excellent in VR. The main drawback (aside from the publisher being terrible) is that it requires a lot of hardware: good GPU, VR headset, and some kind of controller / flight stick (keyboard & mouse just doesn't cut it). I feel like it may have done somewhat poorly on the PC as a result.
(DIR) Post #AKb7eBofwCCKTXYHQG by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2022-06-17T22:42:12Z
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"Perhaps our fears about extraterrestrial contact are merely a projection of our own backwardness, an expression of our guilty conscience about our past history: the ravages that have been visited on civilizations only slightly more backward than we." - Carl SaganI tend to agree with Sagan that the tendency to fear a hostile alien invasion isn't all that reasonable.
(DIR) Post #AKb7eDHQUmn3100ksK by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2022-06-17T22:42:46Z
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The previous sentences are a bit more on point there, if more of a hot take: "It is pointless to worry about the possible malevolent intentions of an advanced civilization with whom we might make contact. It is more likely that the mere fact they have survived so long means they have learned to live with themselves and others."
(DIR) Post #AKbSUW048daVDR6kAy by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2022-06-18T05:28:19Z
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@Sklingklorp i literally lol'd 😂
(DIR) Post #ALQNNEkBdsYqgQxCYC by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2022-07-12T19:01:00Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
🔥🔥🔥(Carina Nebula as imaged by JWST)
(DIR) Post #AOjZFF3pwZbPWFqTQm by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2022-10-19T17:00:29Z
1 likes, 4 repeats
JWST Pillars of Creation just came out and it's AWESOME!https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-takes-star-filled-portrait-of-pillars-of-creation#NASA #science #JWST #astronomy
(DIR) Post #APZOwCK36GUyMxL7VQ by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2022-11-13T17:30:58Z
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When you have to copy and paste a letter somewhere just to figure out if it's a capital I or a lower case l. -_-
(DIR) Post #ASTs5LbFL0Iw8zF5w8 by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2023-02-08T20:29:18Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
I made a scale visualization of the shapes and relative sizes of WASP-12 b (a very hot Jupiter) and Saturn.Saturn is spinning pretty quickly, which draws it out into a squished ball shape (oblate spheroid), whereas WASP-12 b is pulled into a long football shape by the tidal forces from its parent star.#astronomy #space
(DIR) Post #AWrqV0Kwpfm2EwxsZc by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2023-06-20T01:37:49Z
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@lowqualityfacts Ok, what if you grind it to a fine powder and then immerse it in liquid [oxygen...]. I bet that would explode
(DIR) Post #AWtNNY2N8ty65ZHwAa by dpthorngren@mastodon.online
2023-06-20T19:20:57Z
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@lowqualityfacts Save some blood for Paul Rudd!