#astronomycalloutposts

this comet was discovered in 1993 and got real famous real quick because she was a real drama queen when she found her end

she got her name from her discoverers: Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker and David Levy

a few moments after her discovery, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashed into our beloved planet Jupiter, producing scars that were visible from Earth even with small telescopes

this strike was, in fact, the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of Solar System objects ever and completely blew astronomers’ minds

she was captured by Jupiter’s gravity around 1966 and the comet was orbiting Jupiter for then on, and later was destined to eventually smash into it

astronomers calculated when this crash would happen, and they correctly set the date for July 16 to 22, 1994

even the Hubble Space Telescope was repositioned to observe the collision, however spacecraft Galileo got the best view on it

this rude ass comet scared Jupiter for months from its several different collisions, having scars that were more easily visible than the Great Red Spot

Planet 9 is a yet undiscovered but predicted world in the outer regions of our Solar System

she doesn’t get a real name until she’s actually discovered, so Planet 9 has to be ok for now

why would scientists predict such a planet?

researchers from Caltech have found theoretical evidence suggesting there may be an unknown planet deep in the Solar System

the new research provides evidence of a giant planet with an unusual orbit in the outer solar system

some objects in the Kuiper Belt have wacky orbits, and astronomers believe that the gravity of a large undiscovered planet far out in the Solar System could explain this weird action in the Kuiper Belt 

while this is not actually the detection of a new planet, there’s a couple of things assumed about it:

it would have about 10 times the size of planet Earth and the completion of an orbit around the Sun would take about 10000-20000 years (in comparison, the furthest Planet, Neptune, takes 165 years for one orbit)

the orbit would about 20 times farther from the sun on average than Neptune

while the Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite, the ISS (international space station) is Earth’s only hella big artificial satellite 

notice the scientific term ‘hella big’ here, obviously there’s lots and lots of other satellites orbiting Earth

the ISS is a human-made habitable structure in low Earth orbit, speeding around our planet at 27,600 km/h, orbiting about 15.5 times a day! (your dad’s car would never go this fast)

that means every 92 minutes they go around once! is that fkn cool or what

the first module was launched in 1998, and the ISS has been continuously inhabited by humans for 16 straight years! since then, many nations have added modules to the ISS and it has grown a lot

why would we make the effort to build a speeding living room in space you ask?

the ISS is basically a huge research laboratory in which scientists (astronauts) can conduct experiments that are impossible on Earth (zero gravity and exposure to space are just two factors)

the ISS helps humans exploring space by providing an environment in which spacecraft systems required for Moon or Mars missions can be tested.

thirdly the ISS is helping with scientific outreach and education to get ya dumbasses interested in space 

a solar eclipse on planet Earth is an eclipse that happens when the Earth’s moon passes between the Sun and our planet and throws a shadow on the Earth’s surface

For this, Earth, Moon and Sun have to be aligned in a straight-line configuration

this can only happen at Mew moon because then the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun

there would be a Solar eclipse every New Moon if she was in a perfectly circular orbit around Earth, but her orbit is tilted by 5% which prevents a monthly Solar Eclipse

If yer are really dumb and you observe a solar eclipse with ya naked eyes, you gonna be blind (or at least suffer significant damage to your eye, as one would expect tbh)

it might seem that Solar Eclipses are super rare, because they don’t always happen in the same spot

but: there are between 2 and 5 solar eclipses per year on different parts of the Earth

back in the good ole days some ancient cultures regarded eclipses as bad omens and attributed it to supernatural causes, and were frightened

supposedly King Zhong Kang of China around 2000 BCE beheaded two of his astronomers because they failed to predict an eclipse 

cool

:DD

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