Blue Ring Around Uranus 269
ZedNaught writes "The BBC is reporting that 'astronomers have discovered that the planet Uranus has a blue ring - only the second found in the Solar System. Like the blue ring of Saturn, it probably owes its existence to an accompanying small moon.' According to the April issue of Science, the blue ring is one of two new outer rings recently discovered around Uranus using the infrared Keck adaptive optics system. The rings are blue and red like Saturn's E and G rings. The blue ring around Saturn hosts the moon Enceladus while the Uranus ring contains the moon Mab."
man... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:man... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:man... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:man... (Score:4, Informative)
Or just pray at the alter of wikipedia [wikipedia.org]. Enlightenment WILL come.
Eventualy
Re:man... (Score:2, Informative)
Mehhhh
Re:man... (Score:2)
Re:man... (Score:2)
Re:man... (Score:5, Funny)
"... the blue ring is one of two new outer rings recently discovered around Uranus using the infrared Keck adaptive optics system. The rings are blue and red like Saturn's E and G rings."
I would love to have been the astronomer that got to stand up in front of a conference room full of scientists and said:
"We have found a red ring around Uranus..." [Room erupts in laughter.]
Except... (Score:2)
...in scientific circles, we pronounce "Uranus" "your-an-us" not "your anus".
And it is definitely "Orion's sword," and not *taht* kind of sword you dirty little geeks.
Re:man... blue and red (Score:2, Funny)
There is his old friend he hasn't seen in a while also waiting for his appointment.
Man: - It's kind of embarrassing to say but I come here because I have a blue ring around my penis.
Friend: - What a coincidence, I am here with a similar problem. I have a red ring around my penis.
Friend goes in to doctors office and comes out after two minutes, smiling.
Friend: - Doctor said I should not worry, just go and take a shower.
Man goes into
Re:man... (Score:2)
Re:man... (Score:2)
Re:man... (Score:5, Funny)
I think that statement was true even before this latest news came out.
Missed the MST3K (Score:2)
Uranus is big and gassy.
Hey Servo, we need to go to Uranus and wipe out the Klingons.
Every possible anus joke (Score:2)
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/
Re:man... (Score:2)
Re:What the fuck? (Score:2)
Come on now! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Come on now! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Come on now! (Score:2)
Not to make matters worse, but... (Score:5, Funny)
The Uranus Probes?
I'd hate to be the mission-director for that one...
Re:Not to make matters worse, but... (Score:2)
Re:Not to make matters worse, but... (Score:2)
Re:Come on now! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Come on now! (Score:2)
A:The Captain's Log
Re:Come on now! (Score:2)
Re:Come on now! (Score:2)
So don't use cyan-coloured toilet paper.
If ever.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:If ever.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:If ever.. (Score:2)
I can already imagine the late-night tv ads for these.
Re:If ever.. (Score:2)
You are one sick bugger.
So what would the tune be, then? "Tunnel of Love" by Doris Day?
Can't be any worse than Crazy Frog.
Goatse ringtones? (Score:2)
Anyway, perhaps a tune more relevant to this particular story would be better for a goatse ringtone. How about Crystal Gayle's "Don't it make your brown eyes blue".
oblig F'rama (Score:2)
Fry: "Hey, as long as you don't make me smell Uranus." *laughs*
Leela: "I don't get it."
Professor: "I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all."
Fry: "Oh. What's it called now?"
Professor: "Urectum."
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Anonymous Coward (Score:3, Funny)
Does that mean... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Does that mean... (Score:2)
That's only recently... (Score:2)
http://www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/article s/folkloreBlueMoon.html [ips-planetarium.org]
Ouch... (Score:2, Funny)
so perty (Score:3, Funny)
Re:so perty (Score:2)
Re:so perty (Score:2)
I though the "10th" Planet debate along with the Pluto planet debate were both more significant in the public eye than the questionable puns of the 7th planet, but I guess Slashdot has shown otherwise. We're more concerned with bum hole jokes than figuring out what the real definition of a planet is.
Not so fast! (Score:4, Funny)
Dutch: uw anus
French: vos anus
Italian: il vostro anus
Portuguese: seu anus
Spanish: su anus
21 comments later.... (Score:5, Informative)
In any case, I found it odd that when MSNBC [msn.com] reported on this a few days ago they called the ring "rare". Considering that we have a whole 8-10 planets to base this on (depending on who's definition you use of "planet") I would consider the 20-25% of "blue ring" planets to be fairly common. It's not like this is an albino Kodiak or some other anomaly.
Aside from that have a blast mocking the planet for it's unfortunate name. What were they thinking? It's like naming a boy Sue or some such nonsense.
Re:21 comments later.... (Score:2)
Now insert random uranus joke here..
Re:21 comments later.... (Score:2)
Re:21 comments later.... (Score:2)
Aside from that have a blast mocking the planet for it's unfortunate name. What were they thinking?
Might be worth noting that in a British accent, "Uranus" sounds less like like "your anus" and a lot more like "you-ranus", one has to try to 'read it' with an American accent to really 'hear' the pun.
Re:21 comments later.... (Score:2, Funny)
is still unfortunate, so you can't win.
In either case I blame Tidy-Bowl.
Re:21 comments later.... (Score:2)
Re:21 comments later.... (Score:2)
What's up? Got a stick up yer blue ring?
Re:21 comments later.... (Score:2)
Re:21 comments later.... (Score:2)
Re:21 comments later.... (Score:2)
Re:21 comments later.... (Score:2)
Re:21 comments later.... (Score:2)
Re:21 comments later.... (Score:2)
Well, until recently, Pluto was inside Neptune's orbit...
Anyhow, this is not true for Uranus -- the roman name is Caelus.
There's many mixes of Roman and Greek -- we call it the heliocentric system (Helios is Greek, Sol is Roman), and there's also the moon name Rhea (Cybele) and Phoebe (Diana). And let's not forget Earth, which is called Gaia more often than Tellus.
Even funnier is the name
Re:21 comments later.... (Score:2)
Re:21 comments later.... (Score:2)
Certainly (Score:2, Funny)
Oh Christ alive.. (Score:4, Funny)
Other news (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Other news (Score:2)
moon disintegrating (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:moon disintegrating (Score:4, Interesting)
The density of the ring doesn't have to be much for it to be visible, and its mass at any one time will be a fraction of the mass of even a very small moon. I don't have the numbers but I suspect the life of that moon will be measured in billions of years, quite possibly longer than the life of the sun.
Someone s'plain to me (Score:3)
Re:Someone s'plain to me (Score:2)
Enterprise did pick up on this however.
splashback (Score:2)
I must be colorblind.... (Score:2)
As long as the ring is not red and itchy (Score:5, Funny)
Blue Angel rings (Score:2)
Re:Blue Angel rings (Score:2)
Blue ring on Uranus? (Score:2)
Even the tags are in on the joke... slightly. (Score:5, Funny)
This creates a new job title at NASA (Score:5, Funny)
Preparation H (Score:3, Funny)
A thought occurs... (Score:3, Funny)
there are other causes (Score:2, Funny)
NASA tried to change the name (Score:5, Informative)
How different from Neptune's rings? (Score:2)
Blue Ring Around Uranus (Score:2)
Blue Ring Around Uranus
Do the slashdot editors even read the HEADLINE?
Ob. dilbert (Score:2)
Re:Let's face it, we all sniggered (Score:2)
Re:Let's face it, we all sniggered (Score:2)
Re:Let's face it, we all sniggered (Score:5, Informative)
In fairness, the Greek was pronounced something closer to "oorenos" (with a long "o" at the end). The problem comes with putting a "y" before the "ou" vowel; that's an artifact of Latin.
Re:Let's face it, we all sniggered (Score:4, Informative)
Exactly.
Uranus is the Latinized form of Ouranos, Greek name of the sky. [wikipedia.org] The 'yu' pronunciation is an example of an iotated vowel [wikipedia.org]. The derivation from the Greek shows that the 'yu' sound is an artifact. I am not aware if it came in with the Ancient Roman pronunciation of the latinised version or whether it has come in only recently with the English pronunciation of the latinised spelling. I suspect the latter. Some English speakers seem to like to iotate 'u' sounds, an example being 'nyuclear'.
Most dictionaries give the un-iotated version as a possible pronunciation and I certainly find it a less compromising pronunciation to use.
Re:Let's face it, we all sniggered (Score:2, Interesting)
This raises the point how we somehow insist on pronouncing words from other languages as if they are English when they are not.
Most people do not pronounce kilometer (kilo-meter not kil-OM-eter'), diplodocus (die-ploh-doh-cuss not dip-PLOD-duh-cuss) and archeopteryx (ark-ay-oh-tear-icks not ar-key-OP-tuh-ricks') correctly either.
In reality, Uranus is pronounced 'throat-wobbler mangrove' (;P)
Re:Let's face it, we all sniggered (Score:2, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Spelling [wikipedia.org]
Re:Let's face it, we all sniggered (Score:2)
How about a new mod then? (Score:2)
+1, Beavis.
A-huhuh-huhuhuhuhuh....huhuhuh....
Re:Difference between moon an asteroid (Score:5, Informative)
Well thats exactly what it is, however the moons history orbiting earth has left it with a different composition from asteroids. The moon has hardly any water, while many asteroids are now known to have a lot of water.
So the distinction is still important. The real gray area is with the small outer moons of Jupiter which are called moons but are certainly captured asteroids.
Re:Difference between moon an asteroid (Score:4, Informative)
a)orbiting the sun, or
b)orbiting an object that is orbiting the sun.
Asteroids orbiting the sun are called centaurs, and there are millions of them. Some asteroids are in orbit of planets, such as the moons of Mars. Saturn's moon Phoebe is almost certainly a captured asteroid, as are Jupiter's outer moons, and inner ones such as Amalthea.
In general, the easiest difference between an asteroid and a 'small moon' is that a small moon has been pulled by its own gravity into a spherical shape.
That's not a hard and fast definition though. Saturn's moon Hyperion is in an irregular shape (one side is basically sheared off) but there are smaller moons that have the spherical shape.
Don't get too hung up on names. Our moon was called that long before the seventeenth century, which was the first time anything was found orbiting a body other than the sun.
Re:Difference between moon an asteroid (Score:2)
Re:Difference between moon an asteroid (Score:2)
Re:Coffee Rings... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Coffee Rings... (Score:2)
Re:Coffee Rings... (Score:2)
Re:Change the name NOW! (Score:2)
I propose that, in your honor, we name the planet after your username here.
Re:Change the name NOW! (Score:2)
Admit it. You had tears streaming down your cheeks from laughing too hard while trying to make your post.
Re:as opposed to... (Score:2)
This is why before I hit submit after previewing a post, I reload the thread just to make sure someone else hasn't said what I'm saying already.
Re:as opposed to... (Score:2)
Would it be a buttload, shitload, assload, crapload, or fuckload?