Craters Pop As NASA's Dawn Probe Approaches Ceres 52
astroengine writes New features on Ceres' icy surface are popping into view as NASA's Dawn spacecraft slowly spirals in on its final celestial target in the asteroid belt. Due to arrive in a stable Ceres orbit in March, the ion drive-propelled spacecraft is now less than 90,000 miles (145,000 kilometers) from its ultimate goal. Once arrived at Ceres, NASA will insert the probe into a highly stable orbit where, when the mission concludes in a year from now, Dawn will become a permanent man-made moon of the dwarf planet.
Bastardation of English continues (Score:2, Insightful)
Craters "pop"? I was expecting some kind of explosion, not a careless misuse of an English phrase. (Hint: The phrase you are looking for is "pop up" or "pop into view", i.e. the verb "pop" is NOT a synonym for "appear".)
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I assumed the craters just had great style sense..
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I thought it was getting ready for a date and was popping it's crater sized zits.
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Yet you seem to know exactly what they meant.
Funny how language changes over time. Even Ye Olde English!
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Yet you seem to know exactly what they meant.
Funny how language changes over time. Even Ye Olde English!
The headline had me thinking the craters were popping.
They are not popping.
Re:Bastardation of English continues (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, no, I had no idea what they meant until I got down into the comments. I assumed that craters were actually popping and was reading the summary trying to figure out if they were just observing some recurring natural phenomenon or if (far less likely) the probe itself was disrupting something on the surface.
"You know what I meant" is a terrible excuse because half the time it's simply not true.
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Except I didn't know exactly what they meant. I thought it was indicating the discovery of some kind of volcanic activity. I have never heard or seen "pop" used alone in place of of "pop into view" or even "pop up".
There's a big difference between language change and single instances of rotten use.
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There appears to be a character limit in what can be posted in the headli
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There appears to be a character limit in what can be posted in the headli
Craters Pop As NASA's Dawn Probe Approaches Ceres
Craters Seen As NASA'S Dawn Probe Nears Ceres
The 2nd would have been both more accurate and shorter.
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I think it's an intentional diversion. They count the comments on it as part of some study.
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You're not helping (Score:3)
Bastardation? I think you mean bastardization.
You're not helping.
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That's not all:
Once arrived at Ceres, NASA will insert the probe into a highly stable orbit
Beware the dangling participle. The above phrase implies that NASA will arrive at Ceres, not the probe.
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The summary uses it appropriately. Only the headline gets it wrong, but headlines have twisted the language for a few hundred years now.
Alien life (Score:2)
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Would we be so fortunate as to do so this quickly, though? 600 some odd years ago, almost no one was aware of the full extent of the planet's land masses, much less that there were actual people living on those other land masses. After that settled down, not a lot happened for the next several hundred years in terms of advancement of human life's extent and discovery of new civilizations. Then, suddenly, in the 60s, we're extraplanetary.
It would be amazing, but unlikely IMHO, to see a single generation of p
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We'll not find aliens on Ceres. Unless they are hiding under ground in cities.
The most likely places we will find active life are Titan, Europa.
Both of these planets have heavily life-bearing conditions, namely flowing liquid and stresses caused by a large planet tearing on its surface.
Chance of intelligent life? Unlikely. It could happen though. We have quite intelligent life in our seas.
In fact, Europa might technically even be a more stable environment for life than even EARTH is. Earth is a hostile
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Unless they are hiding under ground in cities.
That's no asteroid...
(Sorry. Had to be said...)
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I REALLY hope this yield something of importance to bring space back to the forefront of people minds. Keep people dreaming, exploring and wanting more.
I REALLY hope our global religious community will be able to handle what we find without calling for the Apocalypse and using it as an excuse to destroy us all in an effort to ensure we are "saved".
You are a special kind of dumb aren't you? You are simultaneously talking about your unsubstantiated "religious" belief in alien life while attacking other religions because they do not believe what you believe? Bravo, you are as bright as ISIS.
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Well, there are beliefs substantiated by mathematics and overwhelming statistics, and then there are beliefs substantiated by coercion and threats of everlasting hell fire and torture unless you behave properly.
But you are still basing your belief on a combination of unsubstantiated (made up) constants and statistics deprived from those made up numbers. We only have one data point of planets with life, namely the earth. Everything in the Drake equation is fictitiously speculation.
pop? (Score:2)
how about...Craters Explode As NASA's Dawn Probe Approaches Ceres
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We already know Europe harbors life. Some of that life even posts on /.
Re: Waste of money (Score:2)
Having been to Europe, I can confirm some minor indications of actual life.
Further studies to commence shortly.
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I think it's important to take a wide survey before taking a deep survey of specific targets (unless you find a smoking gun). For example, if they find geysers on Ceres then it may become an "interesting candidate for life" just like Europa.
Popping and locking (Score:2)
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Wow ... fascinating ... you should write a wiki-wiki article. ;-)
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Moon? (Score:2)
Dawn will become a permanent man-made moon of the dwarf planet.
That's no space station...that's a moon!
Really going that slow? (Score:1)
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It's all about relative speed... Dawn is travelling at several km/s relative to the Sun, but only ~100 mph relative to Ceres. It wants to get into a stable orbit around a dwarf planet with weak gravity, that would never happen if it was travelling at several km/s relative to Ceres!