contrarian

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    contrarian replied to the thread Is Pluto a planet or not? Who cares! Our love for the King of the Kuiper Belt is stronger than ever 95 years later.

    The data from New Horizons indicates that over 70% of its surface dates back nearly 4 billion years. A PBS article* indicates "many of...

    Yesterday at 5:52 PM
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    contrarian replied to the thread Is Pluto a planet or not? Who cares! Our love for the King of the Kuiper Belt is stronger than ever 95 years later.

    Clearly. Just brought these up since there does not appear to be any large impact basins on Pluto except those over a billion years...

    Yesterday at 12:10 PM
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    contrarian replied to the thread Is Pluto a planet or not? Who cares! Our love for the King of the Kuiper Belt is stronger than ever 95 years later.

    From Wiki: "In celestial mechanics, "clearing the neighbourhood" (or dynamical dominance) around a celestial body's orbit describes...

    Wednesday at 5:33 PM
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    contrarian reacted to Helio's post in the thread Is Pluto a planet or not? Who cares! Our love for the King of the Kuiper Belt is stronger than ever 95 years later with Like.

    This issue is why I like Margot's model since the question of clearing does not have to be based on what's there or not, but simply how...

    Wednesday at 5:04 PM
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    contrarian replied to the thread Is Pluto a planet or not? Who cares! Our love for the King of the Kuiper Belt is stronger than ever 95 years later.

    Agreed. I was just looking through impact history of Earth, and there is a mass extinction event every 30 million years or so, blamed on...

    Wednesday at 5:03 PM
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    contrarian replied to the thread Is Pluto a planet or not? Who cares! Our love for the King of the Kuiper Belt is stronger than ever 95 years later.

    I now recall that Sputnik Planum is considered to result from a recent impact, but it only covers approximately 2.5% of Pluto's surface...

    Wednesday at 2:07 PM
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    contrarian replied to the thread Is Pluto a planet or not? Who cares! Our love for the King of the Kuiper Belt is stronger than ever 95 years later.

    I understand the rationale but am not aware of any significant bodies in its orbit, and there doesn't appear to be "recent" major impact...

    Wednesday at 1:10 PM
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    contrarian replied to the thread Is Pluto a planet or not? Who cares! Our love for the King of the Kuiper Belt is stronger than ever 95 years later.

    According to the IAU, three criteria for a planet are: It is in orbit around the Sun. It has sufficient mass to assume...

    Wednesday at 12:08 PM
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    contrarian reacted to billslugg's post in the thread AI can now replicate itself — a milestone that has experts terrified with Like.

    The first time I catch something intelligent coming out of a computer I'll let you all know. So far I haven't gotten a nibble.

    Saturday at 5:30 PM
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    contrarian replied to the thread AI can now replicate itself — a milestone that has experts terrified.

    This is the most significant aspect of AI. More like Artificial Ignorance for many of these things. It can be soooo wrong. Why DeepSeek...

    Saturday at 5:27 PM
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    contrarian replied to the thread Moon or Mars? Why not both, acting NASA head Janet Petro says.

    The International Space Station cost well over $100 billion to put into orbit and maintain. And remember this is in LEO. The cost of a...

    Feb 13, 2025
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    contrarian replied to the thread 1st supernovas may have flooded the early universe with water — making life possible just 100 million years after the Big Bang.

    This was all the post considered. It was not about habitability, but when the conditions for abiogensis might occur following the BB...

    Feb 8, 2025
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    contrarian replied to the thread 1st supernovas may have flooded the early universe with water — making life possible just 100 million years after the Big Bang.

    While water is certainly a requirement for life, a considerable number of other elements and compounds are also required, not the least...

    Feb 8, 2025
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    contrarian replied to the thread Dark Matter Revisited.

    So the Timescape Model suggests that the postulation of dark energy (DE) is based on observations which might be defined as a...

    Feb 7, 2025
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    contrarian replied to the thread Trump wants the US to land astronauts on Mars soon. Could it happen by 2029?.

    To be sure, 2029 is even more than wildly unlikely, it is simply not possible. NASA's expected time line is 10 years later, by 2039...

    Feb 3, 2025

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