The discussion centers around the recent confirmation of "ghost moons," which are described as clouds of interplanetary dust orbiting the Earth. Participants explore the implications of this discovery, the nature of these clouds, and the challenges associated with observing them. The conversation touches on theoretical, observational, and conceptual aspects of this phenomenon.
Participants express a range of views on the existence and characteristics of the ghost moons, with no consensus reached. Some participants are skeptical about the claims made regarding the clouds, while others are more open to the possibility of their existence.
Limitations include the dependence on observational data that may be incomplete or inconclusive, as well as the challenges in defining and verifying the existence of the clouds. The discussion also highlights the complexity of the dynamics involved in the Lagrange points and the influence of solar forces on these clouds.
You see why I chose to post this in Gen. Disc.? Weather Channel doesn't seem to be aware of the solar wind; perhaps it's a statistical effect centered at the Lagrange points, residence times of specific particles being immaterial?jedishrfu said:Weather Channel video
Bystander said:You see why I chose to post this in Gen. Disc.? Weather Channel doesn't seem to be aware of the solar wind; perhaps it's a statistical effect centered at the Lagrange points, residence times of specific particles being immaterial?
bold by meweather.com/news said:Astronomers says they’ve confirmed the existence of two big clouds of interplanetary dust that orbit the Earth at the same distance as the moon.
At these distances and "argued/arguable" existence? Not very.dlgoff said:how massive
but of coarse where is the documentation for such observations if it was actually the clouds the |people" were witnessing.They are very difficult to observe from Earth but may be visible to the unaided eye in an exceptionally dark and clear night sky. More claimed observations have been made from deserts, at sea, or from mountains. The clouds appear somewhat redder than the gegenschein,
"Thin, watery, watery, watery."256bits said:very faint, and wispy,
For @dlgoff , "The Japanese Hiten space probe (using the Munich Dust Counter, an impact ionization detector designed to determine mass and velocity of cosmic dust) has passed through the L4 and L5 points of the Earth and Moon system, but did not find an obvious increase in dust concentration compared to the surrounding space (Igenbergs et al. 2012)." ; from the discussion section.256bits said:
Veerrryyyy much so.mjc123 said:Typical of pop-science journalism?
That pretty much tells me it's BS. IMOBystander said:For @dlgoff , "The Japanese Hiten space probe (using the Munich Dust Counter, an impact ionization detector designed to determine mass and velocity of cosmic dust) has passed through the L4 and L5 points of the Earth and Moon system, but did not find an obvious increase in dust concentration compared to the surrounding space (Igenbergs et al. 2012)." ; from the discussion section.
Especially when the earth-moon system is the discussion for the clouds.mjc123 said:I notice the link in #1 illustrates with a diagram of the LaGrangian [sic] points in the Sun-Earth system. Typical of pop-science journalism?
The Sun–Earth L4 and L5 points contain interplanetary dust and at least one asteroid, 2010 TK7, detected in October 2010 by Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and announced during July 2011
If the "clouds" act similar to 2010 TK7, the "act as" being a supposition open to interpretation, the clouds would not be found at the designated earth-moon L point at all times. The clouds are not a rigid body, the dust having most likely a time of residence, ( which could effect a formation and breakup of the cloud ), the L4 and L5 rotate around the Earth and this would subject them to the sun's influence; all this and more I would think have the clouds having a "here today, gone tomorrow" type of life - a transient type of "object" difficult to verify as having an existence.2010 TK7 is a sub-kilometer near-Earth asteroid and the first Earth trojan discovered; it precedes Earth in its orbit around the Sun.[5][6] Trojan objects are most easily conceived as orbiting at a Lagrangian point, a dynamically stable location (where the combined gravitational force acts through the Sun's and Earth's barycenter) 60 degrees ahead of or behind a massive orbiting body, in a type of 1:1 orbital resonance. In reality, they oscillate (librate) around such a point. Such objects had previously been observed in the orbits of Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, and the Saturnian moons Tethys and Dione.
2010 TK7 has a diameter of about 300 meters (1,000 ft).[4] Its path oscillates about the Sun–Earth L4 Lagrangian point (60 degrees ahead of Earth), shuttling between its closest approach to Earth and its closest approach to the L3 point (180 degrees from Earth).
The asteroid was discovered in October 2010 by the NEOWISE team of astronomers using NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).[7]