More Things in the Sky: What are They?

[Gokul43201]

More "Things in the Sky"

RULES:
1. Each person may attempt to answer only 1 question. If there are unanswered questions in say, two days, I'll announce a free-for-all, whence everyone may go for all the remaining ones.

2. You may Google all but the last question. Some of the questions are mildly Google-proof; the last one is positively Google friendly.

3. No need for invisible ink.

4. First person to break rule #1 gets to wear the PF dunce hat.

THE QUESTIONS:

1. This heavenly body - the first of its kind to be discovered - was named after a Roman Goddess that is said to have secretly gotten cozy with Jupiter. Name it.

2. This nearly 3,000-mile wide dark band separates A and B. What is the band called?

3. A distance from planetary center of about 1.2 times the planet's diameter is a dangerous place for its moon to get to. What is this critical distance called?

4. This Astronomer Royal was rightfully a broad-shouldered giant, but would probably have wanted no part of that association. Who?

5. Easy one. Complete the missing parts of the sequence : O _ A _ G _ M
And for a bonus point, throw in the missing members of the lesser known series W _ _ C _ D

6. I've been told that Hell is actually located at about 32S 8W and is only 20 miles across. If I started from say, Orlando, Florida (USA), roughly how far will I have to travel before I can proclaim that I'm in Hell?

7. This amateur British astronomer who discovered 5 comets and 5 novae died recently. The secret to his success was simple, and simply amazing! He had memorized the positions and patterns of thousands upon thousands of celestial objects. When something came along that wasn't in his head, there was a reasonably good chance that it hadn't been discovered yet.

Who is this astronomical wizard who did what no one could have imagined possible under cloudy British skies?

8. Fill in the missing pair of words:
That errant gang
And their ___ ___
Why aid them and abet them?

 

[George Jones]

3. A distance from plantary center of about 1.2 times the planet's diameter is a dangerous place for its moon to get to. What is this critical distance called?

I'll take a shot at this without Google.

Roche limit.

 

[Astronuc]

2. This nearly 3,000-mile wide dark band separates A and B. What is the band called?

Cassini Division in Saturn's Rings.

Moons within the Roche limit are pulled apart by tidal forces due to the gravity field of the larger planetary mass.

The first sequence in #5 is easy. And the second one is also fairly straight forward. A really bright person should get them in a twinkle.

#7 He was 88 and had memorised the positions and brightnesses of over 30,000 stars.

 

[Gokul43201]

Correct, George and Astro.

Two down; six to go.

 

[DaveC426913]

#5. WOBAFGKMRNS.

I memorized this in grade school. It's easy to remember when you make it like a rhyme:

WOB
AFG
KMRNS.

 

[George Jones]

One of the standard ways to remember OBAFGKMRNS is

Oh Be A Fine Girl/Guy, Kiss Me Right Now Smack.

 

[Gokul43201]

Yeah, I only knew the kissing mnemonic! And it didn't have RNS in it - I learned those separately, as part of WLTC(RN)SD.

With Dave's answer, that's 3 questions down.

Still standing : 1, 4, 6, 7, 8

 

[Moonbear]

I'll give it a try, but I think it's a Greek name, not a Roman name I came up with for #1 (but maybe that's the google-proofing).

#1: Io

If Jupiter had been a tad less promiscuous, that might be an easier question!

 

[NoTime]

Last I heard Hell was in Michigan.
Somewhat over 1000mi from Orlando.

 

[neutrino]

Ok, here's a guess for #8

That errant gang
And their Big Bang
Why aid them and abet them?

 

[hellraiser]

7 George Alcock

 

[Math Is Hard]

#4
I'll go with John Flamsteed. Not a happy camper.

 

[Astronuc]

Yeah, I only knew the kissing mnemonic! And it didn't have RNS in it - I learned those separately, as part of WLTC(RN)SD.

The second mnemonic applies to "Spectral types for rare stars" with W for Wolf-Rayet stars.

I learned the first mnemonic as OBAFGKMRNS, but apparently it has been separated into two sets, OBAFGKM and WLTCSD, where C = R,N.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_Classification

 

[Gokul43201]

I'll give it a try, but I think it's a Greek name, not a Roman name I came up with for #1 (but maybe that's the google-proofing).

#1: Io

If Jupiter had been a tad less promiscuous, that might be an easier question!

Sorry Moonie, that's not it. And yes, I tried to make it so that if you did want to use Google, it would take some effort - this particular one was hard.

But here a hint for y'all : The mythological bit in the question is actually an astronomical clue as well (and may well be why the name was chosen).

 

[Gokul43201]

Last I heard Hell was in Michigan.
Somewhat over 1000mi from Orlando.

No, notime. That ain't it - for one thing, the co-ordinates don't match.

 

[Gokul43201]

Ok, here's a guess for #8

That errant gang
And their Big Bang
Why aid them and abet them?

Correct.

This is from a poem written by George Gamow's wife, caricaturing the hot debate between the Big Bang folk (Gamow, Lemaitre, Ryle, Hewish) and the Steady State folk (Bondi, Gold, Hoyle) way back in the 50s.

Since the poem is found all over the internet, I trust there are no copyright issues with posting it here in its entirety.

"Your years of toil,"
Said Ryle to Hoyle,
"Are wasted years, believe me.
The steady state
Is out of date.
Unless my eyes decieve me,
My telescope
Has dashed your hope;
Your tenets are refuted.
Let me be terse::
Our universe
Grows daily more diluted!"
Said Hoyle, "You quote
Lemaitre, I note,
And Gamow. Well, forget them!
That errant gang
And their Big Bang --
Why aid them, and abet them?
You see, my friend,
It has no end
And there was no beginning,
As Bondi, Gold,
And I will hold
Until our hair is thinning!"

 

[Integral]

1. Venus..

 

[Gokul43201]

7 George Alcock

Correct.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1081747.stm

#4
I'll go with John Flamsteed. Not a happy camper.

Correct. The "broad-shouldered giant" reference was a hint to the connection with Newton. In fact, it was most of Flamsteed's very careful measurements of lunar trajectories that Newton used in his unification of terrestrial gravity with celestial gravity.

And then there's this (from the wiki on Flamsteed):

Flamsteed is also remembered for his conflicts with Isaac Newton, then President of the Royal Society, who attempted to steal some of Flamsteed's findings for his own work. Newton tricked Flamsteed through an edict from the King, and in 1712 Newton and Edmond Halley published a preliminary version of Flamsteed's Historia Coelestis Britannica without crediting the author. Some years later, Flamsteed managed to buy most copies of the book, and publicly burnt them in front of the Royal Observatory. However, the numerical star designations in this book are still used and are known as Flamsteed designations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Flamsteed

Integral: No it's not Venus.

 

[DaveC426913]

6. That's the last known location of the fabled Spidermonkey Island. Has it been renamed?

 

[dav2008]

Andromeda.

 

[Gokul43201]

Andromeda.

Not that either.

As for #6, (and this is now a give-away) we're still talking about "things in the sky".

And to make #1 a lot easier, think about who gets close to Jupiter. (some of you may have been looking in the demeterically opposite direction)

So, with that, let me call it a FREE FOR ALL !

Q1 and Q6 (the tough ones - probably because they involve a lot of concoction on my part) are still open. Those that have tried before can try again, and again...

 

[neutrino]

#1 Europa, and I need atleast ten characters to post this message.

 

[Gokul43201]

Nope, not Europa.

Extra hint (for the previous hint) : I may not be a Katherine Close, but I'm not terrible either.

 

[neutrino]

Nope, not Europa.

Oooh...I didn't read the "first of its kind" part. Is Ceres the answer you were looking for?

 

[Astronuc]

Oooh...I didn't read the "first of its kind" part. Is Ceres the answer you were looking for?

That would seem to be it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres

Ceres is said to have been adopted by Jupiter, but he fell in love with her and they had many passionate nights without anyone knowing.

It was discovered on January 1, 1801, by Giuseppe Piazzi. With a diameter of about 950 km it is by far the largest and most massive asteroid in the asteroid belt: It contains approximately a third of the belt's total mass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_Ceres
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_Ceres#Discovery

 

[neutrino]

Thanks for the confirmation, Astronuc. :)

The thing that Ceres is remembered for, apart from the fact that it is the largest of its kind, is the prediction Gauss made after it was hidden by the Sun's glare.

 

[Gokul43201]

Thanks for the confirmation, Astronuc. :)

The thing that Ceres is remembered for, apart from the fact that it is the largest of its kind, is the prediction Gauss made after it was hidden by the Sun's glare.

It most certainly is. The challenge of Ceres is the one thing that quickly associates Gauss with astronomy; when in fact Gauss was probably the foremost theoretical astronomer at the time (in fact, was he heading the Astronomy chair at Gottingen?). By using new tricks to calculate in a matter of hours, the same orbits that it took other contemporaries several days to figure out, he sort of put the rest of the gang to shame.

Also, in regards to my previous clue, Ceres is the Roman equivalent of the Greek Goddess Demeter.

So now, it's the race to Hell.

 

[George Jones]

So now, it's the race to Hell.

Approximately 380,000 kilometres - being Canadian I don't know what a mile is.

 

[Astronuc]

From Orlando, FL, about 384,403 kilometers (238,857 miles), the average distance from the Moon to the Earth.

Coordinates 32.4° S 7.8° W on the Moon.

Hell is a lunar crater that is located in the southern part of the Moon's near side, within the western half of the enormous Deslandres basin. To the southeast, also within the Deslandres basin, is the larger Lexell crater.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_(crater)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon

 

[neutrino]

So now, it's the race to Hell.

Looks like a close finish to me.

 

[Gokul43201]

Approximately 380,000 kilometres - being Canadian I don't know what a mile is.

That's good enough for me.

Good game folks!

 

[NoTime]

It's nice to know that we have a choice of Hells.

 

[Evo]

More quizzes!

 

[Gokul43201]

Same theme or different?

 

[Evo]

Same theme or different?

Any theme. Science, classical music.

Let's not let these minds stagnate over the summer.

I'd like to see Space Tiger come up with one.

Marlon promised one on classical music.

If I do one on music, it's going to have Madame Butterfly, Maria Callas and Kiri Te Kanawa. Maybe some Bugs Bunny thrown in "Kill da wabbitt" from Wagner. Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Or "three little Maids" from the "Mikado"

ARTIST: Gilbert and Sullivan
TITLE: Three Little Maids from School
Lyrics

[Mikado]

Three little maids from school are we
Pert as a school-girl well can be
Filled to the brim with girlish glee
Three little maids from school

Everything is a source of fun
Nobody's safe, for we care for none
Life is a joke that's just begun
Three little maids from school

Three little maids who, all unwary
Come from a ladies' seminary
Freed from its genius tutelary
Three little maids from school
Three little maids from school

One little maid is a bride, Yum-Yum
Two little maids in attendance come
Three little maids is the total sum
Three little maids from school
Three little maids from school

It is probably best to take this sort of thing out of my hands.