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Solar system a bit squashed, not nicely round
reuters.com — By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The solar system may not be a nice round shape, but rather a bit squashed and oblong, according to data from the Voyager 2 spacecraft exploring the solar system's outer limits, scientists said on Wednesday.
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- ohnoerino, on 07/03/2008, -1/+4That's interesting but I'm a bit confused. Did scientists originally think it was a big round bubble? Or, was that just an assumption in general?
- i208khonsu, on 07/03/2008, -2/+1Exactly. I'm pretty sure it's commonly accepted that the solar system, much like the galaxy, is shaped like a pancake. Not a baloon.
- counterpt, on 07/03/2008, -0/+2Since the sun expels matter in a uniform spherical way (solar wind), a spherical system was assumed until now.
- Scynet, on 07/03/2008, -0/+1Hijacking a bit, but many seem confused. This isn't about the orbits of planets and other objects, but about the "bubble" that is formed by solar winds:
http://www.phy.olemiss.edu/~luca/astr/Topics-Extra ...
- Twizlex, on 07/03/2008, -1/+10I thought it was kinda common sense that it wasn't round. Strange how stuff like that works.
- kentifer, on 07/03/2008, -1/+4I thought we already figured that out years ago. I could have sworn I've heard this before, a while ago.
- kd420, on 07/03/2008, -5/+3Didn't Kepler propose elliptical orbits? Haven't we modeled orbits as ellipsis ever since? Though I wouldn't say its worthless news, its certainly not surprising.
- Enochulator, on 07/03/2008, -2/+2Buried as old news.
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/1296/space-prob ...- Elshar, on 07/03/2008, -0/+1Not to mention this was just on the front page
http://digg.com/space/Pictures_Reveal_Solar_System ... - Spetz, on 07/03/2008, -0/+1I'm sure this was confirmed even longer ago by the Pioneer probes right?
- Elshar, on 07/03/2008, -0/+1Not to mention this was just on the front page
- mcbunn, on 07/03/2008, -0/+1Newsflash: the universe is not a cube.
- Teck64, on 07/03/2008, -0/+3so we are inside some ***** EGG! Hope it's not breakfast.
- earthforce1, on 07/03/2008, -0/+6I hope the probes instrumentation are still working when they cross the heliopause, and reach interstellar space....
http://www.darkstar1.co.uk/heliopause.html - billbugger, on 07/03/2008, -1/+1did that story really need 2 pages?!?
i went back to the first page and spam-clicked all the advertisements. - dwright99, on 07/03/2008, -0/+1Well, I still like it.
- justice7, on 07/03/2008, -0/+2i'm pretty sure we originally thought of it as an oval, but now its kind of an egg shape with a flat spot
- nesagwa, on 07/03/2008, -2/+0Newton proposed (and um, kind of proved with all that math stuff) an ellipse and every model (or gravity simulator) Ive ever seen has been an egg shape already.
- Phoenix219, on 07/03/2008, -4/+1How is this news? It's been a well known fact that planets don't travel in a perfect circle around the sun for years. They travel in an elliptical path. I can remember this being in old science textbooks from 1974...
- FearlessFreep, on 07/03/2008, -0/+6They're not talking the orbit of planets, they are talking about the shape of the Heliosphere
- schneb, on 07/03/2008, -0/+2I thought Voyager was swallowed up by a black hole only to return as VGER?
- kidwithsword, on 07/03/2008, -3/+1WTF? I learned that the solar system is pretty much flat when I was in 6th grade. Scientists thought it was "round?" What fags...
- TheGuruStud, on 07/03/2008, -0/+1Is this extra retarded day on digg or what? Who said anything about planets you dumb *****?
- elscorcho717, on 07/03/2008, -2/+1***** Copernicus! The sun revolves around the earth! TEACH THE CONTROVERSY
- EmperorAwesome, on 07/03/2008, -0/+3Did anyone read the article? This is news, as the orbit of the planets isn't what's being discussed, but the shape of the heliosphere.
- mcramer, on 07/03/2008, -0/+0I need to go back and watch my "Cosmos" DVDs...
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