#planets
A #mini-planet orbiting in the frigid #outer reaches of the #solarsystem has a #Saturn-like #ring of #dust and #debris that #defies the rules of #physics, a new study has #revealed.
The planet in question is called #Quaoar and it's the #seventh largest of the known #dwarf #planets of which #Pluto is the #king. #Discovered in #2002 and about 697 miles wide (1,121 kilometers), Quaoar is one of the so-called #trans-Neptunian objects, small planets orbiting #beyond the solar system's outermost planet #Neptune.
Residing in the #KuiperBelt, the doughnut-shaped ring of rocky and icy debris in the outer solar system, Quaoar is a proud owner of its own #moon, the 100-mile-wide (160 km) #Weywot. And a recent observation campaign revealed that it also has a ring of material in its orbit.
That by itself wouldn't be so special. The gas giant Saturn is known to possess a whole series of rings. #Jupiter, Neptune and #Uranus also have some. One other trans-Neptunian object — #Haumea — has been found to have a ring, and the space rock #Chariklo that orbits between #Saturn and #Uranus also has one. So what exactly sets Quaoar's ring apart?
Related: Dwarf planets: science & facts about the solar system’s smaller worlds
Quaoar's ring is at a very unusual #distance from its parent body. In fact, before astronomers discovered Quaoar's ring in observations from several telescopes conducted between 2018 and 2021, they had thought that it was impossible for a ring to exist at such a distance. With a radius of about 2,420 miles (3,885 km) from Quaoar's center, the ring is too far away from the dwarf planet that its gravity should no longer be able to keep the material dispersed. Instead, it should coalesce under its own gravity and form another moon, just like Weywot. By not having done that, the ring has breached what astronomers call the Roche limit, the first known ring around a #celestial body to have done so.
"What is so intriguing about this discovery around Quaoar is that the ring of material is much farther out than the Roche limit," Giovanni Bruno, an astronomer at Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and one of the authors of the paper, said in a European #Space Agency (ESA) statement. "As a result of our observations, the classical notion that dense rings survive only inside the Roche limit of a planetary body must be thoroughly revised."
The ring was discovered during a series of occultations, essentially eclipses, when Quaoar passed between Earth and several more distant but much brighter stars. When an occultation occurs, the light of the background star temporarily dims. The effect is only visible to very sensitive telescopes and is frequently used to detect exoplanets orbiting stars in our Milky Way galaxy, which is why ESA's exoplanet hunter Cheops was among the telescopes watching these Quaoar occultations.
When astronomers analyzed the data, they realized that apart from the main dip in the background stars' brightness, they could detect two smaller drops. Since drops occurred before and after the main occultation, respectively, the researchers thought that Quaoar must be surrounded with a ring.
Several Earth-based telescopes also observed the occultations with similar results, but Cheops' data were particularly valuable as they proved that the odd dimmings were not caused by the effects of Earth's atmosphere.
https://www.space.com/mysterious-ring-around-dwarf-planet-puzzles-astronomers
#PDS70: #Disk, #Planets, and #Moons
#Astronomy #Picture of the Day
As the nine nights represent the #nine #planets, we will be having a #planetary #celebration of #Navaratri with an account of one of the planets for each of the nine nights. The first planet is The #Sun. The colour for the first day of Navaratri is #ORANGE, so we shall scribe in Orange for this first day’s observance of Navaratri.
Today is the first day of the Navaratri celebrations which are held for nine days (Nava Rathrulu). All festivals are meant to remind mankind that they should cultivate noble qualities by engaging themselves in activities beneficial to one’s own self and society. Sai Baba made reference to Navaratri and the Nine Planets:
As part of Navaratri celebrations, people worship different forms of divinity. You should develop sacred feelings and experience divinity. What is the inner meaning of Navaratri celebrations? These nine nights represent nine planets. Each planet has its own significance. However, these planets are not outside, they are within. If your feelings are impure and unsacred, the result also will be the same. You are responsible for the good and bad you think and experience.
The Sun, self-effulgent, radiating light and heat along a perennial, eternal path of righteousness, reflecting the eternal order of the Universe. The Sun is a fragment of the Central Sun of all Universes, and thus, radiates the life-force of all to all, without fear or favour. The Sun God grants refuge to all who seek refuge.
There are numerous galaxies, containing thousands of Suns and solar systems. The Sun that we have for our solar system is one of the many Suns though there has to be one final Sun who is eternal and carries out the functions of the Sun for all the manifest worlds and universes. Our Sun, Surya, as representative of the eternal Sun is no different from that eternal Sun itself. The eternal sun at the macro-cosmic level is the same as the Sol, the Surya within our solar system. The fire, the light within our bodies is but a spark of the eternal sun within, called Suryanarayana, the Sun that dwells within all.
Day One
#Goddess #Sailiputra - daughter of the Himalayas
The Divine Mothers are known as the Nava #Durga (9 Names of Durga). Each of the days honours an aspect of #Divine Mother and step by step the aspirant. On the first day, we honour Durga as Sailaputra – Daughter of the Himalayas.
Sailaputra was born to Himavat the King of Himalaya. Putri means daughter and Shail from shaila means mountain. Sailaputra means the daughter of the mountain. She is also known as Sati Bhavani, Parvati or Hemavati. In her previous birth, she was a daughter of Daksha.
She is also known as #Parvati and Hemavati. Her vahana is the bull, hence she is also known as Vrisharudha. Because of Her importance amongst the other Goddesses, She is worshipped on the very first day of Navaratri. Just like Goddess Satieven Sailaputra got married to Lord Shiva. She is always shown with two hands, the right hand holds a Trishul and the left hand holds a lotus flower.
Humans are both masculine and feminine in their inner nature. All have X and Y chromosomes; it is the final pairing of chromosomes that determines our gender. Depth psychologists teach that in the male, the soul is the feminine principle, and in the female, the soul is the masculine principle. The psychologists tell us to honour these principles within in order that we have a balanced self-respect. Sai Baba spoke above about the planets these planets are not outside, they are within; the Sun is called Sol, just as the Soul within is the self effulgent inner sun within us.
The outer Sun also is a Mother principle within us all. Just as the cow is Go-Matha and all that comes to us from the cow – the milk provides ghee which has many uses; the urine is antiseptic and can be used for washing and purifying; the cow-pats have many uses including fuel for cooking. So also, the Sun as Mother gives us nurturance with warmth and heat; it creates new life in nature with sunlight, and it gives essential light energy to us all, within and without, for the Sun is Suryanarayana, the inner Sun within us all.
We may pray for the feminine energy of the Sun like so:
Om Bhaskaraya Vidmahe
Maha Divyakaraya Dheemahe
Tanno Surya Prachodayat.
Significance of Navaratri
Navaratri means nine nights. Darkness is associated with night. What is this darkness? It is the darkness of ignorance. The purpose of the Navaratri celebration is to enable man to get rid of nine types of darkness which have taken hold of him. When a reference is made to Devi, it signifies the unified form of Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. The three together represent Shakti. Shakti is the energy that accounts for all the phenomena of Prakriti (Nature). Nature is energy and the controller of that energy is the Lord.
Prakriti (Nature) is made up of the three qualities, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Saraswati represents the Sattwa Guna. Lakshmi represents the Rajo Guna and Parvati represents the Tamo Guna. As Prakriti (Nature) is made up of these three qualities (Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas), to get control over Nature, man has been offering worship to Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. These are not goddesses but deified symbols of the three qualities. (Sri Sathya Sai Baba, 27 September 1992)
Discovery of #Jumbos may herald new astronomical category | #Space | The Guardian
#Astronomy #JupiterMassBinaryObjects #JWST #Planets #Exoplanets
#Vedic #Astrology assigns deities to #planets, and according to the #ancient #palm #leaf called Vasistha Nadi, the names of the grahas or planets (yet to be discovered) would be #Prajapati ( #Uranus), #Varuna ( #Neptune), and #Yama ( #Pluto). As Neptune is moving from #Aquarius to Pisces, we focus on the effects of Neptune, with Varuna as Presiding Deity.
Varuna Peyarchi: Neptune to Pisces
On 18-19 February 2023, Neptune transited from Aquarius to Pisces and is currently sandhi 0.00° Pisces (deprived of energy) where it will remain for a little more than three weeks. Sandi means “deprived of energy” so the effect of Neptune moving to Pisces will not be pronounced for some time.
As referenced earlier, we look to outer planets when they change signs. Neptune has capacity for non-attachment, infinite love and beauty, charity, altruism, bliss and rapture, and awareness of divinity, transcendence of duality.
Neptune likes to transcend, to merge, to flow, to melt, to yield. Neptune can accept changes, allow a changing environment, and can love selflessly and impersonally. This is an important capacity of Neptune, for most young people and youth take love as a matter of possession and territory – possession of someone’s mind, and territory of their body. Nothing could be further from love. Dreams of love and idealism, infatuation and attachment all have to have both feet on the ground and squarely detached with your own boundaries intact around YOU.
Neptune is traditionally seen as the planet that imagines, envisions, dreams and inspires. While Neptune offers all that, and more: to fantasize, to heighten, one has to keep their feet on the ground or end up helpless, spaced out, dissolving into chaos, and prey to drugs and the unconscious mind. One can self-destruct, abdicate all responsibility and end up sabotaging themselves. While Neptune – always near the Collective Unconscious – offers access to the psychic realms, and psi experiences – these can all be achieved with self discipline, self-control and self-respect. Psychedelic drugs and the like are not necessary to achieve this. You can reach the same high meditating as those people who tell they get a high using bongs.
What will Neptune’s transit in Pisces bring? One would hope for a gentler, kinder, more spiritually inspired world. However, this is not historically what we have seen before. Neptune represents secret plots, rebellions, and sedition, and Neptune in Pisces will be a time of tremendous idealism associated with an urge to dissolve tired old paradigms and world views in favour of a more charitable universal vision. We live in an era where significant changes have taken place (our great-grandparents would not recognise our modern, electronic world – except, perhaps, for the radio and print news. So much has changed with living, co-habitation, housing, working, travel, child-care centres and the gig economy.
Pisces is a water sign, a moksha sign, and harbours great spiritual awareness, creative achievement, and compassionate action. But when disconnected from the All, from peers, society and culture, in its lower expression, Pisces has a tendency for escapism, deception, and delusion. This is the signification of the fish going in two directions, we can pull towards separation and duality, we can pull towards the experience of everything is Atma, and the lifting of the veil of illusion.
#Neptune in #Pisces provides the impetus towards transcendence of duality, unity consciousness, surrender and non-attachment. So Neptune in Pisces seeks to transcend, to merge, to surrender, to sacrifice, to let go and let God. On the other hand, Neptune seeks to dream, to inspire, to glamorise, to idealise, to imagine, to envision, to fantasise, to intuit, to enchant, to beguile. In summary, the positive benefits of Neptune are accessed when we are grounded and following dharma.
About #Lord #Varuna
Lord Varuna
Lord Varuna is revered in Hinduism as the God of water and his sway extends to the underwater world. The Hindu Goddess Varuni is his consort and a Makara serves as his mount. According to the Puranas, he is the son of sage Kashyapa and one of the twelve Gods considered as Adityas, owing to their origin from the Mother of Gods, Aditi. Varuna possesses the lordship of the waters and was entrusted with the task of overseeing the clouds and rains. He is thus known as the king of waters and controls the Oceans, Seas, Rivers, and all other water bodies. During the Mahabharata period, the great Pandava, Arjuna was hailed as the son of Lord Varuna. It is also widely believed that praying to him protects us from thunder and lighting.
Varuna #Gayatri
Aum Jalabimbaye Vidmahe
Nila Purushaye Dhimahi
Tanno Varunah Prachodayat
Om, Let us meditate on the reflection of water
O person of ocean blue, give me higher intellect
And let the God of water illuminate my mind
Before the launch of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) in 1995, astronomers had never seen anything like this. Behold, a #solar #storm passing directly in front of the #Pleiades:
SOHO recorded this rare conjunction on May 21st. An erupting filament of magnetism near the sun's north pole propelled the #CME into space just as the #SevenSisters were passing by. #Electra, #Taygete, #Maia, #Celaeno, #Alcyone, #Sterope, and #Merope spent nearly three hours shining through the translucent solar storm.
When SOHO left Earth almost 30 years ago, it carried the first realtime #coronagraph into #space. Coronagraphs are devices that create an #artificial #eclipse, blocking the glare of the #sun to reveal nearby #stars, #planets, and #comets. No telescope on Earth could see something as faint as the Pleiades only a few degrees from the sun, but SOHO does it all the time.
https://spaceweather.com/
If Jupiter were a Star
Because in SF there are often Double Star/Sun systems I've always tried to visualize it in my mind....have never really been able to but maybe just got a glimmer of how they would move...not necessarily from this article, but it got me thinking. :)
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-newborn-jupiter-could-have-been-bright-enough-to-bake-its-moons
