Sometimes, scientists’ categories for things can be a little demeaning. For example: the “failed star” designation for objects that are larger than planets but smaller than stars.
About 600 light-years away, EBLM J0555-57Ab just barely missed the failed star category. But as will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, it’s just a hair over the boundary, making it one of the smallest stars we know of.
“Failed star” is actually a factual statement — it just means something isn’t large enough to manage to bang hydrogen atoms together to form helium, the basic process at the heart of a burning star.
EBLM J0555-57Ab looks a bit like it shouldn’t have made the cut: It’s only a tiny bit larger than Saturn, or about one-twelfth the size of our sun. Read more (7/12/17)
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did u know when its dark u can see stars on earth isn't that rad u just go outside and wow look up there all those pretty stars that aren’t the sun wow the sun just has to go and hide them during the day but at night wowie just look at all of em up there just wow we’re so small compared to space
This might be my favourite iteration of this meme.
Humans are wrecking Earth so badly that we actually look at Mars (¾ths the size of Earth, devoid of natural resources, and inhospitable for life) optimistically for our future.
good one Neil we’re gonna start an interplanetary war after the aliens discover we named their planet Dopey
It’s weird to think that nighttime is the natural state of the universe and daytime is only caused by a nearby, radiating ball of flame.
nathaniel russell
what language do they speak at the center of the earth
tomorrow is the big day. #showyoursupport by putting the hashtags, #stopoppressingpluto and #letplutobeitself2k16 random places until people ask you politely to please stop. this has been a psa. pluto out.
welcome to my space space (see what i did there) (space means two different things)
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