A study published Nov. 6 in The Planetary Science Journal examines how NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has conducted a first-time detection of carbon dioxide in a centaur, this one designated 39P/Oterma. A centaur is a small planetary body that orbits between Jupiter and Neptune and frequently crosses the orbits of one or more of the gas giant planets within our solar system.
  • Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de
    11·
    8 months ago

    You HAD to describe what a centaur was, didn’t you? I was trying to line up a good joke, clicked, read the blurb, and deflated. Instead I learned something new, there are centaurs in space!

    • comicallycluttered@beehaw.org
      7·
      8 months ago

      centaurs in space!

      I can imagine the '50s B-movie poster already.

      Blonde woman in an astronaut suit (no helmet, obvs), beautiful face clearly shown expressing her awe, riding the back of a centaur and clutching his muscled human half as he’s trotting over a planet or moon.

      Also, he’s aiming a bow with a laser arrow at a space monster.

      (Jesus, did I just write an AI prompt? Also, half of that works for a centaur romance novel as well.)