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from the changing-our-understanding-of-the-universe dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
[...] Renowned astrophysicist and National Medal of Science awardee Vera Rubin passed away in Princeton N.J., the evening of December 25, 2016, at the age of 88. Rubin confirmed the existence of dark matter—the invisible material that makes up more than 90% of the mass of the universe. She was a retired staff astronomer at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism in Washington, D.C.
"Vera Rubin was a national treasure as an accomplished astronomer and a wonderful role model for young scientists," remarked Carnegie president Matthew Scott. "We are very saddened by this loss."
In the 1960s, Rubin's interest in how stars orbit their galactic centers led her and colleague Kent Ford to study the Andromeda galaxy, M31, a nearby spiral. The two scientists wanted to determine the distribution of mass in M31 by looking at the orbital speeds of stars and gas at varying distances from the galactic center. They expected the speeds to conform to Newtonian gravitational theory, whereby an object farther from its central mass orbits slower than those closer in. To their surprise, the scientists found that stars far from the center traveled as fast as those near the center.
After observing dozens more galaxies by the 1970s, Rubin and colleagues found that something other than the visible mass was responsible for the stars' motions. Each spiral galaxy is embedded in a "halo" of dark matter—material that does not emit light and extends beyond the optical galaxy. They found it contains 5 to 10 times as much mass as the luminous galaxy. As a result of Rubin's groundbreaking work, it has become apparent that more than 90% of the universe is composed of this invisible material. The first inkling that dark matter existed came in 1933 when Swiss astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky of Caltech proposed it. But it was not until Rubin's work that dark matter was confirmed.
Besides her remarkable scientific contributions, as noted by colleague Neta Bahcall of Princeton University: "Vera was an amazing scientist and an amazing human being. A pioneering astronomer, the 'mother' of flat rotation curves and dark-matter, a champion of women in science, a mentor and role model to generations of astronomers."
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @01:44AM
It's the holiday season and it took ages for anybody to submit the summary.
There's more folks interested in Star Wars than are interested enough and knowledgeable enough about her accomplishments to cover it.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday December 30 2016, @01:54AM
You miss my point. Happened 3 days ago and I'm guessing 90% of Soylent readers had already heard of it. Either greenlight it within 24 hours, or admit you lost it and pass.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 4, Informative) by edIII on Friday December 30 2016, @02:53AM
Apparently everyone else missed mine. You could submit it, and could've submitted it 3 days ago. I admonished others in the same way. Everyone fucking bitching about it, but nobody fucking writing anything, submitting anything, etc.
Staff came out and said this was submitted via IRC and slated for, wait for it, *right now*. If you objected so damn much, like somebody else in Carrie Fisher's thread, you could have been submitting it too.
All that bitching, and no submitting. I left it alone because it was already in the queue finally and had no idea what to write. Apparently, you may have had an idea.
A bunch of entitled mother fuckers around here. Almost as if it was a paid for site by you, with paid staff, or ran completely automatically. This site is as good as the comments and the submissions.
SO SUBMIT!
Geez
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Friday December 30 2016, @03:25AM
Apparently, i'm one of the 10% who have missed this due to family, work, holiday celebrating, Apples to Apples, Catan, euchre, etc.
I don't know how people can bitch and whine about this site: it may not be big and professional like GNU, (lol),but i like it. I wish i were rich, so i could pay some people here, but i'm not, so i either submit or i don't bitch about submissions.
Time is so precious that there are times i come here just to catch up on the nerd stuff.
Keep it up, Soylent staff. And brush away the whine. (I like red whine, by the way). :)
At least when i read something here, i get all sides (i even like hearing the Trump vs HRC stuff) and i get informed. When i read, say, CNN, i get one side.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @04:42AM
I'm fine with this story, and even many of the "non news for nerds" ones. Not everything has to be about black hole event horizons and such.
I'd appreciate no more non-tech political flamebait that is just a welcome mat for all the usual rants. Even if the submitter was passionate about the story - of course, he wants to join in the rants.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Friday December 30 2016, @05:12AM
Look pal, most of us let the green site over shit like what you are pulling.
Nobody has named you the emperor of Soylent, so turn it down a bit.
I did not reply to your previous comment, whcih I found authoritarian (I giving jelizondo an hour!) out of courtesy.
But now I see you have some stuff up your ass, so go have a shit and stop being an arse.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday December 30 2016, @05:52AM
What am I pulling again? Calling you on your stupid abusive bullshit? Fuck you pal.
Then leave this site. We don't need fuckers that abuse the site, complain about when articles appear, don't appear, whatever. YOU had the power to submit something, but instead needed to inappropriately admonish the staff during an article about somebody else's death.
I'm not acting like the emperor, but a fucking tour guide if anything. Explaining to your stupid fucking ass how the site works, how you can submit stories, etc.
Fuck all you fucking whiners that don't step up to contribute to the site, but complain about it, wheeeeeeennnnn those very same contributions would eliminate your complaints.
In other words, shut the fuck up you backseat driving mother fucker.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday December 30 2016, @02:40PM
This is how you know what edIII is saying is true. A person paid to edit a site like this would never tell you to go fuck yourself.
This is a community built by volunteers. They react like any normal person would to jabs. In case critics on this incident have never volunteered for anything before, an all-volunteer endeavor is only as good as the will of the community to pitch in and, you know, volunteer.
Step up and offer to fix any gaps in the community you perceive. Complaints without action are worth nothing. If you don't have 5 minutes to submit the story you feel is missing, then the most the volunteers can be expected to entertain is constructive criticism, delivered in the friendliest, gentlest manner possible.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Friday December 30 2016, @04:27PM
Apparently you believe that submitting stories is all there is. I see three components: submitting stories, posting comments and financial support.
I object to your calling Soylentils “entitled mother fuckers” for not submitting stories, that reduces the level of conversation at Soylent to that of 4chan and insults those of us who post comments and provide financial support, which is two-thirds of Soylent.
I object to your “admonishing” people. It is a curious choice of words, why not ask, request or appeal? That verb is used by someone in power talking to an underling.
So get a grip. Get a life.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday December 31 2016, @01:21AM
Again, fuck you. Your complaint was unwarranted and stupid. You could submit the story. It was obviously important to you.
Yes, you come off as an entitled mother fucker when you *specifically* complain about the lack of a story when you are very able to submit same story.
Nothing you can say can erase the stupidity of your original post, and how baseless and offensive your attacks against SN were.
Step up, or shut up.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Saturday December 31 2016, @06:37AM
Fuck you too, you motherfucker!
If that is the level of conversation you're used to, fine I can deal with cocksuckers like you all day.
I'm too fucking old to be scared by childish foul language.
Now go and take that giant cock off your ass.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday December 30 2016, @08:35AM
I don't. Other submitting stories as it takes hours, if not days, to appear on the front page.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday December 30 2016, @02:34PM
My goodness. It was done this way so the editors and others could take time off over Christmas to spend time with their families. It was by design this time. Normally you can submit a story and see it appear on the front page before the end of the day (end of the day defined globally, because Soylentils live all over the world).
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Sunday January 01 2017, @03:05AM
The submit queue tends to normally have stories stacked up for 24 hours at least, because of this desire to have continuous drip feeding of stories.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday December 30 2016, @02:31PM
Snotnose, part of that might be my fault. In the week leading up to Christmas I submitted something like 67 stories and encouraged others to submit, too, so the editors could schedule them in and take time off to be with their families over the holiday. They interleaved those with submissions from many others (thanks for submitting, everyone), so I'm sure the story queue was on automatic for at least a couple days past Christmas. In fact I think edIII said as much a couple days ago when the first complaints about not reporting Vera's death surfaced.
So I think we're looking at a heavily front-loaded queue and a major holiday when people were AFK. You might consider that and cut everyone a little slack on this one. You could also step up and submit or help out when you see a deficiency that's bothering you, because this is a community site built by volunteers.
Washington DC delenda est.