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Stunning new time lapse video shows 12 years of exoplanets orbiting their star:
In 2008, HR8799 was the first extrasolar planetary system ever directly imaged. Now, the famed system stars in its very own video.
Using observations collected over the past 12 years, Northwestern University astrophysicist Jason Wang [northwestern.edu] has assembled a stunning time lapse video of the family of four planets — each more massive than Jupiter — orbiting their star. The video gives viewers an unprecedented glimpse into planetary motion.
"It's usually difficult to see planets in orbit," Wang said. "For example, it isn't apparent that Jupiter or Mars orbit our sun because we live in the same system and don't have a top-down view. Astronomical events either happen too quickly or too slowly to capture in a movie. But this video shows planets moving on a human time scale. I hope it enables people to enjoy something wondrous."
[...] In November 2008, HR8799 made history as the first system to have its planets directly imaged. Wang, who was instantly fascinated by the system, has been watching it ever since. He and his colleagues applied for time on the W. M. Keck Observatory, located on the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, to observe the system each year.
After seven years of observations, Wang put together imaging data to create his first time lapse video of the system. Now, armed with 12 years of imaging data, Wang released the updated video, which shows the entire time period in a condensed 4.5-second time lapse.
[...] "In astrophysics, most of the time we are doing data analysis or testing hypotheses," he said. "But this is the fun part of science. It inspires awe."
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 12 2023, @05:53AM (19 children)
I was on the staff here. Janrinok emailed the staff on September 10 saying he had proof aristarchus never created sock puppets. He was certain Runaway created all the suck puppets like the Fuck You Niggers accounts and even impersonated aristarchus. We were told to continue saying aristarchus created all the sock puppets and deny all evidence to the contrary. Janrinok said the backlash and embarrassment for being so wrong would destroy the site. I recently resigned from the staff and I want to come clean. Aristarchus was innocent. Runaway and janrinok framed him.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 12 2023, @10:16PM (18 children)
Don't know if any of this is true, but it is interesting that the admin see fit to spam mod it.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 12 2023, @11:03PM
The abuse is mostly done through moderation so staff can say it is the community deciding things instead of staff. They did give permission to spam mod aristarchus posts, so anyone criticizing soylentnews is now aristarchus and spam mods flow freely. It is pretty disgusting behavior and part of why this place is almost a ghost town. But of course it is all the criticisms of batshit crazy rightwing nonsense that are the real problem, according to janrinok anyway. Oddly janrinok claims to detest runaway's bullshit but I would then like to see janrinok's moderation history. For some reason old boomers never take even fake internet points action against rightwingers, or just call out the detestable posts. Nope, it is all the meanie pants people driving away the white supremacists /lawl
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 13 2023, @02:28AM (5 children)
How would you know who modded the comment? Please do share your source of information.
From the moderator guidelines [soylentnews.org], comments that can be spam modded include:
This exact same comment was posted in the poll and in numerous journals. Repetitive comments such as this one have always been considered spam. The comment contributes nothing to the discussion and is deserving of the spam mod it received. By the letter of the law, the comment is spam, and moderation is justified. Obviously I am not a staff member, but I see no reason why the post shouldn't be spam modded.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 13 2023, @08:09AM (4 children)
But it is not repeatative in the same thread? And not really spam, if it is actual whistleblowing? Can anyone refute these claims? Or is janrinok just trying to censor the truth-teller? How can we know, if it is spam modded to oblivion?
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 13 2023, @06:47PM (3 children)
Khallow's reply to the last comment was absolutely correct. We now know that you were behind the FYN accounts. Here are some links with to show this:
You created the FYN accounts and modded up the APK spam. Then you posted about it alleging that an admin leaked the information to you. Of course, the actual reason you knew who modded up the APK spam is because you were doing it. Once you did this, you went on IRC to discuss the supposed leak: http://logs.sylnt.us/%23soylent/2021-11-20.html [sylnt.us]. Rehash improperly converts the %23 to a #, so the link doesn't go to the correct page. However, if you copy and paste the URL text into your browser, then scroll down to see this:
You created the FYN accounts, modded up the APK spam, posted the supposed admin leak yourself, and then went on IRC to fuss about it. Given your history, you're probably also the supposed whistleblower here, referencing an email that you know doesn't exist. It certainly fits your mode of operation. You're no better than the people who make up conspiracy theories about things like vaccines, manufacture fake evidence, and then post about it online. When people don't want to waste their time refuting obvious bullshit, that is treated as more evidence supporting the bogus conspiracy theories. If that wasn't enough, you created a new batch of FYN accounts over the weekend, numbered 61-70. You're pretty much following the same playbook as copyright trolls who upload their own content to file-sharing services, then sue for piracy.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 13 2023, @08:11PM (2 children)
Triggered!! It was "aristarchus" all along! Not that Immanuel Goldstein, or V, or George
SororosSantos! Just because you are paranoid (and conservative, and fearful, and cowardly), does not mean that aristarchus is not out to get you! Now, I suggest you go and change your trousers.(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 14 2023, @12:55AM (1 child)
It is a low effort troll. Why post the exact date but not the contents of the alleged email? I don't remember the exact date of any emails I sent or received five months ago. If the person can recall the exact date of the alleged email, it suggests they probably still have access to view said email and could post its contents. That would let people analyze writing patterns to ascertain the likelihood of authenticity. The person posted it as an AC and didn't identify themselves, suggesting a desire to remain anonymous. But they were foolish enough to narrow the pool of possible suspects by indicating that they were a staff member on September 10 but resigned during the past five months. Even a bit of common sense makes it clear that this is likely a lazy bit of trolling.
As for your insinuation about my political views, here's another comment I wrote: https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=53676&cid=1291201 [soylentnews.org]. I'll let you decide for yourself if the views I express are what you'd expect from the alt-right. Your spamming, stalking, and harassment make people who share my views look bad. For that matter, Azuma Hazuki supports your political views but has slammed your actions. You claim that you got banned for criticizing the alt-right. In fact, you hadn't actually criticized the alt-right for months prior to your banning and had turned to full time spamming. The personal attacks and harassment directed at Runaway after your ban aren't criticisms of the alt-right, either. If you had stuck to actually criticizing the alt-right instead of going off the deep end of staking, you wouldn't have been banned.
You claim that janrinok is a right winger, too. In fact, he's criticized the right far more than you have over the past year. He's slammed some of Runaway's opinions. You, on the other hand, seem to just post content-free personal attacks when you're not pouting about your ban.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 14 2023, @10:47AM
Tell us more about who it is you think you are talking to. It is fascinating.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 15 2023, @10:08AM (10 children)
It is nice of Hubie to give us pure ACs a journal in which to discuss it, though. Thanks, Hubie!
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday February 15 2023, @04:15PM (2 children)
ACs have still made an effort to spoil it if you look at many of the comments. Irrelevant, off-topic and the usual AC whinges.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 16 2023, @08:20AM (1 child)
Damn ACs! Spoiling a perfectly good discussion of exo-planets, that evidently no one cares about. This is why you censored ACs, janrinok? Because they were "spoiling" discussions with irrelevant, off-topic whinges? I think you need to go discipline the Runaway some more.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday February 16 2023, @09:04AM
There are spam journals created almost everyday - nothing but a quick self-promotional advertisement. Why don't you just go and squat on one of those? You have so many ways that you can discuss things that apparently you haven't thought of yet, but apparently you feel that you have to disrupt other community members too. Or is it that you would find yourself talking to an audience of one?
Leads one to believe that having a discussion is not your aim at all....
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday February 16 2023, @08:22AM (6 children)
Oh, how short your memory is!
The actions of a small number of ACs meant that they all had to be denied access to the front page. We were aware of all of the implications of this and had solutions to the problems that ACs would be facing as a result of the ban.
If you recall, I created another account especially to publish stories in journals that you could comment in however you saw fit. I marked them specifically so that you would have somewhere to discuss things. I wrote the software for several stories a day to be copied into the journals automatically. Your ability to express yourself would be maintained. And how did you respond?
You ridiculed and scoffed at the idea. You told me that you did not want it. You told me to stop. And now, 6 months or more later, you are suddenly realising that your actions were counter to your own interests. Had you been intelligent enough you would have thought of these things a long time ago rather than just discarding any ideas that are made by people you do not like.
I then offered a solution to enable you to comment on the front page stories again. I got the same response. No! Take it away! We would rather stay here than have the Administration solve any problems that we might be experiencing. Once again your unthinking knee-jerk reaction would result in you remaining limited in your participation of our site.
It seems that in addition to being your own worst enemy you are also becoming very forgetful. The position in which you now find yourself is entirely of your own making.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 16 2023, @10:52PM (5 children)
Again, janrinok, to whom are you speaking? I am becoming rather worried about your mental state. vg
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday February 17 2023, @06:36AM (4 children)
I am talking to AC. There is only one AC account and you only have one voice.
It was the action of AC that necessitated the ban on commenting on the front page.
It was AC who rejected the idea of stories being posted in a journal so that they could have a place to discuss anything they wished.
It was AC who rejected a suggestion that resolved the problem of access to the front page stories.
You are AC. I know who I am speaking to. I am the only person with whom you now hold a discussion.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2023, @07:31PM (3 children)
I enjoy our little talks, janrinok! But, despite your not remembering, they are becoming redundant. We have been over this all before. I am not the same AC as the AC you were talking to before, even though the resemblance is uncanny. At this point, I keep conversing with you out of a sense of sympathy. I can tell you are lacking stimulating social interaction, and really need some human contact. As Vice President Dan Quayle said, "A mind is a terrible thing to loose."
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday February 18 2023, @08:09PM (2 children)
You keep saying that we cannot tell one AC from another. In which case, there is only one AC. Nobody is losing their mind. You are just AC.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 19 2023, @08:43AM
Why do you keep deleting the truth about you? Are you scared?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 12 2023, @04:15PM (2 children)
Thanks for the video link. While I see the planets moving, I'm not clear on why the star is pulsing larger/smaller?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 12 2023, @10:40PM
Puh-lease.
Everybody knows that little stars twinkle.
(Score: 4, Informative) by hubie on Monday February 13 2023, @02:09AM
I think there's two things going on here. First is that it is using adaptive optics to cancel out the light from the main star, and that accounts for the mottled appearance of the main star (plus there's the black disk from the coronagraph) and the degree it works depends upon the state of the atmosphere and over how much of your field of view you can correct. The other thing is that the article mentions that Wang used "a form of video processing to fill in data gaps and smooth out the planets’ motion," which sounds to me like it is doing some smart temporal interpolation, and if so, the code will also want to interpolate the bits of light sneaking around the coronagraph in ways that weren't in the original data.