Share this page!

Prof. Paul Byrne Profile picture
Twitter logo
26 Aug, 6 tweets, 2 min read
The Solar System is *full* of incredible and fascinating worlds!

Mercury.
Venus.
Earth.
The Moon.
Jupiter.
Saturn.
Uranus and Neptune.
Ceres, Vesta, and the other main asteroid belt bodies.
The myriad other minor bodies scattered across the System.

Every one of them amazing! 🥰
People are pointing out that I forgot somewhere important!

Somewhere that fascinates everyone, that we need to explore more, that holds a special place in our heart.

I am so sorry, Pluto!
Did I miss any other interesting places?!

Let's add Charon, Eris, Makemake, Titan, Triton, Haumea, Io, Ganymede, Europa, Callisto, Dione, Rhea, Tethys, Iapetus, Umbrial, Ariel, Titania, Oberon, Miranda, oh my!
Some people just want to watch the world burn.

I can tell you *which* world, if you'd like
MOAR WORLDS!

Comets!
The Nereids!
Centaurs!
Trojans (all of them)!
@MissionToPsyche's destination!
*All* SDOs, no matter where they are or how big they are!
*All* the other minor bodies, the ones we know, and the ones we *don't* yet know!
@MissionToPsyche One more!

Asteroid 5992 Nittler, named for @LarryNittler!

OK, that's everything in the Solar System now.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Prof. Paul Byrne

Prof. Paul Byrne Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @ThePlanetaryGuy

Prof. Paul Byrne Profile picture
28 Aug
I need you to know I'm being completely serious here.

We have no idea what's inside Uranus.
We really don't have a clue what's inside this or there other "ice giant", Neptune.

It's possible that there's a rocky interior, perhaps at least as large as Earth. There might be a water–ammonia ocean above that rocky centre, topped with a thick atmosphere.

But we don't know.
Uranus and Neptune are the outer Solar System's Venus -- fascinating, largely unexplained, but to be honest pretty much ignored in the modern era of planetary exploration.

I am *so* happy we're going back to Venus.

But we can't forget the Ice Giants.
Read 8 tweets
Prof. Paul Byrne Profile picture
23 Jun
We have a new paper out in @PNASNews.

We found stuff that moved on #Venus.

Let's talk about it.

A 🧵
Most rocky worlds are what we call "one-plate planets": they have a single, continuous outer shell that we call the lithosphere.

Mercury (shown here), Mars, the Moon, Io... all one-plate planets.

(2/n)
We've long known that Venus is a lot more complex than those other, smaller worlds—but how hasn't exactly been clear.

It doesn't have plate tectonics like Earth. Is it a single shell? Did it *ever* have a mobile surface? What drove that motion?

That's where we come in.

(3/n)
Read 20 tweets
Prof. Paul Byrne Profile picture
4 Jun
Psst.

Interested in learning more about #Venus—and why @NASA's decision to go back there with the #VERITAS and #DAVINCI+ missions is such a big flippin' deal?

Read on.

(a 🧵 on comparative planetology)
It all comes down to one simple question:

Why is Earth's sibling not its twin?

(Credit to @efrankplanetary for that line.)

Venus and Earth are the same(ish) size, age, and composition (in roughly the ~same proportions), orbiting the same star.

So, uh... what's going on?
Here's where we come to our two different stories for Venus—and why figuring out which one is correct is *critical* to understanding not only our own world, but Earth-size worlds everywhere.

Scenario 1: Venus was *always* fucked.
Read 20 tweets
Prof. Paul Byrne Profile picture
9 Feb
Lawyer reassures judge that he is, in fact, not a cat.
The cat's panicked expression
"Meow what's the problem, Your Honor?"
Read 4 tweets
Prof. Paul Byrne Profile picture
9 Feb
Here's live coverage of the UAW @HopeMarsMission in English—the spacecraft is going to make its orbital insertion burn *in one minute*!! (1030 hrs Eastern)

#ArabsToMars

We should know whether the burn started successfully at around 1041 hrs Eastern
The start of the @HopeMarsMission burn is confirmed—the spacecraft will now attempt to slow itself from ~120,000 kmh to ~18,000 kmh

#ArabsToMars
Read 7 tweets
Prof. Paul Byrne Profile picture
29 Jan
Normalise backing off from things when you realise you're overcommitted/out of spoons—a short, personal 🧵

Yesterday, I let the organisers of an upcoming conference know that I was withdrawing my abstract.

I really didn't want to do this.

(1/)
But I realised that I had way too much on my plate to get my presentation done.

Bad planning? Maybe. But a bunch of new stuff arose between the abstract and now.

So after thinking long and hard about it, and prioritising what I absolutely *have* to do, I made the call.

(2/)
The folks running the meeting were very understanding, and I'll certainly *attend* the conference and will contribute as I can.

I feel bad for dropping this ball—it's the first time I've ever done this.

But I also feel *much* more relieved.

(3/)
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @ThePlanetaryGuy has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @ThePlanetaryGuy!

Read all threads by @ThePlanetaryGuy

:(