User blog:Cerne/Planetary motion and galaxy classification

No, I am not dead. It has been a while since I was last on here and I regret how little I have done on my user page. The good news is that I now have my personal computer back from out west in B.C. and it still has everything I left on it, including the con-biology phylogeny and taxonomic system document I was working on, along with a number of conlang-related stuff I was planning to work on. The bad news is that my computer no longer has any anti-virus program on it and I am going to need to work on that before I do anything else with it. This might take some time to do, since I am having difficulties downloading the program I want for it after I renewed my subscription. This might take a while, but if and when it works out, I will be online a lot more often. At which time I may be able to create and upload my conworld pages.

In the meantime, I have a few things to post for reference sake. Same deal as in my previous entries, but none of what I am posting will be from online board posts.First off, since I now have my old personal computer, I have managed to obtain a few of the jotnotes and stats that I made for my conworld. The stats are outdated, meaning they no longer apply. The jotnotes may still be useful, though.

Mass: 570,665.88 Tg / 2.39.10^24 kg. Density: 8,280 kg. Gravity at equator: 9.48 m/s^2. Gravity at poles: 10.11 m/s^2. Gravitational constant/mean: 9.72 m/s^2.

Questions: 1) Does the planet's density affect rotation speed and thus oblateness? 2) Does an increase in oblateness stabilize the planet's rotational axis? My assumptions to both of these were "yes" so I gave my planet a slower rotation speed, less oblateness, and greater axial tilt.

RADIATION (how much reaches the surface): Solar radiation: high. UV radiation: Low (a more precise number later). Total annual insulation: Low...? - I'm following a rule stating that the smaller something is, the less heat it retains. Temperature: From 87 to -92 degrees celsius. Atmospheric pressure: Low. Atmospheric composition: _% Nitrogen _% Oxygen _% Carbon dioxide _% Argon _% Sulfur _% phosphorus

Note: When the planet is at its perihelion, the thicker gasses in the atmosphere create thick clouds that block a lot of radiation. When the planet reaches its aphelion, most of these gases solidify and the planet accepts more solar heat (how ironic...).

That came from an earlier version of a ZBB board post I made a long time ago for the statistics of my conworld. It is also a prototype of the post so it doesn't count as an actual post. Everything else in the prototype post hasn't changed so I took it out for the sake of entry length.

Now here are some definitions I found for planetary motion and galaxy classification from an encyclopedia on Astronomy that I will post as both a record and as reference in case I decide to inquire about them on another online community. Just a note before I continue: I found the terms for planetary motion from the encyclopedia but I put the definitions in my own words, so if you spot an error in any of them, please feel free to point them out by replying to this entry.

PLANETARY MOTION

Axial tilt: The shift in the orientation of the celestial axis from its position perpendicular to the Celestial Plane, or the Plane of the Ecliptic

Obliquity: The shift in the orientation of the Celestial Equator to the Plane of the Ecliptic

Celestial Axis: The axis that a planet rotates around around during a rotation period.

Celestial Poles: The true top and bottom of the planet that rotates along with the rest of the planet

Celestial Equator: The circumference of a planet that is perpendicular to the axis on which it rotates

Ecliptic (plane of): Otherwise known as the Celestial Plane, it is the invisible plane set by the sun's own equator that (most of) the planets follow in their orbit

Terrestrial Poles: The top-most and bottom-most part of the planet that stays farthest from the Plane of the Ecliptic. These points on the planet change location whenever the planet rotates

Rotation: A planet's spin around its celestial axis

Revolution: The period in which a planet spins around its star

Orbit: The path that a planet takes when it spins around its star

Precession:The process by which the planet spins around the axis that is currently perpendicular to the Plane of the Ecliptic. Earth's celestial pole rotates around its terrestrial pole every 25,800 years

Nutation: The wobble created by a planet's natural satellite (if it has one) as it it spins arounf the axis perpendicular to the Plane of the Ecliptic

Vernal Equinox: When the celestial equator intersects the Plane of the Ecliptic during the former half of the planet's revolution (when the northern celestial pole points toward the sun)

Autumnal Equinox: When the celestial equator intersects the Plane of the Ecliptic during the latter half of the planet's revolution (when the northern celestial pole points away from the sun).

GALAXIES

Elliptical: E-type. 0 = Round. 6 = Elongated.

Spiral: S-type. B = Central bar. a = Large central bulges and tightly wound arms with few and/or dim stars. c = Small central bulges and loosely wound arms with prominant stars or star clusters. b = Intermediate. d = Bulge is very small or absent and structure is open and highly resolved. m = Magellanic Cloud; rudimentary spiral structure, no bulge.

Lenticular: S0-type with no arms and a disk shape. May be transitional from an S-type to an E-type.

Ringed: S/S0-type with ring pattern. (nr) = Nuclear. (r) = Inner ring. (R) = Outer ring.

Irregular: I-type. B = Central bar. m = Magellanic Clouds but with no spiral structure.

Peculiar: Other shapes not listed.

Here is the bibliographic reference information for the book, in MLA format:

Murdin, Paul and Margaret Penston, Ed.  The Firefly Encyclopedia of Astronomy . Richmond Hill: Firefly books, Ltd., 2004. Print.

And that is about it for now. Sorry for being so brief, I should be on here much more often than I have been in the last three months.

Thanks for reading.

PS: The formatting on here is still horrible. Some parts of the entry may look a bit messy but it is the best I can do for now.