Tuinor's and Nautipus' Sci-Fi story Discussion thread

[Nautipus]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

Ah, really? I think you give me too much credit. I love astronomy, but am very much only an amateur, so take my comments for pointers more than absolute facts.

We're here for feedback.

If you're going to actually photograph Io, I would suggest using a space telescope, rather than an earth-based one. Earth telescopes are influenced by (our) atmosphere and the astroid belt that is between us and Jupiter. This is a small point however, since earth-based telescopes can see Jupiter including the 60-something moons pretty well. But it is the space telescopes and the spacecrafts that usually get better and more exact results on photographs and readings. NASA allows some of their telescopes and observers to be 'rented' in a way so other scientists can make use of those facilities. I reckon Caitlin's university can be part of this programme in order to allow their thesis-students to make use of it, although this is more into me speculating because I don't know how the process actually goes.

(If you go with the space telescope you can have it be destroyed in Jupiter's demise. Having Caitlin and Doug stare at an black empty screen that says something like 'signal lost' as soon as the planet is gone, can have a certain equally dramatic impact. But, as I said, small point. You could very easily argue that Caitlin's university is cash-strapped, and the observatory will have to do.)

It is never said just what specifically Caitlin's thesis is about. If it is solely about Io, I would assume the telescope is set to a close-up of Io, which would rule out seeing a good deal of Jupiter's surface. (And so to see the impacts.) Unless of course her thesis deals with something relating to Io's orbit or relationship to Jupiter so that she would have been watching more than just Io.

I will leave most of this to T, since this is more his cuppa tea...and is post.

This, however:

Asteroids don't light up to my knowledge unless by impact. If the first light they saw on the screen was when the presumed asteroid just crashed on Jupiter, then Doug would never have suggested naming it. (There's no point in naming a crashed asteroid.) If the 'asteroid' had hit Io instead of Jupiter, he may have suggested being able to name the crater if the asteroid was large enough to leave one. But as Io's still vulcanically active, I honestly can't tell if such surface marks stay on Io's surface permanently like on our Moon.

There was no impact. Or impacts, just flashes of light that fizzled out, and went nowhere.