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Pooh-Bah
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This illustration of Sedna is the coldest and most distant object known to orbit the Sun, according to a team of researchers.
The New York Times, 16 March
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks, Bingley, for fixing the links, and Ali for finding them.
its 10,500 year orbit around the Sun Whew.
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Pooh-Bah
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Alimae/Bingley's second link shows Sedna's orbit graphed as an elipse. Anyone know anything about eliptical orbits? Are they the products of acceleration and deceleration and, if so, what causes the latter? -- Is it the same gravitational force that causes acceleration? Does this mean that such orbits are 'flattening' over time, or that the objects following them are, very slowly, falling into the sun?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Excluding the nit of influences from other planets, which is normally negligible, all orbits of planets around the Sun are elliptical with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse.
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Pooh-Bah
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>>all orbits are elliptical<<
But what causes this and what does it portend?
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veteran
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On the etymological hand, Sedna is named after an Innuit (aka Esquimeau) goddess. Or so I heard on the wireless last eventide.
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Carpal Tunnel
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what causes this and what does it portend?
It's one standard solution to the two body problem. Other solutions are the parabola, hyperbola and circle. The parabola and circle are very unlikely since things have to be just right. Remember that a circle is just an ellipse with both foci at the same point. A parabola is an ellipse with one focus off at infinity and in a hyperbola (or pair of hyperbolas) the other focus has wrapped itself around infinity and shown back up in real space. Note that, in some rare cases, the orbit of the planet (or whatever) will intersect the surface of the primary. This is what happens when you throw a ball up into the air. The ball is in orbit around the Earth for the brief period between the time it leaves your hand and it is caught or otherwise stops being in free fall.
What it portends is that we'll keep going around the Sun till, parboly, the Sun goes Red Giant.
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Due to the fact that the sea sustained many of the Arctic peoples, Sedna, became the mythical goddess of the sea and was the supreme deity for most of the Central Inuit Indians. I did some research and actually stumbled across a web site that explains the history and meaning behind Sedna, which I have posted here for all to see. http://www.hvgb.net/~sedna/story.htmlRev. Alimae
Rev. Alimae
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Bingley,
I wish to express my deepest of gratitude toward you for correcting my mistake on the links. Eventually I will get the knack for this system and be able to post correctly the first time.
Thank you,
Rev. Alimae
Rev. Alimae
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I took it upon myself to do some more research into the exact meaning of the name Sedna and this is what I was able to locate. Sedna (f.; Canadian and Greenlandic Inuit)
# Sedna is the same as Nuliajuk.
•• Sedna was the water spirit: her residence was at the bottom of the sea.
•• The food-animals are regarded as limbs of Sedna, who is the moon.
•• Sedna is represented as a walrus.
•• Aningahk is associated with Sedna, who presides over the food supply of the people.
•• Sedna was a moon goddess.
•• Sedna or Arnakuagsak, ‘‘the woman’’, controlled the food animals, especially sea animals.
•• Sedna is identified with the moon.
•• Sedna has only one eye and her father likewise has only one eye. He pierces her eye. She periodically dies and comes to life again.
•• Sedna dwells in a house at the bottom of the sea.
•• Sedna is the controller of rain and storms, and of the sea.
•• Sedna is a goddess of fate, she ‘‘has boundless command over the destinies of mankind’’.
•• Sedna rules the land of the dead and is attended by a dog.
•• Pinga or Sedna was arnarkuagssak, the old woman of the seals. She was known as nerrivik, the ‘‘food dish’’. And if you look up Pinga you will get this definition: Pinga (f.; Caribou Eskimo)
•• Pinga was the female guardian of the animals (Caribou Eskimo).
•• Pinga or Sedna was arnarkuagssak, the old woman of the seals. She was known as nerrivik, the ‘‘food dish’’.
•• Pinga is offended by abortion. Hopefully this is of some assistance. I found this helpful information at http://www.mythopedia.info/synthesis.htm Rev. Alimae
Rev. Alimae
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Pooh-Bah
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Sedna is obviously a busy and important entity, but Alimae, I don't see anything on that list of atributes, and thanks very much for that by the way, that tells us why her name was given to this particular orbiting body. Maybe it just popped up, and obviously one can always conjecture, but I *am puzzled.
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Carpal Tunnel
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well, without putting too fine a point on it, this is one *frigid* body...
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dxd, In answer to your question of “...why her name was given to this particular orbiting body. I took it upon myself to look up and actually call “Michael E. Brown” in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the Spitzer Space Telescope Laboratory at Caltech. He is one of the three gentlemen, Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory, Hawaii) and David Rabinowitz (Yale University) are the other two men, who discovered Sedna. I asked him what their reasoning was for naming the planet Sedna. His response was this: In reply to:
We were looking at this planet that is out in the dark regions of space which reminded us of the cold polar regions of earth which in turn reminded me of the Inuit Indian tribes. We did some research and stumbled across the story of the Goddess Sedna. I fell in love with her story as did Chad and David. It is due to this that we decided to name the planet Sedna, being that it is polar in nature due to its lack of sunlight and that it is remote. There is not real connection other then our love for the story and that the planet is mainly made of ice.
So, now we know why the planet was named Sedna.
Oh, and if anyone would like to know how it was that I contacted him, here is his web site.
http:// www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/
Rev. Alimae
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Hmm... I just knowticed that my link did not work. So here it is again and I am hoping that it will work this time. http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/Rev. Alimae
Rev. Alimae
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looks as if there's a space between the http:// and the www... thanks for the info! 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Etaoin,
You are most welcome. It was actually a pleasure speaking with Michael on the phone, he was very polite and personable. I guess this was a surprise to me considering I had the silly preconceived idea that he would be one of those stuffy doesn't have time for people type of personality. He has changed that concept for me and I can honestly say that I am not sorry in the least.
Rev. Alimae
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hey, how brave of you Alimae. I admire you for picking up that phone and calling a stranger with a question that needs to be answered.
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Pooh-Bah
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Yes. Thanks indeed Alimae.
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Carpal Tunnel
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National Public Radio this evening read a couple of listeners' comments complaining that the story a few days ago on the discovery of Sedna didn't include a good explanation of why it was named so. The newsreader called the very same Michael Brown who said pretty much what he said to Alimae, but omitted the "polar" part. You ever thought about being a reporter, Alimae?
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Anna,
Hmm . . . to be a reporter?
I must say that I am not entirely sure I would be suited for the job and my reasoning is this, I have a tendency to be entirely way to shy, I know hard to tell from my posts, and I also have a hard time dealing with negativity.
Thank you though for suggesting I would make a good one.
Rev. Alimae
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Carpal Tunnel
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If you are shy, Alimae, then it makes it doubly brave of you to ring up the astronomer. It's not something I would care to do, phone a complete stranger like that to satisfy my curiosity.
Bingley
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