Editing 1298: Exoplanet Neighborhood
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| titletext = It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood! | | titletext = It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood! | ||
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | The diagram is a | + | {{incomplete|Why the empty space around Earth?}} |
− | + | The diagram is a graphically represented prediction of properties of hypothetical nearby exoplanets (planets not in our solar system), based on the assumption that the exoplanets that are currently known have a distribution of orbits, sizes, and star types that is similar to the actual distribution. Astronomers are particularly interested in exoplanets within 60 light years of Earth which lie in a {{w|Circumstellar habitable zone|habitable zone}}; that is, a planet whose orbit is within a certain range of distance from a star such that water could exist in a liquid state. The diagram categorizes exoplanets in two ways. The disc's color indicates the characteristics of the central star, with a reddish tone indicating (hypothetical) planets that orbit stars similar in characteristics to our sun, while grey indicates those that don't. The disc's size indicates the (hypothetical) exoplanet's size, with planets similar to Earth's size depicted in a slightly darker shade of either color. | |
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− | + | It appears that the diagram is intended to cause the viewer to conclude that there are a significant number of Earth-sized planets orbiting Sun-type stars which could be habitable (and even more possibly-habitable planets around other types of stars or in other sizes). | |
− | The title of the comic | + | The title of the comic "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!" is an allusion to the former PBS television show [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Rogers'_Neighborhood "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood"] in which the same line presents itself in the opening song, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Rogers'_Neighborhood#Regular_songs "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"]. |
− | + | The title text is a link to a larger version of the comic, found [http://xkcd.com/1298/large/ here]. | |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
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:[Center of the image.] | :[Center of the image.] | ||
:Earth | :Earth | ||
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
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[[Category:Comics with color]] | [[Category:Comics with color]] | ||
[[Category:Astronomy]] | [[Category:Astronomy]] | ||
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