This fascinating thread about a ‘mistake’ on a child’s poster of the solar system is today’s very best thing
15.
Turns out basically everything in our solar system orbits ONE thing. Earth orbits the Sun. The Moon orbits the Earth. Etc. If you are a body in the solar system, you hula hoop one bigger thing. That’s what you do … Except for Zoozve. pic.twitter.com/hGFWrStWo7
— Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) January 26, 2024
16.
Zoozve orbits one thing: the sun. It spends all day every day doing that. BUT Venus also has a teeny gravitational toehold on it such that it ALSO ORBITS VENUS AT THE SAME TIME. pic.twitter.com/WapCQh82Xw
— Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) January 26, 2024
17.
It’s a whole new category of thing. Something that orbits a star and a planet at once. Something that is not a moon, but also not not a moon.
They call it … a quasi-moon. pic.twitter.com/DeTH9Rc9EO
— Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) January 26, 2024
18.
Astronomers had been speculating that such an object could exist for 100+ years, but this was the first time anyone saw one … not only in our solar system but in the entire universe!! pic.twitter.com/3bGUJ8UcEU
— Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) January 26, 2024
19.
But since they found Zoozve they’ve been finding all sorts of other quasi-moons (aka co-orbital objects) all over the solar system. They ring around the sun, but then seem to do weird patterns around their closest planet: pic.twitter.com/CZLrtdGC8u
— Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) January 26, 2024
20.
Some (called Trojans) stay in one spot ahead of or behind the planet, like a secret service agent. Some do horseshoes: go mostly around a planet but then turn around and go back the other way. My favorites do a comma shape, just wiggling back&forth. Those are called tadpoles. pic.twitter.com/q2tvAM0TMy
— Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) January 26, 2024
21.
And by the way, Earth even has at least seven different quasi moons dancing around us right now!!! The most recent one was discovered in 2023!! pic.twitter.com/6J9DAjZmzX
— Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) January 26, 2024
22.
Also, quasi-moons can switch planets! We (Earth) were probably the ones who – 7,000 yrs ago – flung Zoozve over to Venus in the first place. Zoozve is going to leave Venus a few millennia from now, but no one knows where it will go next. pic.twitter.com/maCQrONroJ
— Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) January 26, 2024
23.
Anyway, I think this is so cool because everything else on the solar system map is so regular and orderly, but not quasi-moons! It’s like we discovered a bunch of new weirdos who seem to be dancing to the beat of their own drum. pic.twitter.com/xfUOASqwCT
— Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) January 26, 2024
24.
Contrary to the posters, we don’t live in a big clockwork, we live in a dance club, and while some of us are doing the same old waltz with our same old moon, there are bodies out there do-si-do-ing their way all over the solar system. pic.twitter.com/IOtEB9QCWe
— Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) January 26, 2024
25.
How inspiring is it that we are alive at a time when we are just discovering this new class of paradoxical and promiscuous rock stars like Zoozve that remind us how weird and temporary and connected everything in the universe is. And how much we still don’t know. pic.twitter.com/nviIavVAuq
— Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) January 26, 2024
26.
One last thing. If you want to hear more about this strange object, check out the latest episode of Radiolab. Tons more there I haven’t mentioned here. https://t.co/rKGXfZV09y
— Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) January 26, 2024
27.
Including my detailed plan to officially rename 2002-VE68 to “ZOOZVE” to immortalize the typo and thus retroactively make the poster in my kid’s room correct! This plan falls into the category of so-crazy-it-just-might-work. And we will know the answer VERY soon. END OF THREAD. pic.twitter.com/MwLqJK0mZN
— Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) January 26, 2024
Wow! Surely on of the all time greatest Twitter threads. Others were equally rapt.
Gonna share that with my 7yo .. it’s definitely not on his planet chart
What a cool story .. and way to track it down bro
Epic
— TommyJR (@tempo_cap) January 27, 2024
This thread is much more impressive than when my 3yo told his preschool teacher about the dwarf planets, which she had not heard of but he was convincing. Unfortunately he playfully added an extra one called Mama. So the classroom solar system display included dwarf planet Mama
— kkh (@tafftaffk) January 26, 2024
This story will be complete when you name a dog Zoozve.
— Bonnie Blue (@BonnieBlueTK) January 26, 2024
One of my favorite threads ever
— Robert Jensen (@tuumest90) January 27, 2024
When is a moon not a moon? When it’s Zoozve! Great thread: https://t.co/Przu3NnLpy
— Prof Alice Roberts (@theAliceRoberts) January 27, 2024
This is fantastic! A properly lovely old school Twitter thread where you learn stuff https://t.co/MqcsG57Sg3
— Greg Jenner (@greg_jenner) January 26, 2024
To conclude …
This thread is the sort of reason I never left this platform. https://t.co/WtfvMJHkQv
— Bec Hill (@bechillcomedian) January 28, 2024
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Source @latifnasser
