Size Comparism Of The Moons Of The Gas Planets, Moon Systems of the gas giants compared Options

[Guest_spaceffm_*]

edited out

[Phillip]

These are wonderful posts! Here is a link to a University of Indiana site, which also has some pictures of relative sizes -- but only the "big boys" of the solar system and none of the moons. I found their verbal description a nice complement to the photos (and to work well for my small, food oriented brain): if the solar system were reduced by the order of one billion, then the earth would be the size of a grape, the sun would be 1.5 meters tall about one "city block" away from earth, Jupiter would be the size of a grapefruit -- five blocks away from the sun. Saturn would be an orange, ten blocks away and Uranus/Neptune would report in as lemons, 30 blocks away. But here is the kicker: how far away is the closest star? Still 40,000 KM away! Is the answer to Fermi's Paradox simply distance?? ( Anyway, I leave it to the others to assign our other (smaller) celestial bodies with their proper food symbol (peanuts and pistachios come to mind for the bigger ones).

http://www.indiana.edu/~geol105/1425chap2.htm

As to the discussions above regarding copyright, we should always be mindful, at least in the U.S. and other common law jurisdictions, of the "fair use" doctrine, which allows certain uses of copywritten materials even without consent of the creator/author. While this is a common law doctine, and hence no hard and fast rules (and the internet has introduced even more ambiguity until the courts sort it all out), some factors in favor of permitting use of copywritten material as "fair use" include, first, use for scientific or education purposes in lieu of commercial ones, second, giving proper attribution to the creator, third, use of only so much of the material as is necessary for the new use, and fourth, use of the material in a manner that does not "compete" with the work of the original creator (i.e. does not diminish the market available to the original creator). There are other factors, but applied more in literary than photographic contexts. Uses that a court would consider against a finding of "fair use" include first, is a non-copywritten or a reasonably priced copywritten substitute available (in which case the "fair user" should have used that instead), and, second, did the user make the material publicly available (a factor that made a lot more sense pre-internet, but which is is the sticky wicket in internet cases for the time being). Note however, none of the factors are determinative and a court would consider them as a whole under the given facts and circumstances. I did not see the original posts, but to the extent this is a collaborative scientific forum, we may want to consider the "fair use" aspects.

The concerns raised by "other" Doug (his hard work at creating scientifically sound reproductions should not be kidnapped by tr*lls to expound c*nspiracy theories) are very valid and are protected by "moral rights" that an author/creator retains -- even if he or she has assigned or released the copyrights. The doctrine of "moral rights" protects an artist from any intentional distortion or modification to the work if it would harm the artist's reputation. It protects the author from the extreme scenario of selling a work of art and assigning all copyrights in the work and then waking up the next morning to find the art, which everyone attributes to the artist, on billboards promoting an offensive political agenda or being descrated. Moral rights cannot be transferred and survive for as long as the author survives. So, the tr*lls can't go painting little green men on "Other" Doug's pictures. That's a no- no. Or, depending on where you live, a non-non.

But all of this raises perhaps an even more important point: if someone posts materials that infringes the copyrights of a third party, then the poster may have liability, but the real "publisher" of the infringing material is, unfortunately, the forum itself. Gulp. In the U.S., the Digital Millenium Copyright Act provides protection to certain forums (read: Ebay) who do not control what individuals are posting, BUT to secure that protection, the forum has to have in place a policy whereby if anyone thinks their copywritten materials are being posted improperly on the forum, there is a clear procedure to follow for notice to the forum, removal of the materials and opportunity for the "poster" to rebut the claim, etc.

As I do not have a scientific background, I tend to be a "lurker" on this forum in respect of the atmosphere of promoting scientific debate and analysis (versus speculation and hijinks), but if Doug would like when he returns, I would be happy to assist in the (pro bono) preparation of a "DMCA" notice procedure that would, at least in the U.S., provide a defense to possible copyright infringement claims. I would love to find a way to contribute to this excellent forum.

Sorry for the long post

Phillip

[elakdawalla]

Sorry for the long post

Phillip

No apologies necessary! I think it an excellent example of why it's worthwhile to cultivate friendships with people who may not share ALL of the same interests I do! And also of how most people have many dimensions to them. (I could treat you all to an extremely detailed explanation based on experience as a city planning consultant of why Los Angeles does not have much in the way of public transportation, for example, but it's both frustrating and boring, so I won't. )

Getting back to the size comparisons, I've started putting together those pages I mentioned above...again, these are a work in progress. So far I've only done 1,000 km, 500 km, 200 km, and 100 km.

Worlds of the Solar System: 1,000 km to 10 km per pixel
Worlds of the Solar System: 1,000 km per pixel
Worlds of the Solar System: 500 km per pixel
Worlds of the Solar System: 200 km per pixel
Worlds of the Solar System: 100 km per pixel

More tomorrow...

--Emily

[tedstryk]

Great work! Both to Emily and spaceffm.