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Sad Ganymede noises (mander.xyz)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] 7 points 7 months ago (1 child)

I've often thought that 'clearing' it's orbit is misleading. I believe the definition ought to be changed to 'controls' or 'governs' its orbit. This allows for objects in stable L4/L5 locations without inviting the caveats that 'clearing' needs.

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago

    Its because its a colloquial phrase that more or less the media picked up and ran with.

    Actual astronomers and astrophysicists use math to describe what they're talking about, math that you can find and learn fairly easily on wikipedia.

    Lay people tend to just evaluate a phrase for its extremely literal meaning, not realizing that it is at best just pop science jargon, short hand to refer to a pretty well defined and precise concept, that is difficult to summarize without losing specificity.

    There are many, many other examples of this kind of thing happening with other phrases or terms used to refer to complex concepts.

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