Whoa. There’s an asteroid named after me!
Amazing xkcd readers Lewis Hulbert and Jordan Zhu noticed that the International Astronomical Union—the organization in charge of official astronomical naming—was taking suggestions for what to name small Solar System objects. They submitted my name for asteroid (4942) 1987 DU6, and it was subsequently renamed 4942 Munroe.
I’m really touched. I spent all weekend telling everyone who wanted to listen (and probably some who didn’t) about the asteroid.
The first thing I did was try to figure out whether 4942 Munroe was big enough to pose a threat to Earth. I was excited to learn that, based on its albedo (brightness), it’s probably about 6-10 kilometers in diameter. That’s comparable in size to the one that killed the dinosaurs—definitely big enough to cause a mass extinction!
Unfortunately Fortunately, it’s in a fairly stable circular orbit between Mars and Jupiter, so it’s unlikely to hit the Earth any time soon.
4942 Munroe (!!!) is large enough that it would have noticeable gravity, although not much. If you were walking on the surface and you tripped and fell, it’d take you a minute to hit the ground. You could get into orbit around it by traveling at jogging speed, and might even escape its gravity entirely with a good jump.
Thank you so much. This is the coolest thing.
Asteroids, also called small planets or planetoids, are celestial bodies smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids (which may have a diameter of up to about 10 meters), and are not comets.
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The asteroid is a rock with a diameter of less than 1000 km, usually composed of carbon and metals. Usually asteroids orbiting the Sun. Most asteroids in our solar supply facilities are in the belt between the planets Mars and Jupiter.
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One day, I want to claim an asteroid for my own.
I’ll become king of a space rock like you Munroe.
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Un article interesante y los muchas felicidades el blog de poro en la nota 10.
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@ researcher on October 30, 2013 at 1:37 pm https://blog.xkcd.com/2013/09/30/asteroid-4942-munroe/comment-page-3/#comment-39842
On the main site randall states:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
This means you’re free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). As long as you do not claim them as your own and cite source.
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Interesting., I have no idea about this. Glad I discovered this site. Visit the above link to visit my page
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I *love* your SQL Mom pseudo-banner ad!!! Wow. Such clever.
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This is just too perfect 😀
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magnificent put up, very informative. I ponder why the other experts of this sector do not understand this.
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Congratulations! As you know, by now a very large crowd in Finland loves your work. Keep em’ comin’ yeehaaw!
Personally, today’s was an all time high.
Again, Thank You!
IIKKA HALLANTIE
FINLAND
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Interesting, I have no idea about this.
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very nice
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Long-time fan here, and I would think that getting an asteroid named after you would not only be highly appropriate, but would strongly appeal to what I suspect are your sensibilities.
Now you need to work on getting a primate named after you, like John Cleese did with a lemur: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bemaraha_woolly_lemur
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Nice
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How awesome is that? Wow! Your own little bit of space real-estate!
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How wonderful and appropriate. All the best, Randall.
J
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Geez… so much spam here. They all think it’s “interesting, [they] have no idea about this”.
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I’m looking for sites where I can find all the necessary training.’m Very happy that I was familiar with your site., For teaching that I thank you for your site
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I think my way of showing I like your work is almost in asteroid league. Don’t check out the website.
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The about page: http://xkcd.com/about/ still lists the Pleiades as your favorite astronomical entity. Are they really still your favorite, in the light of naming 1987 DU6 after you?
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Yeah,so cool!Thank you so much. This is the coolest thing!Yeah!
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I’m looking for sites where I can find all the necessary training.’m Very happy that I was familiar with your site., For teaching that I thank you for your site
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Writing is an art that everyone does it. Congratulate you for having this art.
Your blog is unique
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Congratulate you for having this art.
Your blog is unique
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i’m reading your comics for a few years right now, and i like them very much. They’re the sort of intelligent stuff that i like to read and yet very funny indeed. day after day you make me smile, but i didn’t understand this entry until I casually read the blag entry. I wanted to find out more and frame by frame i watched the whole story from the beginning to the end. This is simply superb, and made me almost cry.
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I just have to say that the line, “The flappy planes are beeping in the stick towers,” is, for some intangible reason, one of the funniest things I’ve read in a long time.
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Only came here to say that the one with “the flappy planes beeping in the stick towers” deserves to be in a shirt. Just that.
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Maybe if this comment is clever and funny enough, I could get an asteroid named after me.
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Hi,
We were together in the first Machine of Death anthology, and I’ve been a long-time fan.
Your “Time” comic is absolutely enchanting, and I was wondering if I could get your blessing to adapt it to a screenplay. I’m a graduate student of communication at Pittsburg State University (Kansas, no “h” in our name) and am trying to get a good portfolio of screenplays written up.
Thanks! And stop being so hard to e-mail. 🙂
-B
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I think the spammers should have a hemorrhoid named after them.
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magnificent put up, very informative. I ponder why the other experts of this sector do not understand this.
You should continue your writing. I am sure, you have a great readers’
base already!
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Congratulations. I’m with you, I think having an asteroid, especially a life-threatening one, named after you is very cool.
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Let me just clearly state that a desktop-app version of “Now” would be beyond awesome. What could be cooler than an official xkcd clock?
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You get an awful lot of spam on here Randall! Perhaps your choice of captcha software is actually one of the shittier ones?
You still made out like a Viking (ha!) getting a heavenly body named after you, up there with the gods! And it’s one big enough and close enough it may just hold on to that moniker for posterity.
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Thank you very much., You are a good writer.
In addition to art that will give you good
I congratulate you
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Maybe if this comment is clever and funny enough, I could get an asteroid named after me.
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TIL that you’re a little person.
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Haha cool, congrats Randall.
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evden eve nakliyat hizmetleri için bizi arayabilirsiniz. ayrıca ofis işyeri ve fuara taşımacılık hizmetimiz mevcut
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This is just too perfect (y)
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thnks for this post images
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perfect
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