Quick, totally unscientific poll.

[susibryant@mastodon.social]

@sundogplanets
I only know because of you.

[sqlallfather@techhub.social]

@sundogplanets

I had to look it up to make sure I was connecting the right term to the right concept, but yes. Ugh.

[gustavinobevilacqua@mastodon.cisti.org]

@sundogplanets

I'm sure many Italians of my generation are thinking to the Kessler Twins…

Kessler Twins - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)

[pencilears@mastodon.eternalaugust.com]

@sundogplanets I only knew before because I read a lot of sci-fi and speculative fiction

[bencotterill@mastodon.social]

@sundogplanets @astronomerritt I learnt it from you!

[zompus@phire.place]

@sundogplanets I learned from reading Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

[graemewinter@mas.to]

@sundogplanets from reading Seveneves years ago

[parsingphase@m.phase.org]

@sundogplanets pretty sure I learned it from you but can’t recall how long ago.

[anke@social.scribblers.club]

@sundogplanets Yes, I watched Gravity when it became available on a straming platform I had access to, anyway.

[dx@social.ridetrans.it]

@sundogplanets Yes but only because I follow you

[heyray@social.tchncs.de]

@sundogplanets learned it from here

(www.imdb.com)

[tamsin@toot.wales]

@sundogplanets I knew about the concept from reading Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, years ago. I'm not sure if he uses that name in the book, but I recognised it when I heard about it again!

[dianaprobst@mastodon.art]

@sundogplanets I have known for a while but only because I have followed you for a while.

[gjersey999@ice.ch3.st]

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social I vaugely remember hearing such a thing while I was in school, but not at school. Mayhaps a televison program. Haven't the slightest for context or definition, sorry.

[grwster@mastodon.social]

@sundogplanets if "recently" means when you started talking about it, then that's my answer

[rachelthornsub@famichiki.jp]

@sundogplanets I voted "Never heard of it," looked it up, and realized I had just forgotten the name. In fact I posted about this effect (without the name) just last week.

[naturemc@mastodon.online]

@sundogplanets I knew that it exists and a kind of a definition. But I learnt what it really means from a certain Prof. Sam Lawler. Thank you so much for your important work!

[virtualbri@mastodon.online]

@Susibryant @sundogplanets Yeah me too!

[zenheathen@beige.party]

@sundogplanets Comedian Patton Oswalt tells a story about taking a class, "Physics for Poets", but I actually did take the introductory, low-math astronomy courses meant for those who needed their science distribution requirement. We had about twelve exoplanets back then, and my end-of-semester project was on the Cassini-Huygens mission (it had launched but not yet arrived then).

[katievm@blahaj.zone]

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social At this point I don't know where I heard of it, but was a little pleased to see it talked about in Planetes.