Q: How do astronomers get dates?

A: Ask a lot of heavenly bodies.

Oh, for the love of … babes.

Q: How do physicists get dates?

A: Multiple dating methods. ["Multiple" is funnier than "various", hat tip Nicole.]

Q: How do engineers get dates?

A: By way of binary addition.

http://astro.unl.edu/naap/blackbody/graphics/white_dwarf.png
(first link in google images for “white dwarf spectrum”)

The real white dwarf has all of the Hydrogen absorption lines, while the black body is overplotted. So it’s not *that* dramatically different from a blackbody, but the spectrum still depends on things like composition and magnetic field strength.

Q: How do astronomers get dates?

A. We seldom do because it’s hard to find women who know what we are talking about when we ask if they want to go to a movie that starts at JD 2454659.53125 . . .

“But how old are these clusters, and the stars in them? Those are good questions, and important ones. The age tells us a lot about the environment of the cluster. For example, more massive stars tend to “sink” down to the center, and less massive ones move out away from the middle.”

But wait a second .. What if the more massive stars actually form in the middle of the cluster where most of the gas cloud’s mass is concentrated instead? I can sort of understand the massive stars falling inwards too but arewe sure there aren’t many formed at the heart of these clusters to begin with?

Eg. The Rosette nebula star cluster (in Monoceros) – as I grok it has
a heap of massive stars at its core and lighter ones further out but is
extremely young – maybe even still forming? Not 100 % sure with that exact
example but do you get my drift?

Anyway another puzzler like the mystery planetary with the two young A-type stars that shouldn’t have been there – good thought-provoking article Thanks Dr Phil Plait

BTW. Did anything more come of that puzzling planetary investigation?
(”One ring” ? thread title I think.)

HEHE! If there is a God, I bet this is his stack of Playboys! HAHA