Talk:Target of opportunity

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Because of terrorism, and related news casts that describe terrorist targets of opportunity,[1] I am curious if we should expand this article's scope, and consider it as former military jargon that has come to epitomize broader mechanism's of targeting. My76Strat (talk) 05:55, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

• Agreed, and the term is also occasionally used in entirely non-military contexts (as a couple of random examples: [2], [3]). Nick-D (talk) 06:26, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
• Seems like a good idea to me. Stalwart111 08:03, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
• I'd agree, with the proviso we distinguish the narrow original use from a broader media use (which may not remotely resemble the original...) TREKphiler ^{any time you're ready, Uhura} 09:50, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

  I think that is a prudent concern and would agree. My76Strat (talk) 10:17, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

• But what does it have to do with insects? (Or word origins, for that matter?)–Odysseus1479 04:24, 19 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

  Thank you for exposing that error; it had gotten past me entirely. My only intention with the heading was to acknowledge that the article presented its context exclusively in terms related to military targeting, and that it seems reasonable for the term to have originated as military jargon. It seemed as reasonable that its scope had surpassed the confines of that jargon; even if a "jar head" has nothing in common with insects in a jar. My76Strat (talk) 17:24, 19 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Something... something... conspiracy theory about insect robots being used by the military. Ha ha. (Changed the heading). Stalwart111 05:35, 19 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Something like usage, scope, or application would be better IMO, but that is an improvement (if less amusing). Thanks.—Odysseus1479 05:51, 19 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

• I just came here looking for information about the astronomical meaning (e.g. [4]), and found nothing, so I'd also agree with an expansion. Ouroboros726 (talk) 19:22, 8 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

  I agree. This is a very common use in astronomy, and becoming more so as multimessenger astronomy is making target of opportunity observations triggered by a different instrument or observatory much more common. E.g., triggering a radio astronomical observation based on a LIGO event. PhaseClosure (talk) 17:42, 18 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]