...our solar system is whether Pluto should be classified as a planet. In 2006, Pluto was relegated from planet to dwarf planet. After a few years, the debate appeared to be settled. However, this past week when the New Horizons probe was set out to be the first spacecraft to visit Pluto new questions were raised. According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), an object is considered a planet when it meets three criteria: it has to orbit the sun, be large enough that the force of its gravity pulls it into a spherical shape, and have "cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." In theory, an object that's large enough will clear its orbit either by collecting other debris with its gravity or by surviving impacts with the debris....
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...Should Pluto be a Planet? In 1930 Clyde W. Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona discovered the planet Pluto. After serving 76 long years as the ninth planet in our solar system, Pluto was controversially demoted to a dwarf planet in 2006. This has raised many debates on whether Pluto was categorized unfairly or not. Astronomers from both sides of the debate have legitimite arguments making it tough to decide whether Pluto should be classified as a planet or a dwarf planet. Pluto’s title as a planet was questioned when Mike Brown, Professor of Planetary Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology discovered an object in 2005 that was further out than the orbit of Pluto. The object was also 25% more massive than Pluto. This object was later named Eris. It is located along with Pluto in the Kuiper Belt. There are plenty of other mysterious objects located in the Kuiper Belt that are more or less the same size as Pluto and Eris. This troubled the International Astronomical Union because this meant that there are tens to hundreds of objects that could very soon be known as planets. There are approximately more than 1,000 objects composed of the same icy mixture located in the Kuiper Belt. Many astronomers, scientists, and the International Astronomical Union felt uncomfortable with the fact that there are hundreds of objects in our solar system that have a strong possibility of becoming planets. To avoid the feeling of skepticism the International...
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...The Lowell Observatory did not concentrate wholly on Mars; “his other planetary observations - of Venus, Mercury, and Saturn - were also useful.” (Bruce Bond). Consequently, Slipher came to the observatory as a temporary assistant and he made a significant discoveries which is “how to measure the expansion of the universe.” (Bruce Bond). Then, Christopher Crockett in “Pluto: Explored. (Cover Story)” said that on February 18, 1930, the astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered new planet. Clyde Tombaugh discovered the dwarf planet Pluto from the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff,...
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...Section ASTR101-0AM Overview ? Become familiar with the scale of the planets vs. their distances. ? Get an overview of the solar system. ? 50 points are possible Introduction It is easy to flip to the index of an astronomy textbook to discover that, say, the Sun lies 150 million kilometers away from Earth. It is far more difficult (if not impossible), however, to picture this distance in our mind. In this exercise, we will learn to access the often unpalatable distances encountered in astronomy by simply scaling the huge distances to more recognizable, familiar numbers. So long as every distance within the system of interest is scaled by the same factor, we retain the meaningful information about relative distances between objects. This is exactly the same principle employed by map makers, so that they can fit Texas, onto a book page. General Overview Questions: A. The definition of a planet was changed in 2006. Using your textbook and the webpage resource listed below in number 1: Discuss what the characteristics of a planet are and how this new criteria declassified Pluto. B. How do the sizes of the terrestrial planets compare to the gas giants? C. How do the sizes of all the planets compare to the Sun? Approximatley how many Earths would be required to fill the Sun? D. If the Sun were the size of a basketball: What would the comparative sizes of Earth and Jupiter be similar to? (Identify what common, round objects would be similar to Earth...
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...those objects that orbit the Sun directly, the largest eight are the planets, with the remainder being significantly smaller objects, such as dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies such as comets and asteroids. *The Planets of the Solar system and their name meanings Mercury- the messenger god Venus- god of love Earth- is the son of Gaia goddess of universe Mars- god of war Jupiter- god of lightning Saturn- god of agriculture Uranus- god of light Neptune- god of the sea Pluto- god of death Mercury is the smallest and closest to the Sun of the eight planets in the Solar System, with an orbital period of about 88 Earth days. Seen from Earth, it appears to move around its orbit in about 116 days, which is much faster than any other planet in the Solar System. It has no known natural satellites. The planet is named after the Roman deity Mercury, the messenger to the gods. Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. It has no natural satellite. It is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows. Because Venus is an inferior planet from Earth, it never appears to venture far from the Sun. Earth is the third planet from the Sun, the densest planet in the Solar System, the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets, and the only astronomical object known to accommodate life. Although...
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...“cleared the neighborhood”. Every 228 years Pluto crosses inside of the orbit of Neptune, so technically speaking, it does not clear its neighborhood. But that also means that Neptune does not clear its own neighborhood. Mars and Jupiter don’t clear their neighborhoods as they “interfere” with the Asteroids, and the Earth actually orbits the Sun with thousands of Asteroids. So the Earth doesn’t clear its own neighborhood either. So if we use the definition set forth by the IAU, Pluto, Neptune, Jupiter, Mars, and the Earth, are NOT planets! Also, why aren’t “Dwarf Planets” known as planets? Dwarf Stars are still stars, and Dwarf Galaxies are still galaxies. These new definitions ONLY apply to objects in OUR Solar System, making the definition even more un-scientific. Along with the definition being both linguistically and scientifically flawed, so was the voting process. Although there are over 10,000 Astronomers in the IAU, only 237 of them voted and approved this definition. Therefore, there was NOT a majority consensus of what a planet is. Hundreds of Astronomers around the world (and this planetarium) have signed petitions to ignore the new definition and still refer to Pluto as the ninth planet in our Solar System. Discovered in 1930, Pluto orbits the Sun, has three moons, has an atmosphere, has weather, and even polar caps. It is not that much different than any of the other planets. It has been known as a planet for more than 75 years, and to change its status...
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...suddenly exploded. The Universe that we know was born. What has the big bang granted us? Time, space and matter all began with the Big Bang. In a fraction of a second, the Universe grew from smaller than a single atom to bigger than a galaxy. All along, the particles kept on growing at a fantastic rate and formed elements like hydrogen and helium, which formed the planets, stars and galaxies. It is still expanding today. Space and the Solar System What is the solar system? The Solar System is made up of all the planets that orbit our Sun. In addition to planets, the Solar System also consists of moons, comets, asteroids, minor planets, and dust and gas. Everything in the Solar System orbits or revolves around the Sun. The Sun contains around 98% of all the material in the Solar System. The larger an object is, the more gravity it has. Because the Sun is so large, its powerful gravity attracts all the other objects in the Solar System towards it. At the same time, these objects, which are moving very rapidly, try to fly away from the Sun, outward into the emptiness of outer space. The result of the planets trying to fly away, at the same time that the Sun is trying to pull them inward is that they become trapped half-way in between. Balanced between flying towards the Sun, and escaping into space, they spend eternity orbiting around their parent star. How did the Solar System form? As a result of the Big Bang theory, the Solar System is formed, where...
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...Is Cheerleading a Sport? Cheerleading is like the planet Pluto. Many people believe that Pluto is no longer a planet, but others disagree. Just like cheerleading, many people think it is a sport, but others also disagree. When someone sees pluto as a dwarf planet, they don’t consider it to be an actual planet. Cheerleading is often mistaken as not a sport because it is not an olympic sport. Just because an object is missing an element, doesn’t mean it should be considered something different. Cheerleading is a sport; cheer teams compete in national competitions, cheer training is long and hard, and cheer has been considered a olympic sport. When someone brings up cheerleading, many people picture in their minds girls cheering at a basketball,...
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...Planetary Comparison SCI/151 May 3, 2011 Norman Stradleigh Planetary Comparison Planet Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest of the planets of the Solar System. Earth’s surface is 71 percent water and is the only astronomical planet currently known where life exists. Earth is our home planet. Scientist and astronomers have studied our planet for Centuries and they have discovered much about our planet. Scientist have gained so much more knowledge of our Solar System in the last half-century after the NASA launched the first spacecraft and travel beyond Earth’s atmosphere has opened up to those who wish to explore. In the following paragraphs, we will discuss Earth and the comparison between the other known planets in our Solar system. Earth has several layers that have distinct chemical and seismic properties: Crust, Upper mantle, Transition region, Lower mantle, D’’ layer, Outer core, and Inner core. The crust, the part we inhabit, is just a tiny fraction of the Earths mass. Most of the mass of the Earth is in the mantle, a majority of the rest is in the core (Nine Planets, 1994-2010). Earth has three layers of density: The core primarily metals, such as nickel and iron, resides in the central core and is the highest-density material. The Mantel forms the thick mantle that surrounds the core is mostly minerals that contain silicone, oxygen, and other elements and is a rocky material of modest density....
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...there in that pretty little empty space. Pluto, no longer considered a planet in our solar system, is just this, for lack of better words, a small ball of ice at the end of the solar system. I can see myself taking a spaceship over there with a ticket to be given to a Martian pilot. He can look at it and examine it and maybe even keep it for himself,...
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...1. Why has NASA sent recent orbiters to Mars (such as Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) on trajectories that required them to skim through Mars's atmosphere before settling into their final orbits? | | It saves money because the spacecraft uses atmospheric drag to slow down rather than needing to carry enough fuel to slow by firing rocket engines. | | | Each spacecraft also carried a lander, and the lander could only be dropped to the Martian surface when the spacecraft passed through the atmosphere. | | | It allowed the spacecraft to collect samples of the atmospheric gas for return to Earth. | | | It allowed the orbiters to get higher resolution pictures of the surface as it came close when skimming through the atmosphere. | 2 points QUESTION 2 1. Why was it advantageous for the Voyager mission to consist of flybys rather than orbiters? | | It was easier for data to be radioed back to Earth with flybys than orbiters. | | | Each individual spacecraft was able to visit more than one planet. | | | Spacecraft making flybys can return to Earth more quickly than orbiters. | | | Flyby spacecraft can get closer to a planet than an orbiting spacecraft. | 2 points QUESTION 3 1. Which of the following statements about the recently-discovered object Eris is not true? | | It orbits the Sun in the same direction as the other planets. | | | It lies well beyond Pluto and Neptune. | | | It is thought to be the first example...
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...125 years. What can we conclude? It has been on its current orbit for only a very short time compared to the age of our solar system Which of the following objects are probably not located in the same region of the solar system in which they originally formed? oort cloud comets The discovery of Eris __________. was not surprising, because other Kuiper belt objects approaching the size of Pluto had already been discovered When we see a meteor shower, it means that _________ Earth is crossing the orbit of a comet When you see the bright flash of a meteor, what are you actually seeing? the glow from a pea-size particle and the surrounding air as the particle burns up in our atmosphere Suppose you find a meteorite made almost entirely of metal. According to current science, which of the following statements must be true? Your meteorite is a fragment from the core of a large asteroid that shattered in a collision Why didn't a planet form where the asteroid belt is now located? Gravitational tugs from Jupiter prevented material from collecting together to form a planet. Suppose there were no solar wind. How would the appearance of a comet in our inner solar system be different? it would have only one tail instead of two Which of the following is not a piece of evidence supporting the idea that an impact caused the mass extinction that occurred 65 million...
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...and at the speed of light it would only take you 682 days to go from the sun to the cloud at 300,000 kilometers per second. In short the universe is vast; there are billions upon billion planets that could have extraterrestrial life on it. The question is; how long until we are able to travel these distances...
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...regarding the origin of the planets in our solar system. The first is that another star happened to pass near our sun, and drew off clouds of gases which then formed themselves into planets. This is the planetesimal group of theories. Astronomers are well aware of the fact that stars do not wander around through space, but that is how the theory went.. The other main viewpoint is that a swirling cloud of gas formed itself into our sun, planets, moons, comets, and asteroids. By 1940, all the various encounter or planetesimal theories had pretty much been discarded as hopeless, but, beginning in that decade, under the urging of *von Weizsacker, *Whipple, *Spitzer, *Urey, *Garnow, *Hoyle, *Kuiper, and others, an attempt has been made to bring astronomers back to some variation of the nebular (gas cloud) hypothesis. Their efforts have been surprisingly successful, in spite of the obvious physical principle that gas in outer space (as well as here on earth) never coagulates; it always spreads outward. Let us consider some of the major reasons the various theories of the origin of our solar system are more foolishness than fact. 1-Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and the eighth largest. Mercury is smaller in diameter than Ganymede and Titan but more massive. 2-Venus is the second planet from the Sun and the sixth largest. Venus' orbit is the most nearly circular of that of any planet, with an eccentricity of less than 1%. 3-Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth...
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...What science mean to me? Science to me is basically just a way of thinking. When thinking scientifically, you look at all the data and evidence before you make a conclusion, and you compare and contrast data and evidence. You would also be prepared to change your decision when new data or evidence is presented. For example, when scientists discovered Pluto, they first thought it was a planet, until 76 years later, in 2006. Scientists later discovered many other minor planets such as Chiron, and became suspicious. By 2006, they changed Pluto into a dwarf planet. When something is unknown, scientists are able to make hypotheses as to why and how. Then they make controlled experimentation or join data together to disprove or prove the hypothesis. This is science to me. When I think of scientist, I think of a man in a white suit, with blue gloves, and protective glasses. Doctors and scientists have many similarities including the way they dress. Doctors wear white suits and blue gloves because it is sanitary and they can see if they spilled anything on them. A doctor and scientist looks mainly the same to me and that is why I imagine a scientist with a white suit and blue gloves. I imagine a scientist as someone measuring and studying human bones or blood samples. I think of a forensic scientist, who studies evidence and gathers data. When I was younger, I was interested in forensic science, and I watched a show with my grandpa called Forensic Files. When I was little, the pictures...
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