Since ancient times, the universe had captivated people’s imagination and curiosity. With the limitation on technology, early sky watchers were only capable of classifying objects they observed as either a star or a planet. During the twentieth century, with advancement in telescopes to see further into space with more accurate details, scientists were able to find numerous stars and planet like objects within the solar system. Scientists had no trouble classifying objects such as Uranus and Neptune as planets. However, the real trouble came when they discovered a planetary object called Ceres. Objects like Ceres and Pluto behaved similarly to regular planets. Because of the limitations on the technology at the time, it was very difficult to observe precise details about these objects. As a result, they had a tough problem whether to classify it as a planet. During the 1990’s, scientists discovered more Pluto like objects in the Kuiper Belt. In the last decade, with new larger and powerful telescopes, scientists had more evidence to reclassify the planet like objects into their own separate category. Dwarf planets had the potential to become planets like the eight planets we know today, however, because of unfortunate events during the early formation of the solar system, objects like Pluto and Ceres were moved into a new category called dwarf planets.
A dwarf planet is a planetary object that was neither a planet nor a satellite as defined by the International Astronomical Union or the IAU. Most of the known dwarf planets in the solar system are located past Neptune in the Kuiper Belt region with the exception of Ceres. The first five recognized were Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea. The International Astronomical Union...
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...r objects around it which caused it to become a dwarf. The limited technology of early human history never allowed astronomers to get a good glimpse of our Solar System. This results in misleading observation which causes misclassification of bodies in the sky. This happened to many bodies in our early history. Two well known examples were Pluto and Ceres. The misclassification only went unaccounted for until technology started to advance and astronomers were finding more and more of these smaller planets. A little more than seven years before, we finally gave them a new name and category called dwarf planets and a way to define planets. As new technology is created, astronomers will be capable of finding new objects further in the Kuiper Belt region with better details and results. Eventually astronomers will find new dwarf planets to add to the present day list.
Knowledge is everything, its what separates humans from animals. It allows us to question the world around us. Another key aspect that separates humans from animals is that each human is unique. We all have different beliefs and ideals that help us explain the infinite amount of questions that this universe has gifted us. In his lecture Christopher Viney goes over the many shifts in the origin of life and how each time there is a shift people start to adept to the new shift. So why are there times that people decide that one thing is right while not even looking at the other point of view?
Brown dwarfs are objects in space that sit between the lines of being a star and a planet. This object is dim and hard to distinguish from low mass stars at the early stages of the dwarf’s life. They are often called failed stars because they start their life the same way as regular stars. However, in some stage, they just didn’t have enough mass gathered to generate the fusion-powered energy of a star. Scientists are certain that brown dwarfs are the missing link between stars and planets but the formations of dwarfs are still a mystery.
It was at first thought to be bigger than Pluto later it ended up being somewhat smaller than Pluto. Eris finishes one rotation around the Sun in 580 years. Eris is the reason why Pluto’s planetary status was changed to being a dwarf planet. The Kuiper Belt has a section called Classic Kuiper Belt. This is the busiest area of this belt and is situated at a distance of around 42 to 48 AU. In the beginning, when the solar system was created gas, dust and rocks, came together to form planets. Most of the debris was swept away by gravitational pull for those planets, but some debris survived because they were far enough away to not be affected by the gravitational pull for those planets. Finding the Kuiper Belt gave us more insight into the mystery of the objects located in the Kuiper belt. Most KBO’s are so far away that their measurements cannot be concretely calculated. By using the data collected by the Spitzer space Telescope most of the KBO’s have known sizes. In 2015 the New Horizon Spacecraft flew past Pluto for an up close exploration of the Kuiper Belt Objects. The primary real expectation of the Kuiper belt's presence, most planetary researchers now agree, originated from Uruguayan cosmologist Julio
To better understand the planets, we need to first have a basic understanding of our
...leted of its nuclear fuel and lost its outer layers. When a small to medium (less than 10 solar masses) main-sequence star begins to run out of fuel in its core, the core will begin to collapse where hydrogen on the edges of the collapsed core can be compressed and heated (Chandra 2012). The nuclear fusion of this new hydrogen will create a new gush of power that will make the outer layers of the star to expand out; this is known as the red giant phase. In the red giant phase over millions of years, all of the stars energy supplies are used up leaving behind a hot core that is still surrounded by the expanded outer layers. The outer layers are eventually expelled by stellar winds which end up creating a planetary nebula and the hot core left behind forms a white dwarf star where the pull of gravity is supported by degeneracy pressure (p. 538 Bennett en al. 2013).
Whether it is a full moon, a waxing crescent, or a new moon, many wonder what is out there. If there is more to the universe, than just Earth. The Moons of Jupiter are an unknown topic to many, and there are many interesting facts about it. Galileo Galilei, born in 1564 played a huge role in most of the science we know today, and it is because of him we are beginning to understand the moons of Jupiter. All these moons of Jupiter’s have their own reason as to which they stand out why. All in all, even though the moons of Jupiter’s are unknown to many, it is an important piece to connecting the puzzle in our universe.
To date Uranus has been found to have 21 satellites four of which have yet to be named and 11 rings.
Although Pluto was discovered in 1930, limited information on the distant planet delayed a realistic understanding of its characteristics. Today Pluto remains the only planet that has not been visited by a spacecraft, yet an increasing amount of information is unfolding about this peculiar planet. The uniqueness of Pluto's orbit, rotational relationship with its satellite, spin axis, and light variations all give the planet a certain appeal.
Pluto: A Planet of the Earth? Many issues have arisen from the debate over whether or not Pluto is a planet. Some astronomers say that Pluto should be classified as a “minor planet” due to its size, physical characteristics, and other factors. On the other hand, some astronomers defend Pluto’s planet status, citing several key features. Indeed, most of the problem is that there is no formal definition of a planet.
Perhaps one of the most interesting features of our fathomless universe are the planets that are classified as gas giants. Huge, turbulent, and distant, the gas giants are some of the most enigmatic features in our Solar System. I have a personal interest to the gas giants and celestial bodies in general. When I was a child, I was fascinated by our Solar System. I read innumerable books about space, and my interests of outer space had been piqued further by other forms of media. Although I held this interest of space, growing up left me with little time to learn about space, and I lost interest for a while. Taking Earth Science in Milpitas High re-invigorated my interests in the celestial bodies. Using this class, I’m now able to focus on learning more about our colossal universe, in particular, the outer planets.
Our solar system, as we see it today, originally formed from the collapse of a very cold and low-density cloud of gas. The mass of this cloud was composed of 98% hydrogen and helium, 1.4% hydrogen compounds, .4% rock, and .2% metal. The nebula was thought to be a few light years across and was roughly spherical in shape. The cloud was in a state of balance, it was neither contracting or expanding, until a cataclysmic event, most likely a supernova, created a shock wave through the nebula, resulting in an area of higher mass. Once this area became more massive than the rest of the nebula it begin to collapse with the area of hig...
Pluto is located 7.5 billion kilometers from Earth and is only over 2,000 km in diameter. Pluto has been labeled both a planet and a dwarf planet over the years. As said by USA Today, “a planet is a celestial body that: is in orbit around the sun, is round or nearly round, and has "cleared the neighborhood" around its orbit, meaning it is not surrounded by objects of similar size and characteristics.” Pluto only follows two of the three rules of a planet. Pluto crosses over Neptune’s orbit and is near other dwarf planets like it. Even though it breaks one rule it was officially named a dwarf planet in “August 2006”, as stated by the Library of Congress. After this event Pluto still only has one correct classification. Pluto is a planet because
Our solar system has eight planets, their moons and satellites, and they are all orbiting the Sun. The eight planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto used to be the ninth planet but IAU changed the definition of planet and Pluto did not meet the standards so it is now a Dwarf planet.
Even though we know a great amount more than the astronomers in the past, there is still an even larger amount we do not know about the universe to this day. Even our own solar system contains many questions yet to be answered. Some of these include the possibility of a planet beyond Pluto (Planet X), the means by which the system was created, and even the possibility of a sister star to the Sun named Nemesis. Another astronomical mystery is the creation of the universe. In time, many questions will be answered but some will always remain. Astronomy is something that will never be completely understood.