Pluto and the Nature of Science
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Pluto's Long, Strange History — in Pictures : Nature News & Comment
Pluto's long, strange history — in pictures Nature marks the 85th anniversary of the dwarf planet's discovery. Alexandra Witze 18 February 2015 Even at a distance of 5 billion kilometres, Pluto has entranced scientists and the public back on Earth. Nature looks at the history of this enigmatic world, which in July will get its first close-up visit by a spacecraft. First glimpse Lowell Observatory 18 February 1930: Farmer-turned-astronomer Clyde Tombaugh (pictured), aged 24, discovers Pluto while comparing photographic plates of the night sky at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. The discovery, announced on 13 March 1930, is the culmination of observatory founder Percival Lowell’s obsessive quest to find a ‘Planet X’, the existence of which was suspected based on perturbations in Neptune’s orbit. Name game Galaxy Picture Library 1 May 1930: The Lowell Observatory announces that its favoured name for the discovery is Pluto, suggested by 11-year-old Venetia Burney (pictured) from Oxford, UK, after the Roman god of the underworld. Venetia later becomes the namesake of a student-built dust counter on NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which is currently on its way to Pluto. Pair bond US Naval Observatory 22 June 1978: James Christy and Robert Harrington, of the US Naval Observatory's Flagstaff Station, discover Pluto’s largest moon, Charon. It is visible as a bulge (at top in left image) that regularly appears and disappears in observational images as the two bodies orbit their mutual centre of gravity1. The moon is so large relative to Pluto that the two are sometimes referred to as a binary planet. -
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Printer Friendly - - science news articles online technology magazine articles Printer Friendly Beyond Pluto We are only beginning to discover how vast and strange our solar system truly is By Kathy A. Svitil Illustrations by Don Foley DISCOVER Vol. 25 No. 11 | November 2004 | Astronomy & Physics As a child, Mike Brown had all the trappings of an astronomer-in-the-making, with space books, rocket drawings, and a poster of the planets on his bedroom wall. On it, Pluto was depicted as “this crazy and very eccentric planet,” he says. “It was everyone’s favorite crazy planet.” Brown still recalls the mnemonic he learned for the names of the planets: Martha visits every Monday and—a for asteroids—just stays until noon, period. “The ‘period,’ for Pluto, was always suspicious,” Brown says with a laugh. “It didn’t seem to fit. So maybe that was when I first got the idea that Pluto didn’t belong.” Nowadays Brown, a planetary astronomer at Caltech, has no doubt about Pluto’s place in the solar system: “Pluto is not a planet. There is no logical reason to call Pluto a planet.” Like a growing number of his colleagues, Brown believes Pluto is best understood as the largest known member of the Kuiper belt, a band of rocky, icy miniplanets that orbit the sun in a swath stretching from beyond Neptune to a distance of nearly 5 billion miles. “I don’t think it denigrates Pluto at all to say that it is not a planet. I think Pluto is a fascinating and interesting world, and being the largest Kuiper belt object is an honorable thing to be.” No longer is Pluto a lonely outpost in an otherwise empty frontier. -
Triton: Topography and Geology of a Probable Ocean World with Comparison to Pluto and Charon
remote sensing Article Triton: Topography and Geology of a Probable Ocean World with Comparison to Pluto and Charon Paul M. Schenk 1,* , Chloe B. Beddingfield 2,3, Tanguy Bertrand 3, Carver Bierson 4 , Ross Beyer 2,3, Veronica J. Bray 5, Dale Cruikshank 3 , William M. Grundy 6, Candice Hansen 7, Jason Hofgartner 8 , Emily Martin 9, William B. McKinnon 10, Jeffrey M. Moore 3, Stuart Robbins 11 , Kirby D. Runyon 12 , Kelsi N. Singer 11 , John Spencer 11, S. Alan Stern 11 and Ted Stryk 13 1 Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX 77058, USA 2 SETI Institute, Palo Alto, CA 94020, USA; chloe.b.beddingfi[email protected] (C.B.B.); [email protected] (R.B.) 3 NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA; [email protected] (T.B.); [email protected] (D.C.); [email protected] (J.M.M.) 4 School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85202, USA; [email protected] 5 Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85641, USA; [email protected] 6 Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA; [email protected] 7 Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85704, USA; [email protected] 8 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 91001, USA; [email protected] 9 National Air & Space Museum, Washington, DC 20001, USA; [email protected] 10 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University in Saint Louis, Saint Louis, MO 63101, USA; [email protected] 11 Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO 80301, USA; [email protected] (S.R.); [email protected] (K.N.S.); [email protected] (J.S.); [email protected] (S.A.S.) Citation: Schenk, P.M.; Beddingfield, 12 Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD 20707, USA; [email protected] 13 C.B.; Bertrand, T.; Bierson, C.; Beyer, Humanities Division, Roane State Community College, Harriman, TN 37748, USA; [email protected] R.; Bray, V.J.; Cruikshank, D.; Grundy, * Correspondence: [email protected] W.M.; Hansen, C.; Hofgartner, J.; et al. -
2018: Aiaa-Space-Report
AIAA TEAM SPACE TRANSPORTATION DESIGN COMPETITION TEAM PERSEPHONE Submitted By: Chelsea Dalton Ashley Miller Ryan Decker Sahil Pathan Layne Droppers Joshua Prentice Zach Harmon Andrew Townsend Nicholas Malone Nicholas Wijaya Iowa State University Department of Aerospace Engineering May 10, 2018 TEAM PERSEPHONE Page I Iowa State University: Persephone Design Team Chelsea Dalton Ryan Decker Layne Droppers Zachary Harmon Trajectory & Propulsion Communications & Power Team Lead Thermal Systems AIAA ID #908154 AIAA ID #906791 AIAA ID #532184 AIAA ID #921129 Nicholas Malone Ashley Miller Sahil Pathan Joshua Prentice Orbit Design Science Science Science AIAA ID #921128 AIAA ID #922108 AIAA ID #761247 AIAA ID #922104 Andrew Townsend Nicholas Wijaya Structures & CAD Trajectory & Propulsion AIAA ID #820259 AIAA ID #644893 TEAM PERSEPHONE Page II Contents 1 Introduction & Problem Background2 1.1 Motivation & Background......................................2 1.2 Mission Definition..........................................3 2 Mission Overview 5 2.1 Trade Study Tools..........................................5 2.2 Mission Architecture.........................................6 2.3 Planetary Protection.........................................6 3 Science 8 3.1 Observations of Interest.......................................8 3.2 Goals.................................................9 3.3 Instrumentation............................................ 10 3.3.1 Visible and Infrared Imaging|Ralph............................ 11 3.3.2 Radio Science Subsystem................................. -
Comet Section Observing Guide
Comet Section Observing Guide 1 The British Astronomical Association Comet Section www.britastro.org/comet BAA Comet Section Observing Guide Front cover image: C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) by Geoffrey Johnstone on 1997 April 10. Back cover image: C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) by Lester Barnes on 2011 December 23. © The British Astronomical Association 2018 2018 December (rev 4) 2 CONTENTS 1 Foreword .................................................................................................................................. 6 2 An introduction to comets ......................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Anatomy and origins ............................................................................................................................ 7 2.2 Naming .............................................................................................................................................. 12 2.3 Comet orbits ...................................................................................................................................... 13 2.4 Orbit evolution .................................................................................................................................... 15 2.5 Magnitudes ........................................................................................................................................ 18 3 Basic visual observation ........................................................................................................ -
Charon Tectonics
Icarus 287 (2017) 161–174 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Icarus journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/icarus Charon tectonics ∗ Ross A. Beyer a,b, , Francis Nimmo c, William B. McKinnon d, Jeffrey M. Moore b, Richard P. Binzel e, Jack W. Conrad c, Andy Cheng f, K. Ennico b, Tod R. Lauer g, C.B. Olkin h, Stuart Robbins h, Paul Schenk i, Kelsi Singer h, John R. Spencer h, S. Alan Stern h, H.A. Weaver f, L.A. Young h, Amanda M. Zangari h a Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, 189 Berndardo Ave, Mountain View, California 94043, USA b NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA 94035-0 0 01, USA c University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA d Washington University in St. Louis, St Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA e Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA f Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD 20723, USA g National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA h Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO 80302, USA i Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX 77058, USA a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: New Horizons images of Pluto’s companion Charon show a variety of terrains that display extensional Received 14 April 2016 tectonic features, with relief surprising for this relatively small world. These features suggest a global ex- Revised 8 December 2016 tensional areal strain of order 1% early in Charon’s history. Such extension is consistent with the presence Accepted 12 December 2016 of an ancient global ocean, now frozen. -
IS PLUTO a PLANET? Adam Roxburgh of Balclutha Primary School Asked
IS PLUTO A PLANET? Adam Roxburgh of Balclutha Primary School asked: Is Pluto a planet or not? It has moons, so is it a planet? How do the moons hide? Are the moons hiding behind Pluto? Pluto was discovered in 1930 and regarded being as a ‘proper planet’ for decades, but in 2006 professional astronomers downgraded it to the status of a ‘dwarf planet’ because several other similar- sized objects have been spotted, using very large telescopes, out beyond Neptune. These include objects named Haumea, Makemake, and Eris; the latter seems to be larger than Pluto itself AND, LIKE PLUTO, IT HAS A MOON. Actually, Pluto is known to have at least five moons, one having been announced just this past July, and another last year. Those two are quite small, only 10 to 30 km across. They don’t have names yet. Two others were found in 2005, and are called Nix and Hydra; they are both about 100 km in size. The first moon of Pluto to be discovered was Charon, in 1978. It is far bigger, about 1200 km in diameter, slightly more than half the size of Pluto. Because of this the Pluto-Charon pair is often regarded as being a ‘binary planet.’ Having moons is not a condition for a celestial object to be classified as a planet: for example, the innermost planets Mercury and Venus have no moons, whereas there are several large asteroids (orbiting between Mars and Jupiter) which do have moons. To qualify as being a ‘proper’ planet a body has to fulfil these two basic conditions. -
Pluto and Charon
National Aeronautics and Space Administration 0 300,000,000 900,000,000 1,500,000,000 2,100,000,000 2,700,000,000 3,300,000,000 3,900,000,000 4,500,000,000 5,100,000,000 5,700,000,000 kilometers Pluto and Charon www.nasa.gov Pluto is classified as a dwarf planet and is also a member of a Charon’s orbit around Pluto takes 6.4 Earth days, and one Pluto SIGNIFICANT DATES group of objects that orbit in a disc-like zone beyond the orbit of rotation (a Pluto day) takes 6.4 Earth days. Charon neither rises 1930 — Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto. Neptune called the Kuiper Belt. This distant realm is populated nor sets but “hovers” over the same spot on Pluto’s surface, 1977–1999 — Pluto’s lopsided orbit brings it slightly closer to with thousands of miniature icy worlds, which formed early in the and the same side of Charon always faces Pluto — this is called the Sun than Neptune. It will be at least 230 years before Pluto history of the solar system. These icy, rocky bodies are called tidal locking. Compared with most of the planets and moons, the moves inward of Neptune’s orbit for 20 years. Kuiper Belt objects or transneptunian objects. Pluto–Charon system is tipped on its side, like Uranus. Pluto’s 1978 — American astronomers James Christy and Robert Har- rotation is retrograde: it rotates “backwards,” from east to west Pluto’s 248-year-long elliptical orbit can take it as far as 49.3 as- rington discover Pluto’s unusually large moon, Charon. -
A Search for Temporal Changes on Pluto and Charon
A Search for Temporal Changes on Pluto and Charon J. D. Hofgartner*1, B. J. Buratti1, S. L. Devins1, R. A. Beyer2,3, P. Schenk4, S. A. Stern5, H. A. Weaver6, C. B. Olkin5, A. Cheng6, K. Ennico3, T. R. Lauer7, W. B. McKinnon8, J. Spencer5, L. A. Young5, and the New Horizons Science Team *Corresponding author ([email protected]); 1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA; 2. Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA; 3. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA; 4. Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX; 5. Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO; 6. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD; 7. National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ; 8. Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO; Abstract: A search for temporal changes on Pluto and Charon was motivated by (1) the discovery of young surfaces in the Pluto system that imply ongoing or recent geologic activity, (2) the detection of active plumes on Triton during the Voyager 2 flyby, and (3) the abundant and detailed information that observing geologic processes in action provides about the processes. A thorough search for temporal changes using New Horizons images was completed. Images that covered the same region were blinked and manually inspected for any differences in appearance. The search included full-disk images such that all illuminated regions of both bodies were investigated and higher resolution images such that parts of the encounter hemispheres were investigated at finer spatial scales. Changes of appearance between different images were observed but in all cases were attributed to variability of the imaging parameters (especially geometry) or artifacts. -
Update on Pluto and Its 5 Moons Obeying the Quantization of Angular Momentum Per Unit Mass Constraint of Quantum Celestial Mechanics
Volume12(2016) PROGRESSINPHYSICS Issue1(January) Update on Pluto and Its 5 Moons Obeying the Quantization of Angular Momentum per Unit Mass Constraint of Quantum Celestial Mechanics Franklin Potter Sciencegems.com, 8642 Marvale Drive, Huntington Beach, CA 92646 USA E-mail: [email protected] In July, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft passing by Pluto did not discover any more moons. Therefore, we know the Pluto system total angular momentum to within 2.4%, more accurately than any other system with more than two orbiting bodies. We there- fore update our previous analysis to determine whether a definitive test of the quantum celestial mechanics (QCM) angular momentum constraint can now be achieved. 1 Introduction The end result of the transformation is the new scalar In 2012 we analyzed the angular momentum properties of the “gravitational wave equation” (GWE) Pluto system with its 5 moons [1] not knowing the total angu- ∂2 Ψ Ψ gαβ + = 0. (4) lar momentum in the system. The New Horizons spacecraft ∂xα ∂xβ H2 passing by Pluto and its large moon Charon in July, 2015, One can now consider the behavior of the test particle in dif- did not discover any more moons than its earlier discovery ferent gravitational metrics. In the Schwarzschild metric, we of 4 additional tiny moons. Therefore, the Pluto system that find good agreement with predictions for all systems to which we know is the final configuration of orbiting bodies, so we the QCM constraints have been applied. now know its total angular momentum to within 3%. Conse- There have been numerous applications of QCM to grav- quently, we can consider this gravitationally bound system as itationally bound systems, including multi-planetary exosys- a possible definitive test of the theory called quantum celes- tems [3], the Solar System [2], the five moons of Pluto [1], tial mechanics(QCM) first proposed in 2003 by H.G.Preston the S-stars at the galactic center [4], and circumbinary sys- and F.Potter [2]. -
Study on Kuiper Belt- Unexplored Reservoir of Solar System’S Secrets Anushka Patil1
Academic Journal of Astrophysics and Planet Xournals Xournals Academic Journal of Astrophysics and Planet ISSN UA | Volume 01 | Issue 01 | January-2019 Study on Kuiper Belt- Unexplored Reservoir of Solar System’s Secrets Anushka Patil1 Available online at: www.xournals.com Received 29th September 2018 | Revised 24th October 2018 | Accepted 17th December 2018 Abstract: Kuiper belt is a very vast elliptical plane which is home to our dwarf planet Pluto as well as Haumea which is considered as minor planet and is a trans-Neptunian object-its orbit is beyond that of the farthest ice giant in the solar system. Haumea takes 3.9 hours to make a full rotation and it has by far the fastest spin, and thus calculates to uphold the shortest day in our solar system for any planet or KBOs. Kuiper Belt is still a very mysterious place, and we have a lot to learn about it and through it, about our solar system. Besides Haumea most of the Kuiper belt objects are way too pale for meaningful compositional study but the objects discovered till date assumed to hold the capability to reveal the secret of generation of our solar system as the studies done till date suggests that the residues and all of the other leftovers after and whilst formation of solar system dived into the Kuiper Belt. Since the atmospheric condition in the belt id dynamically less the objects might be still in its earliest of form rather being degraded with the time. Keywords: Kuiper Belt, Solar System, Haumea, Comets. Authors: 1. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Maharashtra, INDIA Volume 01 | Issue 01 | January-2019 | Page 10 of 13 Xournals Academic Journal of Astrophysics and Planet Introduction The Kuiper Belt is a massive stretch of space, elsewhere the past identified gaseous gigantic planet of the Solar System, which is the Neptune. -
LOWELL OBSERVATORY in Flagstaff Embodies the Legacy of Arizona's VISIONARY ASTRONOMER
dby eSALLY BsENFORtD /iphontographsaby DAVItD Hi. SMoITH n PERCIVAL LOWELL NEVER CONSIDERED 1966, Lowell Observatory was registered as a LOWELL himself a dreamer. A stargazer, perhaps, but National Historic Landmark. Today, professional OBSERVATORY never a dreamer. and amateur stargazers go to the observatory, In the summer of 1894, Lowell thought he one of the world’s largest, privately operated, in Flagstaff had proof that intelligent life existed on Mars. nonprofit astronomical research observatories. The Harvard-educated mathematician, who Lowell’s 24-inch Clark refractor telescope, Embodies hailed from Boston blue-blooded society, spent which he used for his Mars observations, now the Legacy of night after night perched on a lonely serves as an instrument for public viewing. ponderosa pine-studded mesa above Flagstaff, Even in the 21st century, Lowell seems to Arizona’s gazing through a telescope at Mars, taking oversee the operation as he peers from a large notes and making calculations. By the end of painting that hangs in the observatory’s Steele VISIONARY summer, Lowell decided he had enough Visitor Center lobby. Hand on hip and staring ASTRONOMER information to publish his findings. straight into the future, Lowell stands amid Lowell never proved his theory of life on modern-day and historical space observational Mars, but such theories sparked a firestorm devices. The center serves as the entry point of controversy about Martians, adding a for all observatory programs, telescopes and fascination with space to the developing literary exhibits. People come to learn the observatory’s genre of science fiction. Author H.G. Wells history and for a chance to look through published his novel War of the Worlds in 1898 Lowell’s telescopes.