The 10th rock from the sun?
Its been a while since I've discussed any astronomy. We've got some good stuff comming up. Next week will be a great meteor shower. It will peak on August 12th. If your an early riser, than you'll wanna take a peak outside before you head off to work. From 2 a.m. to sunrise is the best time to watch. If you look east, you will see Mars. It's the brightest object in the sky, and will have a reddish hew. If you find Mars, just keep looking in that direction and you'll see shooting stars. You don't actually have to wait until the 12th. You can actually start to see the showers now through the next couple of weeks. The 12th is just the peak. Right now the Earth is traveling through comet Swift-Tuttle's tail. Don't worry we are nowhere near the comet. The Earth's orbit happens to intersect the comets trail. A comet leaves dust in its trail. This dust is what you actually see as a shooting star. Its particles comes blowing through our atmosphere at 132,00 M.p.h. and burns up.
Astronomers have also discovered a so-called 10th planet. It is about twice as far from the sun as Pluto, but is perhaps 1.5 times bigger. It was first photographed in Oct of 2003, but has only recently been called a planet due to multiple photographs tracking its orbit. Some scientist don't even think of Pluto as a planet. They consider it to be a large body from the Kuiper belt. The Kuiper belt is a disc of asteroids outside our planetary system, but within our solar system. Although some argue Pluto must be a planet since it even has its own moon (Sharon). To me Pluto should be called part of the Kuiper belt, but its been called a planet for so long that its tough to change. The problem with calling this new discovery a planet is that I believe it is just the first of many. With our better technology in telescopics, if we call every large Kuiper body a planet, in the next 20 years our solar system will contain 10 or 20 new planets. All belonging to the Kuiper belt. Never the less, its a pretty cool discovery. This new body has a highly elliptical orbit, I believe at its closest to the sun, it even comes inside Plutos orbit. At its furthest it is about twice the distance from the sun as Pluto. Check out NASA's story- http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/29jul_planetx.htm
P.S. Mars will never appear as large as the moon. If you see this story on the internet it is a hoax. Although this October mars will be close to the Earth and is already very visable with the naked eye.
Astronomers have also discovered a so-called 10th planet. It is about twice as far from the sun as Pluto, but is perhaps 1.5 times bigger. It was first photographed in Oct of 2003, but has only recently been called a planet due to multiple photographs tracking its orbit. Some scientist don't even think of Pluto as a planet. They consider it to be a large body from the Kuiper belt. The Kuiper belt is a disc of asteroids outside our planetary system, but within our solar system. Although some argue Pluto must be a planet since it even has its own moon (Sharon). To me Pluto should be called part of the Kuiper belt, but its been called a planet for so long that its tough to change. The problem with calling this new discovery a planet is that I believe it is just the first of many. With our better technology in telescopics, if we call every large Kuiper body a planet, in the next 20 years our solar system will contain 10 or 20 new planets. All belonging to the Kuiper belt. Never the less, its a pretty cool discovery. This new body has a highly elliptical orbit, I believe at its closest to the sun, it even comes inside Plutos orbit. At its furthest it is about twice the distance from the sun as Pluto. Check out NASA's story- http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/29jul_planetx.htm
P.S. Mars will never appear as large as the moon. If you see this story on the internet it is a hoax. Although this October mars will be close to the Earth and is already very visable with the naked eye.
posted by Jim Fisher at 5:56 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home