Pluto is a very interesting world. Though now officially considered a dwarf planet, I still personally think of it as the ninth planet because that’s how it was taught to me when I was little. Apparently there were some really interesting new Pluto discoveries made fairly recently in 2015 with a flyby by the NASA New Horizons spacecraft. One very cool discovery is the existence of a heart-shaped glacier on Pluto that is around the size of Texas and Oklahoma. Pluto also has blue skies, but much more interesting than that is the fact that Pluto has red snow. This red snow that coats Pluto’s peaks is composed of Methane. I think this is very interesting and honestly hard to imagine being on a planet where the mountain peaks are covered in red snow, what a beautiful visual that would be though. It’s pretty easy to focus on constantly discovering new worlds, but this makes me think about how much cool stuff there is going on within our own solar system’s planets and how much we still don’t really know. We still don’t have the technology to really learn a whole lot about places like Pluto and I look forward to the day we do because there’s no telling what other amazing things are waiting to be found there, as well as on other worlds that we have barely scratched the surface of.
The six most common elements found in living organisms on Earth are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and phosphorus. Recently, astronomers have been attempting to look more into the origins of phosphorus in the universe, and through observations of the Crab Nebula, they found that the amount and distribution of phosphorus in the Milky Way galaxy may be more random than indicated by our computer models of how phosphorus is created in supernovae. This means that some parts of the galaxy with exoplanets that would otherwise be hospitable environments for life may not have enough phosphorus to support life. In fact, some researchers have described it as pure luck that meteorites were able to carry just enough phosphorus bearing minerals that were reactive enough to engage in biological processes.
However, astronomers admit that more research of other supernovae remnants in the universe still needs to be done, as the phosphorus that has been measured in the Crab Nebula may not be representative of our vast universe. Still, it’s hard not to feel a little disappointed that the probability of life outside Earth may be less likely than the scientific community previously believed. With that said, I look forward to further research, as there’s no telling what we’ll find tomorrow, a year from now, 50 years from now, etc. I still believe the chance that at least one other planet in our seemingly endless universe is home to some form of life is far more likely than not. What I’m most shocked about is that our computer models of the universe may not be completely accurate, so I’m curious to know what else we will find that we were incorrect about through more observations of our universe.
When Galileo began using his invention, the telescope, for observation of the cosmos, he was very quickly able to make three discoveries. The most revolutionary of his discoveries were that the surface of the moon was rough and uneven and satellite objects he later identified to be moons orbited Jupiter. These discoveries were fundamental in challenging age-old Aristotelian and Church beliefs.
In 1610, Galileo published the first of his many telescope-aided discoveries in a pamphlet entitled Sidereus Nuncius. In this pamphlet, he asserted that the Moon was like the Earth in that it had mountains, valleys, and a highly irregular surface. The rough and uneven surface of the moon indicated that the moon was not a perfect sphere as had been previously thought and upheld by the Catholic Church.
The astronomical significance of this claim was its refutation of the widely accepted and strictly enforced theory that the heavens were perfect and composed of unchanging aether. Galileo, however, discovered that the moon was both imperfect as well as changing in its landscape. Years earlier, Tycho Brahe had already observed that the heavens were not unchanging when he observed outer stellar objects, like the comets in 1572 and 1580, streaking across the sky in a region beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Galileo’s later observations of the moon as well as sunspots corroborated this idea of an imperfect universe and offered the direct evidence needed to reject the Church’s teachings.
It had previously been thought that the Earth was the center of the universe and the one and only center of motion. Galileo concluded from this observation that if both Earth and Jupiter could be centers of motion, then it was also possible for the Sun to be one as well. Although Nicolaus Copernicus had already published his heliocentric theory by this time, Galileo’s observations provided the tangible, observable evidence needed to corroborate his claims.
When I was a kid we had 9 planets. That 9th planet was Pluto, which was (unfortunately for my generation) demoted to just a dwarf planet in 2006 (NASA: Pluto in Depth). As outraged as I was as a child that Pluto got demoted, the truth is, besides knowing it was the 9th planet, I didn’t know much else about it. With this blog post, I sought to remedy that fact, for myself and perhaps others. So without further ado, I present some cool facts about Pluto!
Pluto was discovered in 1930, and while it was originally named our 9th planet, as often happens in science, continuing information as we further probed our solar system resulted in us adjusting our previous opinions, “…after the discovery of similar intriguing worlds deeper in the distant Kuiper Belt, icy Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet” (NASA: Pluto in Depth). 2006 wasn’t the last time that we gathered new information about Pluto – in 2015 NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft did a flyby that showed us that Pluto “…has a heart-shaped glacier that’s the size of Texas and Oklahoma. This fascinating world has blue skies, spinning moons, mountains as high as the Rockies, and it snows—but the snow is red” (NASA: Pluto Overview). As for more basic commonly known facts about Pluto, the dwarf also has a crazy long orbital period – its year is the equivalent of 248 years! (NASA: Pluto in Depth) Another particularly fascinating part about Pluto’s orbit is that it is both elliptical and titled, meaning that for parts of its year it lies further from the sun than Neptune, but for other parts of its year, it is actually closer than Neptune. For instance, during 1979 to 1999 when Pluto was near perihelion, it was closer to the sun than Neptune. As for Pluto’s size, it certainly is a ‘dwarf’ planet compared to Earth, as it is 1/6 the width of Earth. However, it does beat Earth in the number of moons it possesses, with 5 moons that orbit it: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx (NASA: Pluto in Depth).
I hope these facts interested you! If you’d like to learn more, feel free to check out NASA’s sources where I learned all of this from – NASA: Pluto Overview and NASA: Pluto in Depth
Extrasolar planets are planets that orbit a star other than our own. Being in another star system, these worlds are very hard to observe since they are so far away and the light they produce pales in comparison to that of the stars they orbit. Because of this, although their existence had already been hypothesized, the first extrasolar planet was not actually observed until 1992 in Puerto Rico. Since then, there have been thousands of extrasolar planets discovered, most of which are gas-giant planets. Of course the thought of any newly discovered planet is exciting, but what is really interesting is how many of these extrasolar planets resemble Earth. There is a habitable zone in which a planet must exist in order to support life (or at least life as we know it). Of course most planets we discover exist outside of this habitable zone, but not all of them. The first planet to be discovered within this zone was observed in 2009 (though not confirmed till 2011) and is called Kepler-22b. At the moment not a whole lot is known about Kepler-22b, but scientists estimate it to be potentially twice the size of Earth and be covered in oceans. It really is tough for me to imagine a planet covered in oceans that are just completely devoid of life but of course this is a possibility. Since Kepler-22b there have been other extrasolar planets discovered within habitable zones which is very interesting. Hopefully when the James Webb Space Telescope launches this year we will not only discover more extrasolar planets within habitable zones, but also learn more about those already discovered. It is possible that a planet like Kepler 22-b could be inhabited by the first lifeforms ever discovered beyond Earth, and I hope we will find out sooner rather than later.
Saturn. The only planet that people are able to clearly point out that has a large ring going around it. Ask any elementary school-aged individual and they will tell you that the only thing they know about Saturn is that it is that “big planet with the ring around it.” The reality of this is that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all have rings around the planet, they are just not as prominent as Saturn’s. However, the ring I wish to talk about today is not external. Heck, you may not even call it a ring. The one I talk about is the hexagonal storm ring that exists in Saturn’s north pole.
During the Voyager mission in 1981, as Voyager 1 passed by Saturn, it discovered something peculiar. On Saturn’s north pole region exists a previously blue but now golden hexagonal cloud pattern. The speculation in the color change may be a result of sunlight more directly being shone on the hexagon.
The hexagonal cloud pattern is comprised of a giant hurricane in its center and several smaller vortexes that whirl within it. You can see from the image below that one of the larger vortexes spins clockwise, while the hurricane and the hexagon itself spins counterclockwise.
Looking near the bottom of the picture, you can faintly see a large vortex rotation in the opposite direction of the large hurricane. Imaged sourced from NASA.
This storm baffled researchers when it first discovered by Voyager, and so NASA re-imaged it in 2006 during the Cassini spacecraft mission. I’m sure that it is baffling to you as well, as the weather man has never shown you a giant hexagon that is about to destroy the entirety of Florida (I know that, when taking geometry, some of nightmares involved geometric shapes threatening my life). So the question is, why is Saturn the planet that proves our geometry teachers right when they say to us, “polygons and geometry can be found all throughout nature?”
It turns out that this hexagonal shape is caused by an eastward jet stream that is traveling at over 200 mph (miles per hour). But then you may say, “well, still, why is it a hexagon instead of a circle or an oval?” Lucky for you, physicists have decided to model this using computer simulations in order to understand the behavior. It turns out that, as long as certain initial conditions are met, such as initial amplitude, curvature of the jet, temperature gradient, and seasonal stability, a storm that is moving fast enough and has several interacting storms and rotation bodies will produce a hexagonal shape. For this large hurricane interacting with other jet streams and moving bodies, it is the most stable shape in nature, and thus beautiful. There is a wonderful graphic below that shows the many different layers and interactions that need to happen before a stable hexagon is formed, but is super cool to watch! Note that the hexagon does not form until day 230 and does not stop rotating until day 400.
Kuiper Belt Objects are unique in that they have different compositions than most asteroids and different orbits than most comets. This has led astronomers to contemplate the identity of Kuiper Belt Objects. Surprisingly, the answer isn’t so clear. Asteroids are mostly composed of rock while comets are mostly composed of rock and ice. Most Kuiper Belt Objects are composed of half rock and half ice, so in this respect, they might be considered comets. Nevertheless, it is believed that some comets can actually turn into asteroids as they lose their ice from passing close to the Sun. It is also worth noting that comets that come close to the Sun have elliptical orbits while most Kuiper Belt Objects have circular orbits that don’t come close to the Sun at all. This is why many have concluded that Kuiper Belt Objects are simply an icy asteroid belt. However, then we enter the issue of whether the larger Kuiper Belt Objects should be classified as dwarf planets. Our knowledge of the universe has expanded rapidly in just a few decades, and we have realized that our universe and all the objects and worlds within it are more complex than we initially believed. Maybe it’s time to update our classification system or accept that many, if not most, objects in our universe fall somewhere in between the categories we have created.
Discovered in 1610 by the renowned astronomer, engineer, and philosopher Galileo Galilei, the Jovian orbiter Europa may again serve to revolutionize humanity’s cosmic perspective. Initially evidence that Earth was not the absolute center of motion in the Universe, Europa, among the discovery of the other Galilean moons, advanced the credibility of the heliocentric model through demonstrable opposition to Aristotelian metaphysics, which had been the fundamental and previously incontestable force in established cosmology.
Today, Europa has the potential to once again serve as a means of revolution. Liquid water was long thought to be a necessary element for the development of life, and not evidenced to exist beyond Earth. While life is no longer thought to be entirely contingent upon the presence of water, Europa is still a shining example of liquid water’s natural abundance apart from Earth, and is a promising location in the search for extra-terrestrial life. Measurements from multiple passing spacecraft, including Voyagers 1 and 2, Galileo (named after Europa’s discoverer), and Cassini, have given strong evidence suggesting the existence of a vast, lunar-wide ocean of salt water under Europa’s icy surface. With the liquid water to facilitate the chemical reactions that bring about life, the energy created by tides through its interaction with Io, and its rocky interior, Europa’s environment is thought to be quite hospitable to developing life. Through future NASA missions such as Europa Clipper, the ultimate question of whether life exists beyond Earth may soon be answered.
This photo shows the constellations Cygnus and Lyra, where this mysterious star lies between
Between these two constellations lies a star that scientists are just not able to figure out. As we’ve learned in class, a star’s light emission usually has minuscule dips as its planets orbit. But this star, which is not even visible to the human eye, seems to have a massive and constant bundle of matter orbiting it.
The Kepler Space telescope has been studying it for years. If this star were young, it would make sense that this cloud of of matter existed because it takes time for the matter generated by the formation of a star to become orbiting planets and other objects. However, scientists know that this star is not young. Rather, it is a fully mature star. Scientists know this because the dust that surrounds a young star would give off extra infrared light. But this one just does not.
Countless theories have been proposed but none proven. A leading theory is that another star passed through the mysterious stars system and dragged a bunch of comets along that would account for the dimming. However, this is very unlikely as the time frame that this would happen in is incredibly short so it would be a giant coincidence.
Of course, the theory that everyone loves is that it is an alien structure. It seems like a possibility. Astronomer Jason Wright said “This looked like something you would expect an alien civilization to build.”
In the coming years, more research will be conducted to test these different hypotheses. I’m interested to learn more about this mysterious star.
When you think of tatooine from Star Wars, you may think of a couple of things – sand, sand barges, more sand(it gets everywhere), and the twin suns we see in the beginning of A New Hope.
While Star Wars may be a space fantasy and the dual stars seem outlandish since we are in the solar system of a lone star, more than 80% of the seemingly “singular” points of light in the sky are actually multiple stars orbiting together. If there are only two stars orbiting together, they are called binary stars, and can be further classified by their appearance from Earth and their positions relative to each other.
Looking at Tatooine’s suns, we can’t really pass judgement on how the stars might orbit each other. What we can guess, however, is how the stars might appear to Earth if Tatooine existed. Since Tatooine is in “A galaxy far far away…” and one of the stars appears rather red, we might assume that this star is either a red dwarf or a red giant. If the star were a red dwarf, there’s a chance we wouldn’t be able to see it from Earth, and the single star we could see would appear as an Astrometric Binary – a binary system where only one star can be seen from Earth.
If star was a red giant and/or we could see it from Earth, we can also guess that since the suns appear close together even from Tatooine, we might not be unable to tell them apart from Earth, even with a telescope. This visual distinction would classify the system as a Spectroscopic Binary, while if they are actually much further away than they appear when we see them, they could be Visual Binary stars (binary stars that can be differentiated when looked at through a telescope)
When you think of tatooine from Star Wars, you may think of a couple of things – sand, sand barges, more sand(it gets everywhere), and the twin suns we see in the beginning of A New Hope.
