Pluto: Planet or Dwarf Planet?

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Haley Topper

Pluto is a Dwarf Planet located in the Kuiper Belt. Pluto is around 2/3 the diameter of our moon and 1/6 the mass. The Dwarf Planet has a 248 year long elliptical orbit, taking it to as far as about 50 AU from the sun!

From the “planet’s” discovery in 1930 until 2006, it was classified as a Planet making up 9 in our Solar System. However, in 2006, there were changes made to the definition of a planet, leaving pluto to be re-defined as a Dwarf Planet.

In order to be considered a planet, the orbital body must be round, must orbit the sun, and must have cleared the neighborhood of its orbit. While Pluto obeys the first two requirements, it doesn’t obey the third one, making it necessary to reclassify the object as a Dwarf Planet. While this reclassification stands, there are people who are actively trying to reinstate Pluto as a Planet!

Source: Wonderopolis

 


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19.1.2017

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Ashley Garcia

This site has a cool scrolling infographic that shows the scale of the universe: http://htwins.net/scale2/ 

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by me.

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First Blog for Solar System

Posted on January 18, 2017 by sullivrs

This is my first blog to show that I know how to use WordPress.

 

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I took this on Perito Moreno Glacier last month (by me).

Here is some more info about the glacier; it was amazing.


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First Post for ASTR 2110

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Paolo Dumancas
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Taken by my Dad at the Broad Museum in LA
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One of my favorite albums

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Great American Eclipse

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Paolo Dumancas

I’ve always heard about how amazing it is to watch the sky go dark for a few minutes during daytime due to a total solar eclipse. Never having experienced one, it always felt like some rare occurrence or myth I would never get to observe. But no longer…

On August 21, 2017, the moon will be directly between the sun and Earth, causing the moon to cast a shadow on the Earth that’s visible from the entire continental United States. Unlike lunar eclipses, which are visible from all regions that are experiencing night time, the moon’s shadow can only cover a pathway region of Earth, so to observe it, one must be within that pathway. Additionally, even if the moon is directly in line with Earth, a solar eclipse is only observed if the moon is new and close to a node, which is the point at which the moon’s orbit crosses the ecliptic plane.

The last time a total solar eclipse occurred and was able to be observed from coast to coast of the Continental US was in 1979. So this really will be the first time for many of us.

The diagram below shows the pathway of the total solar eclipse. The dark portion of the pathway are the locations where the total eclipse will be able to be observed for just a little under three minutes. As one deviates from that path, less and less of the sun will appear to be covered by the moon.

For Nashville specifically, make sure to mark your calendars as we will be one of the cities in the path of the total eclipse. And remember, don’t look directly at the sun as the ultraviolet rays can still be damaging!

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Gravitational Time Dilation

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Paolo Dumancas

One of the most dramatic scenes in the movie Interstellar is when the crew lands on the surface of the ocean planet closest in orbit to the supermassive black hole, Gargantua. Because of the planet’s proximity to the black hole, the explorers experience severe gravitational time dilation, so for every hour that passes on the ocean planet, seven years pass on Earth. After the mission goes wrong and a rogue wave disables the escape route for three hours, Cooper and Brand return to their ship to find out that twenty three years passed on Earth while they were gone.

Albert Einstein predicted this effect with the Theory of Relativity. The gravitational pull of an object actually bends spacetime, so if the gravitational pull is strong enough, such as in the case of Gargantuan, time will slow down relative to the observer. The weaker the gravitational pull, the faster time passes. In the real world, this effect was tested through the use of atomic clocks. When the clocks were synced up and placed at different altitudes on the surface of Earth, the minute difference in gravitation potential eventually caused the clocks to differ in nanoseconds.

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Introduction

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Natalie

(Photo By Me)

I have a very German family and I have been lucky enough to be able to travel to Germany twice! The last time I went with my family we traveled through Prague and I was able to see the astronomical clock at the city center. It has a very interesting history dating back to the 1400s. I love traveling to places with lots of history and learning about the less well known parts of that history. There was a huge crowd gathered to see the clock chime on the hour.


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First blog post

Posted on January 18, 2017 by vandyastro

Hi Everyone,

This is my Blog, very exciting I know. A little about myself is that i am a freshman currently living in Murray House. I am Majoring in Astrophysics and hope to get a PhD at some point also in Astrophysics. While working for NASA would be great, I will happily end up working with the military, especially since my twin is already doing that. The picture I hope to attach is of my adorable and extremely loving dog Lilly.img_1085-2

BY ME


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LOOK AND DIGEST

Posted on January 17, 2017 by aliyazd1407

ALOHA EVERYONE,

Just to let you know, you are going to join a marvelous adventure with me. Therefore, to make everything smooth, I will introduce myself a little bit. The handsome guy in this picture is me (please don’t laugh).

hey
Photo by me.

I am a sophomore studying mechanical engineering and originally from Malaysia. If you have not been here, do visit and explore the extraordinary place. Lastly, my name is Mohamad Ali Yazdani MEHRDAD YAZDANI.

READY FOR EXCITEMENT!!!

To begin this journey, do check the links below:

Solar Eclipse

Partial Solar Eclipse


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Hello everyone!

Posted on January 17, 2017 by nazshaiful
skjab.jpg
photo by me  

My name is Nur Nazlifa Shaiful Annuar and I am a sophomore at Vanderbilt University, majoring in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. This is my first time blogging about astronomy and cosmic notions so let’s hope that it’s going to be fun!

The photo above was taken at Crescent Lake, Oregon when I was on a break. There is a lot of stories and legends that has been going around and they are pretty interesting! Read more on CRESCENT LAKE !

So, I just recently know about the real evidence of ninth planet (EXCITING YES I KNOW!) and here is a link if you want to read more about it! (I HOPE YOU DO!)

NINTH PLANET

See you next time!


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