When people say Pluto isn’t a planet, they often say it is an icy body and therefore it must be a comet, not a planet. But are icy worlds simply comets? Or can real planets be made of ice? And what is the difference between ice and rock, anyway? Let’s take a look! Stars with […]
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To get ready for the New Horizons flyby of Pluto (this July!), I’m writing a series on the science of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Here is the next installment. There are some very strong hints that the planets haven’t stayed in their original orbits and the giant planets tossed around the smaller ones. These […]
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The Pluto flyby is a once-in-a-lifetime event, so to get ready I’m writing a series on the Kuiper Belt. This time we’ll look at how solar system bodies are classified by the way they dance. Orbital Resonance The planets’ orbits are affected by something called resonance. When you were a child you learned how to swing […]
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Note: this post (with the previous one) is intended to illustrate how BIG our solar system is by reviewing all the named bodies beyond Neptune. When Pluto was reclassified as ‘not-a-planet’ then people interpreted it to mean the important stuff ends at Neptune. Sadly, most people don’t know about all the worlds our own solar […]
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In July, New Horizons will become the first spacecraft to explore the third zone of the solar system. It’s time we familiarize ourselves with this region of our home star! We know the classical planets’ names and their meanings, but what about the hundreds of newly discovered dwarf planets and thousands of smaller bodies out […]