The Ex-Planet

While scrolling through the text book I noticed that there was still a section that classified Pluto as a planet. After seeing this, I began to look in the book and online for more information on Pluto, or now know as 134340. In the book, the authors discuss if Pluto should actually be called a planet. It is one of the ten largest bodies orbiting the sun, and has been known to come closer than Neptune to the sun. In fact, from 1979 to 1999, Pluto's orbit was closer than Neptune's.

Furthermore, your text book and articles offline suggest that Pluto was once a moon for Neptune. Astronomers believed this because Pluto has the same density and about the same diameter of Neptune's moon Triton. Many disbelieve this claim because some say that even if Pluto was a moon of Neptune, it could not escape the orbit path of Neptune and still be able to have a moon itself. While this theory has been abandoned by most, do you think that Pluto could have escaped the orbit path of Neptune while still obtaining a moon?

Earth Wobble Rings

Here is an interesting article about a proof of Earth's axis not being fixed. It wobbles by a tiny fraction of a degree. Ulrich Schreiber of Technical University of Munich and his team experimented the wobble in a lab with a ring laser. The article talks about how a ring laser works and how they measure the wobble using the beams. Schreiber and his team created the "Gross Ring" which is a cheap and better astronomical method of studying the Earth's rotation. Please read the article for more details and ask me if you have any questions or comments.

Light Pollution

The light pollution is something that we overlook as it has robbed generations to see nature at its largest scale. The study shows that as many as 80% population have never seen the Milky Way. When huge power outage occurred in south California in 1990s, these people saw the Milky Way first time in their life. Billions of dollars are wasted every year on the energy by unnecessary lighting in the sky. All the lights outside which are not shielded downwards on the earth surface, pollute the atmosphere. Astronomers have to go to the different islands or mountains to study the stars because of the light pollution. Low-pressure sodium lamps are used in the city of Tucson, AZ which uses a limited amount of wavelength to prevent the light from spreading everywhere. If we do not control the light pollution then the future generations will not be able to enjoy seeing in the dark.

Venus: The Twin Planet?

Many kids learn about the planets while they are at a young age, most of the time during middle school. One piece of information given to the kids is that Earth has a twin planet, Venus. They are told this because there are many similarities between the two planets: size, density, mass, composition, and gravity. While this information is true, there are still many differences which set the two planets into different categories.

The section "Physical Characteristics of the Planet Venus", located on the website listed below, provides many different traits between Venus and Earth. Some of the traits are an intense temperature on Venus, atmospheric composition and pressure, and different surface features.

http://www.space.com/44-venus-second-planet-from-the-sun-brightest-planet-in-solar-system.html

After reading the section, do you think that Venus should still be known as Earth's twin?

Jupiter's Little Red Spot

Many of you guys might have seen the little circular red spots on the planet Jupiter. Little Red Spot is an anticyclone on Jupiter which produces winds up to 384 MPH. This storm has a direction of counterclockwise and because of the chemical reactions, it changes color after some time. Here on earth, we experience winds up to 156 MPH, which is a category five storm. The Red Spot can be seen from the earth using a telescope. Here is a link to an article if you are interested. 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/1108-jupiters_little_red_spot.htm   

The Asteroid Vesta

Hey guys, please read this article.

http://www.astronomy.com/en/News-Observing/News/2011/10/New%20view%20of%20Vesta%20mountain%20from%20NASAs%20Dawn%20mission.aspx

I found this interesting article on the asteroid Vesta. It describes how the topography of a certain region of Vesta was seen to house a massive mountain. It was estimated that this mountain was three times the height of Mount Everest, which is the highest above ground peak in the world. Without this topography of Vesta, would you have believed that an asteroid could contain a mountain like figure which is three times the height of Mount Everest?

Nobel Prize in Physics

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2011 to Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Riess. Saul Perlmutter received $5 million and Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess received $2.5 million each. These Physicists were awarded for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae. Two separate teams, one leaded by Saul Perlmutter and other one by Brian Schmidt, located the most distant supernovae and observed it. Both teams reached the same conclusion which proved that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. This expansion can lead the universe to end in ice. It is believed that the acceleration is caused by some type of a dark energy which is still a mystery. Here is a link to an article if you guys want to read more into it. http://www.kva.se/en/pressroom/Press-releases-2011/The-Nobel-Prize-in-Physics-2011/

As you can see it is always interesting to see how Physics can help us figure out the answers to some of the toughest questions we have and which affects our future on the planet earth.