This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights .
Christopher Palma , Associate Dean for Undergraduate Students and Teaching Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University
As an astronomer, the question I hear the most is why isn't Pluto a planet anymore? More than 10 years ago, astronomers famously voted to change Pluto's classification . But the question still comes up.
In case you are keeping track:
The solar system - How the planets got their spots | Christmas Specials | The Economist
I T IS HARDLY surprising that in the 17th and 18th centuries scientists likened the movements of the solar system to the ticking of well regulated machinery. The clockwork of orreries, mechanical models of the solar system, neatly encapsulated the apparently clockwork nature of the heavens, each planet following its designated course just as it always had, world without end.
The beginning, though, was much less orderly. Wind the clock back far enough and the clockwork goes awry. When the solar system was in its infancy, it now seems, planets changed their orbits with feckless abandon, swinging in towards the sun and out again, sometimes swapping places, possibly leaving the solar system altogether. These peregrinations seem to explain long-standing mysteries about why the solar system is the way it is.
Astronomers Have Found an Earth-Size Planet Practically Next-Door to Us
Our neighbourhood in space is turning out to be quite the populous planet precinct. Astronomers have found a new exoplanet just a little bit bigger than Earth, orbiting a red dwarf star just 66.5 light-years away.
It's an excellent candidate, they say, to help fill our vast knowledge gap about the small, rocky planet population of our Milky Way galaxy.
Our detection ability and knowledge of exoplanets has practically exploded since the first discovery was published in 1992 . At time of writing, over 4,100 exoplanets have been confirmed in our galaxy, and we now have a much deeper understanding of planetary systems and how they form and evolve.
Pluto is the most famous demoted planet, but it's not the first | Astronomy.com
As an astronomer, the question I hear the most is why isn’t Pluto a planet anymore? More than 10 years ago, astronomers famously voted to change Pluto’s classification . But the question still comes up.
When I am asked directly if I think Pluto is a planet, I tell everyone my answer is no. It all goes back to the origin of the word “planet.” It comes from the Greek phrase for “wandering stars.” Back in ancient times before the telescope was invented, the mathematician and astronomer Claudius Ptolemy called stars “fixed stars” to distinguish them from the seven wanderers that move across the sky in a very specific way.
Quite a lot has been going on:
Europe’s space agency just launched a satellite to study planets outside our solar system
The European Space Agency (ESA) launched a satellite early this morning aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket that took off from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. Atop the Soyuz is the so-called “Characterizing Exoplanet Satellite” (CHEOPS for short) that will deploy to orbit around Earth, where it’ll have a better view of nearby stars that we’ve previously determined have planets in their own respective orbits.
Planetary Mass Objects Discovered in Other Galaxies - Universe Today
A team of researchers at the University of Oklahoma have discovered "planetary mass bodies" outside of the Milky Way. They were discovered in one gravitationally-lensed galaxy, and in one gravitationally-lensed galaxy cluster using a technique called quasar micro-lensing. According to the researchers, the planetary mass objects are either planets or primordial black holes.
These detections are the second and third of this type. The first occurred in 2018 involving some of the same researchers. There is currently no way to directly detect objects like these, and no way to differentiate between planets and small black holes.
Star Wars: The planet at the start of Episode IX has great significance
When Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opened, Kylo Ren was on an unknown planet fighting unknown creatures.
He bulldozes his way through them and opens a box that contains a pyramid item. He grabs it and runs off to Exegol. This first planet is never named, but it turns out it’s a very important in the Star Wars universe.
While the planet – with its red hue – was never named in the movie, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary revealed the information. The book came out on Friday with the release of the movie. It contains details on characters, their history, ships, planets and so many tiny details.
"Marsquakes" Reveal Red Planet's Hidden Geology - Scientific American
The marsquakes are coming fast and furious. From its landing site near the Martian equator, NASA’s InSight mission is detecting about two quakes per day—and the rate is going up.
“We have a lot,” said Bruce Banerdt, a geophysicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and InSight’s principal investigator. He reported the findings on 12 December at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, California.
Happening on Twitter
Today's #WinterSolstice (in the Northern Hemisphere!) means the longest night of the year. We have two solstices a… https://t.co/uOb5ZUsGfS NASAEarth (from Washington, DC) Sat Dec 21 18:22:27 +0000 2019
Discovery of the universe's 1st molecule - helium hydride ion - by the flying observatory #SOFIA in a planetary neb… https://t.co/8oMQTwcPnW Omkar_Raii (from New Delhi) Mon Dec 23 02:05:47 +0000 2019
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