Hubble's look at a brown dwarf and mystery companion. Click for larger. Credit: Hubblesite

Everybody remembers the shock of the news when Pluto was demoted from being a planet into becoming a hapless minor planet. The IAU hardly saw the ensuing furor coming. You don’t just go messing with the planets for any old reason. What they really did was underestimate the value of public relations. In the eyes of the public they “demoted” a perfectly good planet to MINOR planet status…minor indeed! Hmmph!

I for one do understand why the IAU did what they did. All they really needed to do was to use better salesmanship, maybe something like mini-planet or maybe dainty-planet or something along those lines, but never minor. It seems pretty obvious the public will toss out a tried and true anything for a pig-in-a-poke if it is marketed correctly, we do it all the time. Heck sometimes all we have to do is be told we will like it, and that’s good enough until we unwrap the package to see what really awaits us and by then it’s too late one way or the other.

Now enter Hubble and the image above of a Brown Dwarf Star and a mystery companion.  Is it a planet?  Is it a star?  Where is the dividing line?  Somehow if when the discussion is reversed on the Pluto topic I don’t think we would have the same problem.

Background from Hubblesite:

As our telescopes grow more powerful, astronomers are uncovering objects that defy conventional wisdom. This latest example is the discovery of a planet-like object circling a brown dwarf. It’s the right size for a planet, estimated to be 5-10 times the mass of Jupiter. There has been a lot of discussion in the context of the Pluto debate over how small an object can be and still be called a planet. This new observation addresses the question at the other end of the size spectrum: How small can an object be and still be a brown dwarf rather than a planet? This new companion is within the range of masses observed for planets around stars — less than 15 Jupiter masses. But should it be called a planet? The answer is strongly connected to the mechanism by which the companion most likely formed. What’s even more puzzling is that the object formed in just 1 million years, a very short time to make a planet according to conventional theory.

Read the full story and see more images at Hubblesite.

Hey UB313 has a name and it is Eris. The moon of Eris is Dysnomia. Eris is a dwarf planet and has been officially named by the IAU, Xena didn’t stick.

Eris is the Greek goddess of discord, and Dysnomia is her daughter.  Dysnomia is the daimon of lawlessness.

Image Credit: Keck Observatory

However, it is a dwarf planet as is Ceres, but they don’t count.

Resolution 5a passes and we now have 8 planets (again).

The resolution:

1) A planet is a celestial body that (a) is by far the largest object in its local population [1], (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape [2], (c) does not produce energy by any nuclear fusion mechanism [3]. (2) According to point (1) the eight classical planets discovered before 1900, which move in nearly circular orbits close to the ecliptic plane are the only planets of our Solar System. All the other objects in orbit around the Sun are smaller than Mercury. We recognize that there are objects that fulfill the criteria (b) and (c) but not criterion (a). Those objects are defined as “dwarf” planets. Ceres as well as Pluto and several other large Trans-Neptunian objects belong to this category. In contrast to the planets, these objects typically have highly inclined orbits and/or large eccentricities. (3) All the other natural objects orbiting the Sun that do not fulfill any of the previous criteria shall be referred to collectively as “Small Solar System Bodies”.[4]

[1] The local population is the collection of objects that cross or close approach the orbit of the body in consideration.

[2] This generally applies to objects with sizes above several hundreds km, depending on the material strength.

[3] This criterion allows the distinction between gas giant planets and brown dwarfs or stars.

[4] This class currently includes most of the Solar System asteroids, near-Earth objects (NEOs), Mars-, Jupiter- and Neptune-Trojan asteroids, most Centaurs, most Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), and comets.

Update: You can listen to some of the discussion and voting on the Jodcast link below.

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IAU MEETING LINKS

The Jodcast — podcasting from the meeting! Catch the good interviews they’ve done already. BY THE WAY — The Jodcast is more than just a podcast, you will find links to the meeting I didn’t include. Go in and explore (especially the first link on the main page) you will see how much is really going on. Be sure to check these out!

Thomas Marquarts IAU Blog — Blogging the event, this site reportedly won’t be up long so have a look.

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It is rumor at this point, but it is thought the name of the new vehicle that will take the astronauts back to the moon is Orion. I say rumor because it is to be officially announced next week, and who really knows.

Supposedly the following was inadvertently transmitted over space-to-ground radio by ISS astronaut Jeff Williams, who was taping a message in advance for NASA:

“We’ve been calling it the crew exploration vehicle for several years, but today it has a name – Orion,”

This nugget comes from the Associated Press via Physorg.com

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IAU MEETING LINKS

The Jodcast — podcasting from the meeting! Catch the good interviews they’ve done already.  BY THE WAY — The Jodcast is more than just a podcast, you will find links to the meeting I didn’t include.  Go in and explore (especially the first link on the main page) you will see how much is really going on.  Be sure to check these out!

Thomas Marquarts IAU Blog — Blogging the event, this site reportedly won’t be up long so have a look.

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The image here is of the Suez Canal and was taken by the one of the astronauts aboard the ISS on June 30, 2006. Look closely (click it for a larger version) and you can see ships entering the Mediterranean Sea.

What makes the image significant, other than it’s a very good one, is it was the 200,000th photograph taken from the ISS. Apparently since then Expedition 13 crew members Jeffrey Williams, Pavel Vinogradov and Thomas Reiter has increased that number to 248,000; 48,000 images since June 30, 2006 ?? Wow. I can see spending the time looking in awe out the window, but would probably forget the camera

You can see more of the ISS images at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

Image Credit: NASA / ISS

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IAU MEETING LINKS

The Jodcast — podcasting from the meeting! Catch the good interviews they’ve done already.

Thomas Marquarts IAU Blog — Blogging the event, this site reportedly won’t be up long so have a look.

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I can’t really say I understand this Cassini image. 

 

It’s supposed to be “opposition surge” with Saturn’s A rings, but I am having a time understanding what exactly it is, yes, even with the explanation below.  I’m thinking it reminds me of the sun showing up in NOAA satellite images from time to time (especially on time lapse loops); what I call sunglints.

No matter, here’s the JPL / NASA explanation:

Two images of Saturn’s A and B ring showcase the opposition effect, a brightness surge that is visible on Saturn’s rings when the Sun is directly behind the spacecraft.
This view is of the A ring. See Opposition Surge on the B Ring for the view of the B ring.

The opposition effect exists because of two contributing factors. One is due to the fact that the shadows of ring particles directly opposite the Sun from Cassini — the region of opposition — fall completely behind the particles as seen from the spacecraft. These shadows are thus not visible to the spacecraft: all ring particle surfaces visible to the spacecraft in these two images are in sunlight and therefore bright. Much farther away from the region of opposition, the ring particle shadows become more visible and the scene becomes less bright. The brightness falls off in a circular fashion around the opposition point. The main factor to the opposition surge in this image is an optical phenomenon called “coherent backscatter.” Here, the electromagnetic signal from the rays of scattered sunlight making its way back to the spacecraft is enhanced near the region of opposition because, instead of canceling, the electric and magnetic fields comprising the scattered radiation fluctuate in unison.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

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IAU MEETING LINKS

The Jodcast — podcasting from the meeting! Catch the good interviews they’ve done already.

Thomas Marquarts IAU Blog — Blogging the event, this site reportedly won’t be up long so have a look. Apparently Thomas will not be blogging next week and is looking for somebody to take over the blog. I hope so.

Thomas has done a great job with the blog and I’d like to express my thanks.

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