Posted on 08/07/2018 8:49:37 AM PDT by ETL
For the record, "brown dwarf" does't do it for me either. (Sounds like something from '60s era midget wrestling.)
Dr William Grundy of the New Horizons’ surface composition team and his colleagues made this ‘psychedelic’ image of Pluto using a technique called principal component analysis to highlight the color differences between distinct regions of the dwarf planet.
Dr Grundy and co-authors presented this image November 9 at the 47th Annual Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland.
The image data were gathered by New Horizons’ Ralph/MVIC instrument on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 22,000 miles (35,000 km).
“The Ralph instrument is New Horizons’ primary tool for investigating surface compositions in the Pluto system. Ralph consists of a near-infrared spectral imager sharing a 75 mm aperture telescope assembly with a color CCD camera system,” Dr Grundy explained.
“The MVIC (Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera) has seven CCD arrays of which four have interference filters affixed directly on the focal plane.”
“The filters pass wavelengths ranging from 400 through 975 nm, sensitive to coloration by tholin-type materials as well as a weak methane ice absorption band at 890 nm.”
New Horizons is currently 3.21 billion miles (5.17 billion km) from Earth and 90.2 million miles (145.2 million km) beyond Pluto. It is healthy and all systems are operating normally.
http://www.sci-news.com/space/new-horizons-false-color-psychedelic-image-pluto-03434.html
“Dwarf Planet” my azz. Pluto has never stopped being a planet in my book. Doesn’t grandfathering apply anymore?
—
The real question is does Pluto self-identify as a planet?
Thanks for getting that cheesy Cyndi Lauper song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
She made a song about Pluto?
a song about True Colors
Haha, Awesome! Much better!
Yes, NASA adds artificial colors to the images it releases.
That makes it impossible to sit back and enjoy “the light show the universe is putting on.”
Well, according to the new rules Pluto isn’t big enough to qualify as a planet, but maybe Pluto and Charon together can qualify. I propose we name the planet Pluron... or Charto.
IAU definition of planet
The debate came to a head in August 2006, with an IAU resolution that created an official definition for the term “planet”. According to this resolution, there are three conditions for an object in the Solar System to be considered a planet:
* The object must be in orbit around the Sun.
* The object must be massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity. More specifically, its own gravity should pull it into a shape defined by hydrostatic equilibrium.
* It must have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.[48][49]
Pluto fails to meet the third condition. Its mass is substantially less than the combined mass of the other objects in its orbit: 0.07 times, in contrast to Earth, which is 1.7 million times the remaining mass in its orbit (excluding the moon).[47][49]
The IAU further decided that bodies that, like Pluto, meet criteria 1 and 2, but do not meet criterion 3 would be called dwarf planets.
In September 2006, the IAU included Pluto, and Eris and its moon Dysnomia, in their Minor Planet Catalogue, giving them the official minor planet designations “(134340) Pluto”, “(136199) Eris”, and “(136199) Eris I Dysnomia”.[50] Had Pluto been included upon its discovery in 1930, it would have likely been designated 1164, following 1163 Saga, which was discovered a month earlier.[51]
There has been some resistance within the astronomical community toward the reclassification.[52][53][54] Alan Stern, principal investigator with NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto, derided the IAU resolution, stating that “the definition stinks, for technical reasons”.[55] Stern contended that, by the terms of the new definition, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune, all of which share their orbits with asteroids, would be excluded.[56]
He argued that all big spherical moons, including the Moon, should likewise be considered planets.[57] He also stated that because less than five percent of astronomers voted for it, the decision was not representative of the entire astronomical community.[56] Marc W. Buie, then at the Lowell Observatory petitioned against the definition.[58] Others have supported the IAU. Mike Brown, the astronomer who discovered Eris, said “through this whole crazy circus-like procedure, somehow the right answer was stumbled on. It’s been a long time coming. Science is self-correcting eventually, even when strong emotions are involved.”[59]
Public reception to the IAU decision was mixed. Many accepted the reclassification, but some sought to overturn the decision with online petitions urging the IAU to consider reinstatement. A resolution introduced by some members of the California State Assembly facetiously called the IAU decision a “scientific heresy”.[60]
The New Mexico House of Representatives passed a resolution in honor of Tombaugh, a longtime resident of that state, that declared that Pluto will always be considered a planet while in New Mexican skies and that March 13, 2007, was Pluto Planet Day.[61][62] The Illinois Senate passed a similar resolution in 2009, on the basis that Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, was born in Illinois. The resolution asserted that Pluto was “unfairly downgraded to a ‘dwarf’ planet” by the IAU.”[63]
Some members of the public have also rejected the change, citing the disagreement within the scientific community on the issue, or for sentimental reasons, maintaining that they have always known Pluto as a planet and will continue to do so regardless of the IAU decision.[64]
In 2006, in its 17th annual words-of-the-year vote, the American Dialect Society voted plutoed as the word of the year. To “pluto” is to “demote or devalue someone or something”.[65]
Researchers on both sides of the debate gathered in August 2008, at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for a conference that included back-to-back talks on the current IAU definition of a planet.[66] Entitled “The Great Planet Debate”,[67] the conference published a post-conference press release indicating that scientists could not come to a consensus about the definition of planet.[68]
In June 2008, the IAU had announced in a press release that the term “plutoid” would henceforth be used to refer to Pluto and other objects that have an orbital semi-major axis greater than that of Neptune and enough mass to be of near-spherical shape.[69][70][71]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto#Classification
This debate (Pluto is/is not a “planet”) is the modern version of “how many angels can fit on the head of a pin”.
The new priests (now called “scientists”) are making fools of themselves.
Having it’s own moon is not unique to planets:
NASA Radar Reveals Asteroid Has Its Own Moon.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/asteroid20130530.html
Thanks ETL. Ping to the old APoD list.
Texas student plays with giant gator in graduation pictures: ‘He’s a real life dinosaur’
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3677213/posts
wut?
“less than five percent voted on the change” And didn’t something like that happen with the psychiatrists in 1973 dropping homosexuality from the long-accepted list of mental disorders? Why do we let tiny minorities dictate to the rest of us??
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