Eris, the most massive dwarf planet, discovered 2005

Eris, discovered January 5, 2005, is the most massive dwarf planet in our solar system, but slightly smaller than Pluto.  The team of Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz discovered Eris from pictures taken in October 2003 and made the announcement in July 2005.

It has an orbit of 558 years and at its closest approach to the sun it is 37.91 astronomical units.  At its maximum, it is almost three times that distance at 97.65 AU.  Eris has one moon named Dysnomia, which, in Greek mythology, is the daughter of Eris.

Although more massive than Pluto, Eris is slightly smaller.

New Dwarf Planet the 'Goblin' Discovered!

Yesterday, scientists announced the discovery of a new dwarf planet, the Goblin, orbiting the sun far beyond Pluto.  Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institute for Science, Chadwick Trujillo of Northern Arizona University and David Tholen of the University of Hawai'i first spotted the Goblin in October 2015, when it was a mere 80 AU (about 7.4 billion miles) away.  One AU is the distance between Earth and Sun.  It took them three more years to confirm its existence and given the official name 2015 TG387.  Since it was first discovered around Halloween 2015 and its initials include TG, they dubbed it "The Goblin".

The scientists can only detect such objects when they are closest to the sun.  Otherwise, they are too distant and too faint to be seen, due to their elliptical orbits.  The Goblin joins two other dwarf planets beyond Pluto, Sedna and 2012 VP113 (such a romantic name).

Sheppard and Trujillo proposed the existence of a Planet X, a large planet, about 10 times more massive than Earth, orbits the sun about 600 AU and the orbits of these dwarf planets are like 'bread crumbs' leading them to the elusive Planet X.

Newfound Dwarf Planet 'The Goblin' May Lead to Mysterious Planet Nine

https://apnews.com/fa16fca0a19c43888986bd95f7c3de2d

First images of Kuiper Belt objects taken by New Horizons

New Horizons spacecraft, which made a flyby of Pluto in July 2015, took images of two Kuiper Belt objects, the farthest images from Earth ever captured by a spacecraft. 

These are falso-color images of 2012 HZ84 and 2012 HE85 are the closest-ever pictures of Kuiper Belt objects.

New Horizons is the fifth spacecraft to travel beyond the solar system at about 700,000 miles a day.  It made a course correction back in December to set it on its way to visit dwarf planet MU69 on January 1, 2019. 

Chiron discovered 1977

Chiron, an asteroid/minor planet/comet/centaur/whatsit, was discovered by Charles Kowal November 1, 1977 from images taken October 18 from the Palomar Observatory in southern California.  It may have been observed as far back as 1895.

At first, Chiron (named after the wisest and justest centaur from Greek mythology) was classified as a minor planet because its orbit lay between Saturn and Uranus, much further than the asteroid belt.  Subsequently, its classification was downgraded to an asteroid. 

Then in 1988, it brightened by 75% which is characteristic of comets, but not asteroids.  In 1993, a tail was discovered so NASA thought it was a comet.  So they decided, why not classify it as both a comet and a minor planet.  Chiron is officially known as a centaur, a dual classification of comet and minor planet, orbiting between the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2060_Chiron

Dawn, spacecraft to the asteroid belt, launched 2007

Dawn, NASA's spacecraft to visit dwarf planets Ceres and Vesta, formerly known as asteroids, in the asteroid belt was launched September 27, 2007.  After testing its boosters in orbit above Earth and then receiving a gravity boost from Mars, Dawn entered orbit above Vesta June 16, 2011.  After exploring Vesta for a little over a year, it headed toward Ceres.

Dawn reached Ceres in December 2014 and discovered 'light' spots on the surface.  NASA scientists concluded that salt-rich water might have welled up to the surface of the dwarf planet.

NASA originally planned to have Dawn visit a third body, Adeona, but decided the spacecraft would be best used studying Ceres.  Dawn's mission was extended for one year in June 2017 and it has enough fuel to last until the end of 2018.  At that time, NASA may put it into an orbit which will avoid impact with Ceres.  They do not want to contaminate any of the asteroids.

Ceres (asteroid/dwarf planet) discovered 1801

January 1, 1801, Italian astronomer Guiseppe Piazzi of Palermo discovered what he thought was a comet, but after observing it 24 more times, he realized it was an asteroid, reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.  He named it Ceres, the Roman goddess of the Harvest.  It is the largest object in the asteroid belt but only 4% of our moon's mass.

NASA sent the spacecraft Dawn which reached Ceres in 2015.  It is the first time Ceres has been observed up close.  Dawn is still sending data on the dwarf planet.

New Horizons spacecraft flies by Pluto a year ago

One year ago today, the New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach to Pluto and its moon Charon.  Since then, NASA scientists have made numerous discoveries about the now-dwarf planet, such as craters, mountains and seas of solid nitrogen.

Last month, scientists discovered super-grand canyon on Charon that makes Arizona's Grand Canyon look like a scratch!







http://www.nasa.gov/feature/a-super-grand-canyon-on-pluto-s-moon-charon

Our solar system has a new moon, MK 2

NASA announced last week that they have discovered a new moon, orbiting the dwarf planet Makemake (pronounced either "maKI-maKI" or "ma-KAY-ma-KAY" depending upon who you ask).  The dwarf planet is in the Kuiper Belt which lies beyond the orbit of Neptune.  (Remember when Pluto was demoted to 'dwarf planet', making Neptune once again the outermost planet?)

MK 2 is "Charcoal Black" whereas Makemake is snowy white, which made it difficult to find initially.  But the Hubble telescope found it with its specialized equipment. 

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/227417-say-hello-to-mk-2-our-solar-systems-newest-moon?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ziffdavis%2Fextremetech+%28Extremetech%29

Pluto photographed for the first time 1930

Clyde Tombaugh took photographs of Pluto on January 23, 1930 from Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. It would be a few weeks before he realized that he had discovered another planet.  From 1930 to 2006, our solar system had nine planets, until Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet.  The New Horizons spacecraft flew by the (dwarf) planet in July 2015, sending back googols of data. 

Pluto has five moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx.  But it is smaller than 7 moons of other planets: Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, Europa, Triton and our moon.

Clyde Tombaugh was 24 when he discovered Pluto.

New pictures from Pluto!

 

New pictures from the New Horizons spacecraft have been released from NASA.  These pics were taken just 15 minutes after the closest fly-by.

 

No doubt Pluto will continue to fascinate us for many years to come. 

 

 

Beautiful features are found on Ceres

Dawn, the space probe launched by NASA in September 2007, has achieved orbit over the once-asteroid, now-dwarf planet Ceres.  Employing a unique ion propulsion drive, Dawn was able to stop by Vesta for a year-long study before resuming her journey to Ceres, instead of mere fly-by’s like New Horizons had to do with Pluto.  Since Dawn’s arrival in March 2015, she has been sending back beautiful images, revealing mysterious features.

 

Among the most captivating photos show bright spots on the surface of Ceres.  Located at the bottom of the Occator crater, the spots seem to be sublimating material, a substance that transforms from a solid state to gas without passing through the liquid phase.  This process appears to be creating some sort of localized atmosphere inside the crater.

 

Another feature creating a stir is the ‘Lonely Mountain’, a solitary mound over 21,000 feet high.  What makes it so stunning is the strange but beautiful bright streaks on its sides.

Ceres is the final stop for Dawn and the probe will remain in orbit at about 230 miles above the surface.  Here she will begin to send even higher-resolution images of the dwarf planet.