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Is Pluto a Planet?

Is Pluto a Planet?. Dr John K. Davies. UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, Scotland. Executive Summary. The classical solar system. Planet Uranus imaged from Voyager 2. Planet Neptune from Voyager 2. Percival Lowell. Lowell’s Tomb, shaped like Planet Saturn.

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Is Pluto a Planet?

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  1. Is Pluto a Planet? Dr John K. Davies UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, Scotland

  2. Executive Summary

  3. The classical solar system

  4. Planet Uranus imaged from Voyager 2.

  5. Planet Neptune from Voyager 2.

  6. Percival Lowell

  7. Lowell’s Tomb, shaped like Planet Saturn

  8. Clyde Tombaugh and the Pluto Telescope.

  9. Discovery of Pluto, 1930

  10. Orbits of Pluto and Neptune.

  11. Nucleus of Halley’s Comet

  12. Pluto is Shrinking

  13. Pluto is covered with ice.

  14. Pluto and Charon (Gemini Observatory)

  15. Pluto should have vanished by now!

  16. Mercury and Venus: Planets without Moons

  17. 243 Ida and Dactyl Ida: Size about 56 km long. Dactyl: Size about 1.5 km.

  18. 45 Eugenia and its moon. Eugenia size ~215km Satellite size ~13 km Period ~4.7 days

  19. Pluto has an atmosphere

  20. New Horizons Mission-Pluto Flyby, July 2015.

  21. Comet Hale-Bopp

  22. Interstellar comet (never seen) Comet Orbits Long Period Comet, like Hale-Bopp Short Period Comet.

  23. Gerard Kuiper 1905-1973

  24. Kenneth Edgeworth. 1880-1973

  25. Jane Luuand Dave Jewitt

  26. University of Hawaii 2.2m Telescope

  27. Discovery of 1992 QB1

  28. The Classical Kuiper Belt

  29. The Plutinos

  30. 1998 WW31 a Kuiper Belt Object with a satellite

  31. Orbital Elements and Stable Regions

  32. Late 2000 Varuna Discovered Some of the the largest known Kuiper Belt Objects

  33. November 2003 Sedna Announced

  34. Sedna: EKO or Oort Cloud Object?

  35. Sedna. Planet10?

  36. The Discoveries Continue • June 2002. Quaour discovered. • Late 2004. Orcus (2004 DW4) announced • July 2005. Ortiz et al announce ‘discovery’ of 2003 EL61 • July 2005. Brown et al announce, via press release, existence of 2003 UB313 amidst allegations of ‘hacking’ by Ortiz et al

  37. 2003 EL61 • Irregular, rocky object with a glazing of ice. • Rotates every 4 hours. • Has two satellites.

  38. 2003 UB313 aka ‘Xena’

  39. 2003 UB313 aka Xena

  40. 2003 UB313 aka ‘Xena’

  41. What makes a planet? • It goes around a star.

  42. Io and the Moon are not planets because they don’t go around a star.

  43. What makes a planet? • It goes around a star. • It does not generate heat internally.

  44. Jupiter is a planet. since it is not heated by nuclear reactions.

  45. What makes a planet? • It goes around a star. • It does not make heat by nuclear reactions. • It is spherical.

  46. So MOST asteroids are not planets since they have not collapsed to spherical shapes.

  47. What makes a planet? • It goes around a star. • It does not make heat by nuclear reactions • It is (more-or-less) spherical. • It is bigger than 1000km in diameter

  48. IAU Committees 2003-5: First attempts at planet definition split community almost equally so new panel formed. 2006: Committee Meets in Paris to draft proposal for Prague IAU meeting in August

  49. Sunday 13th: Draft IAU resolution sent to press. Allows 12 planets and potential for many more.

  50. 3 New Planets

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