Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Planethood & Pluto

     When the IAU removed Pluto from the list of planets many were outraged.  The discovery of other dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt, blew away many astronomers, and with it blew away Pluto's "planethood".  It was a sad day for many and it angered more people than initially thought possible.

     When one reads the article on National Geographic Should Pluto be a Planet? New Finds Drive Debate It is easy to see why it has cause controversy.  The first, and the emotional factor is that many people, both astronomers and lay men have become attached to planets.  However one can assign relevance to this idea when one considers that Pluto was demoted due to it's inability to clear an orbital path, with debris now being discovered recently at points in Earth's orbit and other Near Earth Objects, can Earth's orbit be considered cleared?

     There is evidence in our own Solar System of Planetary Migration, and with the recent discovery of Exoplanets and  Rouge Planets it can be said that not only can planets of any size migrate but they can be ejected from their very own systems.  It is easily conceivable that Pluto was born in the same area as the two ice giants, and was gravitationally swung out of the ecliptic plane at an early age as it was forming.  It also could have conceivably formed later as it is thought to be more like the terrestrial planets than the ice giants.

Below is a picture taken from the Hubble Telescope 
It is believed that Pluto was hit by a large object, which resulted in Pluto ejecting a large amount of molten material, forming Charon, Hydra Nix and the moons labeled as P4 and P5 on the image from the Hubble Telescope.

This image taken from Wikipedia shows a well made diagram that could put a picture to my words.


Even more intriguing though is the existence of 5 verified moons orbiting the planet.  More recent simulations have been run, and with data that we currently have computers have generated a model which would result in Pluto having potentially as many as 10 moons, and a ring system, as a result of these small moons accreting some but not all of the material.  In addition to previous studies which hypothesize that Charon resulted in smaller moons being swung out due to gravitational resonance.
It may take a few years, perhaps a decade or even more, but with such a hazy definition of a planet from the IAU, it is clear that eventually this wrong decision will be made right.  

Supporters of Pluto's demotion say that we could either get rid of Pluto or end up having many more planet's (NASA, Kuchner).  Timothy Spahr, head of the IAU's Minor Planet Center found such an argument ridiculous and said "There are over 200 bones in the human body.  Does that mean we should redefine bones to make life easier for medical students?"  A humorous but true equivalency no matter what era of history we have dared to wonder what lies beyond our horizon, we have been confronted with a map that has increasingly less gray left.  The universe seems to only grow more complex the more we learn, and it does, but we can also use what we have learned to study and understand what was once hidden from us.  

Pluto shares the name of the Roman god of the dead, and I believe as do many others that not only is this debate far from dead.  Like many astronomers both professionals as well as hobbyists I believe that Pluto will one day regain it's rightful status as Planet.

Sources:
Scientific Journals
ScienceVol. 307 no. 5709 pp. 546-550 DOI: 10.1126/science.1106818 A Giant Impact Origin of Pluto Charon by Robert M. Canup

ScienceVol. 313 no. 5790 pp. 1107-1109  DOI: 10.1126/science.1127293
Forced Resonant Migration of Pluto's Outer Satellites by Charon by William R. Ward and Robert M. Canup


The Kuiper Belt's Five Dwarfs

     The Kuiper Belt is estimated by some to hold "hundreds of millions of objects" (Encyclopedia Britannica)  and among those objects most are relatively small.  But just like the asteroid belt is home to many planetesimals that never did make it the Kuiper Belt is home to many icy planetesimals that never did make it.  Some however were much closer than others and due to their discovery a new classification was made by the IAU, dwarf planet.  Many newly discovered objects were granted the title and Pluto lost its "planethood".  

     There are currently five dwarf planets but astronomers estimate that there may be as many as ''10,000" (New Horizons, NASA Mission Blog).  
Pluto

Eris (With Moon Xena)

Makemake

Haumea (With two moons)

Quaoar

     The recent discoveries of these bodies, we can look now look forward wit a greater sense of certainty and excitement to future dwarf planet discoveries, and other features in the still virgin territory of the Kuiper Belt.


Sources:

Sunday, November 3, 2013

The Kuiper Belt & The Cosmological Principle

     The Cosmological Principle states, “Viewed on a sufficiently large scale, the properties of the Universe are the same for all observers” William Keel.  The implications allow us to establish a universal foundation on which we can study the universe around us.  If each galaxy played by different rules, the laws of physics would apply only to earth, in effect there is nothing special about our place in the universe. 

     This allows us to study the rest of the universe, using the information we have obtained from studying our own Solar System to compare to phenomena that we see in other systems.  Allowing us to assign meaning to what we see with if not certainty a measure of accuracy. 

     The Kuiper Belt is no exception, Solar Systems, would have to form in a similar way, therefore if we can see Kuiper like belts in other star systems, especially younger systems we can gain more evidence for our current theory.  That which states the Kuiper Belt is home to planetesimals and other small icy bodies from the days of planetary accretion that never formed into planets.

     In the renowned Fomalhaut System, we can see a star system comparable to our own when the Earth was still in a period of accretion.  It was hoped that when the Hubble telescope was pointed at Fomalhaut by Paul Kalas (University of California, Berkeley) and his 2 colleagues that they would see the dim glow of orbiting planets.  Instead, they saw this:



     The picture below is a comparison between the Kuiper Belt and that of Fomalhaut:



     There is thought to be a “giant” sized planet similar in function to Neptune but much farther out from its parent star at 50-70 AU’s whereas Neptune is 30 AU’s away from our sun.


     It is thought that by studying the developing ‘belt” we will uncover the secrets that have shaped our own, which are still shrouded in mystery.

Sources:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/3310401.html?page=1&c=y
http://english.netmassimo.com/files/Herschel_Fomalhaut_illustration.jpg
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/39/image/a/format/web_print/
The Road To Galaxy Formation by William Keel (Book)

Saturday, November 2, 2013

The Discovery of the Kuiper Belt



     The possibility of a body which today we now know as the Kuiper Belt was first conceived in the mind of an Irish astronomer by the name of Kenneth Edgeworth (on left) when he "speculated in 1943 that the distribution of the solar system’s small bodies was not bounded by the present distance of Pluto." (Encyclopedia Britannica Online) 
     The existence of the belt would remain hypothetical until the prerequisite technology could be made, a development that would take approximately 50 years to arrive.
     A Dutch-American astronomer who demonstrated in 1951 that there must be large residual amount of small icy bodies left over from the days when the planets were still forming beyond Neptune, now considered to be the farthest planet from the sun. 
     A Dutch Astronomer Jan Oort (on left) hypothesized the existence of a distant sphere of bodies that surrounded the Solar System and could, based on an analysis of their orbits could account for Comets with periods greater than 200 years.  However, other comets with periods of 20 years or less could not be explained by existence of a cloud as hypothesized by Jan Oort.


     Kuiper first noted that comets with a period of 20 years or less not only orbit the sun in the same direction as the planets around the sun and are close to the ecliptic plain in their orbits.  Thus, they would require a source not only closer than the Oort Cloud, but one that was flatter as well.
      The theory received further support in 1988 by American Astronomer Martin Dunkin and his coworker’s when they “clearly restated” Kuiper’s hypothesized belt, which is described by Encyclopedia Britannica to be “best argument for the existence of the Kuiper belt until its direct detection.
Sources: