MetaFilter posts tagged with pluto

Mooning Pluto

oneswellfoop — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 10:21:07 -0800

"Help Us Name the Moons of Pluto!" Pluto may have lost is designation as a full-fledged-planet in 2006 (after 'dwarf planet' Eris was discovered that is larger than it), but it still gets plenty of attention by astronomers. In the last two years, the Hubble Space Telescope discovered two more moons of Pluto, which have not yet been named. So Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute is doing an online survey. Because Pluto was named after the Greek God of the Underworld (the Disney Dog was named a few months later), the names up for voting are all Greek Mythology (and mostly Underworld) related. They are: Archeron, the "river of pain", a real-life river in Greece that was claimed to lead directly to Hell (not popular for riverboat cruises). Alecto, one of The Furies and "daughter of Gaea fertilized by the blood spilled from Uranus when Kronos castrated him". Ew. Also a character in the Aeneid. Cerberus, a mythical three-headed dog whose capture was the 12th Labor of Hercules (more on him later). It's now the name of a "Capital Managment Group" that recently sold off a gunmaker and bought a chain of supermarkets. NOT to be confused with a comic-book aardvark named Cerebus. Erebus, the personification of darkness, considered in some mythologies one of the first five beings to come into existence from Chaos. Now the name of a 4-Story Haunted House tourist attraction in Pontiac, Michigan. Eurydice, devoted wife/lover of Orpheus (more on him later, romantics should vote for both of these names for the two moons) Hercules. Yeah, Hercules. Totally Hercules. Hercules, Hercules. Hypnos, "the personification of sleep" and origin of the word 'hypnosis' and current manufacturer of "official beds of Britain's Royal Family". Lethe, another one of the five rivers of Hades (considering the current image of Hell, it used to be pretty well irrigated) and goddess of forgetfulness and oblivion (apparently the inventor of "brain farts" and "senior moments"). Obol, "the term for the coin placed in or on the mouth of a dead person before burial... as a payment or bribe for Charon, the ferryman who conveyed souls... to the world of the dead." Cheron already has a Pluto moon named for him. Obol is now the brand name of "the original crispy bowl". Orpheus, a legendary musician - and by legendary, I mean he had multiple legends written about him, including voyaging with Jason and the Argonauts and trying to bring his beloved wife Eurydice back from Hades. Persephone, daughter of Zeus and queen of the Underworld, due to being abducted by Hades, who may or may not be Pluto, because while Greek mythology did not disapprove of child abduction and forced marriage, they could be kinda coy about identifying the perpetrator. and Styx. (This post brought to you by "Too Much Time on My Hands") Current vote tally with 14 days left: Styx and Cerberus in the lead, Hercules looking weak.

The cosmos is also within us, we're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos, to know itself.

Blasdelb — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 17:07:44 -0800

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage is a thirteen-part television series of one hour shows written by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steven Soter, that was aired at the tail end of 1980 and was - at the time - the most widely watched series in the history of American public television. It is best introduced by an audio excerpt of one of his books, The Pale Blue Dot. Inside is a complete annotated collection of the series. 1 "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean" September 28, 1980 After an introduction by Ann Druyan, including the benefits of the end of the Cold War, Carl Sagan opens the program with a description of the cosmos and a "Spaceship of the Imagination" (shaped like a dandelion seed). The ship journeys through the universe's hundred billion galaxies, the Local Group, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Milky Way, the Orion Nebula, our Solar System, and finally the planet Earth. Eratosthenes' successful calculation of the circumference of Earth leads to a description of the ancient Library of Alexandria. Finally, the "Ages of Science" are described, before pulling back to the full span of the Cosmic Calendar. 2 "One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue" October 5, 1980 Sagan discusses the story of the Heike crab and artificial selection of crabs resembling samurai warriors, as an opening into a larger discussion of evolution through natural selection (and the pitfalls of intelligent design). Among the topics are the development of life on the Cosmic Calendar and the Cambrian explosion; the function of DNA in growth; genetic replication, repairs, and mutation; the common biochemistry of terrestrial organisms; the creation of the molecules of life in the Miller-Urey experiment; and speculation on alien life (such as life in Jupiter's clouds). In the Cosmos Update ten years later, Sagan remarks on RNA also controlling chemical reactions and reproducing itself and the different roles of comets (potentially carrying organic molecules or causing the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event). 3 "The Harmony of the Worlds" October 12, 1980 Beginning with the separation of the fuzzy thinking and pious fraud of astrology from the careful observations of astronomy, Sagan follows the development of astronomical observation. Beginning with constellations and ceremonial calendars (such as those of the Anasazi), the story moves to the debate between Earth and Sun-centered models: Ptolemy and the geocentric worldview, Copernicus' theory, the data-gathering of Tycho Brahe, and the achievements of Johannes Kepler (Kepler's laws of planetary motion and the first science-fiction novel). 4 "Heaven and Hell" October 19, 1980 Sagan discusses comets and asteroids as planetary impactors, giving recent examples of the Tunguska event and a lunar impact described by Canterbury monks in 1178. It moves to a description of the environment of Venus, from the previous fantastic theories of people such as Immanuel Velikovsky to the information gained by the Venera landers and its implications for Earth's greenhouse effect. The Cosmos Update highlights the connection to global warming. 5 "Blues for a Red Planet" October 26, 1980 The episode, devoted to the planet Mars, begins with scientific and fictional speculation about the Red Planet during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, Edgar Rice Burroughs' science fiction books, and Percival Lowell's false vision of canals on Mars). It then moves to Robert Goddard's early experiments in rocket-building, inspired by reading science fiction, and the work by Mars probes, including the Viking, searching for life on Mars. The episode ends with the possibility of the terraforming and colonization of Mars and a Cosmos Update on the relevance of Mars' environment to Earth's and the possibility of a manned mission to Mars. 6 "Travellers' Tales" November 2, 1980 The journeys of the Voyager probes is put in the context of the Netherlands in the seventeenth century, with a centuries-long tradition of sailing ship explorers, and its contemporary thinks (such as Constantijn Huygens and his son Christian). Their discoveries are compared to the Voyager probes' discoveries among the Jovian and Saturn systems. In Cosmos Update, image processing reconstructs Voyager’s worlds and Voyager’s last portrait of the Solar System as it leaves is shown. 7 "The Backbone of Night" November 9, 1980 Carl Sagan teaches students in a classroom in his childhood home in Brooklyn, New York, which leads into a history of the different mythologies about stars and the gradual revelation of their true nature. In ancient Greece, some philosophers (Aristarchus of Samos, Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Theodorus of Samos, Empedocles, Democritus) freely pursue scientific knowledge, while others (Plato, Aristotle, and the Pythagoreans) advocate slavery and epistemic secrecy. 8 "Journeys in Space and Time" November 16, 1980 Ideas about time and space are explored in the changes that constellations undergo over time, the redshift and blueshift measured in interstellar objects, time dilation in Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, the designs of both Leonardo da Vinci and spacecraft that could travel near light speed, time travel and its hypothetical effects on human history, the origins of the Solar System, the history of life, and the immensity of space. In Cosmos Update, the idea of faster-than-light travel by wormholes (researched by Kip Thorne and shown in Sagan’s novel Contact) is discussed. 9 "The Lives of the Stars" November 23, 1980 The simple act of making an apple pie is extrapolated into the atoms and subatomic particles (electrons, protons, and neutrons) necessary. Many of the ingredients necessary are formed of chemical elements formed in the life and deaths of stars (such as our own Sun), resulting in massive red giants and supernovae or collapsing into white dwarfs, neutron stars, pulsars, and even black holes. These produce all sorts of phenomena, such as radioactivity, cosmic rays, and even the curving of spacetime by gravity. Cosmos Update mentions the supernova SN 1987A and neutrino astronomy. 10 "The Edge of Forever" November 30, 1980 Beginning with the origins of the universe in the Big Bang, Sagan describes the formation of different types of galaxies and anomalies such as galactic collisions and quasars. The episodes moves further into ideas about the structure of the Universe, such as different dimensions (in the imaginary Flatland and four-dimensional hypercubes), an infinite vs. a finite universe, and the idea of an oscillating Universe (similar to that in Hindu cosmology). The search into other ideas such as dark matter and the multiverse is shown, using tools such as the Very Large Array in New Mexico. Cosmos Update shows new information about the odd, irregular surfaces of galaxies and the Milky Way perhaps being a barred spiral galaxy. 11 "The Persistence of Memory" December 7, 1980 The idea of intelligence is explored in the concepts of computers (using bits as their basic units of information), whales (in their songs and their disruptions by human activities), DNA, the human brain (the evolution of the brain stem, frontal lobes, neurons, cerebral hemispheres, and corpus callosum under the Triune Brain Model), and man-made structures for collective intelligence (cities, libraries, books, computers, and satellites). The episode ends with speculation on alien intelligence and the information conveyed on the Voyager Golden Record. 12 "Encyclopaedia Galactica" December 14, 1980 Questions are raised about the search for intelligent life beyond the Earth, with UFOs and other close encounters refuted in favor of communications through SETI and radio telescope such as the Arecibo Observatory. The probability of technically advanced civilizations existing elsewhere in the Milky Way is interpreted using the Drake equation and a future hypothetical Encyclopedia Galactica is discussed as a repository of information about other worlds in the galaxy. The Cosmos Update notes that there have been fewer sightings of UFOs and more stories of abductions, while mentioning the META scanning the skies for signals. 13 "Who Speaks for Earth?" December 21, 1980 Sagan reflects on the future of humanity and the question of "who speaks for Earth?" when meeting extraterrestrials. He discusses the very different meetings of the Tlingit people and explorer Jean-François de La Pérouse with the destruction of the Aztecs by Spanish conquistadors, the looming threat of nuclear warfare, and the threats shown by destruction of the Library of Alexandria and the murder of Hypatia. The episode ends with a overview of the beginning of the universe, the evolution of life, and the accomplishments of humanity and makes a plea to for mankind to cherish life and continue its journey in the cosmos. The Cosmos Update notes the preliminary reconnaissance of planets with spacecraft, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of apartheid in South Africa, and measures towards the reduction of nuclear weapons.

For those in the US, it is also available on Hulu (Previously)

14 "Ted Turner Interviews Dr. Sagan" Some versions of the series, including the first North American home video release (though not the DVD release), included a specially-made fourteenth episode, which consisted of an hour-long interview between Sagan and Ted Turner, in which the two discussed the series and new discoveries made in the years since its first broadcast. 15 "The Meat Planet" Jun 28, 2011 In this never before seen episode of Cosmos, Carl Sagan takes us on a journey to the often misunderstood Meat Planet, examining it's origins, geological activity and atmosphere among many other unsettling details. More information on The Meat Planet. (Previously) Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994) is a non-fiction book by Carl Sagan. It is the sequel to Cosmos: A Personal Voyage and was inspired by the "Pale Blue Dot" photograph, for which Sagan provides a sobering description. In this book, Sagan mixes philosophy about the human place in the universe with a description of the current knowledge about the Solar System. He also details a human vision for the future. The partial audio recorded by Sagan can accessed here (40:03) For those who have watched all of the episodes and still can't get enough of Cosmos, there is a sequel planned to be hosted by Niel DeGrasse Tyson and aired sometime in 2013 (Previously)

Life on Pluto - Details on Page 97.

marienbad — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 05:53:41 -0800

What lives where in the Solar System. Fantastic Adventure covers from 1939/40 depicting the kind of lifeforms they think each planet can support. So so wrong on Venus.

Time to update your moon charts for the solar system.

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:11:13 -0800

Pluto may have been downsized in 2006, but it's still living large, moon wise: A fourth moon has been discovered orbiting the dwarf planet.

with depravity / i break lots of gravity

eugenen — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 18:30:01 -0800

Our solar system may have a ninth planet -- or a tenth, if you're a Pluto sentimentalist. Tyche, which astronomers suspect lurks in the Oort cloud, fifteen thousand times farther away from the sun than the Earth, is thought to be a gas giant four times the size of Jupiter. We may know for sure in April.

Volcanos on Titan and Oceans on Pluto

KirkJobSluder — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 13:51:52 -0800

The Cassini team announced a possible cyrovolcano on Titan. A key difference between this find and cyrovulcanism on Enceladus is the probable existence of a thousand-meter peak and lobe-shaped flows similar to terrestrial vulcanism. Their video release explains the evidence with 3-d models of the features. More speculative, Guillaume Robuchon speculates that Pluto might have liquid water under an icy surface, assuming it has enough of a rocky core to support heat production through radioactive decay.

That's Science!

greekphilosophy — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:51:53 -0800

People have been upset about Pluto's demotion for some time now. (While classical music fans have just had a love/hate relationship with this whole process.) But astronomical hate mail has never been as cute as the missives Neil deGrasse Tyson has received over the years from tots upset at poor Pluto's ouster.

"And then I said, 'why not call it Pluto?' And the whole thing stemmed from that."

Morrigan — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:02:22 -0800

Venetia Phair, who named Pluto as a child, dies at 90. The subject of a short film, "Naming Pluto," observed, " "It's interesting isn't it, that as they come to demote Pluto, so the interest in it seems to have grown," she says. Pre vious ly.

From Frisbie Pi to Pluto Platter

grouse — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:50:33 -0800

In 1897, the Indiana House of Representatives passed a bill mandating that the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle (pi) was 3.2. Now, 112 years later, their neighbors in the Illinois Senate have passed a resolution redefining Pluto as a planet, at least when it passes through the Illinois night sky. Of course, Pluto may not even travel through the Illinois night sky for some time.

"New Copernican Revolution"?

rainman84 — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:18:26 -0800

potentially habitable planets and vindication for Pluto? Yesterday in Boston scientists at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) discussed how the Kuiper Belt in which the dwarf planet Pluto (formerly known as the the planet Pluto) resides may have Earth- and Mars- sized planets. They also chatted about the prevalence of habitable planets in the universe.

Volcano on Io

Chinese Jet Pilot — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 09:21:18 -0800

Space volcano. The New Horizons space probe, en route to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, captures an amazing image of the Tvashtar volcano on Jupiter's moon Io.

You'll always be a planet to me.

eriko — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 06:01:12 -0800

Bad News: (pdf) In the continuing degredation of Pluto, the former planet has been assigned a number establishing it among the ranks of ~~bitty rocks~~ dwarf planets, so now we have the name of 134340 Pluto. In good news, 2003 UB₃₁₃ is now 136199 Eris. Commence hailing!

You can take our Pluto when you pry it from our cold, dead hands

starkeffect — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 17:19:22 -0800

Who will condemn the "mean-spirited" International Astronomical Union for their demotion of Pluto from the planetary roster, causing "psychological harm among some... who question their place in the universe and worry about the instability of universal constants"? The California State Assembly, that's who!

7 mph would be the equivalent of driving at the speed of light

jessamyn — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 07:23:22 -0800

At forty miles (64.4 km) from Pluto to Sun, the Maine Solar System Model is the largest complete three-dimensional scale model of the solar system in the world. What, you didn't know there was more than one? And yes, Pluto is staying put.

support democracy

thirteenkiller — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 05:24:00 -0800

SAVE PLUT O

Years of basic science textbooks down the drain...

twiggy — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 06:47:36 -0800

My very elegant mother just sat upon ninjas ... the textbooks, mnemonic devices and more will have to be changed today. Pluto has been demoted from its status as planet to a dwarf planet. We now have 8 in our solar system. The debate is not at all new, and its apparent resolution may not matter to our everyday lives, but it's just a little weird to think of all of the things that will have to be retroactively edited or amended as a result.

Enough speculation Pluto, time to see if you really are a planet.

Phantomx — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 02:53:22 -0800

The New Horizons spacecraft will be the first man-made object to visit our controversial sibling planet. An Atlas V will be used to launch the craft to the fastest speed that man has ever hurled an object to the heavens. Due to this and the small size of Pluto, the probe will only be capable of one flyby. Today is the first day in the launch window that the rocket is hoped to be launched.

brownpau — Mon, 07 Oct 2002 11:11:28 -0800

Most of us were expecting that astronomers would discover a tenth planet and name it Persephone. A mostly harmless author preferred Rupert. One clique of New Age doomsayers claims that it is "Nibiru," or "Planet X,", which will come in 2003 to wreak havoc and usher in a new era under (I kid you not) our new alien overlords. Well, hang it all. Planet #9.5 has been discovered, and they called it "Quaoar." And I think Pluto is pissed.

NASA's 2003 budget cancels the Europa and Pluto missions.

homunculus — Tue, 05 Feb 2002 20:32:33 -0800

NASA's 2003 budget cancels the Europa and Pluto missions. Instead it seeks to produce nuclear powered propulsion. I am sad about the Europa and Pluto missions, I was really looking forward to those, but I am intrigued by the prospect of nuclear propulsion in space.

It was now or not for 200 years,

holycola — Thu, 08 Nov 2001 05:48:44 -0800

It was now or not for 200 years, and it was starting to look like it wouldn't be for another 200 years with the initial exploration funding cutbacks by Bush & Co. But reason has prevailed in the house and senate, and a Pluto mission is back in the plan. I never did find out why Bush opposed this mission. Maybe he thought that $30 million was too extravagent for a trip to Disneyland.

Will the Pluto mission once again get cancelled?

monstro — Mon, 22 Jan 2001 21:07:41 -0800

Will the Pluto mission once again get cancelled? I mean, now that Pluto isn't a planet anymore; apparently, it's been downgraded to "big ball of ice." After all those years of service, of faithful rotation, that steadfast revolve, how can they just kick a planet out like that?! It's a travesty, I tell you -- a travesty!