We all know very well about planets but Dwarf planet is a newly adopted term since past one decade. First of all let’s see what are they?
Dwarf planet Ceres
According to the definition adopted by IAU a dwarf planet is such celestial body which:-
Which revolves around the Sun
Which has sufficient mass to be rounded by it’s own gravity.
Shouldn’t have cleared it’s orbit.
The first two properties are same in Planets and Dwarf planets, the difference comes in the third point a planets clears it’s orbit but a Dwarf Planet fails to do so.
Till now there are five Dwarf planets are found in our solar system viz. Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris. Out of these five Ceres lies in the asteroid belt and is the only Dwarf planet to lie in the inner solar system and the other four lies in the outer solar system. Ceres is also the first dwarf planet to be visited by a space probe named Dawn.
The largest of these five is Pluto followed by Eris, Makemake, Haumea and the Ceres.
Comparison of sizes of the dwarf planets from Ceres to Eris.
In terms of distance from the Sun, Ceres is the nearest dwarf planet form the Sun is 2.77 AU from the Sun and it is followed by Pluto(39.26AU), Haumea(43.14AU), makemake(45.8AU), Eris(68 AU). All the dwarf planets are round in shape except Haumea which is ellipsoidal in shape. It’s ellipsoidal shape can be explained by it’s very high frequency of rotation.
Whenever we talk about the Saturn the first thing comes in our mind is it’s Rings. But here it seems that very soon the Saturn will loose it’s iconic rings.
Picture of the Saturn with its rings
As per the latest research of NASA it is confirmed that the Saturn is losing it’s rings with a very fast pace, and the famous rings won’t be there for eternity it will disappear someday.
How is this possible?
Most of part of the rings is constituted by icy water and UV light from outer sources strikes and charges the Icy particles which start moving helically along with magnetic field and finally attracted by the gravity. Saturn is pulling it’s ring with a fast rate which implies that they will disappear in nearly 300 million years.
Were they born with Saturn?
Scientists has always wondered that are Saturn’s rings as old as Saturn or are younger than it. Now they strongly believe that they are younger and they can’t have an age older than 100 million years. Also if the rings are temporary there are chances that we have missed the massive rings of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.
James O’Donoghue of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt said that “We are lucky to be around to see Saturn’s ring system.”
A team of Astronomers has found a Pink Dwarf Planet which is most distant object discovered yet in our solar system. The object is named 2018 VG18 and nicknamed as “Farout”.
Before the discovery of Farout, Eris was most distant object which was 96AU away. The newly discovered Farout is about 120AU away.
AU :- Astronomical Units
1AU = Distance from the Earth to the Sun
Artistic visualization of “Farout”.
Discovered by Japanese Sarabu telescope it is first object to be discovered beyond 100AU in our solar system. Farout is about one-third of the Pluto in size. It was found that it has a pinkish hue and is believed to be covered with ice.
Discoverers:- The discovery was made by Scott S Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC, David Tholen of the University of Hawaii and Chad Trujillo of Northern Arizona University.The team also discovered the minor planet Goblin this year.
Whenever we gaze at the night sky, we see billions of tiny dots embedded in the sky. They look so pretty from this much distance but have you ever wondered that how weird are they? It’s going to be very interesting to know , what are they going through or have already gone through. Here is the list of five interesting stars, which will really going to amaze you…!!!
An egg shaped star:- Vega
We all know that Stars are spherical in shape, but Vega denies. Vega is the 5th brightest star in the night sky but besides this there is a very interesting thing with Vega. It is not spherical like other stars it’s egg shaped star, is not it amazing??
rotatingrapidly with a velocity of 274 km/s at the equator. This causes the equator to bulge outward due tocentrifugalforces.
It is found that it is spinning with 90% of maximum possible speed. It if were spinning just 10% faster, it can rip it apart!!
Dying but shining:- La superba
La superba is an another astonishing star in the constellation of Canes Venatici. We know that when a star dies, it’s temperature decreases and slowly and at a certain point, it becomes virtually invisible specially with naked eyes.
But La Superba doesn’t know this , it’s temperature is about 2700K which makes it a cold dying star. But it’s luminosity is 4500 times greater than the Sun and it gives it a dark red appearance and it can be seen by naked eyes.
Older than Universe:- HD 140283
This star lies 200 light years away in Libra constellation.
This star is as old as or older than the universe!!!
Sounds impossible..??
But believe, according to calculations, it is estimated that this star is 14.46 ± 0.8 billions years old, whereas the universe is 13.79 ± 0.021 billions years. Due to uncertainty in measurements at it’s maximum possible age(14.54 billion years) it is older than the universe (13 .81 billion years) and at it’s minimum possible age(13.66 billion years) it is younger than universe. We don’t have methods to calculate the age of a star more accurate than this that’s why we can’t conclude.
Although it’s age is uncertain but one this is certain that it is the oldest known star in the universe.
A star inside a star:- HV 2212
Can a star be put inside an another star…???
If you answer is “NO!”, HV 2212 will make you feel bad..!!
It looks like a red giant from outside but when light emitted from it was studied it was found rich in elements like Molybdenum, lithium, Strontium, Yttrium and Rubidium. A normal super giant also contain these elements but not in such high amount.
img src:- nasa.gov
The only conclusion they were able to make was that it’s core is of a neutron star and from outside it is a red giant. Such objects are called Throne-Zytkow object. Such objects are formed when a star goes into supernova and leads to the formation of a neutron star, a passing by red supergiant star collides with the neutron star and absorbs it forming a hybrid star.
It plays hide n seek:-PSR J1841-0500
This Pulsaris nearly 22.8 light years from the sun and lies in Centaurus Spiral arm of our galaxy. It was discovered in December 2008 as a regular pulsar Star. The scientists were studying it and after one year it suddenly disappear. They made a conclusion that the star is turned off.
Img src :- nasa.gov
And just after 580 days it again appeared. Generally Pulsars disappear for a few minutes to hours and the reason is still a mystery!! And this 580 days is the longest break taken by a Pulsar.
It’s the first time the phenomenon has happened since 1982
The Super Blue Blood Moon is a very rare celestial phenomenon which we witnessed today, it’s actually a combination of three events Viz. Supermoon, Blue moon and total Lunar eclipse.
Supermoon:- It is observed when moon is at the closest distance from the Earth. It makes the Moon 14% larger than normal.
Blue moon:- It is the second full moon of the month.
Total Lunar eclipse:- It turns the moon Orangish-Red, hence it is also called Blood Red.
Todays Event was the convergence of these three. There won’t be another Super Blue Blood Moon until 2037.
In the first month of this new year, ISRO creates the history by launching it’s 100th satellite. ISRO launched 31 satellites, out of which 3 were of INDIA and 28 of other countries…
Ceres is a dwarf planet located in the Asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is the only object in the Asteroid belt which is rounded by its own gravity, being the largest object of the Asteroid belt it is one-third of the total mass of the Asteroid belt. The diameter is 945km, which makes it the 33rd largest object in our solar system and the largest object in the Asteroid belt.
Ceres was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801 and after being spotted it became the first object in the asteroid belt to be discovered. Later, in 2015, Ceres became the first dwarf planet to receive a visit from a spacecraft(Dawn spacecraft).
When Ceres was discovered it was classified as a planet but later scientists called it a dwarf panet, A planet is an object that orbits the Sun in an elliptical orbit, has compounded its matter in a spherical shape, and has cleared its orbit of other debris. While, a dwarf planet also orbits the Sun, has compounded its matter in a spherical shape, but has not cleared its orbit of other debris. Ceres has not cleared the orbit of other debris, that’s why it is a dwarf planet.
It take 4.6 Earth year to make a trip around the Sun, however, its rotation period is 9 hours which makes it’s day length shortest in the solar system.
Ceres was formed along with the rest of the solar system about 4.5 billion years ago,and it is a embryonic planet. Embyonic planet means that it was forming but didn’t finish, this happened probably due to huge Jupiter,it prevented it to becoming a fully formed planet.
Ceres probably has a solid core and a mantle made of water ice. It is believed that Ceres is composed of 25 percent water, and if it is true Ceres have more water than the Earth.
It doesn’t have any moon and it is only dwarf panet with no Moons, other dwarf planet like Pluto and other dwarf panet have atleast one Moon.
Ceres is one of the few places in our solar system where scientists would like to search for possible signs of life. Ceres has water, and water is essential for life, so it’s possible that with this immensely important stuff and a few other conditions met, life could maybe exist there. Living things on Ceres, if they are there at all, would likely be very small microbes similar to bacteria. And while Ceres might not have living things today, there could be signs it harbored life in the past.
Mangalyan is a space probe which was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). ISRO has become the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after the Soviet space program, NASA, and the European Space Agency. It is the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit, and the first nation in the world to do so in its first attempt.
A mission which made India the first Asian country to reach Mars, and the first nation in the world to do so in its first attempt, a mission which made ISRO the fourth space agency in the world to reach Mars after SSP(Russia), NASA(USA) and ESA(Europe).
The space probe Mangalyan orbiting Mars since 24 September 2014, and have completed 3 years in space this year.
The amazing fact is that the cost of mission was only ₹454 crores or US$71 million, which made it the cheapest Mars mission ever,( ₹5/km -cheaper than public transport in India).
One more amazing fact is that Mangalyan was estimated to last for 6 months has now completed more than 3 years, and is expected to circle the planet for another five years as it has still got about 15kg of fuel left.
The Mars Orbiter Mission team won US-based National Space Society’s 2015 Space Pioneer Award in the science and engineering category. NSS said the award was given as the Indian agency successfully executed a Mars mission in its first attempt.
This is the first image taken by Mangalyan of the Mars’s surface.
The probe took amazing images of Mars, some are here…
It is orbiting in an elliptical orbit around Mars, with a period of 72 hours 51 minutes 51 seconds.
An illustration of the Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft is featured on the reverse of the ₹2,000 currency note of India.
Mangalyaan has been named among the best inventions of 2014 by Time magazine which described it as a technological feat that will allow India to flex its ‘interplanetary muscles’
I was nominated for this award by Petrel41 from Dear kitty. Some blog Thank you so much!!!
Much thanks to you, for being so kind as to nominate me. My fellow readers and visitors, if you have not checked out his blog yet, I recommend doing so. 😊
The ‘rules’ of the Real Neat Blog Award are: (feel free not to act upon them if you don’t have time; or don’t accept awards; etc.):
1. Put the award logo on your blog.
2. Answer 7 questions asked by the person who nominated you.
3. Thank the people who nominated you, linking to their blogs.
4. Nominate any number of bloggers you like, linking to their blogs.
5. Let them know you nominated them (by commenting on their blog etc.)
3. What has been a special moment for you so far in 2017?
Nothing yet!! But when my blog got 100 followers it really felt very happy, i know that it was not so big following but what i do is to find happiness in small things. THATS WHY I WAS HAPPY AND IT WAS SPECIAL.
4. What is your favourite quote?
My favourite quote:-
I love reading quotes, and i read too much motivational quotes but if i have to choose one i will choose this..
“Quotes are nothing unless you do”
5. What was your favourite class when still at school?
Obviously Physics, this blog is all about PHYSICS.😊😊
6. Anything you had wished to have learned earlier?
I have tried Guitar once(however don’t know how to play it😉😉) afterthat, and have tried Tabla when i was in primary school but a cant play it properly.
had a great time writing this award post and answering those questions… So, I ask the same questions to my nominees.
