Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Another New Planet, and Other Celestial Body News

I always enjoy news of new discoveries in space. I also enjoy when reporters over state the obvious, so this is a win-win.
From Yahoo news:
Astronomers have finally found a place outside our solar system where there's a firm place to stand — if only it weren't so broiling hot. ....its surface temperature is more than 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, too toasty to sustain life.

I would say that is a overstatement of 'earthly' proportions.

Closer to home, in our own solar system, scientists have discovered a red spot on the dwarf planet Haumea. They say it is a richer deposit of minerals than the surrounding ice.

Again from Yahoo:
Haumea, discovered in 2004, orbits the Sun beyond Neptune, in a region known as the Kuiper Belt. It is classified as a dwarf planet — a celestial body that is big enough to have been rounded by its own gravity, but has not cleared its neighboring region of similar objects. There are four other dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto, Eris and Makemake. Haumea is the fourth largest dwarf planet.

Fourth largest? Out of four? Wouldn't that make it the smallest? I give up, I'm going back into my corner now.

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