REDEFINING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
I recently attended a show at the Cleveland Natural History Museum Planetarium. The audience was full of children. It was a delight to be among them when the speaker announced in a mysterious voice, "Pluto is no longer a planet." They gasped. Then they all began talking to one another, echoing in the domed room. I was also suprised to hear about Pluto. The news about Pluto is probably the biggest astronomy news that people are aware of right now, and therefore it is my first topic.
Spaceflight Now is a news site for astronomy. I learned the following from an article at the website Spaceflight Now:
the International Astronomical Union has determined a definition for the term "planet" that excludes Pluto. As Spaceflight Now describes the new definition of a planet, "It must orbit the sun, be massive enough that its own gravity pulls it into a nearly round shape, and be dominant enough to clear away objects in its neighborhood." Pluto meets only the first two criteria, and therefore is now labeled a "dwarf planet." Ceres, the largest known asteroid, is now considered to be a dwarf planet as well. Over a dozen other objects are now considered to be dwarf planets.
SPACE SHUTTLE TAKEOFF DELAYED
According to a news article at Yahoo! published within the last two hours , NASA was planning to launch the space shuttle Atlantis today, Friday September 8. But they have postponed the launch until Saturday. The reason for the delay was "a faulty fuel tank sensor," states Yahoo!, and this will be the fifth attempt to launch Atlantis. The space shuttle will head to the international space station for construction purposes. The construction had been postponed since the space shuttle Columbia exploded three years ago.
NASA has a "Launch Blog" that will begin six hours prior to the launch. It will provide live coverage of the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis.
NASA also has a site about Atlantis with news from the past few weeks and more details about the space shuttle. The site describes the space shuttle as being "the most complex machine ever built."
I recently attended a show at the Cleveland Natural History Museum Planetarium. The audience was full of children. It was a delight to be among them when the speaker announced in a mysterious voice, "Pluto is no longer a planet." They gasped. Then they all began talking to one another, echoing in the domed room. I was also suprised to hear about Pluto. The news about Pluto is probably the biggest astronomy news that people are aware of right now, and therefore it is my first topic.
Spaceflight Now is a news site for astronomy. I learned the following from an article at the website Spaceflight Now:
the International Astronomical Union has determined a definition for the term "planet" that excludes Pluto. As Spaceflight Now describes the new definition of a planet, "It must orbit the sun, be massive enough that its own gravity pulls it into a nearly round shape, and be dominant enough to clear away objects in its neighborhood." Pluto meets only the first two criteria, and therefore is now labeled a "dwarf planet." Ceres, the largest known asteroid, is now considered to be a dwarf planet as well. Over a dozen other objects are now considered to be dwarf planets.
SPACE SHUTTLE TAKEOFF DELAYED
According to a news article at Yahoo! published within the last two hours , NASA was planning to launch the space shuttle Atlantis today, Friday September 8. But they have postponed the launch until Saturday. The reason for the delay was "a faulty fuel tank sensor," states Yahoo!, and this will be the fifth attempt to launch Atlantis. The space shuttle will head to the international space station for construction purposes. The construction had been postponed since the space shuttle Columbia exploded three years ago.
NASA has a "Launch Blog" that will begin six hours prior to the launch. It will provide live coverage of the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis.
NASA also has a site about Atlantis with news from the past few weeks and more details about the space shuttle. The site describes the space shuttle as being "the most complex machine ever built."
posted by Caroline at 5:43 PM
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