MURFREESBORO — Move over Pluto. Make way
for what could be the newest — and ninth — planet.
“Another
Ninth Planet?” will be the subject of associate professor Chuck Higgins’ talk
as the Department of Physics and Astronomy’s First Friday Star Parties resume
for the spring semester.
For
the next three months, four star parties will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Feb.
5, March 4, April 1 and April 22 in Room 1006 of the Science Building, 440
Friendship St. For parking and building location, a searchable campus parking
map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap.
The
general public and campus community are invited to the free 45-minute lectures
followed by telescope observing, weather permitting.
First
Friday Star Parties are a way for the department to bring the MTSU,
Murfreesboro and surrounding communities together to view and discuss the
stars, planets and more.
Higgins
said a published Jan. 16 paper by California Institute of Technology
researchers Konstantin Batygin and Michael E. “Mike” Brown in The Astronomical
Journal highlights evidence for a large planet-sized object (larger than 10
Earth masses) in the distant solar system.
“The
evidence is based on numerical simulations to try to explain observed data that
show an unexpected clustering of distant objects in the Kuiper Belt,” Higgins
said.
“In
more simple terms, astronomers have noticed that some small bodies well beyond
Neptune have some strange orbits,” he added. “One possible explanation causing
these strange orbits is gravitational influence from a large planet — at least
10 Earth masses — that is 700 astronomical units from the sun.” (Earth is 1 AU
or approximately 93 million miles from the sun.)
Higgins
will explain the disturbed orbits and highlight the evidence for this possible
“ninth” planet.
Astronomers
downgraded Pluto to dwarf planet status in 2006, leaving eight planets in the
solar system.
The
other scheduled First Friday Star Party dates, topics and presenters for the
spring:
•
March 4 — “Not So Dark Dark Matter” (Irina Perevalova).
•
April 1 — “Symmetry, the Big Bang and You” (Rob Mahurin).
April
22* — “Buying and Using a Telescope” (John Wallin).
* — Alumni Weekend event
No comments:
Post a Comment