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hale_bopp
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18 Mar 2005, 2:25 am

Check out how The southern hemisphere sees orion.

Upside down, woo. :D

Image

And uh... post more facts about space here.



RadioHead
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18 Mar 2005, 8:31 am

Any facts? Ok....

Pluto
-Pluto has a diameter of around 2300km. It is the smallest planet in the solar system, even smaller than our own moon. In fact with the recent discovery of various trans-neptunian objects, such as Sedna, that rivals Pluto in size, scientists have been debating whether they should strip pluto of its planetary status.
-Pluto is so small, that these moons are larger than it: Luna (Earth), Ganymede (Jupiter), Callisto (Jupiter), Europa (Jupiter), Io (Jupiter), Titan (Saturn)and Triton (Neptune).
-Pluto has a highly elliptical orbit of 286 years, bringing it closer to the sun than neptune for a few years, making it, for a time being, the 8th planet. The last time this has happened was from 1976 to 1997. This shows that Pluto is not a bona-fide planet but a large comet. (Comets have highly elliptical orbits, but much more elliptical than Pluto's)
-During the time when Pluto is closest to the sun, its surface melts and forms a thin atmosphere around the planet. Pluto is largely comprised of frozen nitrogen and carbon monoxide, so its atmosphere comprises of the same. When it goes further, the atmosphere refreezes. Again this is indicative of Pluto being a comet.
-Pluto has a large moon called Charon, which is about half Pluto's diameter. The 2 bodies are very close, so close that their gravitational fields influence each other in such a way that the same side of Pluto and Charon always face each other. The 2 bodies share the same centre of mass, unlike other planets where the satellite rotates around the main planet. Because of this, Pluto and Charon has been referred to as a "double planet". Note that this is much like some binary asteroids in our Solar system.
-Pluto was named after the Roman god of the underworld. Charon was named after the ferryman which transported souls of the dead to the underworld.
-Pluto was discovered in the 1930s by a man named Clyde C. Tombaugh, making it the most recently discovered planet. The search was started up by Percival Lowell earlier and Tombaugh carried it on after his death.

Well that's all I remember. I got really deep into this stuff when I was about 10. I've lost interest though, but can still remember certain facts.[/b]



duncvis
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18 Mar 2005, 8:41 am

Cool... not one of my specialist subjects unfortunately so I have nothing to add, but fascinating. please carry on folks... 8)


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TAFKASH
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18 Mar 2005, 9:27 am

RadioHead wrote:
-Pluto was named after the Roman god of the underworld. Charon was named after the ferryman which transported souls of the dead to the underworld.
-Pluto was discovered in the 1930s by a man named Clyde C. Tombaugh, making it the most recently discovered planet. The search was started up by Percival Lowell earlier and Tombaugh carried it on after his death.


Actually, the name "Pluto" was chosen as it fit the names of its 2 discoverers: Percival Lowell and Clyde Tombaugh. Dunno where they got the 'U' from though..... :?


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Scoots5012
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18 Mar 2005, 3:24 pm

And don't forget that Pluto's moon Charon was not discovered until 1978.


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TAFKASH
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18 Mar 2005, 3:39 pm

Scoots5012 wrote:
And don't forget that Pluto's moon Charon was not discovered until 1978.


If scientists discover a new moon around Pluto, would they have to call it "Tracie"?


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19 Mar 2005, 8:20 am

Hale Bopp, you are named after that comet, arent you? :P

Anyway more facts about space

The possibilty of life on Jupiter's moon Europa

-Europa is a moon consisting entirely of H20 ie. water
-Because Jupiter is so far away from the sun, it is very cold. (Temperature below 0 degrees celcius) However, the interior may be warm enough for liquid water to exist.
-This is due to the magnetic field of Jupiter which causes geographical activity within the moon which is its source of heat.
-It has been proven that there are ecosystems in Earth's ocean floor which are completely independent from sunlight. The very bottom of the food chain are bacteria which form a symbiotic relationship with tubeworms and are the main energy producers using a process called chemosynthesis which involves the usage of sulphur emmiting from hot vents.
-Thus, it is not impossible to imagine that similar lifeforms exist in the oceans of Europa.



kuan
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19 Mar 2005, 8:59 am

nice.. please go on.