Planets

Read more about the article The Polarizing Reasons Pluto is Not a Planet Anymore
Icy mountains on the surface of Pluto. Photograph: New Horizons/NASA

The Polarizing Reasons Pluto is Not a Planet Anymore

Pluto was previously considered a planet since its discovery in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. Pluto had little resistance to its classification as the ninth planet upon its discovery.This may have been a slight case of confirmation bias since the presence of a "ninth planet" or "planet X" was hypothesized by Percival Lowell. Lowell believed that the apparent discrepancies of Uranus were the causation of another planet beyond Neptune.Pluto was within only 6 degrees of the predicted location of the ninth planet predicted by Lowell. However, Lowell predicted that this planet would be around 6.6 the mass of Earth.As telescopes improved, we were able to learn more about Pluto. In 1950, Gerard Kuiper observed Pluto as a spherical world using a 200-inch telescope at Mount Palomar. Kuiper estimated that Pluto's diameter was around 5,900 kilometers.In 1965, Pluto passed near a star allowing astronomers to conclude that Pluto was a small body. As…

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Read more about the article The Majesty of Gas Giant Planets

The Majesty of Gas Giant Planets

When we hear the term "gas giant planet", our minds race directly to several planets located within our Solar System, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. These planets share several defining characteristics that allow them to be lumped into the same category.In particular, the high percentage of helium and hydrogen within their overall composition places them apart from other more terrestrial solar bodies. However, the term gas giant planet is a bit misleading in that it tells us very little about the actual composition of these unique worlds.Gas giant planets are composed of a high percentage of solid material. Due to the extreme pressure within the core of a gas giant, hydrogen may be converted into a metallic solid or liquid form.Frequently, there are other materials interspersed within this solid matrix as well. Although all gas giants contain high amounts of hydrogen and helium within their overall composition, they may also have…

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Read more about the article What Are Exoplanets

What Are Exoplanets

One of the best-kept secrets of our times is that planets exist outside our Solar System. Exoplanets are planets orbiting one of the billions of stars we see in the nighttime sky. As our ability to search through the vastness of space increases, we continue to find ourselves faced with an ever-expanding potential of discovering planets that could look and behave like Earth. That's all fine and dandy, but wouldn't you impress your friends with your exoplanetary knowledge instead? Look no further! The History of Exoplanetary ExplorationHumans began their interest in exoplanets around the 16th century. The Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno was the first to publicly support the idea based on his belief in the Copernican theory that Earth and the other known planets of the time were indeed orbiting around the sun. He speculated that this should be the case for different stars in the universe. In the 18th Century, Isaac Newton…

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