Pluto, Eris, and the Dwarf Planets of the Outer Solar System

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Pluto, Eris, and the Dwarf Planets of the Outer Solar System
Presenter: Mike Brown
Tuesday, March 20, 2007

The Kuiper Belt is a mysterious region beyond Neptune and stretching more than four billion miles from the Sun. Using powerful telescopes, scientists are scouring the Belt and beyond, finding hundreds of small frigid objects such as Eris, which is larger than Pluto and takes 560 years to orbit the Sun; and smaller Sedna, with an elliptical orbit that takes more than 10,000 years to complete. Join Mike Brown as he describes the hunt for these ancient and elusive worlds.

Mike Brown is Professor of Planetary Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology and the discoverer, along with colleagues, of Eris (formerly 2003 UB313), Sedna, and other distant bodies. The 2007 Exploring Space Lectures, Journey Through the Outer Solar System, will feature four world-class scholars discussing current missions to the distant realm of the gas giants, the icy Kuiper Belt, and beyond.

For More Webcasts: http://www.nasm.si.edu/webcasts/archive.cfm?siref=YouTube&video=Kelleher:...

Category:

Education

Tags:

• SI
• Kiuper
• Belt
• Mike
• Brown
• Smithsonian

[dreamsNdemise]

He sounds like Kermit the Frog.

[bandet888]

@kedanna Pluto was put in the right catagory. If Pluto is a planet then this Solar System has hundreds of planets. That's a lot to remember since we're in the habit of teaching our children the names of all the planets. We don't teach the names of all the moons so it's no problem adding more moons found around Jupiter, Saturn, etc... It is kind of sad though. Sometimes I wonder if we can use Pluto or some other large dwarf planet as a sharp cut off point. Pluto is still there though.

[grisgrisy]

interesting video and very informative

[smuggecko]

love the video man

[staranjela]

love the video man

[clarke416]

educational :)

[BrainChild666]

22:43 once again empirical evidence that shows Einsteins Gravity well concept is wrong. The fabric of space time is not 2 dimensional. Plus you can slow light down so there goes the cosmological constant!

[bdogshredder]

he also didn't mention "plutoid" which was a canidate for classification of pluto sized far orbit objects. that would be cool.

[bdogshredder]

Doesn't "planet" define something that orbits in a "plane" ? like the equitorial plane of the sun? or close to it? duh!? so, if it is inclined to that plane, clearly not a planet.

[MrGhostphone]

kermit the frogg? i think he sounds like john grant. don't you?

[wratched]

@dreamsNdemise Which means he sounds like Jim Henson, which makes him cool.