The Planet...CERES? For those of you who didn’t read any article on this yesterday, the International Astronomical Union
(the world's governing body in charge of naming stars, planets, asteroids, wormholes, Star Destroyers and whatnot. Just kidding about the wormholes and Star Destroyers) is set to vote on August 24 to increase the number of known planets in our solar system from 9 to 12. The list of planets will now include:
Mercury,
Venus,
Earth,
Mars,
Ceres (formerly an asteroid),
Jupiter,
Saturn,
Uranus,
Neptune,
Pluto,
Charon (which used to be Pluto’s moon...now it is Pluto’s sister world) and
"Xena" (not its official name. Its current designation is 2003 UB313... Its official name will be decided later). I know, I know... That listing above is pointless considering the image I posted below. But the number of planets could increase in the near future...since other worlds beyond Pluto are candidates for planethood
(like Sedna and Quaoar).
On another space-related note, the
Voyager 1 spacecraft is getting even closer to entering interstellar space. Two days ago, the probe’s distance from the Sun passed the 100 AU
(astronomical units... 1 AU equals 93 million miles) mark, and is getting farther by 1 million miles a day. For those of you wondering just how vast 100 astronomical units is, that’s 9.3 billion miles...or 15 billion kilometers, for you metric system-loving ninnies out there. Voyager 1 could cross into interstellar space within the next 10 years or so. Wow... Imagine
having my name on a compact disc onboard
that spacecraft... Just kidding about calling you guys ninnies.
An illustration showing the location of Voyagers 1 and 2 in our solar system.UPDATE (September 13): Xena
(also known as 2003 UB313) and its moon have been given official names by the International Astronomical Union:
Eris and
Dysnomia. That is all.
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