This morning, I was a volunteer host for area high school students attending the SEG conference here in New Orleans. The SEG hosts a comprehensive Applied Science Education program which gives students early access to conferences, universities, research labs, corporations and university scholarships. The students’ tour started with a keynote address by Richard Binzel, MIT professor, world’s leading expert on Pluto and a crucial part of the Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission, which left Earth in January of this year.
So, why is an astronomer speaking at an exploration geophysics conference? Simply put, once you are well-versed in science and mathematics, a lot of the same theories and techniques carry over from one discipline to another. The difference lies in what you would prefer to do or what you ended up doing. For instance, the technical chair of this year’s SEG conference has a PhD in nuclear engineering and is now one of the world’s best exploration geoscientists. Another friend went from a graduate education in general relativity to selling seismic interpretation software. A scientist’s versatility lies not in learning, but in learning how to learn.
The Pluto Mission is SO COOL and, more than the intended high-school audience, had me wanting to become an astrophysicist when I grow up. Did you know that while the Earth precesses (wobbling of axis) every 25,000 years, the entire perihelion (orbit) of Pluto precesses every 3 million years? And that it takes Pluto 6.4 earth days to complete one rotation; as for revolution, one Pluto year equals 248 Earth years?
Binzel dwelt on only one of Pluto’s three moons, Charon, given that the planet and this particular moon form the Pluto-Charon system, one of the very few binary systems in the solar system. The Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission is a 4-billion-mile journey to characterize the geology and morphology of Pluto and Charon, map their surface composition and characterize the neutral atmosphere of this system. It is also a chance to study further the Kuiper Belt, an umbrella term for the space crud beyond Neptune and before our solar system ends. This “fastest spacecraft yet” took 9 hours to reach the moon after launch on 19 January, 2006 and is estimated to reach the Pluto-Charon system in July of 2015 (right before I hit middle age) and the rest of the Belt a few years after. The tremendously neat thing about this mission, and why it was absolutely necessary for it to leave early this year, is a gravity “boost” from near-cruising Jupiter in early 2007.
Pluto has an atmosphere with significant erosion at the poles, which are relatively crater-free and the dark pole has had the most sunlight over the past million years (go figure!). I learned that a stellar occultation is nothing but a solar eclipse (not a ritual conducted in St. Louis Cemetery 1 by a Marie Laveaux descendant) and that a bolometric Bond albedo is nothing but a fancy term for the total portion of the incident radiation energy from the Sun that is reflected.
My group of 8 girls from Riverdale High were interested and inquisitive, if a little giggly and making eyes at the twenty-something male attendees of the conference, which in turn caused me to groan and generate a lot of science-related conversation to keep them focused. (When did I turn into Aunty Chaperone?) My favorite student was Rebecca, a junior who wants to be a scientist, runs science fairs and booths at her school and had me escort her to the Colorado School of Mines booth to get more information on undergraduate geophysics and engineering education there. Wait ’til I have a little chat with her about Wisconsin and its astronomy/geology program.
Aaaah, science! Honk if Pluto is still a planet!
Pluto is Pluto. Why does anyone suppose that anal assorters of objects could possibly make it different?
Oh, sure… rub it in that you’re still nine years from middle age! Man, if I could get out of this comfy recliner, I’d tell you a thing er two, ya whippersnapper!
Honk!
Blair says:
My attention was directed to the following which appeared in the Washington Post:
“Twinkle twinkle planetoid,
Out so far in the icy void,
Rocky core with ice encloaked,
Your planethood has been revoked.
Despite the fact you have a moon,
Your reputatation they impugn.
But take some comfort in their crime-
They’ll all be dead in one year’s time.”
One year on Pluto is 248 Earth years.
do i honk if pluto is still a planet (if so, i cannot, since by the definition of the astronomical nerds, it ain’t one), or i honk if i want to vote to retain it as one? don’t pull a ‘my blog’ on me now. small world i can accept your excuses, small planet, mebbe not!
btw, this issue has emotional pull of jupiter’s gratitational magnitute for me. y.b. (aka kiddo) had pluto (the planet) for his bedtime story the day before the baddies demoted it!
– s.b.
Quite frankly, Pluto doesn’t care and like Binzel said, “The last time I checked through the telescope Pluto was still there.” But, since I have a soft spot for kids like y.b. who read about planets, and other topics scientific, before retiring for the day, it’s honk if you want to retain it as a planet.
The Washington Post cut out about half of the poem–here it is in its entirety:
Twinkle, Twinkle, Planetoid
Twinkle, twinkle, planetoid
Out so far in inky void
Rocky core with ice encloaked
Your planethood has been revoked
The I.A.U. struck a blow
To the cosmic status quo
They’re not quite sure of your fate
But it leaves us only eight
Was it that your orbit’s tilted
Why you were so rudely jilted?
Could it be your little tryst
With Neptune that’s got them pissed?
Despite the fact you have a moon
Your reputation they impugn.
But take some comfort in their crime–
They’ll all be dead in one year’s time!*
Twinkle, twinkle, far from sun
So long for now, it’s been fun
*One year on Pluto is 248 Earth years