Eleven Planets - Ceres, Pluto and Eris?
When did we get 11 Planets? A new view of our Solar System has been established that includes 3 Dwarfs. Ceres, Pluto and Eris have been added to our planetary lineup! Author David Aquilar unfolds this new realm of galactic revelation in his new book from National Geographic.
Montana 4th Grader Wins!
FourthGrader Maryn Smith has recently won the National Geographic Planetary Mnemonic Contest with her fanciful sentence: "...My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants..."
What are the Eleven Planets? Let's have a refresher...
What are the Eleven Planets? Let's have a refresher...
- Mercury: Closest to our Sun, our smallest planetary body orbiting Sol every 88 days.
- Venus: About the size of the Earth, with no moons of its own.
- Earth: Been here lately? It's a great place to visit, with the very rarest of cosmological phenomenon: a stable liquid H20 state.
- Mars: Our RedPlanet, smaller than home with two satellites: Deimos and Phobos.
- Ceres: The largest sphere in the Asteroid Belt. Once regarded as an asteroid, reclassified in 2006 as a DwarfPlanet, holding its own gravitational field. There is speculation that it also has an atmosphere, prompting enormous scientific interest and research.
- Jupiter: This gigantic planetbody hold 2.5 times the mass of all of our planetaryspheres combined. Its largest moon, Ganymede, outpaces Mercury in size.
- Saturn: Our RingedPlanet with 60 moons! Titan, its largest satellite, is the only AtmosphericMoon currently known.
- Uranus: The sideways orbit makes this a unique wonder. 27moons on this curious GasGiant.
- Neptune: Much greater in density than its Uranus partner, with 13 knownmoons. Orbited by a liquid nitrogen spewing TritonMoon, with a retrograde path.
- Pluto: Designated as a DwarfPlanet in 2006, the LargestBody in the Kuiper belt. It may be a BinarySystem, in conjunction with Charon, currently considered Pluto's LargestSatellite.
- Eris: Only recently discovered in 2003, 27% larger than Pluto, and three times further from the Sun. This finding prompted the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to redefine the term "Planet".
- Are There More?: Quaoar, Varuna,and Orcus, also within the Kuiper Belt, may be reclassified as DwarfPlanets in the not too distant future.
Much More Knowledge to Be Gained....
Great Resources!
There have been so many recent discoveries in astronomy, so much to learn, let's travel around the web to find out more!
- SolarSystem info on Wiki
- Extensive article with amazing facts and details.
- KuiperBelt on Wikipedia
- Periodic comets, centaurs and scattered discs, oh my!
- NatGeo Cosmic Ocean
- The Inner and Outer Worlds that create our celestial wonders.
- Kids AstronomydotCom Online Playtime
- Interactive SolarSystemFun - interestingly enough, no Ceres or Eris found here.
- Jet Propulsion Labs Simulator
- Looking for views from space? This cool online learning aid will have you clicking like mad! Includes spacecraft perspectives and dated searches.
- ExtraSolar Discoveries
- What we know about OtherPlanets... superb graphics on this site.
- Celestial Bodies Relative Size
- Nice Visual for imagining our wildly varying PlanetBodies.
- IAU: Official Definition
- This is a heady website going in-depth on the defined criteria: spherical shape, orbiting OurSun, and not a planetarymoon itself.
Explore Space in Print
Cosmological Artistry
Futuristic "Deepstar" interplanetary ship add-on (by "...
curated content from Flickr
Fascinating Posters
What is a Mnemonic Device and How Do You Pronounce It?
From the Greek term meaning "Of Memory", Mnemonics is a sentence or rhyming tool used to easily remember facts. Pronounced nem-on-ick, this is a superb way to get ready for tests and quizzes, or even recall baseball stats. It's simple to do, just write your own sentence or a coolrhyme with words that begin with the same letter of your facts.
We're all familiar with: "Every Good Boy Does Find" as the device used to remember the treble staff notes in music. Or "lefty loosey, righty tighty" for the turning of screws and lightbulbs. I often use mnemonicdevices to keep track of my grocery list. Rather than writing items on paper, developing these rhymes or phrases stretches your mind and develops your imagination too. What's more - creating these whacky sentences is fun! Learn these tricks at the MnemonicDevice website.
We're all familiar with: "Every Good Boy Does Find" as the device used to remember the treble staff notes in music. Or "lefty loosey, righty tighty" for the turning of screws and lightbulbs. I often use mnemonicdevices to keep track of my grocery list. Rather than writing items on paper, developing these rhymes or phrases stretches your mind and develops your imagination too. What's more - creating these whacky sentences is fun! Learn these tricks at the MnemonicDevice website.
Telescopic Starters for Finding 11 Planets
Serious Telescopes for the Avid StarGazer and the Personal Planetarium
Bushnell Discoverer 76x500mm
$199.99
SkyScout Personal Planetarium
$299.00
Now You can easily identify thousands of farawaystars, constellations and planetbodies with this handy GPS tool. This amazing handheld encyclopedia features audio and text information while you're viewing! Lessons, guided tours and built in walkthroughs. The top seller in AstronomicalTelescopes today!
These Toys Rock!
Unusual Finds on eBay
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- tandemonimom tandemonimom Mar 28, 2009 @ 8:43 pm
- Cool that a 4th grader came up with the new mnemonic, but I think I'm too old for anything other than "Mary very easily makes jam ..." LOL! 5*
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- Evelyn_Saenz Evelyn_Saenz Mar 16, 2009 @ 12:25 pm
- It feels a little disconcerting having those two upstarts, Ceres and Eris, included with venerable old Pluto. I wonder how Pluto feels about having been booted out and then only included now as a seeming afterthought.
Wonderful lens. Lensrolled to Starry Starry Night.
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- 00gt00 00gt00 Aug 17, 2008 @ 8:20 pm
- Very cool lens Carrie! Thanks for all your help with my graphics issues!
Cheers
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- CherylK CherylK Apr 19, 2008 @ 11:32 am
- Excellent lens, as usual. Another great learning experience for me. Thanks!
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- mulberry mulberry Mar 20, 2008 @ 7:08 pm
- Like so many "facts", most things are accurate only until they are disproven. This is just another example ;) Great lens idea!
