Wednesday 1 January 2014

New Year Discovery

On the first day of a new century, 1 January 1801, the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, working at Palermo observatory in Sicily discovered what he first thought was a tail-less comet. After a series of observations, interrupted by illness; and once its orbit was calculated, he realised he had found a 'new planet'. It was named Ceres after the Roman goddess of agriculture and the patron goddess of Sicily. It fitted nicely within Bodes law. between Mars and Jupiter, that strange algebraic “formula” law which seemed to predict the orbital distances of the planets and had just roughly predicted the semi-major axis of Uranus's orbit. Later observations however showed it to be rather small for a Planet and then more and more 'objects' of a similar nature were found reducing Ceres to what was thought to be the largest asteroid. Now though Ceres has had it's nature changed again, and it is now the second largest of what are called 'Dwarf Planets', Pluto being the largest.

Ceres can be tricky to find. It is often just on the verge of human eyesight, even from a dark site, but binoculars and small telescopes show it as a faint star like object. At the moment it can be found using binoculars in the constellation of Virgo, in the early hours of the morning. Ceres is due to be visited by the NASA spacecraft Dawn in 2015, the same year as New Horizons will fly-by Pluto. We should therefore get two good looks at two dwarf planets. Both make interesting targets for a number of reasons but should provide clues as to the origin of the solar system. At the moment, if you get a chance, see if you can find Ceres. It is an interesting spot and many astronomers spend a lifetime without ever giving it notice. The other dwarf planets are a much harder proposition to see.

No comments:

Post a Comment