The Abnormal X-Ray Glows from Pluto
Photo Source: NASA
Since Pluto is known to be a cold and rocky entity in our cosmos without a magnetic field, reading about the recent discovery of X-rays emitting is quite provocative.
The debate of Pluto being identified as a true planet also still continues. Perhaps it's the emotional side of me from a child and learning about the nine planets of our solar system.
Looking at the official definition of a planet states:
“A Celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”-- Internation Astronomical Union
We won't be solving this debate today, but reading about the Pluto X-rays did lead me to research a few theories and one which seems most plausible for the weird glow.
The explanation of high energy particles from solar winds colliding and removing away electrons is the most interesting. With this idea Pluto, deep in the Kuiper belt, might be slowing burning away from some far distant star.
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons
Perhaps as more data is collected and analyzed a greater understanding can come about.. I'll be following it closely. I'm certain it will continue to question our current understanding of the cosmos.
Til next time,
So many mysteries... and Juno just opened up a few itself with our first good look at Jupiter's pole (I forget which one it was, the northern or the southern).
Who knows maybe we'll get some new forms of propulsion going soon. :)
We've got to start working on sending a probe to Proxima Centauri b!
I really hope David Pares is on to something with this warp experiments. Maybe we could go beyond probes. :)
The current scientific evolution is looking for another planet that is habitable by human. Have you think of the possibilitites that there is another planet like earth somewhere?
Could it be that there also other inhabitable who think, eat and live like us in the other galaxies?
It would be hard to say that there aren't any in other galaxies, much less our own galaxy. There are roughly 100,000,000,000 stars in the Milky Way alone that could have planets circling them, we have only been up close and personal with one of those, and then there's the same estimated number of galaxies (100,000,000,000) in the universe.
I would say that the odds are that somewhere out there is more life, but I would be happy with just having a form of propulsion that could get us out there exploring (much less all the other necessary systems... artificial gravity would be a good one). ;)
nice post :) @originate
Got me thinking so that mean you got my vote and follow
aw man, you had a beautiful opportunity to give a link to the X-Ray story and you blew it. Now I have to go google it myself.
I thought that the debate about Pluto being a planet was ended as the condition (c) is not met.
It fascinates me every single time too see these sharp pictures from other planets. This is amazing