Jimu News trainee reporter Sun Zhe
Many post-80s parents, when telling their children about picture books, only to find that the nine planets they learned when they were young have become eight planets, and Pluto, which was originally ranked ninth, was kicked out of the planet ranks in 2006.
Recently, the video of "Witnessing History: Pluto Special Collection" released by the BBC has triggered many people to recall Pluto's "past life" and "this life". From being discovered to being widely controversial to being "delisted," Pluto seems to have been living in the spotlight. In the eyes of Americans, astronomer Michael Brown is the "enemy of the whole people" who drove Pluto out of the planetary circle, and in this video, Professor Brown once again expressed his opinion on this matter, saying that when he first discovered that Pluto was not a planet, he was worried about being scolded by students and parents.
American astronomer Michael Brown (Source: bbc related video screenshot)
"Nine planets" into history, Pluto was "delisted"
In 1930, the American astronomer Clyde William Tombaugh used a comparative method to compare photos of various parts of the starry sky taken on different nights to find objects moving in the background of stars in fixed positions, and finally found Pluto.
However, since the discovery of Pluto, controversy has continued to emerge about it. Throughout the 20th century, astronomers have been measuring its orbit and mass. They found that Pluto was so small in mass that it was not large enough to have much of an impact on Uranus' orbit. Other new scientific discoveries in the solar system have gradually shaken Pluto's position as the ninth planet.
In 2005, Professor Brown and his team discovered an object numbered "2003ub313", which became known as Eris, which was larger than Pluto. The discovery puts astronomers in a dilemma: will eris be added to the planet list, or will Pluto be stripped of its status as the ninth planet for more than 70 years?
Screenshot of bbc related video
The answer was finally announced in 2006, and on August 24 of the same year, resolution 5 of the 26th International Astronomical Union in Prague was adopted, and Pluto was classified as a dwarf planet and removed from the nine planets of the solar system. The Congress explicitly defined a new standard for planets, defining planets as objects orbiting the Sun (stars) that have mass large enough to make themselves spherical due to gravity and can clear neighboring small bodies.
Unable to clear other objects near its orbit, Pluto's original large planet status was disqualified as a dwarf planet. On September 14, 2016, the International Astronomical Union announced that the object previously known as "2003ub313" would be officially named Eris.
I was worried about being scolded by students and parents
"Pluto has always had a natural disadvantage of size and weight, and at that time everyone seemed to be very sure that there was a larger object than Pluto, so as early as the beginning of the 21st century, I was looking for and exploring. With the help of various astronomical instruments, we began to discover objects larger than Pluto one after another," Professor Brown said.
Talking about the discovery of Eris, Professor Brown carefully reviewed the process at that time and also expressed his own views:
"I remember when I was going to verify the data for comparison, and when I verified the materials, my first reaction was, I am holding the correct data now, right? After a while, when I realized that the data was all right, I said to myself, 'Sit down, take a deep breath, and a new conclusion is about to come.' ’”
"One of the questions at the time was, what were we going to do after we discovered Eris, which was larger than Pluto?"
Professor Brown was referring to the school textbook, which has always been written about the nine planets of the solar system, and the concept of "nine planets" has long been deeply rooted in people's minds, but now the appearance of Eris means that Pluto is likely to be kicked out.
"After Eris was discovered, the debate in the astronomical community around Eris never stopped, and I thought the best thing to do was to 'escape temporarily', I chose to go on vacation with my family, to a small island on the west coast of the United States, and I didn't say anything. I thought, let the result 'settle' on its own. ”
"Later, I often hear all kinds of complaints from parents, such as, our children or do it? They were all about to 'die' in anger. Moreover, not only children are angry, but also adults, and they are angry when they think about what they have learned in the past. I told them that the children would come back from school and tell you, 'You were wrong in school, and now you know that Pluto is no longer the ninth planet in the solar system.' I'm sure the kids love this feeling! ’”
At the end of the video, Professor Brown explains again, "Actually, it's not that Pluto was downgraded, it's that it ended up in the right category." ”
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