© 2024
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Strange Universe

Strange Universe: Meeting Pluto 7/16/23

By Bob Berman
Published July 16, 2023 at 9:35 AM EDT
1 of 1  — STRANGE UNIVERSE PLUTO.jpg
NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

The demotion of Pluto to a “dwarf planet” sparked a public controversy partially due to Disney, who in 1931 gave the name of the new planet to his likeable cartoon dog that was originally called Rover. Anyway, astronomers keep meeting people who lament Pluto’s disappearance even if most astronomers support it. With Pluto reaching its annual nearest point to Earth next Friday night, it’s a good time to revisit this whole tempest.

Tags
Strange Universe planetNASA
Bob Berman
See stories by Bob Berman
Related Content
  • Strange Universe: Is the Universe Smart? 3/5/23
    Bob Berman
    It’s a half century since James Lovelock originated the Gaia Hypothesis – which says that our planet’s biosphere is a single intelligent entity that self-regulates conditions for the mutual benefit of all. Hear how physicists have been heading down this path for a long time and about the alternative: The universe was created from nothing.
  • Strange Universe: Exploding Universe 5/14/23
    The universe’s four forces are identical everywhere. So, any physical truth that applies to our galaxy must be identical everywhere else and throughout all of time. In the 1930s, future Nobel-winner Paul Dirac wondered whether time has always passed the same way and whether light’s speed is truly a constant. But despite such doubts, the cosmos certainly appears to be the same always and everywhere. This week we’ll explore where the universe is heading.
  • Strange Universe: Other Universes 10/2/22
    Bob Berman
    Many people are truly imaginative when it comes to thinking of alternatives to established cosmology models. One listener recently asked, “Could the expanding universe be caused by the emptiness on the outside sucking everything in its direction?” Hear countless possibilities offered by alternate universes on the nature of the cosmos.
Load More