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likethebeerClick below to see a movie of the asteroid Vesta, as filmed by the NASA spacecraft, Dawn (powered by Ion Propulsion!).
Dawn is at Vesta for a year, then it goes off to another object in the asteroid belt, Ceres.
The spaceship is called "Dawn" because this is in the asteroid belt and the thought is that what makes that up is stuff from the "dawn" of the solar system.
The man who led the astronomy class this summer introduced us to this project. It was funny b/c Ion Propulsion is from Star Trek. But, actually, it's powered by ion thrusters, "An ion thruster is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion that creates thrust by accelerating ions." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_thruster] They needed this propulsion system b/c they have to go above the ecliptic plane.
Anyway, one of the other things that John also told us was that Vesta and Ceres were both considered planets at one time. Back in the 1700s. So he was saying we shouldn't feel so bad about losing Pluto.
... huh - I really sounded like I knew what I was talking about there. Cool!
Dawn is at Vesta for a year, then it goes off to another object in the asteroid belt, Ceres.
The spaceship is called "Dawn" because this is in the asteroid belt and the thought is that what makes that up is stuff from the "dawn" of the solar system.
The man who led the astronomy class this summer introduced us to this project. It was funny b/c Ion Propulsion is from Star Trek. But, actually, it's powered by ion thrusters, "An ion thruster is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion that creates thrust by accelerating ions." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_thruster] They needed this propulsion system b/c they have to go above the ecliptic plane.
Anyway, one of the other things that John also told us was that Vesta and Ceres were both considered planets at one time. Back in the 1700s. So he was saying we shouldn't feel so bad about losing Pluto.
... huh - I really sounded like I knew what I was talking about there. Cool!
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-03 01:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-03 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-03 01:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-03 01:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-03 11:10 pm (UTC)By current definitions, it is not a planet because it hasn't cleared the area. Ah well - it's still out there, and will be cool to see once Dawn gets there in a year & a half.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 02:41 pm (UTC)