Astronomy Picture of the Day 9-11-02

NASA ^ | 9-11-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2002 September 11

Pluto & Charon Eclipse a Triple Star
Credit: NACO Team, 8.2-meter VLT (Yepun), ESO

Explanation: Occasionally, a planet in our Solar System will pass in front of a bright star. Since stars and planets take up so little space on the sky, such events are quite rare. Two months ago, however, Pluto and its large moon Charon passed in front of a comparatively bright triple star system known as P126. By noting how P126 A dimmed, the event was useful for studying Pluto's relatively unknown atmosphere. A Very Large Telescope in Chile using a deformable mirror to counter the blurring effect of Earth's atmosphere captured the above image.

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Fun Fact:

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh; its moon Charon wasn't discovered until 1978!
In Greek/Roman myth Charon is the ferryman on the river Styx which flows to the land of the dead,
which Pluto (Hades) rules.

Don't pay the ferryman, don't even fix a price
Don't pay the ferryman, 'til he gets you to the other side

Get on the list!

[petuniasevan]

[sleavelessinseattle]

Theres a good argument for more space based telescopes...to increase the number of occultations from different perspectives...It should make the search for planets orbiting other stars easier as well.

[BradyLS]

In the middle of C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy. Reading Paralandra, in fact. Though it has very little to do with asronomy, Lewis' concept in the trilogy that the planets are ruled by various heavenly archons (akin to archangels) is fascinating to read. In the story, Earth's archon is bound to the planet an the other archons are not permitted to enter with range of the moon. In fact, Earth is christened Thulcandra-- The Silent Planet-- by them.

What got me on this jag is the reminder of how the planets are named. In Lewis' story, you get the impression that Christianity and, say, Greek mythology have intriguing points of intersection on the subject of planets, their names, and which spirits watch over them.

If you want to see a fresh perspective on things celestial in the context of a story, check out the series. It's like no science fiction I've ever encountered. Likely, the science is extremely weak, but the story I'm finding very refreshing.

[MeekOneGOP]

[BossyRoofer]

It,s refreshing to think that there,s still alot to learn about our own galaxy! Good job APOD!

[RightWhale]

Odd new fact about Kuiper Belt objects: in the past couple years many such objects have been observed to have satellites. The odd thing is that many of the satellites are as large as their primary.