Weighing Eris, Pluto's heftier twin
An artist's conception of Pluto viewed from one of its moons. With Pluto's demotion, could other objects be promoted?
Image courtesy of NASA, ESA and G. Bacon (STScI).
(June 17, 2007) Last week, astronomer Michael Brown announced that the object Eris – discovered in 2005 – is more massive than Pluto.
This object made headlines when it was discovered in 2005. Some called it “10th planet,” an object already known to be as large or larger than Pluto, in the distant outfield of our solar system. The object, then nicknamed Xena, spurred the International Astronomical Union to re-evaluate the definition of a planet. Pluto got the boot, and today we’re left with just eight orbs in our solar system that we call planets.
In this podcast, Earth & Sky’s Jorge Salazar is speaking with astronomer Michael Brown about Brown’s team’s recent determination of the mass of Eris.
Mike Brown referred to the dwarf planet Eris as “Pluto’s pudgier twin,” which I thought was pretty funny.