Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share A Sudden Change in Planets
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
A Sudden Change in Planets
A planet is a planet is a planet. Unless it’s Pluto – then it’s a dwarf planet. But even then it’s a planet, according to experts. So what was behind the unpopular re-classification of Pluto by astronomers, and were they justified?
As the New Horizons spacecraft closes in on this small body, one planetary scientist says that this dwarf planet could be more typical of planets than Mars, Mercury, and Saturn. And that our solar system has not 8 or even 9 planets, but 900.
Also, meet a type of planet that’s surprisingly commonplace, although we don’t have one in our solar system: super Earths. Could they harbor life?
And the DAWN mission continues its visit to the two most massive residents of the asteroid belt: Vesta and Ceres. Discover what these proto-planets may reveal to us about the early solar system.
Guests:
Alan Stern – Planetary scientist, Southwest Research Institute, Principal Investigator of the New Horizons mission
Marc Rayman – DAWN Mission chief engineer and mission director
David Stevenson – Professor of planetary science at CalTech
Rebekah Dawson – Astronomer, postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley
David Eicher – Editor-in-chief, Astronomy Magazine
Descripción en español
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
View all episodes
By Big Picture Science
4.5
912912 ratings
A planet is a planet is a planet. Unless it’s Pluto – then it’s a dwarf planet. But even then it’s a planet, according to experts. So what was behind the unpopular re-classification of Pluto by astronomers, and were they justified?
As the New Horizons spacecraft closes in on this small body, one planetary scientist says that this dwarf planet could be more typical of planets than Mars, Mercury, and Saturn. And that our solar system has not 8 or even 9 planets, but 900.
Also, meet a type of planet that’s surprisingly commonplace, although we don’t have one in our solar system: super Earths. Could they harbor life?
And the DAWN mission continues its visit to the two most massive residents of the asteroid belt: Vesta and Ceres. Discover what these proto-planets may reveal to us about the early solar system.
Guests:
Alan Stern – Planetary scientist, Southwest Research Institute, Principal Investigator of the New Horizons mission
Marc Rayman – DAWN Mission chief engineer and mission director
David Stevenson – Professor of planetary science at CalTech
Rebekah Dawson – Astronomer, postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley
David Eicher – Editor-in-chief, Astronomy Magazine
Descripción en español
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More shows like Big Picture Science
View all
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
63,795 Listeners
Common Sense with Dan Carlin
11,529 Listeners
Scott Sigler Slices: MIX TAPE VOL. 1
1,077 Listeners
The Deadpod
1,225 Listeners
Nature Podcast
762 Listeners
Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science
1,353 Listeners
SpaceTime with Stuart Gary
323 Listeners
Ask a Spaceman!
831 Listeners
Meditation Oasis
3,861 Listeners
Astronomy Cast
2,865 Listeners
Universe Today Podcast
560 Listeners
The Quanta Podcast
536 Listeners
Science Magazine Podcast
827 Listeners
Science Friday
6,404 Listeners
Philosophy Bites
1,548 Listeners
Science In Action
336 Listeners
Unexpected Elements
352 Listeners
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History: Addendum
8,484 Listeners
Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe
2,344 Listeners
Radio Detective Story Hour
404 Listeners
The Supermassive Podcast
332 Listeners
Why This Universe?
392 Listeners
Unexplainable
2,308 Listeners