aspacelobster returns

Grub!

Eastern Quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus), family Dasyuridae, order Dasyuromorphia, Canberra, Australia

Blamire Young - Shifting Sands, 1929, watercolour; Landscape rural scene, watercolour; Nunc Dimittis, circa 1924, watercolour

this is Ceres. she's a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, in between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. she was discovered on Jan 1st 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, 45 years BEFORE Neptune was discovered. like Pluto, it was originally classified as a planet before being reclassified in 2006

its a little blurry, but this JWST picture is of Eris. discovered in 2005, it was called the "tenth planet" for a time, before its official reclassification. it's actually more massive than Pluto, about 27% more to be precise. although Pluto is very slightly larger.

Haumea is another Trans Neptunian Object (TNO) and dwarf planet with several moons. fun fact about her is that based on calculations, its very likely that she's egg shaped, or at least very oblong.

Makemake (pronounce mah ke mah ke) is another dwarf planet far beyond the orbit of Neptune. a recent JWST exposure hinted at the presence of methane gas, which would make it the second ever TNO with gas. although at the moment its unclear if this is an atmosphere or vents from seismic activity.

i bet everyone reading this post has learned at least one cool thing just now. and that's my goal. i had fun writing this post, and i also leaned some new things.

dwarf planets are not "lesser" than the main 8 planets. they are a different classification based mainly on size and orbit. and the thing is, there are a Massive amount of TNOs that we can't possibly label all of them as planets or even dwarf planets. space is big. even just our solar system is massive and scientists are discovering new things all the time.

and because we learn new things all the time, our older understanding gets updated. we change our perspectives, we accept new formulas or scientific theories, and we reclassify things that dont fit in with our new models of how the universe works.