Starting yesterday, November 18, a large number of space telescopes around the world have begun to map the skies around our planet, with the express goal of creating a new reference system for future space observations. Just like the GPS reports your position depending on latitude and longitude, so too the position o... |
19 November 2009
03:06 GMT |
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Since the International Astronomical Union (IAU) started changing the definitions of what planets, asteroids, and dwarf planets looked like, the faith of many large, cosmic objects in the solar system has remained undecided. One such example is the giant rock 2 Pallas, which is, in fact, a protoplanet – a Moon-... |
9 October 2009
06:36 GMT |
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The decision of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to declassify Pluto as a planet, and to move it to the lesser class of “dwarf planets” sparked widespread protests and disagreement in 2006. The move resulted from the fact that the new definition of the term “planet,” coined at the IA... |
27 July 2009
09:38 GMT |
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This evening, people in several countries will be treated to the largest astronomical event in the 400 years of the discipline. A grass-root movement will be spread around the world, in a 100-hour marathon that will hopefully involve more than 1 million individuals. Basically, amateur and professional astronomy assoc... |
2 April 2009
09:58 GMT |
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Yesterday, March 13, Illinois' Senate passed a bill that re-instated Pluto to a full planetary status, despite the fact that the celestial body lost an “election” with the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) some three years ago, in which its classification was changed to t... |
14 March 2009
07:41 GMT |
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This year will see the introduction of new space- and Earth-based observatories into use, taking advantage of new technologies and wavelengths that have never before been probed. Astronomers praise the International Year of Astronomy as potentially the most important in the field's 400 years of history. New Near... |
13 January 2009
05:01 GMT |
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It may look like the stars live for ever and never change position in the sky or even that planets have extremely precise orbits, but the truth is anything but that. That's the reason why a team of astronomers from the St Mary University in Canada are proposing a redefinition of the astronomical unit. The scient... |
7 February 2008
04:34 GMT |
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