WEBVTT - Pluto: The Demoted Dwarf Planet 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you missed in history class from how 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:13.400 Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.960 And I'm wis. So when you were a kid, did 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:19.320 you know what you wanted to be when you grew up. 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:22.800 I wanted to be a millionaire and live in a mansion, okay, so, 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:25.640 and then after that I wanted to be an author. 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.960 So you're kind of on track. No, well, not for 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:36.000 being a millionaire and an author. That's really hard to do. Um. 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:39.000 I really thought for a long time as a child 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:41.960 that I wanted to be an astronomer. Like I really 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:44.720 thought that, uh. And I was obsessed with our World 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:47.280 Book Encyclopedias and all of the various entries on the 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:49.960 Solar System, and I would trace them and I would 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:53.880 make these trifled pamphlets out of notepaper for each planet. 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:57.400 But in the making of all of these pamphlets, which 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:01.800 I published to my family, I would always get frustrated 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:04.680 with Pluto because we just didn't have enough facts in 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:07.920 the nineteen one edition of the World Book Encyclopedia to 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:10.120 fill out one of my pamphlets. And I couldn't just 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:14.039 keep tracing the circle over and over. You know what, 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.759 if we had been on the fence about about bringing 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:19.319 you to work with us, which we were not on 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:24.479 a fence, but if we had been, this story would 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:27.200 have been the cell Um. I also went through a 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:29.120 phase where I did those on animals. I was really 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:31.960 into publishing my own pamphlets as a kid. I don't 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:34.200 know what that was about. You're also on track, Yeah, 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:37.240 kind of, I said. I didn't become an astronomer except us, 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.679 you know, an amateur that just enjoys it. Uh. But 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:45.360 Pluto was always tricky because we never knew as much 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:49.920 about it because of its distance, and it's relatively newer 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:54.360 to humans in terms of it existing and being than 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:56.640 other things, so we don't have as much research on it. 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.240 We haven't known more now than certainly we did then 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.000 even so, Yeah, but having not known that it was 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:06.760 there until relatively recently, we haven't had as much time 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:11.160 to gather information. Uh. There will be hopefully a lot 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.880 more really soon. But so Pluto was discovered on February 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.560 eighteenth and nineteen thirty, but of course it existed for 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:21.280 a long time before then, and port Pluto was a planet, 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:24.360 and then it was demoted and it was actually the 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:26.760 only planet to have ever been discovered by an American. 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:30.679 Just kind of an interesting point of note. I think 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.760 it's also the only time that an astronomical announcement his 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.799 drawn fury Well, yes, I can't think of any other 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:45.400 fury inducing announcements about astronomy, you know, except for except 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.640 for in the very very early days of astronomy, when 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:53.280 you know, things like planets revolve around the Sun. Where yeah, well, 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:56.160 I there have actually been a lot because any big 0:02:56.200 --> 0:03:00.799 discovery in astronomy often kind of shakes the sound of 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.640 what came before it. So there there's been some outcry. 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:07.280 We just didn't have as much media to cover it before. 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:10.440 But it does make you wonder, how do we even 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:12.320 think to look away out on the edge of our 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:16.200 Solar system for this tiny little object that would have 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:20.040 been very difficult to find, and how did scientists and 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:25.480 researchers find it. So it starts with suspicion, Yes, yes, 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:29.200 started thinking that it might be there, right Perceval Lowell, 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:31.680 who was born in eighteen fifty five, it gets the 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:34.520 credit for being the first person to suspect that Pluto 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:37.280 was out there, passed the eight planets that were known 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:39.920 to exist in the Solar System at that time, but 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:44.640 he was never able to find conclusive evidence. And Lowell 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.000 was a really interesting character. He had actually worked as 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.400 a travel writer specializing in Asia, and as a foreign 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:54.320 secretary before turning to astronomy. He had studied mathematics in college. 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:56.880 He came from a very good family. Uh, and he's 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:00.920 actually probably more famous for his belief that Mars was 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:05.680 uh once inhabited by an alien species that had established 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:09.760 agriculture and irrigation on the red planet. And those assertions 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.520 may sound a little bit nutty to our ears today, 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:15.560 but uh, the important thing is that Lowell's passion for 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:19.520 astronomy and astronomical study actually led him to found the 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:23.880 Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. And he was not only 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:28.479 interested in Mars. Decades before Lowell's interest in astronomy, other 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.840 astronomers had noted an irregularity in the orbit of Uranus, 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:36.920 which led them to the discovery of Neptune. So you're 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:39.760 trying to imagine how this works. As planets are orbiting, 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:44.039 the Sun's gravity is pulling on them the gravity of 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:49.560 other planetary bodies. They're also on each other. So because 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:53.239 of the way that Uranus was orbiting, they were pretty 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.160 sure there was something else out there, but even figuring 0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:00.040 Neptune's influence into all the orbital equations for your and 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:04.160 us that there were still discrepancies between the mathematical predictions 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.560 of the orbit and the actual observed orbit that you 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.599 could see. This led to the theory that there was 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:14.760 yet another planet in the Solar System beyond your Iness 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:19.200 and Neptune, and Lowell became obsessed with finding it. Lowell 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:22.800 performed his own mathematical calculations in an effort to pinpoint 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:25.360 the likely location of what was being called at the time, 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:29.520 planet X, and in nineteen o five he really just 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.039 kind of developed a concerted effort and he and the 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.400 staff of his observatory began an extensive search for this 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:40.640 planet X. Lowell published his book Memoir on a trans 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:44.480 Neptunian Planet in nineteen fifteen, and you can actually read 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:46.719 that online. We'll have the link in our show notes. 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:50.320 Love reading things on on me too. And Lowell actually 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:53.360 died in November of nineteen sixteen. He was sixty one 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:55.320 at the time and he had not yet found his 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:59.760 missing planet, but he left behind a large monetary legacy 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:04.480 to continue the search. His widow initially disputed the endowment, 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.040 but the search went on. The funding had been depleted 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:10.440 by the legal battle, but it still was enough to 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:15.640 keep this uh search for planet X going. And that's 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:19.560 where we get to Clyde Tombaugh, who was a very 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:22.520 important figure in all of this. Tomba was born on 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.520 February four six and Street, or Illinois, and he became 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:29.279 interested in astronomy after he got a telescope as a 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:32.520 gift from his uncle. He became so interested in the 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:35.880 telescope that after high school, when he couldn't afford college, 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.000 he studied optics on his own and in n he 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:43.320 built himself a homemade telescope. He made more telescopes after 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.599 that first one, even grinding the lenses and mirrors for 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:50.919 them himself, which is pretty impressive in my book, Like that, 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:53.440 I can't afford a college education, I'm going to study 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.080 and kind of give myself one. To the point that 0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:00.720 he could grind his own lenses for telescopes, it's pretty impressive. 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:04.159 It was a delicate It's delicate work. Yeah, uh. And 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:08.360 Tomba's story goes almost like wonderfully fairy tale wish fulfillment here. 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:12.840 So using these telescopes, he had built. He studied the 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:15.840 night sky, and he had made drawings of Mars and 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:19.320 Jupiter as seen through those telescopes, and he sent them 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:23.360 to the Lowell Observatory more for like feedback on you know, 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:25.120 if he was on the right track, if he was 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.680 seeing the right things, etcetera. But instead of getting feedback, 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:30.840 they were so impressed with his work that they actually 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.840 offered him a job in astronomy, which he had never 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.480 formally studied. So that speaks a lot to his sort 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.680 of scientific mind on its own that he could just 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:47.000 magically procure a job in atronomy without an advanced dedication. 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:50.800 He was hired in to help with searching for a planet, 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:55.080 the mysterious planet X, which Perceval Lowell had suspected was 0:07:55.120 --> 0:08:00.280 out beyond Neptune. Tomba used a blank comparator, which is 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:04.960 an instrument that optically superimposes photographic plates so it's like 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:08.240 they're blinked from one to another and researchers can see 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:10.880 tiny differences between the two. And he did this in 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.480 an attempt to track down Lewel's planet X. And the 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.960 blank comparitor is really amazing, like it's kind of these 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.440 tube photographic plates and you look through what's almost like 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:26.200 a microscope eye piece, and you literally just flip back 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.920 and forth. And we're talking about a photograph taken through 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:32.320 a telescope with like thousands of tiny dots on it 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.560 that are all heavenly bodies, and someone with a very 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:39.439 keen eye tries to see any variance between the two 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:42.560 because they're taking you know, aimed at the same place, 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:46.320 but a little time distance apart. And it's I mean, 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:48.000 if you just think about staring at a sheet of 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.400 dots on like a piece of paper and trying to 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:53.520 see which ones are different on two, you can get 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:58.840 a sense of how yeah, so just monotonous this could 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.480 potentially be. And attention to detail you have to have, right, 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.520 It's like looking at the differences between two cells of 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:09.679 a hand drawn animated filmy, but instead of looking at 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:13.800 a nice pretty picture, you're looking at a field of stars, 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:18.840 just dots on a page. Uh. However, tom Baugh obviously 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.360 keen on attention to details, since he had self educated 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:26.319 to the point that he could do some pretty impressive things. Uh, 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:30.520 he managed to find what they were looking for. His 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:33.800 work paid off pretty quickly, and it was the following 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:36.880 year that he found what was called at the time 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:42.040 the ninth planet. Uh. He pinpointed Pluto on February eighth, 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:44.680 nineteen thirty and he was only twenty four at the time. 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:46.960 It was a pretty early age to be making a 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:52.080 very large, significant scientific discovery, again with no formal training. 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:56.200 I just I keep coming back to that because he 0:09:56.240 --> 0:10:01.480 did so many impressive things without having gone to graduate 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.199 school to get a PhD in astronomy. Yeah, well that 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:07.720 happened later, but yes, So the payoff for all this, 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:10.800 apart from the fact that he discovered a planet, is 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.559 that he received the Jackson Guilt metal in gift from 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:17.120 the Royal Astronomical Society. But even more importantly, he got 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:20.160 a scholarship to the University of Kansas. He earned his 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:22.880 bachelor's and continued to work at Lowell both during and 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:26.160 after his studies. He also earned his master's in nineteen 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:30.360 thirty nine. Tombau worked at Lowell for fourteen years altogether, 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.560 and he discovered numerous heavenly bodies while doing his research there, 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:40.360 including star clusters, comets, and galaxies. But back to Pluto, 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:42.720 because I feel like tombos story is another one that 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:44.439 could be another podcast on its own. He had a 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:47.720 very interesting life. But the month after the discovery was made, 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:51.080 they announced that they had found this heavenly body to 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.400 the public on March thirteenth of nineteen thirty, which was 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:58.200 also Percival Lowell's birthday, uh and on my onet of 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:02.040 that year, after the public had submitted suggestions for the 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.080 naming of this new heavenly body, the name was chosen, 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.920 and it was allegedly submitted by an eleven year old 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.760 girl from England, and it was Pluto. And Pluto is 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:14.079 of course the Roman name for the Greek god of 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:17.760 the underworld. But one of the significant things about choosing 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:21.200 Pluto is that the symbol for Pluto includes representations of 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:23.080 the letter P and the letter L, which were the 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:26.040 initials for Percival Lowell. So it's kind of a nice 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.200 way to name it on his behalf without naming it 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:31.480 directly after him. So let's talk a little bit about 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:36.040 this body that they found. It is extremely farrowing five 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.080 point nine billion kilometers, which is three point seven billion 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:43.080 miles from the Sun, and its diameter is two thousand, 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.360 three d forty kilometers, which is uh one thousand, four 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.120 hundred and fifty four miles, So it's less than one 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:51.200 fifth the size of Earth, and it's actually smaller than 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:55.319 our moon. It's also extremely cold. The surface temperature is 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:59.120 around minus three seventy five degrees fahrenheit, which is minus 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:03.000 to see us. Pluto solar year, which is the time 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.679 it takes to travel around the Sun, takes the equivalent 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:09.760 of two hundred and forty eight Earth years. It's circumference 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:12.920 at the equator is four thousand, four hundred thirty seven 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.200 point seven miles, which is seven thousand, two hundred thirty 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.320 one point nine kilometers. And then we get to the moons, 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:23.280 which are actually pretty interesting. So Pluto has five moons 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:27.079 that we know of so far, Sharon Nick's Hydra P 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:32.040 four and P five, and Sharon was discovered in It's 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.440 about half the size of Pluto. And over the years 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:39.559 a lot of astronomers have theorized that Pluto Sharon is 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:43.240 actually a binary system, so Sharon doesn't revolve around Pluto. 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.760 They're actually revolving around each other with a gravity gravitational 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:51.280 point fixed between them. Uh. Just an interesting thing, and 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:53.720 that is why there is a Jonathan Coulton song called 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:57.679 Year My Moon that is about that very thing. Nick's 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:00.760 and Hydra were discovered in two thousand five. P four 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:03.440 was discovered in two thousand one, and P five was 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:07.640 discovered in two thousand twelve. Scientists believe that the moons 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:10.560 of Pluto were formed when the dwarf planet collided with 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:15.640 another planet sized object. According to Mark show Walter, who 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:19.000 is of the Seti Institute in Mountain View, California, he 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.880 has this great quote, which is the Moon's form a 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.280 series of neatly nested orbits, a bit like Russian dolls. 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:30.360 Just a lovely image. Pluto's elongated orbit is also tilted 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.760 in relation to the other planets. It actually passes inside 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.000 the orbit of Neptune as it makes its way around 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:40.079 the Sun. And then we get to the controversy. Uh, 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:43.320 it's kind of sad. Pluto is the only celestial body 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.319 ever to lose its status as a planet, so it's 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:48.800 the only one that's ever been demoted, which is also 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:52.960 a theme in the Jonathan Colton. In two thousand six, 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:55.800 Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet and given the 0:13:55.880 --> 0:14:00.240 number designation of one thirty four DASH three forty. Because 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:02.880 they're continued to be discoveries of heavenly bodies at the 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:04.839 edge of the Solar System, and some of them were 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:08.120 actually bigger than Pluto. It became clear that they needed 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.080 to take another look at Pluto's status as a planet, 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:15.280 so the International Astronomical Union created a definition of the 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:20.520 word planet in two thousand six involving three criteria. UH. One, 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.280 it has to be an object in space that orbits 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:27.200 the Sun too, and this is obviously for planets in 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:30.600 our Solar System. To it has to be a nearly round, 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:34.280 rigid body. And three, it needs to clear the neighborhood 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:38.480 around its orbit. But because Pluto orbits along the inner 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:41.520 edge of the Kuiper Belt, UH, it doesn't meet the 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:46.200 third criteria. Astronomers have discovered and identified more than one 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.480 thousand other items in the Kuiper Belt that are really 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:52.880 similar to Pluto and sometimes come near it, so it 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:57.680 doesn't really meet that third criterion. Uh. The only rule, however, 0:14:57.720 --> 0:14:59.920 for dwarf planets is that they have to be round, 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:02.920 so Pluto can be classified that way. And it's all 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:05.240 kind of started because of a display that was going 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:08.080 on that Neil de grass Tyson often gets the heat 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:12.880 for at the Hayden Planetarium, where they just kind of 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:16.520 quietly changed it up in their displays. I think in 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.760 the year two thousand and then it kind of started 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:22.080 getting a little bit of groundswell of discussion, and then 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:25.720 this officially happened, and so Nil dess Tyson is often 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.040 kind of labeled as the man who devoted Pluto, but 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.680 he really wasn't. There was this whole other vote and 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:35.160 discussion going on amongst other astronomers. It's just not through 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:40.320 Neil de grass Tyson under a bus. That's just I 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:42.680 don't want to throw any scientists under the bus. I 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:44.920 don't want to throw anybody ever under a bup. Never 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:48.360 they're doing they're doing work that's a lot of us 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:52.920 don't have the the knowledge to do. And it's important 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:55.400 to those of us that thought we wanted to be 0:15:55.480 --> 0:16:03.480 astronomers but didn't end up there. So in night, Clyde 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.840 Tombaugh was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:09.600 at the New Mexico Museum of Space History for his 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:13.640 discovery of Pluto and other heavenly bodies. He died at 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:17.800 his Los Cruces, New Mexico home, at the age of ninety, 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:21.760 so he did not live to see his discovery bumped 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:26.040 down to the list of dwarf planets UH. We are 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:31.000 getting very close to what we hope will yield some 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:36.280 really exciting information about Pluto UH. In July, of NASA's 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.920 New Horizons probe is expected to fly by the dwarf 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.000 planet UH, and so this will undoubtedly lead to new 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:46.960 knowledge about Pluto, which still remains pretty mysterious to us 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.040 compared to other parts of our Solar system because it 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:51.680 is so far away. That will be the furthest out 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:55.960 that we have sent this probe. Oh, I can't wait. 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:58.040 I'm going to be that dufus that's like up at 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:00.840 all hours of the night looking data to come in. 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:03.160 I've been up at all hours of the night for 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:07.280 a number of astronomical things for sure, Like oh, when 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:09.760 the Mars were over landed, I was awake. I was 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:12.520 texting my best friend like a fiend and kind of 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:14.359 crying a little bit because I was I was up 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:16.639 for the Mars rover. And then the next night was 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:22.919 abe your shower. There's there's definitely been. That's one of 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:24.800 the things that I think has just been awesome about 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.640 the Internet is making it possible for just the people 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:29.880 on the ground to get all the same things at 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:33.000 the same time as the people in Michigan droll. Yeah, 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:37.040 we had very little delay from the GPL people getting 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:40.280 info to it being broadcast on television and the internet. 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:45.560 If you have the the mission coverage channel is part 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.879 of your cable package, which I'm lucky enough to have 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:51.720 right well. And also now thanks to the Internet, when 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:56.080 there is uh like a solar eclipse on the other 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.040 side of the planet, you can watch it from your 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.800 desk and though it not naytime where you are, with 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:04.960 no risk to your eyesight. I just remember that being 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:07.760 such a cautionary tale as a kid. There's gonna be 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.960 an eclipse. Don't look, don't look at the sun. Uh. 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:14.240 Astronomy it's the best thing. I would love to do 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.639 more and more things on astronomy history because it's so 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:21.240 wonderful and I just love science in general. So yeah, 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:23.600 we'll see what the future holds for Pluto. Its history 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:26.080 has been kind of interesting and unique in several ways 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:29.640 in terms of our knowledge of it. Uh. And we'll see, 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:33.200 maybe it will get reclassified yet again. Once the probe 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:37.119 goes by, it go new horizons, find something new, Uh, 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:40.400 then we'll discover it as some fabulous thing on it 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:45.240 life now probably not it's not at least as we 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:51.160 classify life so far, but we never knew. Hey, guess 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.879 what what. I also have a couple of pieces of so. 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.000 The first one is from our listener Tim, and Tim 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:01.119 has a very cool job. He just British history at 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.120 the Sorbonne in Paris. So Tim, I'll be visiting soon. 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.560 I wish. Uh, yeah, that sounds dreamy to me. And 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.320 he is writing to us about our podcasts on the 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:15.520 Irish potato famine, and he says, where I grew up 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:18.040 in the west of Ireland, the countryside is dotted with 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.439 thousands of abandoned villages from this time, which were like 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:25.720 cooperative farm hamlets of maybe ten or twelve dwellings. Often 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:28.359 these have been totally reclaimed by the undergrowth and have 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:31.440 no modern road connections. But if you tramp out into 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:34.080 the field sometimes you notice that there's a cobbled path 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.760 hidden in the grass beneath your feet, and then under 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:39.399 the nearby brambles are old gateways and the remains of 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:43.119 fireplaces and front doors. In old maps they have names 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.080 and streets and village squares, and on new maps there's 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.720 simply nothing. They're vanished. It really is quite sad to 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:52.320 think of people who lived and loved here, perhaps dying 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.119 in these houses or leaving on mass for their village 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:58.720 to disappear from history. Sadder still is the fields around 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:02.679 the villages U are invariably surrounded by a network of rigid, 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:06.200 parallel lines in the landscape, the outlines of quote lazy 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.000 bead potato fields where once the people of these villages 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:12.440 pulled their rotting harvest out from the ground in devastation. 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:15.359 I thought you might like that little personal detail that 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.600 not many people notice. Uh, he's absolutely right, that's it's 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:21.760 one of those things I never would have thought about. Uh. 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:24.280 And not having you know, immediate access to that area 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:27.080 it who would not have done something that I would 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:30.080 have seen? And Pete manages it is interesting the way 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:34.480 there are reclaims history on its own. Yeah. So I'm 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:37.040 glad he pointed that out because people should know those 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:39.879 were still there well and in a much less uh 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:43.600 much less tragic sense. It reminds me that were there 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:46.359 were train tracks that went near my house when I 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:51.720 was a kid, and as shipping things by train became 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:56.680 fallen out of favor, they were completely removed and within 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:59.119 a couple of years you couldn't really tell unless you 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:04.160 knew that they're been train tracks there. Yeah. I also 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:07.560 have another piece of listener mail from our listener and 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:10.000 and uh, it just made me so happy to read 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:12.080 it that I wanted to share it. And Anne says, Hi, 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:14.960 everybody at the podcast past and present, just wanted to 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:16.719 thank you for being such a good company when I'm 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:19.359 out walking. So far this year, we have logged three 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:21.840 hundred and seventy five miles together, and you have helped 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:24.960 me lose grace with this because it's serious. One pounds 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:27.800 since last April. I haven't caught up on the present 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:29.800 yet and I hope to never run out of podcast 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:32.040 to sweat to Thanks again and keep up the great work. 0:21:32.240 --> 0:21:34.880 And you are awesome. That was why I just wanted 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:38.880 to say that. Yeah, that was pretty cool. Uh, that's 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:41.280 pretty inspiring. So thank you Anne for sharing that, because 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:44.280 that's a really cool thing. Yeah, you should be lauded 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:48.040 and jeered at all points. I love the idea of 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:53.600 people listening to us while they're making healthy changes. Yeah, thoughtsome, 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:57.800 do you listen to podcasts while you run? Never? I 0:21:57.800 --> 0:21:59.640 I have a hard time listening to podcast that's while 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:02.040 I run. I do too. I can while I walk, 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:04.639 for sure. I can absolutely while I'm walking or if 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:07.560 I'm on the elliptical. Yeah, but when I around I 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:10.720 need like running is my need. Yeah, there has to 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:12.560 be music when I'm running. I do listen to a 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:15.840 lot of podcasts when I'm traveling a long way, when 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:21.200 I'm waiting for things. I have a confession to make, 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:24.160 which is that I have self imposed a restriction where 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:26.280 I'm not allowed to listen to podcasts while I'm driving 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.520 because I get so absorbed in what is being discussed. 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:33.480 I maybe don't make safe driving choices. I can't behind 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:35.200 the wheel. Yeah, I do the opposite, where I get 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:38.760 distracted by the fact that I'm driving mist I miss 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:40.760 important things and I kind of go eat, what are you? 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:44.760 What are they talking about? Now? So and you aren't 0:22:44.760 --> 0:22:47.600 awesome Again, I'll say it many times over. I'm thinking 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:51.879 it constantly. If you want to share any historical info 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:55.400 with us or your personal triumphs like AUNT, you can 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:58.680 do so at History Podcast at Discovery dot com. Can 0:22:58.720 --> 0:23:01.080 also connect with us on Twitter at missed in History 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:05.080 and at Facebook dot com slash history class stuff. We're 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:08.000