AST 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 29: Deep Space 1, Comet Nucleus, Kuiper Belt
18 Dec 2020
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Document Summary
An analysis of the orbital data of uranus indicate that 98% of its orbital variation could be accounted for by the presence of neptune; the remaining unexplained 2% variation led to the search for planet x. In 1905 percival lowell initiated the search for pluto, but died before it was discovered. Clyde tombaugh discovered it at the lowell observatory in 1930. Tombaugh used a blink comparator to compare two photos of the sky taken a few days apart. A moving object will appear to jump between the two photos. Pluto was discovered 6 degrees from where lowell thought it would be. Pluto"s mass, however, is too small to cause the irregularities that had been seen in. Later it was shown that these irregularities were not caused by another planet but were variations due to the limited accuracy of the available data. Pluto was found by accident, but the initiative to find it wouldn"t have been there without.
