[ad_1]
It’s amazing how much things have changed over the last few decades, strictly from an astronomy enthusiast’s point of view.
In a previous column, I talked about all the astronomy books I had as a kid, and that all the images of Pluto weren’t real photographs at all, except for the blurry mosaic the Hubble Space Telescope was able to get of the faraway planet. Yes, back then, Pluto was an “official” member of the solar system, and there were nine planets. No dwarf planets, just the inner planets, the asteroid belt and the outer planets, including Pluto.
Back then, we knew a lot more about our inner solar system than the outer part. I feel like we still do. Astronomy books were littered with the red, rock-filled plains of Mars, taken by the Viking spacecraft several decades prior to that. Who knew back then that Mars, many years later, would be deemed (relatively) suitable for human living? Of course, we still have yet to send a human to Mars, but it’s coming sooner than you think.
There were no allusions to ice on Mercury — just that it was a dead, cratered, lifeless rock. Obviously it still is, but we know a little more now. For the most part, Venus still remains a mystery. As I talked about last week, the swirling yellow-brown clouds completely cover the surface, baking Venus in 850-degree temperatures.
Our knowledge about the asteroids have increased, particularly about Ceres. Back then, we only knew the sizes of the asteroids, and that Ceres was the biggest one. But now we know asteroids can have moons, and that Ceres, now a dwarf planet, is an incredibly interesting world with bright salt deposits and, who knows, potentially water.
And that circles us back to Mars. I keenly remember the books prior to the turn of the century portraying the Red Planet as a cold desert wasteland. In all honesty, it appears to be. But we now know that under the surface, there may be an ample amount of water … and perhaps, at the very least, microbial life.
Then of course there were photos of the “face” on Mars. A topic for another time, perhaps.
It is so fun and fascinating discussing the differences between the 1990s and now when it comes to astronomy. So fun, in fact, that I’ll save the discussion about the outer planets for next week. There is still so much more to discuss!
Contact Joe Malan, astronomy writer for the Enid News & Eagle, at [email protected].
[ad_2]
Source link
