Source: The Patriot Light | AWK Network | VIEW ORIGINAL POST ==>
In 2006 officials at the International Astronomical Union decided to change the definition of a “planet” after several objects larger than Pluto were discovered in the Kuiper Belt, an expanse of billions of comets and rocky balls of ice at the furthest reaches of the solar system.
The discovery by astronomer Mike Brown was the death knell for Pluto. Since Pluto did not have a clearly defined orbit (it sometimes careens inside the orbit of Neptune in its journey around the sun), Pluto was relegated to the status of a “dwarf planet.”
That certainly didn’t make Pluto any less interesting. When the probe New Horizons flew by Pluto in June 2015, scientists and space buffs were treated to some spectacular photos of a strange, beguiling world that a decade later still mystifies us.
Brown was not very popular, even in his own house. His ten-year-old daughter told him the only way he could redeem himself was by discovering another planet.
“When she said that, I kind of laughed,” Brown says. “In my head, I was like, ‘That’s never happening.’”
Brown may now be on the verge of redeeming himself in the eyes of his daughter. Astronomers have been searching for nearly 100 years for…
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