Astronomer Liu Le Hang and the fate of a star

Visiting and presenting the achievements of the modern astronomical science at the university centers of the country, the famous Vietnamese female scientist Luu Le Hang recorded a deep impression and raised scientific issues. hot and attractive.

Astronomer Liu Le Hang and the fate of Pluto

At Hanoi Polytechnic University, on Thursday afternoon 24/7/2015, right after the first meeting to meet when she first entered Ta Quang Buu hall, the writer wanted to immediately ask this leading astronomer about A specific problem is the fate of the Pluto planet (ie Pluto) in the Solar System and the 'new way of looking at the Solar System'.

Glad to meet with the famous astrophysicist of Viet Luu Le Hang.(Photo: Pham Hai.)

Basic configuration of the solar system

By the third decade of the 20th century, it could be taken into account the year when the new celestial body Pluto (or Pluto) was discovered, the configuration of the Solar System (or Solar System) was fully formed. With an arrangement of planets from the inside out, from the center is the Sun, as follows (see Figure 3): Water (Mercury), Kim (Venus), Earth (Earth), Fire (Mars), Wood (Jupiter), Earth (Saturn), Uranus (Uranus), Neptune (Neptune) and Pluto (Pluto). In it, the planets merge into 3 groups.

The planets in the Solar System range from left to right by distance.

Group I is in the same, consisting of four small planets : Mercury, Venus, Earth (Mars) and Mars, which are small, solid planets composed mainly of rocks and metals, with high density. and the composition is quite similar, so it is called the group of stone planets.

The next Group II, consisting of four giant planets with much larger masses than the four Class I planets, of which, the two largest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, are mainly composed of helium and hydrogen; and two smaller planets, Uranus and Neptune, have main ingredients from ice (like water, ammonia and methane). They are very large in size but low in density and are therefore sometimes called the 'giant' ice planet subgroups .

Orbital movement of planets in the Solar System.

Group III for many years has only Pluto alone. It is noteworthy that while planets in groups I and II circulate around the Sun almost on a plane, called the zodiac face, only Pluto moves elliptical and on a plane with a face zodiac a clear angle (see H.4).

In addition to the three planetary groups mentioned above, astronomers also discovered the existence between Mars (Mars) and Jupiter (Jupiter) an Asteroid Belt consisting of elements with mostly rock components and metal (see yellow scarf at H.4).

Kuiper Belt and Liu's aura

Awareness of solar system structure as described in Figures H.3 and H.4 until the end of the 20th century has not been fully understood, it has not explained all the information due to astronomical survey devices. Modern collected. This situation opens up opportunities for astronomers to accompany.

Especially in America. With the most advanced research facilities such as MIT Research Center and Harvard University (City of Boston) and at the Kitt Peak astronomical establishments (Arizona) and Mauna Kea (Hawaii), after 5 years of hardship grinding labor force; in 1992 two teachers and students Jewitt and Luu discovered a new and named meteor named 1992 QB1 with a diameter of 280 km with 1/8 Pluto (Pluto). And then there are dozens of more discoveries of this research group and hundreds of other discoveries of the astronomical community worldwide.

The set of survey results shows that in the space outside Neptune 's orbit ( Neptune ) there are small objects with a light composition such as water, ammonia, and methane to thousands of thousands of natural objects. Small and large cans with sizes ranging from comets, centaurs to interplanetary dust. All the material blocks on the perimeter of the belt are called the Kuiper Belt (Kuiper Belt) in the form of a ' round cake ' (see H.5) spread from Neptune's orbit of 1 AU size (1AU = distance from the Fruit Land to the Sun) to at least 1,000 AU, containing about 70,000 objects larger than 100 km and hundreds of millions of objects of small size to 1 km.

Kuiper Belt and the outer planets of the Solar System

Among them, there are 5 celestial bodies of size, besides known Pluto (Pluto) there are Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, Eris. These crystals, although considered large enough to obtain spherical forms under the influence of their own gravity, but due to their high porosity (very low material density), the total volume is still small. Therefore, since August 2006 this group of planets has been attached by some astronomers around the world to the new name 'dwarf' planets.

In the field of research to explore the Kuiper Belt, the female scientist Liu has made great value contributions, thus receiving prestigious awards from the region and the world. In 1991, the American Astronomical Society awarded the Annie J. Cannon Award for Astronomy for the young Dr. Luu Le Hang. And to acknowledge her work in discovering more than 30 new asteroids or asteroids, one takes her name for a meteorite that she surveyed and discovered, which is Asteroid 5430 Luu . In particular, in the same year 2012, Luu Le Hang or Jane X. Luu was named in both the world's most prestigious astronomy awards. In March 2012, in the Norwegian capital Oslo, the Kavli Foundation awarded the Kavli Astronomy Prize (considered the 'World Astronomical Nobel Prize') with a $ 1 million prize for David Jewitt, Jane X. Luu (Luu Le Hang) and Michael Brown about the achievement of discovering large objects in the Kuiper belt. Next, in May 2012, in Hong Kong, the Shaw Foundation named Dr. Jane X. Luu with her teacher Professor David C. Jewitt and awarded the 2012 Astronomical Shaw Award ; also known as the "Oriental Astronomical Nobel Prize " with $ 1 million in bonuses for its contribution to the identification of ' non-Hai Vuong crystals' (Trans-Neptunian Objects, abbreviated as TNOs).

Pluto's place was arranged?

Pluto Pluto was removed from the 9th planetary title of the Solar System during the debate among members of the International Astronomical Society (IAU) in 2006. IAU introduced a rule, a paradise to be able to become the Solar System's planet needs to meet 3 requirements: a / Needing orbit around the Sun, b / Having a mass large enough to attract gravity to a spherical body, and c / Absolute dominance in volume compared to other celestial bodies with orbit.

If so, Pluto Pluto certainly reached the first two criteria and the third criterion was not very quantitative because of how it would be considered to have 'absolute superiority in volume'. However, even in 2006 Pluto was "plagued" by a majority in IAU from the planetary title of the Solar System and entered into the Kuiper Belt (see Fig. 5) with the constant The number of large and small particles forms a "round cake" that runs around the Sun. Thanks to the size (size, weight) ranked second in the top five bodies in the Kuiper Belt, Pluto and the bodies of Haumea, Makemake, and Eris, 'get ' the title two ' are dwarf planets'.

And now, nearly ten years have passed, on the forum at the largest university in Hanoi, last week, the famous astronomer Luu Le Hang still affirmed his view that, before ' Pluto is misclassified as a planet, it is a large object, but it is just an outstanding object of the Kuiper Belt '!

So is the fate of Pluto (Pluto) in the name of a 'dwarf' planet arranged permanently?

For some people interested in astronomy perhaps not want to have an end here, at this time when the New Horizons space probe has just passed Kuiper Belt and sent a lot of information.

Until now, to investigate the Kuiper Belt and especially the Pluto crystal, the devices used, though quite modern, were all placed on the Earth's surface, from far away from Pluto. And now, with New Horizons, it must be the first opportunity that humans have brought modern surveillance equipment directly to 'objects' and can record the necessary and accurate information about Pluto. such as size, weight (compared to other 'dwarf planets'), surface composition, atmosphere, etc. In addition to Pluto, New Horizons also has a duty to approach 'neighbors' Ceres, Haumea , Makemake, Eris and even Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, Hydra, and determine which of them are Pluto's satellites.

Of course, it takes time to get all the valuable and new information. Because at a distance of up to 4.8 billion kilometers, the signal that the ship has reached the Earth will take 4.5 hours! What's more, New Horizons has only 30 minutes to reach and collect data about Pluto, but the amount of information it creates will take up to . 16 months to download to Earth! And to exploit all those precious 30 minutes, it will take a decade to decipher all the necessary information.

Obviously, in order to have the final affirmation of the position of Pluto in the Solar System , the Sun 's planet or just the 'big' particle in the Kuiper Belt, it takes more patience to wait. Thus, Pluto's fate could not be said to have been arranged permanently.

And, at that time, the longest was five to ten years, no matter how conclusive the conclusion was, it was not a question of who won and lost but only said one word: Science won.