"We won't get to the solar system's edge until we have passed through the Oort cloud, a vast celestial realm of drifting comets, and we won't reach the Oort clod for another- I'm so sorry about this-ten thousand years. Far from marking the outer edge of the solar system, as those schoolroom maps so cavalierly imply, Pluto is barely one fifty thousand of the way."
What technology do astronomers use in order to calculate/estimate the distance and/or time it takes to get from earth, to another planet?
Once again I feel like a tiny dot in a vast galaxy (or is it 'universe'?). I am also brought back to the video I saw in class (where the video zooms out from earth). Looking at that video, I wonder, just how do they know all of that actually exists. I understand that astronauts are sent out in to space, but if they are going to the Moon, or Mars, that seems like a plausible distance.
In this quote, it says it would like ten-thousand years. If this is true, then how do we have pictures of these stars that are farther out of our solar system? From what this article says, it's impossible to send out anything that far into space fast enough for us to still be alive by the time it reaches the edge.I know that there are some extremely powerful telescopes that exist, but I find it hard to believe that those are where we have gathered the information that shows images beyond our solar system.
I also will say that I still like to think of Pluto it a planet (mostly because I'm just stubborn)...I read an article that basically said that scientists voted on a new definition for the term "planet" and as Pluto did not fit within this definition thus the reason Pluto is no longer considered a planet. This article was written 5 years ago, I had found out about the Pluto situation last year! Other than this, I'm very much interested in astrology although I lean towards the 'reading the stars' aspect of the subject, I am enjoying these chapters. Very enlightening.
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