A Rare Makemake Occultation Provides More Data On Makemake, 4th Dwarf Planet.

by Anura Guruge

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See ‘Dwarf Planet‘ book for more information on Makemake.

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Click image to access ‘BBC’ article.

Alton, NH, Superintendent, Kathleen Holt Thinks Pluto Status Is Still In Doubt

Please refer to the December 13, 2011 post re. ‘New Hampshire School Still Insists That There Are 9 Planets!, that Alton Central School (ACS) in Alton, NH, is still teaching 5th graders that Pluto is a planet and giving them homework to reinforce that there are nine (9), yes nine, planets in our Solar System.

Well, I raised the issue in writing with the Superintendent for the school district, SAU #72, Kathleen (Kathy) Holt and on got this letter, dated December 23, 2011 on Christmas Eve.

Alton Superintendent Kathy Holt weighs in, interestingly, on Pluto. (Click to ENLARGE)

I was most intrigued by her belief that the occurrence of debate, irrespective of the motives and mandate of the debaters, immediately compromises the truth and fact. So, as I pointed out to her, she probably has given the ‘OK’ to her teachers to teach that our current president was not born in Hawaii. Interesting. I wonder what 5th graders in Sri Lanka, China, South Korea and India are being taught about Pluto.

Images of Vesta from the Dawn Spacecraft Mission to Ceres

One of the new images of Vesta from Dawn, July 2011

by Anura Guruge

Vesta, an asteroid, which like Ceres (another former asteroid), was considered a planet in the early 19th century is not a dwarf planet as such. But, it, of similar size to Ceres, is on the list of dwarf planet candidates.

The NASA space mission Dawn, on its way to Ceres, is spending a full-year around Vesta studying it at a level of detail that has never been afforded an asteroid in the past. Amazing images and videos are getting beamed back to NASA from Dawn.

Here is a slide show of some of the Vesta images compiled by AP — but remember these are NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) images and as such are public domain material.

You can find a NASA Vesta full-rotation video here.

Also just go to www.nasa.gov and search on Vesta.

I have a lot of material on Vesta, Ceres and the Dawm mission, with a flight path diagram, in my ‘Dwarf Planet’ book.