The dwarf planet Eris was discovered only in the 21st century, and it completes its journey around the Sun in an unthinkable time - 561 Earth years.
The movement of Eris in three images used in the discovery of the object. Pictures taken within 3 hours
The solar system has become the cradle not only for eight large planets representing very different worlds, but also for many smaller cosmic bodies. Such objects located in the Kuiper belt could not be identified and classified for a long time. Complex observations did not reduce the interest of scientists, and in 2005 their efforts were rewarded. Three astronomers - M. Brown, D. Rabinowitz, C. Trujillo - worked at the Palomar Observatory with the Oshin telescope. They studied the pictures and noticed an unknown large object. Having made a comparison with earlier data, astronomers realized that they had discovered a celestial body commensurate in size with a planet. After registration, their discovery did not have a name. Disputes about the status of the cosmic body have not subsided so far, so the name of the goddess of discord, Eris, came in handy. Michael Brown had to come to terms with the fact that the discovered planet did not become the 10th in our system, but only marked the beginning of the formation of a new group - minor planets. Then Pluto lost his status and joined the company of Eride.
Location
The existence of the Kuiper belt was only confirmed in 1989, which changed the usual views on the structure of our system. The study of the objects filling it laid the foundation for the formation of a new classification of celestial bodies - plutoids, to which Eris is included.
The remoteness of the cosmic body and the large deviation from the circular orbit (0.435) makes it possible to compare it with objects located in the scattered disk. At the point closest to the star - perihelion, Eris is 5.75 billion km, and at aphelion - 14.61 billion km from the Sun. Due to the huge length of the orbit, it is impossible to track it completely, because the path of the dwarf planet began a very long time ago. And her year is equal to 561 earth! It has a more intense brilliance than Pluto, but it will not be possible to notice it with a regular home telescope.
Composition and properties
It is impossible to accurately determine the physical parameters of a distant object. According to the data of the Hubble telescope, they calculated the diameter of Eris - 2400 km with an error of 100 km and its albedo, which turned out to be the second most intense after Saturn's moon Enceladus, it was 0.96. This feature prevented us from establishing the rotation time of the plutoid for a long time; today its day is 25.9 hours. If the diameter of a small planet is almost equal to the size of Pluto, then its mass is greater, it reaches 1.67x10 in 22 kg. The density of the celestial body is 2.52 kg/cm3, which is traditional for Kuiper belt objects and indicates the predominance of rocks over the ice component.
Eris has a classic spherical shape for the planet. The temperature on its surface drops to -253 degrees Celsius, and when approaching a heat source, it rises by 23 degrees. This provokes a slight melting of methane and ethane ice and the appearance of a rarefied atmosphere. As Eris moves in orbit, the temperature drops again, and the gaseous envelope freezes. This cyclicity explains the high brightness of a small planet. In addition, the hemisphere facing the Sun is always hotter than that which remains in the shade.
Satellite
9 months after the discovery of Eris, the same M. Brown noticed her tiny companion. Its exact size is still unknown. The calculation is associated with the albedo of the moon: if it is high, like that of Eris, then the diameter of the object is 316 km, and if it is lower, then the size of the satellite is several times larger. After the discovery, Eridu was offered to name Xena, so for her satellite they suggested the name of the companion of the famous warrior - Gabriela. As is now known, both names did not take root, and the celestial object was named Dysnomia, in honor of the daughter of Eris, who ruled over lawlessness. The presence of a satellite made it easier to determine the mass of the dwarf planet. Dysnomia travels its path in a circular orbit in 16 days.
The discovery of new cosmic bodies, all the more capable of claiming the status of a planet, expands the boundaries of our knowledge, gives hope for the existence of life in the Universe.
Astronomers have dreamed about the tenth planet of the solar system for more than 3/4 centuries, realizing that relatively small, compared with the size of the Oort Cloud, the size Pluto gives reason to assume a mass of other bodies of similar size near its orbit. The astrologers of Europe and Asia anticipated the properties of the new body much earlier, drawing the image of a distant point, bearing the symbolism of super-delicate work, manifesting a super-powerful and inevitable evolutionary character - and therefore invented a number of fictitious planets, the best of which is considered Proserpina.
However, it was not possible to find physical objects of sufficient size suitable for the description. The planet is not an asteroid: the dimensions must exceed thousands of kilometers, but where is it? The prevailing theories were that trans-Neptunian bodies are composed of dark matter, have a low albedo or are too small, and therefore cannot be detected even in powerful radio telescopes.
And on January 5, 2005, the long-awaited revolution took place. American Michael Brown, competing with Spanish scientists, discovered, with the help of Rabinovich and Trujillo, a large
Planet X, off the main ecliptic disk, and was about to name it Xena, after the warrior princess. Unlike Sedna, discovered a year earlier, it has characteristics that are fundamentally significant for astrologers: real, that is, real, mass, 30% more than the mass of Pluto, physical dimensions comparable to it, its own satellite, and in addition, in the overall standings, it became the most brilliant planet in the solar system, reflecting more than 96% of visible rays, like the best mirrors.
The object caused a severe split in the concepts of the formation of the solar system, as a result, Pluto was overthrown from its status as the most distant and global planet and generally deprived of official planetary status, and Michael Brown wrote the book How I Killed Pluto and Why It Was Inevitable. The International Astronomical Union decided to call objects of this type minor planets or "dwarfs", and reduce the number of planets in the solar system by one.
Ultimately, when the informational chaos subsided a bit, the newly discovered planet was named Eris or, in Russian, Eris- in honor of the Greek goddess of motivation, competition, dispute and discord. The apohelion of Eris reaches in the middle of the sign of Libra, the perihelion in Aries. Some researchers identify her qualities with the Babylonian goddess Ishtar.
In the proposed astrological direction, Libra is recognized as the House of Eris, she exalts in Gemini and is the night ruler of Taurus, together with Pluto ruling the themes of Via Combusta or the "Burnt Path". These representations not only successfully reflect the symbolism and nature of the events associated with the discovery of the body, but also turned out to be the most technologically advanced according to the results of astrological practice, since they allow you to derive maximum information from the chains of dispositors by possession and exaltation. The inclusion of the qualities of Eris in the interpretation is a significant difference between the "Formula of Career" method and the interpretation of standard chains of exaltation.
In addition to Eris, minor planets are known today Makemake, Haumea,Sedna, the parameters of their orbits can also be used for astrological interpretations. So, according to some empirical data, Makemake can be used as a day ruler of the sign Virgin and the night ruler of Gemini, and as such may be included in the Soul Formula variants.
According to the studies of natal charts carried out over the past two years using the "Career Formula" method, Eris is a reliable indicator that collects in a single interpretation the properties of all new objects that, like Pluto, are in resonance with orbit of Neptune, which can be called controllers : their role is to monitor the event horizon and global control of the processes of evolution, both of composite systems of high complexity, and of individual individuals.
The influence expressed by Eris is always stronger in practice than the Plutonian one: it is in her sector of the Zodiac that the question arises " you can't live like this", and only if a person has not accepted its innovative applications, Pluto turns on, like an improvised enforcer. It is she who pushes for fundamentally new solutions, controlling the activity of Mars through axis Libra - Aries. Therefore, the archetypically accurate symbol of Eris is a circle separated by a wedge, resembling an apple of discord and going beyond the ecliptic, at the same time.
When a person does not accept her energies of renewal, Eris creates strife and information warfare, a sense of intrigue, in the style of "in the whole world is against", will devalue the matter, show the weakness of the former life guidelines, and after that will call on Pluto to break and take away what the person clings to. Such a process looks like a magical adventure, as if a magician woman, a kind of superior Venus acting through male assistants as a Uranian type motivator, " nuller"life scenarios.
If Eris is accepted and mastered in high degrees, it regularly releases, as unnecessary, early motivating programs and replaces the quality of life by transferring the circle of the Zodiac - a closed personal "Wheel of Samsara" - into an evolutionary spiral.
Sergey Dresvyannikov,
Eris is a dwarf planet, a plutoid, which, according to astronomers from the Palomar Observatory, is larger than Pluto, and until August 24, 2006 claimed the status of a planet, and earlier it was generally assumed that the object could be even larger than Mercury. The planet has a discovered satellite, Dysnomia, originally named S/2005. The discoverers gave the satellite the temporary name Gabriela in honor of Xena's companion. The period of circulation of Dysnomia around Eris is approximately 16 Earth days. The discoverers, followed by NASA and some media, declared this object the tenth planet of the solar system, but on August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union approved the definition of the planet, according to which 2003 UB313 is not one. The object was classified as a "dwarf planet". On June 11, 2008, the IAU announced the introduction of the concept of a plutoid. The dwarf planets Eris, and were assigned to plutoids. In July of the same year, it was included in this category. On September 17, 2008, Haumea was added to the list.
It was pioneered by Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology, Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory, and David Rabinovich of Yale University. The object was first photographed on October 21, 2003 with the 48-inch (122-cm) Samuel Oshin Telescope located at the Palomar Observatory. Finding the object in these photographs required complex image processing. It was not until January 5, 2005 that the object was found in photographs. It took several more months of research to determine the parameters of the orbit and the approximate size of the object. The research results were published on July 27, 2005. Now the dwarf planet Eris is located 14.5 billion kilometers from the Sun. The orbit is highly elongated, the maximum distance to the Sun is 14.6023 billion km, the minimum is 5.65598 billion km. The period of revolution around the Sun is 557 years, and the orbit is inclined at an angle of 44.177 ° to the plane of the ecliptic. The size of Eris is much more difficult to determine. The apparent brightness of an object is proportional to the surface area multiplied by the albedo, the fraction of the sun's rays reflected by the object. This means that in order to calculate the diameter, one must know the apparent brightness, which is easy to measure, and the albedo, which is unknown. But 2003 UB313 is so bright that even if its albedo is 1, its diameter must be larger than Pluto's (2274 km).
In April 2006, an electronic preprint astro-ph/0604245 was published, which presents the results of measurements of the object's diameter and albedo, made using the Hubble Space Telescope. It turned out that the diameter of Eris is 2400 ± 100 km. (only 6% more than the diameter of Pluto), and the albedo is 86±%. Thus, the surface of the planet Eris has a higher albedo than the surface of any other object except Enceladus. Spectroscopic observations show that methane snow lies on the surface of the object, which explains the high albedo. In this way, the planet Eris is similar to Pluto and Neptune's satellite Triton. However, Pluto and Triton are reddish, while Eris is grey. It is not known what caused such a difference in colors. The mass of the planet Eris is determined due to the presence of a satellite, it is greater than the mass of Pluto and is equal to 1.66x1022 kg. Its density is close in value to the density of both Pluto and various Kuiper belt asteroids. The apparent brightness of the planet is 18.7m - it is impossible to find a planet in an amateur telescope (for comparison, the brightness of Pluto is about 14m), and Eridu can only be observed with large instruments.
Information spread in the media that Mike Brown proposed to name this planet after his daughter Leela. According to other sources, the planetoid was supposed to be called Xena, after the main character of the Xena: Warrior Princess series. However, according to the discoverers, this name was not sent to the IAU earlier. By the beginning of 2006, the name Xena was established in the media and among the astronomical community, which is mentioned almost as often as the most “popular” trans-Neptunian object Sedna. The name Eris, after the Greek goddess of discord, was adopted by the International Astronomical Union on September 13, 2006.
Eris is the second largest dwarf planet and is a TNO (trans-Neptunian object). It is located beyond the orbit of Pluto in the Kuiper belt zone.
The study of celestial bodies in this belt served as an impetus for a change in the usual classification: objects of the "plutoid" type were added to it. After much debate, Eris, discovered in 2003 by a group of American astronomers led by M. Brown, was also assigned to them. The official opening was announced in 2005.
Brown's team have nicknamed the new dwarf planet Xena, after the beautiful and warlike heroine of the famous TV series. Other options were proposed as the name, but the goddess of discord Eris from Greek myths won.
The planet is very far from the Sun, which makes it difficult to study its physical indicators. In addition, measurements are greatly hindered by the atmosphere of Pluto. But astronomers still managed to find out some secrets of the mysterious planet.
Unraveled mysteries of Eris
Estimates of the size of Eris have changed over time and with advances in observational technology. According to the latest data, the diameter of the planet is more than 2360 km.
The orbit of the dwarf planet has an inclination of almost 45°. She does not come into contact with Neptune and does not experience its influence.
Eris approaches the Sun and moves away from it in the range from 5.7 to 14.5 billion km. Thus, one revolution around the star takes more than 560 Earth years.
The own rotation speed of the new plutoid could not be determined for a long time. Initially, it was thought that it was very slow: up to several days. But then scientists more accurately calculated the period of revolution, which amounted to only about 26 Earth hours.
Eris is almost the size of Pluto, but its mass is almost 25% larger. The average density (2.5 kg/cm3) is roughly comparable to other Kuiper belt objects.
The planet is spherical. Its surface consists of rock and ice containing gases: ethane and methane. The temperature varies depending on the proximity to the Sun: from -250°C to -230°C.
Despite its remoteness, Eris shines brighter than Pluto. Its apparent brilliance is over 18 m, and its reflectivity (albedo) is 0.95, which is a high figure.
In the year of the discovery of the planet, its only satellite was also discovered. In the working version, he was called Gabriel (in honor of the companion of the serial warrior queen), and then they gave the name of the mythological daughter of Eris - Dysnomia.
Look for the mysterious Eris in the virtual sky, let her reveal her secrets to you. Make an unusual and, a friend or loved one.
In comparative planetary science, scientists use planets to understand other planets. By studying Venus, which is similar to Earth in terms of size, mass and basic composition, scientists can better understand how our planet works and how it evolved. Objects in the vicinity of Eris can be studied in a similar way.
“The Kuiper Belt, a region rich in rocky and icy objects beyond orbit, is an incredibly rich environment for comparative planetary science. Because there are so many of the same tiny planets, ”Grundy says. “It will take a long time to open them all. Not to mention exploring everything." Data from New Horizons is helping planetary scientists develop models that reveal the secrets of Eris.
9. Geologists also have something to study
“If you calculate the surface area of all objects that are larger than 100 kilometers based on extrapolation, then it turns out that the Kuiper belt will have a larger geological surface area than all the planets in the solar system, including the terrestrial planets combined,” Grandi explains. adding that this would hold true even if you wanted to include the ocean floor on Earth. “If you like geology – and especially if you love exotic cryogenic temperature geology – the Kuiper Belt is the best place to study it. And there is a lot of territory for research.”
10. The mission to Eris will take a long time.
One of the fastest missions ever launched from Earth reached Pluto in nine years. Eris is currently three times farther from the Sun than Pluto. Although due to the strongly elliptical orbit, this value changes. So if the mission is ever approved, don't expect to know how it all ends.
“It takes decades to reach this dwarf world. So if you want to see the results of a mission like this, you need to start following it from a young age,” Grandi says. A possible future mission to the Kuiper belt could be part of a mission to or from Neptune. After visiting which the spacecraft will continue its flight to this region of space.
It will be a very long time before technology will allow telescopes on Earth, in space or elsewhere to photograph the surface of Eris.
