Michael E. Brown is a professor of planetary astronomy on the California Institute of Expertise. His 2012 e book known as How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming.
Brown helped uncover our solar system’s Kuiper Belt, which has similarities to the asteroid belt, however incorporates as much as 200 occasions extra materials.
In early 2016, Brown and a colleague – Konstantin Batygin, additionally at Caltech – described how the same orbits of six small our bodies within the outer solar system could possibly be defined by one other main planet in our solar system. They name it Planet 9. And so they’re nonetheless hoping to seek out it.
Backside line: Be a part of EarthSky’s livestream on Monday, July 14, 2024. EarthSky editor-in-chief Deborah Byrd will probably be speaking with astronomer Michael Brown of Caltech.
Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio sequence in 1991 and based EarthSky.org in 1994. Previous to that, she had labored for the College of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio sequence. In the present day, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this web site. She has received a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, together with having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. In 2020, she received the Training Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the biggest group {of professional} astronomers in North America. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a drive for good on the planet and a significant software for the twenty first century. “Being an EarthSky editor is like internet hosting an enormous world occasion for cool nature-lovers,” she says.