Things You Thought You Knew – Kicked into Orbit
StarTalk Radio
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How to Escape a Big Comet
Ceres is so large as an asteroid that its own gravity shaped it into a sphere. Round things, too small to be planets, are called dwarf planets. Pluto got demoted from planet to dwarf planet status. And Ceres, which was in the ranks of asteroids, got promoted from asteroid to dwarf planet. So, on Pluto and Ceres, the escape velocity is about, what do we get, about a third of a mile an hour? I can do that. But then how are you going to play the game at all? Oh, no, with a beat.
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