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Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda
David Jewitt and Jane Luu: Is Pluto All Alone Out There?
Jun 4, 2024
38:25
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Astronomers David Jewitt and Jane Luu talk about discovering Pluto's Kuiper Belt connection, sharing their risky journeys to the US and passion for planetary science. They discuss the challenges of finding objects beyond Pluto, winning the Kavli Prize, and Pluto's reclassification.
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Quick takeaways
- Pluto is part of a massive debris ring, not a lonely planet.
- Kuiper Belt formation reveals diverse mechanisms influencing solar system evolution.
Deep dives
Discovering the Kuiper Belt: Unveiling the Solar System's Hidden Ring
David Jewett and Jane Liu, winners of the 2012 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics, unveiled the existence of the Kuiper Belt, a region beyond Neptune filled with primitive icy objects. Their discovery challenged the belief that this region was empty, fundamentally altering our understanding of the solar system's formation. By employing advanced detectors and struggling through challenging conditions on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, they made the groundbreaking discovery of 1992 QB1, paving the way for the detection of other Kuiper Belt objects.
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