Word: kuiper
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However, a theory recently proposed by Gerard P. Kuiper of the Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago, and strongly supported at last week's meeting by Eugene R. Rabe of the Cincinnati Observatory, indicates that Pluto may be actually only a runaway satellite of the neighboring planet Neptune...
Astronomer Gerard P. Kuiper at the University of Chicago, working at the McDonald Observatory, Texas, reported another color change on Mars. Its dark areas, which are generally supposed to be some sort of vegetation, are unusually drab this year. They are neutral grey, instead of the dull green that he had expected...
Last week Astronomer Gerard Peter Kuiper (rhymes with piper) of the University of Chicago made another move toward demoting Pluto. Recent observations have proved that its period of rotation on its own axis is more than six days (TIME, Feb. 6). For a planet, says Scientist Kuiper, this is too slow...
...Kuiper thinks that Pluto is an escaped satellite that once revolved around Neptune. The other satellites of Neptune, Triton and Nereid, may have escaped too, but eventually were recaptured. They tangled with the gaseous envelope that still surrounded the mother planet and were reduced again to the satellite status. Pluto, however, managed to keep its freedom until the sun had dissipated most of Neptune's gaseous envelope. Now it is probably safe for the life of the solar system...
Servile Birth. If Pluto were a real planet, says Dr. Kuiper, its orbit could not be so eccentric. Best proof, however, of Pluto's humble origin is its slow rotation. Planetary satellites turn only fast enough to present the same face to their planet. The earth's moon does this, rotating once for each turn around its orbit. Dr. Kuiper believes that Pluto used to revolve around Neptune once in about 6½ days, rotating on its own axis in the same period. Now, on its lonely orbit around the sun, it rotates just as fast as when...