Word: orbiter
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Astronomers have always felt uncertain about Pluto, the outermost planet in the solar system. It is suspiciously small, with less than half of the earth's diameter, and its orbit is peculiar. Instead of revolving in a near-circle around the sun as the other planets do, Pluto follows an eccentric ellipse, cutting across the orbit of Neptune, its sunward neighbor (which is 39 times the size of the earth). These deviations suggest that Pluto may not be a real planet...
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...
Kuiper, one of the world's greatest astronomers, bases his theory on the observations that Pluto takes too long--six and a half days--to describe an orbit "too eccentric for a planet," and is much too small to deserve the title of planet...
...Crust of the earth. Variations in the earth's gravitational pull will distort the orbit slightly. Thus irregularities in the earth's crust and the slight bulge at the earth's equator can be determined more accurately...
Organized amateur astronomers will be called on to track the satellite with binoculars or modest telescopes during its first revolutions, which will not be exactly predictable. When it settles down in its orbit, the professionals will take over. Eventually, the satellite will be slowed by air drag, will swing lower and lower, meeting more air and more drag. At last will come the wild moment when it plunges back into the atmosphere and turns into a streak of fire. As this stage approaches, the amateur satellite-watchers will be needed again. The orbit will be changing too fast...