astronomy
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Background: In addition to the currently-8 “full-status” planets, there are approximately 9 more ”B-tier“ planets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet), two of which were even considered “planets” in previous decades: Formerly-a planet Ceres (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(dwarf_planet)) Formerly-a planet Pluto (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto) The Issue: In order to get funding, astronomers benefit from the public being interested in their discoveries. Thus, the field of…
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Background: From the perspective of a person on the Earth’s surface, the Moon is a more-or-less featureless white circle in the sky. Even with a telescope, what information can a layman glean? Perhaps “here are some craters, and some gray splotches, I guess?” The Issue: The Moon (Fig. 1) might as well be a blank…
