Earth could collide with Other Planets

Astronomers calculate there is a tiny chance that Mars or Venus could collide with Earth - though it would not happen for at least a billion years. The finding comes from simulations to show how orbits of planets might evolve billions of years into the future. But the calculated chances of such events occurring are tiny. Astronomers had thought that the orbits of the planets were predictable. But 20 years ago, researchers showed that there were slight fluctuations in their paths. Full Story : BBC.co.uk….

Pltuoids = Pluto like Planets

The name Plutoid was proposed by the members of the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN), accepted by the Board of Division III,as a name for transneptunian dwarf planets similar to Pluto. Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighbourhood around their orbit. The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris. The IAU has been responsible for naming planetary bodies and their satellites since the early 1900s.

Image Credit:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pluto_system_2006.jpg

Saturn’s moon also have rings.

Saturn’s second largest moon Rhea also have rings. The rings discovered when NASA’s Cassini spacecraft fly close to Rhea. Rhea is roughly 1 500Kms in diameter. The apparent debris disk measures several thousands of Kilometers from end to end. One of the Cassini scientist Candy Hansen commented about the discovery that”The diversity in our solar system never fails to amaze us,”.

(Photo Source:http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu)