Astronomy - s - Finding, Exploring, and Understanding Alien Worlds (AU) - (Chris Kitchin) Springer 2012.pdf

Astronomers’ Universe
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Chris Kitchin
s
Finding, Exploring, and Understanding
Alien Worlds
Chris Kitchin
ISBN 978-1-4614-0643-3 e-ISBN 978-1-4614-0644-0
DOI -1-4614-0644-0
Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011937483
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Preface
Alien worlds, extra-solar s, deep space s, s –
whatsoever we choose to call them, what sort of objects do we mean
when we talk of s belonging to stars other than the Sun?
A few years ago the TV, radio and newspapers were full of
the temerity of astronomers who had demoted Pluto from being
one of the nine major s in the solar system to something
called a ‘Dwarf ’. In 2006 the International Astronomical
Union (IAU) made this decision because of the discovery of solar
system objects further from the Sun than Pluto that were similar
in size to Pluto. One of these, Eris, is actually larger than Pluto
and was briefly called the tenth of the solar system. It was
the prospect of many more such objects being found and the num-
ber of s ing unmanageable tha