Hi everybody

Here's the latest article from the Astronomy site at BellaOnline.com.

Eris – Facts for Kids
At first astronomers thought Eris was bigger than Pluto and that it was a tenth planet. But both Eris and Pluto ended up as dwarf planets. Eris is now farther away from the Sun than any known object except for some comets. It's so cold that its atmosphere has frozen and is on the ground.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art302051.asp

*Birthdays*

(1) Vesto Slipher was born on November 11, 1875. His isn't a name that many people would recognize, but he played an important part in our modern understanding of cosmology. He spent his working life at Lowell Observatory in Arizona where he also became the director. Slipher discovered the redshift of galaxies which showed that they were moving away from us. Hubble is often given the credit for this, but he built on Slipher's work.

(2) William Herschel was born on November 15, 1738. He was German by birth, but a professional musician in England when he discovered the planet Uranus. With the sponsorship of the king George III he was able to become a full-time astronomer. And with the assistance of his sister Caroline, he explored the heavens with telescopes of his own making. His telescopes were some of the finest available at the time. The work of the Herschels helped to lay the foundation for modern astronomy.

You can read more about William Herschel here: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art300195.asp One of the places where he lived is now a museum: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art48626.asp

*New Rosetta cartoon*
The European Space Agency (ESA) has just released a new cartoon. It's the latest episode in the series #‎LivingWithAComet which follows the Rosetta mission. This one is about what Rosetta learned in the first year studying Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and what happens when Philae wakes up from hibernation. It's informative and quite cute, so it's a pleasant way of learning about what's been going on. It's just under 5 minutes long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibo3ppiv8Zk&feature=youtu.be

Please visit http://astronomy.bellaonline.com/Site.asp for even more great content about Astronomy.

I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php/forums/323/1/Astronomy or in response to this email message. I welcome your feedback!

Do pass this message along to family and friends who might also be interested. Remember it's free and without obligation.

I wish you clear skies.

Mona Evans, Astronomy Editor
http://astronomy.bellaonline.com

One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com
.