A dwarf planet is a celestial body which is too small to be considered a real planet but too large to be called a space rock. It must revolve around the sun and it should not be a satellite of another planet. Hence this disqualifies earth’s big moon from being a dwarf planet.

Our solar system currently has three dwarf planets. These are Ceres, Pluto, and Eris. Ceres was the first dwarf planet discovered and at first was classified as a large asteroid. However this was later corrected after discovering that it had not only its own inner core, but a very thin atmosphere and gravity.

The second dwarf planet Pluto was first considered a small planet in itself but its orbit crosses the Kuiper Belt in the same way that Ceres moves among asteroids within the asteroid belt making Pluto a dwarf planet.

The last dwarf planet is Eris which is also the largest and coldest dwarf planet and was discovered in 2005 beyond the orbit of Pluto.

I am sure there are many theories concerning blackholes.

A light year is the total distance travelled by a beam of light in one year. A beam of light can travel at up to 300,000 km/sec and the approximate distance covered in a year works out to be 9,470,000,000,000 km (1 light year = 9.47 x1012 km).

So why did scientists create this new unit of measure?

Well as you can imagine the universe is so vast that talking about the distances between stars and planets was just unmanageable with miles and kilometers. For this reason a standardized unit of measure which we call the light year was created.

Black holes aren’t just science fiction, scientist actually think they occur. The theory behind their existence is of massive stars dying and collapsing in on themselves to form a super heavy, mega dense entities.

These entities become so tightly packed that they suck in everything around them and thus become a black hole.

To get an idea of their gravitational pull (or sucking power) even light which we know to be the fastest thing in the universe can’t escape them.

So what happens to objects that go through a black hole, well the honest truth is we don’t know however there are theories of time travel, dimensional travel and many other weird and wonderful theories.

Space Quick Facts

1. Saturn’s rings are made up of particles of ice, dust and rock. Some particles are as small as grains of sand while others are much larger than skyscrapers.

2. Jupiter is larger than 1,000 Earths.

3. The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is a hurricane-like storm system that was first detected in the early 1600’s.

4. Comet Hale-Bopp is putting out approximately 250 tons of gas and dust per second. This is about 50 times more than most comets produce.

5. The Sun looks 1600 times fainter from Pluto than it does from the Earth.

6. There is a supermassive black hole right in the middle of the Milky Way galaxy that is 4 million times the mass of the Sun.

7. Halley’s Comet appears about every 76 years.

8. The orbits of most asteroids lie partially between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

9. Asteroids and comets are believed to be ancient remnants of the formation of our Solar System (More than 4 billion years ago!).

10. Comets are bodies of ice, rock and organic compounds that can be several miles in diameter.

11. The most dangerous asteroids, those capable of causing major regional or global disasters, usually impact the Earth only once every 100,000 years on average.

12. Some large asteroids even have their own moon.

13. Near-Earth asteriods have orbits that cross the Earth’s orbit. These could potentially impact the Earth.

14. There are over 20 million observable meteors per day.

15. Only one or two meteorites per day reach the surface of Earth.

16. The largest found meteorite was found in Hoba, Namibia. It weighed 60 tons.

17. The typical size of a meteor is about one cubic centimeter, which is equivalent to the size of a sugar cube.

18. Each day, Earth accumulate 10 to 100 tons of material.

19. There are over 100 billion galaxies in the universe.

20. The largest galaxies contain nearly 400 billion stars.

21. The risk of a falling meteorite striking a human occurs once every 9,300 years.

22. A piece of a neutron star the size of a pin point would way 1 million tons.

23. Europa, Jupiter’s moon, is completely covered in ice.

24. Light reflecting off the moon takes 1.2822 seconds to reach Earth.

25. There has only been one satellite destroyed by a meteor, it was the European Space Agency’s Olympus in 1993.

26. The International Space Station orbits at 248 miles above the Earth.

27. The Earth orbits the Sun at 66,700mph.

28. Venus spins in the opposite direction compared to the Earth and most other planets. This means that the Sun rises in the West and sets in the East.

29. The Moon is moving away from the Earth at about 34cm per year.

30. The Sun, composed mostly of helium and hydrogen, has a surface temperature of 6000 degrees Celsius.

31. A manned rocket reaches the moon in less time than it took a stagecoach to travel the length of England.

32. The nearest known black hole is 1,600 light years (10 quadrillion miles/16 quadrillion kilometers) away.

Very interesting

Yes I have seen many Americans upset about this.

My question is how many yeas and nays do you think will be in the Senate?

Thus far HuckleberryFinn mentioned 43 yeas. This means he believes it won't go through.

I hope for that matter regardless of Liberalism or Conservatism that there will be a solution created to help boost the education not only for a selected few that can afford it, but for everyone who is interested in attaining a degree to get a better job in the workforce.

If this problem doesn't resolve itself then I fear you will see a country that once was great and will watch other countries bypass on a great numerous things. I would like to see the United States as a leader and not as a follower in the next 20 years.

In time we shall see what will happen. I hope better times will come for a country that started out so good.

Well as a German I can tell you that much of Europe is much better off with their children on education. Perhaps the East block countries of Europe are still catching up, but I can assure you that a European will know more about American History then most Americans know about their own country or for that matter the European country the person comes from.

Also look at world statistics on reading, writing, science, and math to see what I am talking about. This is what got Obama's attention.

I watched a meeting on Obama on how he is dissappointed about the education in America. Americas math and science score averages rank way below alot of countries. The top 10 are usually owned by European and some Asian countries. He wants to fix that and gave a 4 billion dollar grant on education. Of course schools will have to apply for it.

He mentioned how one of his daughters received tests that had nothing to do with the subjects she was learning at the time in the classroom. So this test she wasn't prepared for resulted in bad grades.

In the end Obama checked into it and saw that much of the material needs to be updated. He also suggested on a mirade of other things to perhaps boost the education in America.

It is a problem. You have young adults from India that have a better grade average than most Americans who get special visas and work at a IT job for half the price an American wants after they get their degree.

What makes it worse is that American that got his degree is most likely in debt before even having his first actual job. Now tell me what is wrong with that picture?

Yes there are problems and I am sure that many Minglers have ideas on how to fix the problem. The question is does the Government even care and if so what are they going to do to fix the mentality of most Americans about the issues of work?


What do you say to a kid that didn't get a proper education, but still somehow passed to get a high school diploma? Then when it came to college he couldn't get any money or credit together to go.

I know what most people say. Oh well -- his or her fault.

That kind of mentality is what is destroying the American economy.

So what happens to this kid? Yes he either sells drugs, works at burger king, or joins the military to be blown up by a IED in Afghanistan. If he survives the mental abuse in the military he might be able to get a GI bill to study. That is if he isn't suffering from post dramatic depression or anything.

College shouldn't cost a arm and leg. Shouldn't all children have the opportunity to get a good education? Why do we still have districts in America handing out school worksheets from 1950s that doesn't provide any true education? Why are latin kids in Miami being passed to the next grade but cannot speak any English let alone do school projects at their grade level?

Why are there schools that are not A-credited anymore, such as in Indiana for example?

Education should be entitled to everyone with the same degree of technology and information so that every child will have a chance to succeed.

Europe has figured that out a long time ago. Look at their math, science, reading, and writing scores compared to this country. Come on America! Are you truly asking why the work force isn't working?

Look into your education system, the costs to attend colleges, and how the government made sure that education will fail until now.

Obama did offer 4 billion in grant money to try to improve in education. He only did it because his daughter was suffering from school grades at the time. Thank goodness he has children at such a young age right! Now we have to see if this 4 billion dollar investment will really work or is is just money floating around.... let us say back into the pockets of rich individuals.

I just hope for the countries sake that they will finally wake up and smell the coffee. If not then you shall see how America will continue to lose ground on educational results leading to a terrible workforce.

You see there are alot of great ideas on here! I hope some of them at least will come through!

What is your conclusion on the votes? Will the Democrats get their 60 votes or will they fall short by a few?

Give us an approximate number on the votes and let us see if it comes true.

I enjoyed this historical moment. It was fun to watch the large dominos representing the wall fall down.

Those families that have been seperated have finally reunited 20 years ago. There was alot of happiness floating around on that day in 1989.

Thousands of Germans risked their lives to cross the border for a chance of freedom. 135 Germans were shot down. East German leader Erich Honecker ordered his men to shoot down any German that tried to escape to West Germany in hopes for a better life. This man evaded justice in the end and lived in Chile and died there.

Germany has had a shaky history, but they always find a way to rebound and become a economic powerhouse for the world. Not bad for a country no bigger then Florida.

All I can say is that I hope South and North Korea will one day also fix their differences and have family members reunite again. It doesn't seem to look that way now, but maybe one day they will become as one nation again.

Small businesses that can compete with large corporations would be nice. How can we get this to work again?

Innovative ideas and inventions that the world wish they could have to get the economy going again. Believe it or not the United States use to have some of the best products in the world and many countries wanted them. That was a big booster for the economy.

3 year Apprenticeships for every type of job available to improve in a better quality service in the nation. The service you get over here is horrible in many sectors, let alone the quality of service you get when paying.

Invest in the infrastructure of the country repairing bridges, streets, highways, drinking water quality, electrical outputs, sewage systems.

Invest in Education so Americans know more about what their ancestors went through to make this country great, so they know what the capital of Minnesota is without looking it up, or understand a little more about how the government works before voting.

Stop helping other countries and have NATO or the UN have a more active role in this. Afterall they are comprimised of many countries. America should try to fix its own country first, by making sure there are no starving street kids, clean up the neighborhood from gangs, create effective social service programs.

500,000 American troops are overseas. We have some bases in Siberia even! While the US has almost exhausted its money and credit, China is making big profits. We need to fix this problem.

The MiddleEast epidemic will continue for another 1000 years. Truly ask yourself if more men and women should be sacrificing their lives for the causes the government gives us.

Those are just a few ideas. If they will ever be done that is another question. I know that we have to really be careful for who we vote for. Is that congressman, mayor, governor, senator really compassionate about his work and truly wants to improve the country, or does he just make an impression so that he can get a seat in the government. How often do they truly work per week? What have they truly accomplished while in office? What is their track record? These are questions you should ask yourself before voting for someone.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. - Buddha

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. - Buddha

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
- Buddha

brilliant

You are too kind in helping everyone out! May you have alot of fun on Mingle2 and find great friends. Thanks for the help.