This week– SOUNDBITES

Has Pluto sent us a

and some ended up joining the ‹ The bureaucratic
rocky asteroids that were born
in the asteroid belt. Ceres would
equivalent of saying that the
dog ate your homework.›

message in Ceres?
simply be the largest of these
immigrants. “The odds for this Edward Markey of the US House Select
seem low, but it is not Committee on Global Warming criticises
inconceivable,” says Bill Bottke of the Bush administration for rejecting
the Southwest Research Institute a proposal from the Environmental
DAVID SHIGA for an asteroid, but closely (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. Protection Agency to use the Clean Air
matches Pluto and other icy Bottke and Hal Levison of SwRI Act to limit CO2 emissions. To make
DOES Pluto have a wayward objects native to the outer led a pair of studies also presented matters worse, the next day the EPA
cousin lurking in the inner solar solar system, known as trans- at the ACM meeting, which backtracked, saying the law was
system? The dwarf planet Ceres – Neptunian objects (TNOs). support the idea of refugees from “ill-suited” to regulate climate change
and other icy chunks – may have What’s more, a dip in Ceres’s the outer solar system orbiting in (CNN, 12 July)
been born in the same realm as light spectrum may be a sign the asteroid belt. They focused on
Pluto, but travelled all the way of ammonium-rich clay at the the so-called D and P-type ‹ When I was growing up,
to the asteroid belt between the surface. This material has never asteroids that comprise 20 per
orbits of Mars and Jupiter. If so, it been found in the fragments of cent of the population in the outer they would ask things like:
would be further evidence that a asteroids that have fallen to Earth, how do you fit in a test
massive upheaval rearranged the but fits the expected ammonia- “Ceres has a high proportion of tube?›
early solar system. rich composition of a TNO.
At 950 kilometres in diameter, So if Ceres formed in Pluto’s
ice to rock for an asteroid, but a The world’s first “test-tube baby”,
Louise Brown, celebrated her 30th
Ceres is by far the largest object in neighbourhood, how did it end close match to Pluto and other birthday last week (BBC News, 14 July)
the asteroid belt. And that’s not up 2 to 4 billion kilometres away? objects of the outer solar system”
the only reason it doesn’t quite fit Some researchers think that the
in with many of its companions, orbits of the planets were once part of the belt. These objects are a
‹ You might as well be
according to William McKinnon unstable. According to this idea – dark reddish colour that suggests tagging a unicorn for the
of Washington University in St known as the Nice model – Uranus they are covered in carbon-rich amount of information we
Louis, who presented his idea and Neptune went rampaging gunk – just the sort of residue that know about these fellas.›
at the Asteroids, Comets, Meteors through the outer solar system might have been left behind on an
Jon Houghton from Queen’s University
(ACM) meeting this week in around 3.9 billion years ago (New icy object that had its outermost
in Belfast discusses plans to tag jellyfish
Baltimore, Maryland. Scientist, 28 November 2006, layers vaporised in the bright
off the Welsh and Irish coasts to study
McKinnon points out that p 40). As a result, many of the icy sunlight of the inner solar system.
their mysterious lives (BBC News, 11 July)
Ceres has a low density, which objects that formed in the outer Bottke and Levison’s computer
suggests it is 25 to 30 per cent solar system were pulled inward simulations show that the
water ice. That’s a high proportion by the gravity of the two planets, observed number of objects is ‹ They are not good
about right if they are immigrants, at diagnosis and they
operate on things they
MCREL/JPL/NASA

though they have assumed many

of them broke up after transport. don’t understand.›
Thomas McCord of the Bear
British GPs are no experts at treating
Fight Center in Winthrop,
patients with skin cancer, according
Washington, who was not involved
to David Shuttleworth of the British
in any of the three studies, agrees
Association of Dermatologists.
that the asteroid belt probably
He says GPs are being discouraged from
hosts some small refugees from
referring patients to specialists to save
the outer solar system, but says
money (The Times, London, 14 July)
there is no reason to believe Ceres
is a stranger there. Its ice-to-rock
ratio matches the expected ‹ It’s not just the crazy cat
composition of the raw materials lady. Marketers and all of this
that would have been available at consumer advertising have
its current position early on, he
says. What’s more, objects of its
made it okay to spend tons
size are expected to have formed of money on your pet.›
in the inner solar system. New David Lummis, who analyses the pet
measurements of Ceres’s industry for market research firm
composition by NASA’s Dawn Packaged Facts, on a trend for owners
mission, for which McCord is to give their pets “lifestyle” drugs, to help
a team member, could help pin them deal with separation anxiety, say
down its birthplace when the (The New York Times Magazine, 13 July)
–All will be clearer after Dawn– mission arrives in 2015. ●

10 | NewScientist | 19 July 2008 www.newscientist.com