Major Developments Major Developments by Calendar Year

Saturn’s icy moon, Enceladus, raising the interesting possibility for existence of hidden supernatural living creatures. This discovery astonished scientists who are looking for signs of life in space. Enceladus is calculated to be 314 miles across and is considered as the shiniest object in the solar system. The Cassini spacecraft was launched in 1997 and went into orbit around Saturn in 2004, examining its spectacular rings and many moons. Liquid water and a heat source are two essential elements for life. Even though its distance from the Sun is very high, Enceladus clearly has an internal heat source probably caused by Saturn’s gravitational pull, which warms water adequately to produce the geysers. Any life on that moon would likely be in the form of extremophilic primitive organisms (organisms that live in extreme conditions). Previously wet Mars has long been the main focus of the search for life on other planets. But, Saturn’s moon Enceladus could be an even more promising place to start the search for extraterrestrials (space beings). Now Enceladus joins the list of those bodies, Mars and Europa, that have signs of liquid water on them and energy sources coming from radioactive heating and tidal heating that make the very interesting places to look for the origins of life.

August 24, 2006, was an important day in the history of planetary science. It was absolutely the first day when official scientific definition of the word “planet” is explained. It was also the famous day as Pluto was propelled out of the planetary family. Pluto is a tiny, solid, icy world in a more lengthened orbit unlike other planets, which move closely in circular paths. Another abnormality about Pluto is the inclination of its orbit. All the other planets follow paths in a confined band within the limits of the constellations, we call the zodiac, but Pluto’s orbit deviates from this and takes the path above and below that band. Another deviation is Pluto does not dominate its neighborhood i.e., Charon, its large “moon,” is only about half the size of Pluto, while all the true planets are far bigger than their moons. So officially, Pluto is not a planet and considered as dwarf planet. Pluto is the second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System (after Eris) and the tenth-largest body noticed, directly revolving around the Sun. Before 2006, there were nine planets, they Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Now, there are only eight planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.