Is Pluto a planet again?! Plus JWST updates | Night Sky News January 2022

Catch Jupiter this month before it disappears from our skies for a few months. Plus catch up on the latest with the James Webb Space Telescope and find out why Pluto might get reclassified as a planet once more!

00:00 - Introduction
00:41 - Orion in the winter sky
01:29 - Winter hexagon
02:22 - Orion Nebula
02:53 - Jupiter: catch it before it's gone
03:43 - Venus & Mars in early morning sky (plus toenail moon)
05:12 - Mercury joins the party
06:07 - JWST mirror update
11:57 - Why does JWST orbit L2?
13:51 - MaNGA galaxy survey public data release
15:54 - AAS 239 Space Press Releases
16:19 - Should Pluto and all the moons of the Solar System be planets?!
23:33 - Outro
24:04 - Bloopers

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👩🏽‍💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford. I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.

[DrBecky]

UPDATE: NASA have now confirmed that all the primary hexagonal mirrors have all successfully deployed from the pins 🥳

[georgespalding]

The pure JOY in Dr. Becky's voice knowing she and her team will have access to the JWST for most of her career in Astrophysics is beyond satisfying.

[ASMR-JMelliee]

See, your passion in these videos are one of the reasons to why I'm going back to school in a few months. I've been struggling to find the inspiration to finally go after my dream, to become an astrophysics, and thanks to you I'm heading there!

[ryanbrown]

Initially I wasn't that excited about potentially having all moons classified as planets, then I realized that it would annoy the astrologers. Now I'm all for it.

[Phoenix-ejsh]

When I was a kid, I was absolutely enrapt by the results of the Voyager missions. Just to hear about the technology used on JWST leaves me slack jawed every time I learn something new. Mirror actuators that have a positional accuracy of 100 atoms? My jaw is on the floor. Again.

[Zualio]

I love when there is some science history conciousness! So often we are not aware that our categories of thinking depend as much on history as on the things classified, even if you try to work as empirically as possible.

[colinhackett]

You so inspire me Dr Becky. Your enthusiasm for your subject is infectious. I’m glad there are people like you I share this world with.

[andneekey]

I know every one talks about JWST, but I like to give a little Love to all the engineers that Build the ariane 5 rocket . Who took that extra bit of time in testing the parts that the used in it so that it was build with the best of the best components. Which allowed the rocket to place the JWST so precisely it doubled the life span of the JWST

[bujin]

I feel reclassifying what we now consider as moons as planets would actually be harmful to communication. It's useful to have one classification for spheroid objects primarily orbiting a star, and another classification for spheroid objects primarily orbiting other non-star spheroid objects. It would add a great deal of complexity to conversations when you were talking about how a moon affects a planet's evolution, if you had to discuss, "the smaller planet's effects on the greater planet in a multiple planet mutual orbit." Like there is a point where over specification becomes detrimental to conveying meaning, so we create short cuts to encompass meaning so we don't have to spell it out all the time.

[mystiganine]

I kind of feel like we need this distinction of planets and moons, with the huge distinguishing factor of whether the object orbits around its star or fellow celestial object (e.g. Earth) which in turn orbits around its star. I feel this helps us map out space with more convenience and clarity, especially when it comes to some of the physics involved/classification.

[jm-xhyz]

Dr. Smethurst, I look forward to this. Free access to a professional and their insights is unheard of in the world today where everything is monetized. Thank you so so so so so much. You keep my eyes up and my mind open!

[thAMG]

As Neil DeGrasse Tyson says, Science Communication is key to delivering science to the public. This video is a great example of that. Dr Becky is clearly a great Science Communicator like Tyson is.

Thank you. I enjoyed this very much and I learned heaps, Dr Becky. Salut!

[jacktion]

I follow a bunch of different space-centric channels, and I’ve only recently subscribed to yours. I just wanted to let you know that you do a great job of explaining the science (and the importance of the science) of cosmic events without dumbing it down. I never understood the evidence for dark matter until watching one of your videos. I just wanted to thank you for sharing your knowledge here with explanations that are so accessible to people outside the scientific community.

[ImOldGreggg]

I think a MASSIVE reason why many of your followers (like me) love your content, is because how vibrant you are. Obviously you're extremely knowledgeable, but your personality is infectious. I find myself in a much better mood after watching your content. Thank you, and I'll always be looking up!

[fredneecher]

Yes! Pluto fan here. We oldies grew up with Pluto being a planet and we're sticking to it. Go Pluto!

[markschoenenberger]

I remember when Pluto was demoted, a common argument for it was that because of all the new Kuiper belt discoveries there would be 10s or hundreds of planets if Pluto was. My favorite retort to that argument was that it was the first time astronomers were afraid of a large number.

[bnigh]

I absolutely love Astronomy; it was my favorite class in high school! I learned so much, but it has been 35 years and a lot has been discovered or changed. I still love it! There is nothing wrong with learning that you were wrong, or something works differently than you thought! That is science, and I love it all! Thank you, Dr. Becky for entertaining and teaching all of us!

[astropgn]

For the Orion Nebula, I found it is easier to see with the corner of my eye. If I look directly at it, I might not see it or just barely. But if I look away just a bit, and let the corner of my eyes pick it up, for some reason I can see it better! Not too much detail because I am not looking directly at it, but apparently the eyes get more sensitive to light so you perceive it is there better.

[stevenkrasner]

I love your channel and the information you provide. As far as Pluto is concerned, I have always felt that Pluto should have been "grandfathered" and not demoted to a dwarf planet.

[jeremycrompton]

I only really watched because I wanted to hear about Webb, but your honest intro led me to watch the whole video. I'm glad I did, the info on Pluto was interesting and the outtakes were a joy! 10/10