Indian who knew Pluto 20 years before anybody else

Sachin Kalbag

Friday, August 25, 2006 22:38 IST

Astronomer Ventakesh Ketakar accurately predicted Pluto's orbital details 20 years before Clyde Tombaugh discovered it in 1930.

WASHINGTON, DC: If you look up the pages of the Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of France published in May 1911, you'd come across a paper by Venkatesh Ketakar on an as-yet unknown planetary body that was exerting a gravitational pull on the neighbouring planet Neptune.

Ketakar's paper featured orbital and other key calculations of this strange new planet. He named it Brahma. Almost 20 years later, in 1930, American scientist Clyde Tombaugh discovered it and called it Pluto. Ironically, Ketakar died of a severe paralytic stroke the same year.

As textbooks around the world change with the recent demotion of Pluto from a planet to a 'Pluton' or a 'dwarf planet', perhaps Ketakar's name could be added as well along with Tombaugh. A leading American college textbook Universe by Roger Freedman and William J Kaufmann III did that in 1968. The Indian Journal of History of Science recognised him in 1984. But there are hardly any other references, and much of Ketakar's work is confined to obscurity.

Senior astronomers at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, too, have not read about him. "I am not aware of his work," said Dr Mayank Vahia of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics when DNA contacted him. Ketakar was not the only astronomer chasing Pluto.

The most famous of them all were Percival Lowell and William H Pickering, both of whom are given equal credit in the discovery of Pluto. However, both Kaufmann's Universe and the Indian Journal of History of Science, say that Ketakar's calculations were much closer to the final ones than those published by Lowell and Pickering.

For instance, Ketakar said that heliocentric longitude of Brahma is 114.23 degrees and that its mean daily movement was 14.6364 arc-seconds. To put it simply, he had calculated that Pluto's orbital period (the time it takes to once revolve around the sun) 242.28 years and its distance from the sun was 38.95 AU (AU stands for Astronomical Unit or the average distance between the earth and the sun which is around 150 million km). When discovered, astronomers found that Pluto's average distance from the sun was 39.52 AU. Its documented orbital period is 248.475 years.

There are some reported weaknesses in his calculations. According to some astronomers, Lowell's and Pickering's findings, along with Ketakar's, could be coincidental because they were based on erroneous data about the mass of Neptune. Even so, the fact remains that Ketakar's work remains unheralded in the world of astronomy.

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1049391

Saturday , August 26, 2006

Pluto fails planet test, teachers in a fix, astronomers are divided

Pluto falls off planet map, teachers hold meet; star-gazers say long debate has ended

Kamran Sulaimani/Anurita Rathore

Ahmedabad, August 25: My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine P... This was how children were taught to remember the order of the solar system, which has now lost its ninth planet that never was.

The celestial demotion of Pluto as a planet by International Astronomical Union (IAU), and the subsequent drop in planets from nine to eight, has left schools in Gujarat wondering and astronomers divided.

While schools are waiting to get official information about the change in the number of planets from their respective boards so that they can instruct teachers accordingly, astronomers are struggling to come to terms with the resolution.

"We will have to do something after the new resolution. Students are asking questions about the actual number of planets. Teachers discussed the point today at a meeting and we will talk to the District Education Officer on this. Geography teachers have been asked to ensure that latest information is passed on to students," said H B Kapadia High School principal Ranjeeta Gill.

The task is tough for all boards who have been teaching children about the nine planets from as early as Class III.

"Students are used to learning about nine planets. I think the change, though minor, will create confusion in their minds. Though we have ensured that right information goes to them through geography teachers," Sunil Trivedi, principal of Delhi Public School, Ahmedabad, said.

Another thing that binds the planet with children is Mickey Mouse's bumbling dog who too is called Pluto.

Astronomers have some nostalgic affiliation to the planet. "The community used it as a benchmark. Whenever a new celestial body was found, the first question was use to be, is it bigger or smaller than Pluto? Now we will not be able to pose that question," said Manoj Pai, General Secretary, Confederation of Indian Amateur Astronomers and President of the Astronomy Club Ahmedabad.

"There are about two billion celestial objects including supernovas, stars and other bodies, but Pluto is certainly one of the most interesting and intriguing," he said.

Others feels that a 15-year-old debate has come to an end. "Advanced technology has concluded that Pluto is not fit to be a planet. It's not demoting, but redefining it systematically as a dwarf planet. There's rationale behind it. In the long run, it'll benefit students as it will avoid confusion," said N M Ashok, professor and chairman, Astronomy and Astrophysics Department, Physical Research Laboratory.

According to Dr Narottam Sahoo of Science City, "As per IAU's definition, a planet as a celestial body that orbits the Sun and is big enough that its self-gravity pulls it into a roughly spherical shape. Pluto doesn't fit the bill. So once it is defined, it will help us explore more about the solar system."

Founded in 1930, Pluto was the part of the world's consciousness for more than 70 years.

The suddenly much-maligned celestial body — 3.7 billion miles from the Sun— was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh when he was just 24 years of age. The ninth planet from then on became the part of the solar system.

What do the stars say? Planet no. 9 didn't really matter
PLUTO may have tumbled from its planet number nine position, but astrologers aren't really perturbed. For Indian astrology, over 5,000 years old, never had Pluto as one of its main planets, be it when making and analysing horoscopes or studying planetary alignments.

''We have only seven planets according to our ancient shastras, namely Chandra (Moon), Mangal (Mars), Buddh (Mercury), Guru (Jupiter), Shukra (Venus), Shani (Saturn) and Surya (Sun). The shadow planets known as the chhaya graha are Rahu and Ketu. Neptune, Uranus and Pluto are more part of Western astrology,'' said Pankaj Nagar, formerly vice-president of Indian Astrological Society of India.

''Western scientists and astronomers have come to realise that Pluto is not in the orbit of the surya mala. I think Hindu astrologers will be most happy since this planet never existed in a state of prominence for us ever and therefore isn't known enough. Our ancient rishi munis never highlighted Pluto and now the computer kundlis that will be made will eliminate its presence. It wouldn't be wrong for me to say that Pluto has been like a UFO for us when studying astro charts,'' Nagar added.

However, unlike students who have been learning about the nine planets at school, astro pandits have never quite studied the planet to make readings and predictions.

Renowned astrologer Dharmendrasinh Zala explained: ''Hindu shastras are not affected by these planets anyways, considering they have been found only in the last 100 years — Neptune (Prajapati), Uranus (Varun) and Pluto (Yamm). Since Pluto is the farthest from Earth, it also has as good as no effect on us which is why you have neither astro gem rings and stones nor mantras and predictions based on the planet Pluto in the birth chart. It does not impact horoscopes. I had predicted on November 28, 2001, about a new graha being born out of the Sun,'' said Zala, showing newspaper and magazine clippings about his prediction that came true some months later.

''The planet went through Pluto and found its place behind it. July 2003 mein yeh graha Vruschik rashi aur Anuradha nakshatra ke beech mein pad gaya jisse ki Pluto mein upheavals aaye honge. And so while US astronomer Mike Brown calls it the UB313, it is the tenth planet, bigger than Earth. Being a dark planet, far from the Sun, Pluto is ineffective anyways. Besides, it is not a solid round and crosses by Neptune when it revolves round the Sun. It's presence didn't help us, the absence won't either,'' he added.

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=198394

'Aryabhatta, Varahamihira's mathematical science vindicated'

Mumbai, Aug. 25 (PTI): Indian astrologers today said the announcement about dropping Pluto as a planet had endorsed the mathematical and astrological treatises written by Aryabhatta and Varahamihira centuries ago.

"Indian astrology did not include Pluto as a planet and the latest announcement by leading global astronomers after a marathon week-long meeting at Prague yesterday only endorsed the Indian mathematical astrology of Aryabhatta and Varahamihira in the sixth century," eminent mathematical astrologer Mangal Prasad told PTI today.

"Western astrology uses Pluto as a planet while Pluto was always out of Indian astrology and we do not use it in our calculations. This is the practice from the days of Aryabhatta and Varahamihira," Prasad said.

"Indian astrology is mathematically concerned with the nine planets, two of which are Raghu and Ketu that are nothing but derivatives from the diameter of earth, which is a circle having a value Pi (22/7) imbedded in the equator of earth," he said.

"This was discovered and mathematically shown by Aryabhatta and Varahamihira in the sixth century during the golden period of the Guptas," said Prasad, the author of books based on the work of the two great sixth century scientists.

Indian astrology is concerned more with astronomy and the derivations are from the equator of the earth, diameter of the moon, the solar year and how the planets are viewed in the northern latitudinal region during January and February, soon after the sun has crossed the Tropic of Capricon and moved towards the northern part of the hemisphere, he said.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200608252031.htm

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