Meet Quaoar - Meet the Dwarf Planets Ep. 8 - Outer Space / Astronomy Song for kids - The Nirks
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Meet Dwarf Planet Candidate Quaoar!
We've met all of the Official Dwarf Planets, but what about all of the hopeful Dwarf Planet Candidates? Let's meet them too! Meet Quaoar! He's hoping for a promotion to full dwarf planet soon. Quaoar was a fan favorite pick for dwarf planet candidate! Quaoar lives way out int the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune. Quaoar has had a lot of exciting discoveries to share! Astronomers have found not one, but 2 rings around Quaoar! What makes this discovery even more exciting is that the rings are much further away from Quaoar than rings normally are from a planet or dwarf planet. Rings are usually found within The Roche Limit - The distance from a planetary body where that planetary body's gravitational pull ends, But both of Quaoar's rings and his moon Weywot are beyond the Roche limit! Astronomers are puzzled! How does Quaoar do it? Quaoar is named after the Native American Tongva Tribe's God of Creation. The Moon Weywot is named after Quaoar's son, that according to Tongva folklore, was dance and sung into existence by his father Quaoar! Quaoar has an almost circular orbit around our Sun and is a great candidate for promotion to full dwarf planet! Learn all about this fun dwarf planet candidate in this exciting and fun learning song!
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Lyrics:
I am Candidate Quaoar With my tiny moon Weywot
A special dwarf planet because 2 rings are what I’ve got
Named after the Tongva Tribe’s God of Creation
A Native American tribe from the Los Angeles Basin
Discovered by Mike Brown and Chad Trujillo in 2002
From the Palomar Observatory where making discoveries is what they do
My moon Weywot is named after the Tongva God of the Sky
Weywot is the son of the God Quaoar, that’s why
The Kuiper Belt is where you will find me
Out beyond Neptune where it’s cold and icy
I take around 286 years to orbit our sun
But only about 18 hours to complete one rotation
I have almost a perfect circular orbit around the sun
Which is quite different from my other dwarf planet candidate companions
Sedna, The Goblin and even Pluto
Have much more elliptical orbits, that’s they way they roll
I am Candidate Quaoar With my tiny moon Weywot
A special dwarf planet because 2 rings are what I’ve got
I’m approximately 43 AU’s from the Sun you see
So, It takes about 5 hours for suns light to reach me
A Cubewano is what they call me
A Kuiper Belt object not moved by Neptune’s gravity
I’m far enough from Neptune, that my orbit’s all my own
I have my own orbital path through space that I like to roam
I have two very special rings around me,
Both are much further away from me than they should be
This has confused a lot of scientists
Because two rings that far out shouldn’t exist
No one would have noticed my rings at all
If it hadn’t been for stellar occulations, that’s what it’s called
Kind of like an eclipse when I pass between Earth and a distant star
Astronomers see my silhouette including where my rings and moon are
I am Candidate Quaoar With my tiny moon Weywot
A special dwarf planet because 2 rings are what I’ve got
Named after the Tongva Tribe’s God of Creation
A Native American tribe from the Los Angeles Basin
Like my friends the other dwarf planet candidates
My temperatures are as low as all the others get
So, you better dress warm when you come to meet me
Because my temperatures are so cold that you could freeze
I probably have volcanoes that spew water that turns to ice
These are called cold volcanoes or cryovolcanoes to be precise
My surface has ice patterns that look like melted ice that has refrozen
Leading scientists to believe I have cryovolcanism
I am Candidate Quaoar With my tiny moon Weywot
A special dwarf planet because two rings are what I’ve got
I’m very far away and extremely unique
Maybe someday, you’ll come and visit me
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