Julio Ángel Fernández facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Julio Ángel Fernández
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Julio Ángel Fernández in 2008.
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Julio Ángel Fernández Alves
5 April 1946 |
| Nationality | Uruguayan |
| Alma mater | Universidad de la República |
| Occupation | astronomer, teacher |
Julio Ángel Fernández Alves (born on April 5, 1946) is an amazing Uruguayan astronomer and teacher. He works in the astronomy department at the Universidad de la República in Montevideo. He is also part of important science groups in Uruguay. From 2005 to 2010, he was the leader of the science faculty at his university. A cool fact is that an asteroid was named after him! It's called 5996 Julioangel and was found in 1983.
Mr. Fernández is a very active researcher in Uruguay. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.
Contents
Discovering the Kuiper Belt
In 1980, Julio Fernández wrote an important paper. He suggested that many comets that visit the inner Solar System didn't just come from the far-off Oort cloud. He thought there must be another belt of comets. This belt, he believed, would be located beyond Neptune, around 50 times farther from the Sun than Earth is.
How the Kuiper Belt Idea Grew
Later, other scientists used computers to test his idea. Their models showed that he was probably right! This led to the discovery of the Kuiper belt. David Jewitt, one of the scientists who found the belt, thinks that Julio Fernández deserves a lot of credit. He predicted the belt's existence even before it was seen! Since then, Fernández has written many more papers about objects beyond Neptune.
What Makes a Planet a Planet?
In 2006, Julio Fernández was part of a big meeting. This meeting was held by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Their goal was to decide what a "planet" really is.
A New Idea for Defining Planets
The first idea from the IAU included Pluto, its moon Charon, and Ceres as planets. But Julio Fernández and his friend Gonzalo Tancredi from Uruguay had a different idea. They suggested that a true "planet" should be big enough to have "cleared its neighborhood" of other smaller objects around its orbit.
The Birth of "Dwarf Planets"
They suggested that objects that hadn't cleared their orbits, but were still round, should be called "planetoids." The IAU liked many parts of their idea. In the end, they decided to call these smaller, round objects "dwarf planets." This big discussion about Pluto even led to a new word: "Plutoed." This word was chosen as the "word of the year 2006" by the American Dialect Society.
See also
In Spanish: Julio Ángel Fernández para niños
