Watch: Maltese Cambridge Student Playfully Responds To Critics With Educational Video On The Solar System
From a cosmic blunder to a shining star, Stephanie Buttigieg turned a live TV slip-up into a masterclass on planets and beyond!
After enduring widespread mockery for an on-air mistake about the number of planets in the Solar System, Stephanie, a CDT PhD student at the Institute of Astronomy within the University of Cambridge, turned the moment into a chance to inform and inspire.
Her achievements and studies alone are enough to truly highlight her brilliance. But, if you’re still not convinced, Steph took to TikTok to share some fun facts on exactly how many planets are in our solar system and what makes a planet a planet.
Stephanie opened by clarifying that there are eight (highlighted, in bold, underlined and italicised) planets in our solars system. However, up until 2006, many might remember Pluto as being a part of our astral family, before being revoked from its title
“In 2006, the International Astronomical Union declared Pluto a dwarf planet,” Stephanie explained, “This is because for an object to be classified as a planet it needs to meet three criteria.”
She went on to explain that for planets to be considered “planets” they must:
-Be in orbit around a star.
-Be big enough to hold a relatively spherical shape.
-Not have any other objects in the way of its orbit.
Unfortunately, Pluto lacked the third criteria, making it ineligible for the title of “planet” but enough to be considered a “dwarf planet.”
Stephanie continued by sharing facts about things beyond our solar system, stating that our family of eight planets aren’t the only ones of their kind, with astronomers estimating that up to 10 billion other planets can be found around the Milky Way Galaxy alone.
From these billions and billions of planets, we’ve only discovered around 5,500, who each are part of their own unique planetary systems like ours.
“So yes, our solar system has eight planets, but there are loads more planets in the Universe and the Earth’s still spinning,” Stephanie cheekily concluded.
Thank you Stephanie for blessing us with some astral knowledge to kick off the week!
Did you know these fun facts?