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the discovery of Ceres is itself a great story, worthy of a video.
It had been discovered by an Italian astronomer, Giuseppe Piazzi, but then it disappaered behind the sun, and he could not find it anymore. C.F. Gauss used Piazzi's data, invented linear regresion and the error function (i.e., the "normal" or "Gaussian" distribution) and lo and behold found Ceres right where he predicted it.
1:27 interesting archaic use of the term "computer" in the 1912 article. Here, referring to a person who computes data, rather than a machine that does so.
0:10 well, that matches the origin of the word planet; it means 'wanderer' in greek, as in a star that moved rather than staying put. So the asteroids were planets before we really knew what they were.
And to confuse things even more the word "asteroid" means star-like. Because in a telescope they looked like point sources of light like a star. Whereas planets have a clear shape even in a small telescope.
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It had been discovered by an Italian astronomer, Giuseppe Piazzi, but then it disappaered behind the sun, and he could not find it anymore. C.F. Gauss used Piazzi's data, invented linear regresion and the error function (i.e., the "normal" or "Gaussian" distribution) and lo and behold found Ceres right where he predicted it.
Minutephysics: WELL THAT'S TOO DAMN BAD!
If you want to get to know them better first, check out their mission about the power of peatland ecosystems: planetwild.com/r/minutephysics/m35