By Amy Lavigne, Kat Fano, Jake Kratzenberg, and Tim McGrath

Pluto (the “planet”, not Mickey’s dog) was first discovered by an astronomer in America in 1930. Pluto was the smallest planet and was the ninth planet from the sun, which is about 3.6 billion miles. The once planet is only 1,400 miles wide, to picture it, think of half of the width of the United States (NASA). It takes the Earth 365 days or one year to orbit the sun while it takes Pluto 248 days. An average day on Earth contains 24 hours while a day on Pluto is about six and a half Earth days, averaging 156 hours. Ever wonder how they came up with the name Pluto? Well, an 11-year-old girl in England came up with the name for the most controversial plutoid (a dwarf planet further than Neptune) which is still orbiting our sun. While the Earth has one moon, Pluto has five, one named Charon, which is half the size of the planet it orbits. Pluto’s other four smaller moons are Kerberos, Styx (must be a fan), Nix, and Hydra.

In August 2006, many children’s favorite mnemonic device, My (Mercury) Very (Venus) Excellent (Earth) Mother (Mars) Just (Jupiter) Served (Saturn) Us (Uranus) Nine (Neptune) Pizzas (Pluto), has changed forever. Pluto was declared a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) during that historical year. According to the IAU, Pluto didn’t meet the three requirements it needed to to still be considered a full-sized planet. The requirements are that it is in orbit around the Sun, it has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium (a nearly round shape), and it has “cleared the neighborhood” around its orbit (Everyday Mysteries). Pluto has met all the requirements except for one, Pluto hasn’t “cleared the neighborhood”. Pluto may be the largest thing in Kuiper Belt, the region in which Pluto resides, but it is not big enough to clear it’s dangerous, close in size neighbors. From now on if any astronomer or scientist finds a strange object in space that looks like a planet, it has to meet those three criteria to be considered a full-sized planet.

It’s sad to think that future generations will think of Mickey’s playful pup instead of the dwarf planet when they hear the name Pluto. Also how sad for Pluto’s confidence? He was declared a planet and then had his title stripped away to be named a dwarf planet? The International Astronomical Union sure does know how to produce a low blow.

 

If you reside in the Hudson Valley area in New York, there is a 98% chance that you know about the Hudson Valley Renegades, the local minor league baseball team. The Renegades are best known for producing over 50 major league players including Josh Hamilton, an outfielder for the Texas Rangers, Ryan Dempster, a former pitcher for the Florida Marlins, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox, and Scott Podsednik, the only former Renegades player to win a World Series, who is a former Boston Red Sox outfielder. The Renegades gave many talented men a kick start into successful careers but where did the Hudson Valley Renegades begin?

It all started in 1994 when the Hudson Valley Renegades played in the New York-Penn League, a short season class A league, along with the Northwest League, which is where a team only plays 75 games per season rather than the typical 140 games played by teams in a higher league. The team was founded as the Erie Sailors and was at one point affiliated with the Texas Rangers before the Sailors moved to the Hudson Valley to make Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill, New York, which took a mere 71 days to make, their home field and give themselves a new name; the Hudson Valley Renegades. Two years later, the Renegades became affiliated with the Tampa Bay Rays and still are to this day.

As of opening day, April 4^th, 2016, the Renegades are celebrating their 22^nd year in the Hudson Valley. In the past 22 years they have won the New York-Penn League championship twice, once in 1999 where they defeated Utica 2-1 in the semifinals and then defeated Mahoning Valley 2-1 for the championship, and then again in 2012 where they defeated Brooklyn 2-1 in the semifinals and then Tri-City 2-1 for another championship. Did anyone else pick up on a pattern? I hope you learned something from this and I hope you enjoy opening day! Go Renegades!

This is my first year at Marist and I’ve only had about two days that really felt like Spring. I have always loved Spring but being at Marist makes Spring 10 times more fun. The first day that I could walk around in a tank top and see people on the campus beach was amazing. I sat and watched everyone taking in the sun, playing frisbee or Can Jam and it made me feel like I was a part of a little community. I remember sitting outside just watching everyone enjoying themselves and I kept repeating, “I picked such a beautiful campus.”

While the campus beach was full of amazing people doing hilarious and entertaining things, I think my favorite part about Spring on the Marist campus will be sitting down by the river. I sat down by the river with a close group of friends on one beautiful Spring day and I never felt more at home. I’ve never been so in love with Spring than I have been while at Marist and there’s only been a limited number of Spring like days. Spring is more enjoyable when you are in a beautiful place with beautiful people and that is why I am so happy that I get to celebrate my Springs here at Marist.