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Eris and its moon Dysnomia

Eris is the second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System, slightly smaller by volume than the dwarf planet Pluto, although it is 27 percent more massive. Discovered in January 2005 by a team based at Palomar Observatory, it was named after Eris, the Greek goddess of strife and discord. The ninth-most-massive object directly orbiting the Sun, Eris is the largest object in the Solar System that has not been visited by a spacecraft. It is a member of a high-eccentricity population known as the scattered disk and has one known moon, Dysnomia. It is about 96 astronomical units (14.4 billion kilometres; 8.9 billion miles) from the Sun, roughly three times as far away as Pluto. Except for some long-period comets, Eris and Dysnomia were the most distant known natural objects in the Solar System until 2018 VG18 was discovered in 2018. Observations of a stellar occultation by Eris in 2010 showed that its diameter was 2,326 ± 12 kilometers (1,445.3 ± 7.5 mi). (Full article...)

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Viklau Madonna

... that the Viklau Madonna (pictured) is one of the best-preserved 12th-century wooden sculptures in Europe?
... that American endocrinologist Jacob Robbins studied the effects of nuclear fallout in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Chernobyl on the development of thyroid cancer?
... that City Developments Limited introduced the concept of show houses in 1965, and is believed to be the first company in Asia to do so?
... that Troy Nehls, the sheriff of Fort Bend County, is the son of a sheriff and brother of a sheriff?
... that after closing his military academy at Chelsea, Lewis Lochée fought for the United Belgian States against the Austrian Netherlands and then wrote a history of the Belgian Revolution?
... that St. James Church in New York City was once occupied by a veterans' organization, an Indonesian church, and a group for Chinese senior citizens?
... that Ismail II of Granada deposed his brother to take the throne, but less than a year later he was dethroned and killed by his brother-in-law?
... that Vlambeer pitched the video game Serious Sam: The Random Encounter with a crude sketch, expecting it to be turned down?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

Najib Razak

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak (pictured) is found guilty on all seven charges in the first trial related to the 1MDB scandal.
A series of attacks over disputed farmland in Darfur, Sudan, leaves more than eighty people dead and several villages destroyed.
A security breach in the administration system of Twitter results in many prominent accounts promoting a bitcoin scam.

On this day

July 29

Augustin Fresnel

1693 – Nine Years' War: French troops defeated Allied forces led by William III of England at the Battle of Landen in present-day Neerwinden, Belgium.
1818 – French physicist Augustin Fresnel (pictured) submitted a memoir on the diffraction of light to the Royal Academy of Sciences, which provided strong support for the wave theory of light.
1900 – Italian-American anarchist Gaetano Bresci assassinated King Umberto I of Italy in Monza.
1950 – Korean War: U.S. forces concluded a four-day massacre of hundreds of civilians through shootings and air attacks near the village of Nogeun-ri, sparked by fears that North Korean soldiers were infiltrating refugee columns.

Pupienus (d. 238)
Alexis de Tocqueville (b. 1805)
Vincent van Gogh (d. 1890)

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Today's featured picture

Thomas Corwin (July 29, 1794 – December 18, 1865) was a politician from the U.S. state of Ohio. He represented Ohio in both houses of Congress, and served as the 15th governor of Ohio from 1840 to 1842 and the 20th U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1850 to 1853. He is best known for his sponsorship of the proposed Corwin Amendment, which was presented in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid the oncoming American Civil War.

This picture is a line engraving of Corwin, produced around 1902 by the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), as part of a BEP presentation album of the first 42 secretaries of the treasury.

Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew Shiva

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