12 replies to this topic

[Flaming Hilt]

Holy crap!

"To qualify as a planet, a celestial body must be in orbit around a star while not itself being a star. It also must be large enough in mass "for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit."

Pluto was automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's."

http://news.bbc.co.u...ure/5282440.stm

...you guys know this means we get new textbooks, right?

[sporkboyofjustice]

Holy crap!

"To qualify as a planet, a celestial body must be in orbit around a star while not itself being a star. It also must be large enough in mass "for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit."

Pluto was automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's."

http://news.bbc.co.u...ure/5282440.stm

...you guys know this means we get new textbooks, right?

I also think that it means no more mothers bringing us multiple pizzas. Nooooooooooo.

[Lancaster]

That'll be something to tell your grandkids.

"Back in my day there were nine planets in the solar system. What was the name of that last one again? Ah, I can't remember.... "

[Flaming Hilt]

"But how did the ninth one disappear, daddy?"

"Well, I decided to try out this one HUGE Nerf gun I'd made..."

Edited by Flaming Hilt, 24 August 2006 - 05:49 PM.

[euphemism]

A related story:
Q&A New planets proposal.

[Ash]

Whatever happened to the tenth planet that they found? I remember it was temporarily called "Planet X"... did they decide that wasn't a planet? This was years ago, I don't remember hearing anything about it after the initial discovery.

[King Of Butt Land]

Aparently "Planet-X" and Pluto were orbiting around eachother in a synchronus orbit, but now since Pluto has been demoted, what the hell is "Planet-X". It no longer qualifies as a moon. So is it debris? Leave to NASA to mess with fragile minds yet again.

-Butt

[Lancaster]

Planet X

[EastCoastNerfer]

Holy crap!

"To qualify as a planet... has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit."

Pluto was automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's."

Doesn't that mean that Neptune also isn't a planet too? Technically, its orbit does also cross pluto's.

[Crankymonky]

Let me clarify, after my most recent visit to Prague, We all came to a conclusion. <g>

Pluto was demoted...into a planet. It is now classified as a Dwarf planet. Then, Pluto's moon Charon is now also a Dwarf planet, (The gravitational pull for both is actually centered between the two). Then you have 2003 UB313 "Xena", now a planet, and the asteroid Ceres. These four are all considered Dwarf planets. 8 Classical, 4 Dwarf.

Lovely, no? But according to Mike Brown, the discoverer of Xena, the definition means there are already 53 known planets in our solar system with countless more to be discovered. (Space.com)


http://space.com/sci...definition.html

That is a slightly better article.

I'm unsure what is needed to qualify as a major planet, so take Flaming Hilt's description or go do some research!

EDIT: Just saw a few decent links about it from Slashdot.
http://science.slash...24/148245.shtml

Edited by crankymonky, 24 August 2006 - 09:16 PM.

[moubeus5018]

Haha Pluto got fired. Were back to 9 planets. (zena for you who dont know) was added. They are trying to add 3 more, but when the new classification came out they were droped. One was an asteroid in the belt, one was plutos moon, and the last one was farther out than zena.





Wait, if pluto's moon(and pluto itself) are dwarf planets, and pluto is smaller than the moon, why is the moon not classifyed as a dwarf planet?

Edited by moubeus5018, 27 August 2006 - 12:51 PM.

[WratH]

Our moon(if that is what you mean) is not a dwarf planet because it is a moon which revolves around us. Earth is not affected by the moon's pull because it is too big. Charon, however does not revolve around Pluto, they both revolve around each other.

[moubeus5018]

Our moon(if that is what you mean) is not a dwarf planet because it is a moon which revolves around us. Earth is not affected by the moon's pull because it is too big. Charon, however does not revolve around Pluto, they both revolve around each other.

thanks, I didnt get a chance to read the link above but when i did i saw that. If any of you have played metios for the ds, ploto and cheron are like the plante luna=luna. In the game they are 2 very small insignifigant, twin planets that revolve around each other in there orbit.