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Posted on 02/01/2006 11:04:55 AM PST by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES - Scientists say they have confirmed that a so-called 10th planet discovered last year is bigger than Pluto, but that likely won't quell the debate over what makes a planet.
The astronomers who spotted the icy, rocky body — informally called UB313 — had reported only a rough estimate of its size based on its brightness.
But another group of researchers has come up with what is believed to be the first calculation of UB313's diameter.
By measuring how much heat it radiates, German scientists led by Frank Bertoldi of the University of Bonn estimated that UB313 was about 1,864 miles across. That makes it larger than Pluto, which has a diameter of about 1,429 miles.
"It is now increasingly hard to justify calling Pluto a planet if UB313 is not also given this status," Bertoldi said in a statement.
Details were published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
Some astronomers have debated over what is a planet and whether Pluto should keep its status. The difficulty is there is no official definition and some argue that setting standards like size limits opens the door too wide.
Michael Brown, the astronomer at the California Institute of Technology who discovered UB313 and announced it last July, said the Germans' measurement seemed plausible. He said his team is using the Hubble Space Telescope to directly figure out its size.
Brown previously reported that UB313 was thought to be larger than Pluto and estimated that it was most likely between 1,398 miles and 2,175 miles in diameter.
If it is determined to be the 10th planet, it would be the farthest-known body in the solar system.
___
On the Net:
Nature journal: http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html
Caltech: http://www.caltech.edu
Retroactively! ;')
Pluto is (I think) about 27 per cent the size of Mike's.
http://www.gomath.com/algebra/sphere.php
3391066811.05 (volume of Pluto)
divided by:
12223210632.82 (volume of Mike's)
equals:
.27742848527
Coast to Coast will have a planetary scientist on shortly in the first hour discussing the "Tenth Planet" and Pluto, followed by an update on Mad Cow disease..
Whoops, screwed that up... used radius on one and not the other...
Quick, someone get in here and straighten this out...
http://www.gomath.com/algebra/sphere.php
Pluto:
Surface Area = 6,415,261
Volume = 1,527,901,329.10
Brown's Planet:
Surface Area = 10,915,451.11
Volume = 3,391,066,811.05
Yeah, .45056656629 per cent...
Whaaaat?!? No Global Warming? No 9/11 Hoax? No Face on Mars? No faked Apollo program? That show has really gone downhill... ;')
One can not survive on tinfoil alone. ;-)
Had I been thinkin', I'd have just used the diameters cubed, and forgotten the constants...
Hey, speak for yourself! ;')
So we have to settle on either 8 or 10 planets? Do we get larger galactic block grants if we claim more planets?
lol.
Dang, the 10th planet update was almost nil,, maybe 2 minutes and done
mad cow is getting the bulk of the hour.
Don't ask about my flaming asteroids.
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2003 EL61 is one of the strangest known objects in the solar system. It is a big across as Pluto, but shaped like a cigar. Or perhaps like a football [American-style]. Or, most accurately, a foot ball that has too little air in it and has been stepped on. It spins on its axis every 4 hours like a football that has been kicked. It appears to be made almost entirely of rock, but with a glaze of ice over the surface. And it is surrounded by two satellites... Very soon 2003 EL61 will get a real name, much like Sedna and Quaoar and Orcus. But when first discovered these objects are only given 'preliminary designations' until they are confirmed and well know. There is little need of confirmation of 2003 EL61 as it has now been seen after the fact in images from more than 50 years ago! We will thus propose a name to the International Astronomical Union and that name will become the permanent -- and with luck more melodious -- name of 2003 EL61.
2003 EL 61
Michael Brown
http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/planetlila/
How will the planetary status be decided?
The above gives my personal view on how to resolve the planetary status. The official decision will come from the International Astronomical Union. We had hoped for a timely decision but we instead appear to be stuck in committee limbo. Here is the story, as best I can reconstruct it from the hints and rumors that I hear:
• A special committee of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) was charged with determining "what is a planet."
• Sometime around the end of 2005, this committee voted by a narrow margin for the "pluto and everything bigger" definition, or something close to it.
• The exectutive committee of the IAU then decided to ask the Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society to make a reccomendation.
• The DPS asked their committee to look in to it.
• The DPS committee decided to form a special committee.
• Rumor has emerged that when the IAU general assembly meets in August in Prauge they willl make a decision on how to make a final decision!
So when do we expect a decision? Back in August 2005 I used to joke that the IAU was so slow they might take until 2006 before deciding. That was supposed to be a joke. Now I joke that I hope there is a decision by the time my daughter starts grade school and learns about planets in class. She is currently 7 months old.
Anybody know of a good list online of the Kuiper Belt objects discovered so far?
There's a KBO website or maybe more than one, because I've seen one. :')
used Google to find this page:
http://www.astronomynotes.com/solfluf/s8.htm
It had pointers to these:
http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/planets/kuiperb.htm
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/lists/TNOs.html
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/lists/OuterPlot.html
Google also turned up this:
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/lists/Centaurs.html
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/faculty/jewitt/kb.html
And the David Jewett site includes this frame, which may be of interest to you and Swordmaker, and a number of other people:
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/faculty/jewitt/kb/migrate.html
:')
related:
Far-out worlds, just waiting to be found
New Scientist | 23 July 2005 (issue date) | Stuart Clark
Posted on 07/20/2005 10:54:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1447339/posts
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