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New Planet Is Bigger Than Pluto
AP on Yahoo ^ | 2/1/06 | Alicia Chang - ap

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


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; bigger; gabrielle; kuiperbelt; newhorizons; p4; p5; planet; pluto; ub313; xena; xplanets
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To: theDentist; Berosus

Retroactively! ;')


21 posted on 02/01/2006 5:03:15 PM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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To: NormsRevenge

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


22 posted on 02/01/2006 10:05:46 PM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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To: SunkenCiv

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..


23 posted on 02/01/2006 10:10:11 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Monthly Donor spoken Here. Go to ... https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

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...


24 posted on 02/01/2006 10:12:32 PM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Whaaaat?!? No Global Warming? No 9/11 Hoax? No Face on Mars? No faked Apollo program? That show has really gone downhill... ;')


25 posted on 02/01/2006 10:13:36 PM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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To: SunkenCiv

One can not survive on tinfoil alone. ;-)


26 posted on 02/01/2006 10:15:05 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Monthly Donor spoken Here. Go to ... https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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Had I been thinkin', I'd have just used the diameters cubed, and forgotten the constants...


27 posted on 02/01/2006 10:16:09 PM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Hey, speak for yourself! ;')


28 posted on 02/01/2006 10:16:29 PM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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To: NormsRevenge

So we have to settle on either 8 or 10 planets? Do we get larger galactic block grants if we claim more planets?


29 posted on 02/01/2006 10:22:46 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Larry Lucido
If someone asks about the size of Uranus, RUN AWAY!
30 posted on 02/01/2006 10:23:53 PM PST by Petronski (I love Cyborg!)
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To: SunkenCiv

lol.

Dang, the 10th planet update was almost nil,, maybe 2 minutes and done

mad cow is getting the bulk of the hour.


31 posted on 02/01/2006 10:24:48 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Monthly Donor spoken Here. Go to ... https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Petronski

Don't ask about my flaming asteroids.


32 posted on 02/01/2006 10:26:56 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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Tenth Planet found to be a whopper
(image width set to 600, actual is wider)

33 posted on 02/01/2006 11:01:59 PM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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2003 EL 61
2003 EL 61
Michael Brown
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.

34 posted on 02/01/2006 11:04:23 PM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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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.


35 posted on 02/01/2006 11:08:46 PM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Anybody know of a good list online of the Kuiper Belt objects discovered so far?


36 posted on 02/02/2006 6:03:01 AM PST by Berosus ("There is no beauty like Jerusalem, no wealth like Rome, no depravity like Arabia."--the Talmud)
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To: Berosus; Swordmaker; 75thOVI; AndrewC; Avoiding_Sulla; BenLurkin; CGVet58; chilepepper; ckilmer; ...

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


37 posted on 02/02/2006 9:14:34 AM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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To: SunkenCiv
You got the volume ratio right on the second try, about 45% percent.
38 posted on 02/02/2006 10:01:19 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (NYT Headline: 'Protocols of the Learned Elders of CBS: Fake But Accurate, Experts Say.')
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

:')


39 posted on 02/02/2006 10:37:06 AM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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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


40 posted on 02/02/2006 10:37:28 AM PST by SunkenCiv (In the long run, there is only the short run.)
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