Posted on 07/30/2005 4:50:22 AM PDT by infocats
Add a tenth planet to the solar system - or possibly subtract one.
Astronomers announced yesterday that they had found a lump of rock and ice that was larger than Pluto and the farthest known object in the solar system. The discovery will probably rekindle debate over the definition of "planet" and whether Pluto still merits the designation.
The new object - as yet unnamed, but temporarily known as 2003 UB313 - is now 9 billion miles away from the Sun, or 97 times as far away as Earth and about three times Pluto's current distance from the Sun. Its 560-year elliptical orbit brings it as close as 3.3 billion miles. Pluto's orbit ranges from 2.7 billion miles to 4.6 billion.
The astronomers do not have an exact size for the new planet, but its brightness and distance tell them that it is larger than Pluto, the smallest of the nine known planets.
"It is guaranteed bigger than Pluto," said Michael E. Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology and a member of the team that made the discovery. "Even if it were 100 percent reflective, it would be larger than Pluto. It can't be more than 100 percent reflective."
The discovery was made Jan. 8 at Palomar Observatory in California. Dr. Brown and the other members of the team - Chadwick A. Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii and David L. Rabinowitz of Yale University - then found that they had, unknowingly, taken images of the planet, using the observatory's 48-inch telescope, as far back as 2003......
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Still barely scratching the surface of our own solar system!
No this discovery won't prompt debate over the definition of a planet. That's your idea, Mr. NYT reporter
These thoughts coming from a journalism school graduate.
They should be qualified in their fields before making such predictions,
or at least include a disclaimer that it is just the writers thoughts.
OH Hell, its just the NYT's, home of Jayson Blair what can we expect....ha ha ha
You sure, what if it's covered with corner reflectors?
No, I think he's right. Right now planets can be said to be defined by roster. That is, a planet is whatever somebody decides to call a planet.
Most planets have orbits near the ecliptic plane, with relatively low ecentricity. Pluto fails these tests, its orbit is inclined with respect to the ecliptic plane and it has a relatively eccentric (oval vs. round) shape.
Pluto's discovery was an anomaly. Many astronomers have wanted to remove it from the Canon for years. I think there will be resistance to adding more planets. I suspect anything found orbiting the Sun from now on will be classified as a Kuiper Belt object (or similar definition), Pluto will retain his status as a planet as a matter of tradition (since 1929!) but with the qualification that he's the only planet who is also (read: "actually") a Kuiper Belt object.
In keeping with the traditional naming of planets, this place should be called Vulcan. Everyone knows Vulcan as the Roman god of fire who was always associated with the making of steel (the Greek name was Hephaestus), but many don't know Vulcan was the husband of Venus. It may have been hot as a volcano in his shop, but Vulcan was colder than steel elsewhere, thus promting Venus to seek help for others in order to provide the world with more gods and heros.
Fascinating
There's a simple reason that scientists haven't found the extra planet until now, as long as you understand one thing. What you need to understand is, "Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."
Mark
Is this the same object and the same Mike Brown of Caltech who is quoted here: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050729_large_object.html
"Is there any chance it is bigger than Pluto?"
"No," Brown said in a telephone interview. "Definitely not."
Ceres lost its designation as a planet once many more asteroids were discovered, and Pluto will as well. It's only a matter of time. Pluto is quite obviously a Kuiper Belt object, with the only distinction that it's usually the closest sizable one (Quaoar gets closer for part of its revolution).
Vulcan has already been assigned to a hypothetical planet inside the orbit of Mercury that gets reported once in a while.
PS. It's estimated that there are between 20 to 30 undiscovered planetoids the size of Pluto lurking out beyond Neptune.
No, those types call earth 'Gaia', their god. They worship the creation rather than the creator, in keeping with the UN's new world religion dream. It's a growing cult.
There are qualifications for being a journalist?
Well, sure. I mean, "It's not as if it were one of the Major planets..."
I have to disagree. This planet was known for years. ALF called the planet "Dave." They should keep the original name.....
Not according to "Allah", and you have to take the Islamic god's word for it, because he knows all. Little do people know, but the moon is a sun as well. Allah said so. Let's take a little peek inside the holy scripture and see what Allah says about space. It's not a big a place as you think.
Tabari I:232 “Gabriel brings to the sun a garment of luminosity from the light of Allah’s Throne according to the measure of the hours of the day. The garment is longer in the summer and shorter in the winter, and of intermediate length in autumn and spring. The sun puts on that garment as one of you here puts on his clothes.”
Tabari I:233 “When the Messenger was asked about that, he replied, ‘When Allah was done with His creation He created two suns from the light of His Throne. His foreknowledge told Him that He would efface one and change it to a moon; so the moon is smaller in size.”
Tabari I:234 “Allah thus sent Gabriel to drag his wing three times over the face of the moon, which at the time was a sun. He effaced its luminosity and left the light in it. This is what Allah means: [in Qur’an 17:12] ‘We have blotted out the sign of the night, and We have made the sign of the day something to see by.’ The blackness you can see as lines on the moon is a trace of the blotting.”
Tabari I:244 “Allah then created for the sun a chariot with 360 handholds from the luminosity of the light of the Throne and entrusted 360 of the angels inhabiting the lower heaven with the sun and its chariot, each of them gripping one of those handholds. Allah also entrusted 360 angels with the moon.”
Tabari I:234 “Then the Prophet said: ‘For the sun and the moon, Allah created easts and wests on the two sides of the earth and the two rims of heaven. There are 180 springs in the west of black clay-this is why Allah’s word says: “He found the sun setting in a muddy spring.” [18:86] The black clay bubbles and boils like a pot when it boils furiously.’”
Aha! that sure cuts down a few billion miles scientists THINK there is between the sun and earth!
Qur’an 18:83 “They ask you about Dhu’l-Qarnain [Alexander the Great]. Say, ‘I will cite something of his story. We gave him authority in the land and means of accomplishing his goals. So he followed a path until he reached the setting place of the sun. He saw that it set in black, muddy, hot water. Near it he found people.”
This is double- proved, so this must be an important FACT that 'Allah' wanted us to know. It's in the koran, so it must be so.
Tabari I:236 “‘When the sun rises upon its chariot from one of those springs it is accompanied by 360 angels with outspread wings…. When Allah wishes to test the sun and the moon,[for their faithfulness I suppose] showing His servants a sign and thereby getting them to obey, the sun tumbles from the chariot and falls into the deep end of that ocean.[sploosh!] When Allah wants to increase the significance of the sign and frighten His servants severely,[Allah has a sense of humor, he likes to scare the crap out of us once in a while] all of the sun falls and nothing of it remains in the chariot. That is a total eclipse of the sun. It is a misfortune for the sun.’”
I bet NONE of you knew that! While all these stupid "scientists" are running around guessing how the universe works, all they have to do is look in the koran and sacred word of Muhammad.
Tabari I:235 “Allah’s Apostle said, ‘Allah created an ocean three farakhs (918 kilometers) removed from heaven. Waves contained, it stands in the air by the command of Allah. No drop of it is spilled. All the oceans are motionless, but that ocean flows at the speed of an arrow. The sun, moon and retrograde stars [planets] by which Allah swears in the Qur’an [81:15], run like the sun and moon and race. All of the other stars are suspended from heaven as lamps are from mosques, and circulate together praising Allah. The Prophet said, ‘If you wish to have this made clear, look to the circulation of the sphere alternately here and there.’”
If you really want to show off a little, take THAT to your astrology class and make your teacher think you are really smart.
Tabari I:236 “Allah created two cities out in space, each with ten thousand gates, each 6 kilometers distant from the other. By Allah, were those people not so many and so noisy, all the inhabitants of this world would hear the loud crash made by the sun falling when it rises and when it sets. Gabriel took me to them during my Night Journey from the Sacred Mosque [the Ka’aba rock pile in Mecca] to the Farthest Mosque [the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem]. I told the people of these cities to worship Allah but they refused to listen to me.”
Bet none of you knew that Muhammad was really the first man in space, and that he talked to aliens!
Bukhari:V4B54N421 “I walked hand in hand with the Prophet when the sun was about to set. We did not stop looking at it. The Prophet asked, ‘Do you know where the sun goes at sunset?’ I replied, ‘Allah and His Apostle know better.’ He said, ‘It travels until it falls down and prostrates Itself underneath the Throne. The angels who are in charge of the sun prostrate themselves, also. The sun asks permission to rise again. It is permitted. Then it will prostrate itself again but this prostration will not be accepted. The sun then says, “My Lord, where do You command me to rise, from where I set or from where I rose?” Allah will order the sun to return whence it has come and so the sun will rise in the west. And that is the interpretation of the statement of Allah in the Qur’an.’”
The sun talks, and rises in the west. Sure, why not....
Qur’an 36:38 “The sun keeps revolving in its orbit at the dispensation of the All-Knowing. And the Moon, We have measured for her mansions till she returns like dried date stalks. It is not permitted for the Sun to overtake the Moon, nor can the Night outstrip the Day. Each (just) swims along, floating in (its own) orbit as a Sign as in a race. And we made similar vessels [chariots] for them to ride. But we could have drowned them if we pleased.” Muhammad got a new, imported shipment of high quality opium that day....
Qur’an 21:26 “Don’t the unbelievers see that the heavens and earth were joined together in one piece before we clove them asunder? ...Will they not believe? And We have set on the earth mountains as stabilizers, lest the earth should convulse without them. And We have made therein broad highways for them to pass through, that they may be guided. We have made the heaven a roof well guarded. Yet they turn away from its Signs! All (the celestial bodies) swim along, on a course, floating.”
The earth is flat, like a carpet, held down by mountains and heaven is a roof....
Tabari I:219 “When Allah wanted to create the creation, He brought forth smoke from the water. The smoke hovered loftily over it. He called it ‘heaven.’ Then He dried out the water and made it earth. He split it and made it seven earths on Sunday. He created the earth upon a big fish, that being the fish mentioned in the Qur’an. By the Pen, the fish was in the water. The water was upon the back of a small rock. The rock was on the back of an angel. The angel was on a big rock. The big rock was in the wind. The fish became agitated. As a result, the earth quaked, so Allah anchored the mountains and made it stable. This is why the Qur’an says, ‘Allah made for the earth firmly anchored mountains, lest it shake you up.’”
The earth sit's on a fish, which is in the water, which sits on a rock which is on the back of an angel, who is standing on a bigger rock, which is in a windy place....See how little scientists know?
When in doubt, just as "Allah". Now, back to your regular programming.
Janet Reno was born much too late.
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