Planet or Not, Pluto Now Has Far-Out Rival

New York Times ^ | July 30, 2005 | KENNETH CHANG and DENNIS OVERBYE

[tortoise]

Seems incredible that with all the looking they've done that they're just now seeing this.

This planet is 44 degrees off the ecliptic, an inclination far beyond where astronomers even bother to look for objects in our solar system. As is becoming more readily apparent, planetary objects in the Kuiper belt do not feel any particular need to be in or near the ecliptic. Now that they've started doing surveys at "improbable" inclinations, they are finding a lot of large trans-neptunian and Kuiper belt objects.

[tortoise]

Is this the same object and the same Mike Brown of Caltech who is quoted here:

No. There are three objects that have been reported in the last few days:

2003 EL61: Because it has a moon, they've been able to very accurately pinpoint its size at 1700 km. This was the first object reported and somewhat smaller than Pluto.

2005FY9: This is at the same distance as 2003 EL61, and has gotten lost in the shuffle. As of this morning the size is now known to be >2000 km diameter at a minimum, which means that it is probably around the same size as Pluto.

2003 UB313: Unlike Pluto and these other two objects, this does not have a trans-neptunian orbit and is more like a real planet, ignoring its orbital inclination. It is also very large, genuinely planet sized. Last estimate I saw was 3500-9500 km diameter; there is still quite a bit of uncertainty as to exactly how large it actually is.

[Graymatter]

Thank you, tortoise!

[MarkL]

Hmmmm.... Who do I take as a greater authority on cosmology? Allah, or Douglas Adams?

Mark

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

[NicknamedBob]

Don't you mean Mohammed, or Douglas Adams?

Heck, I'd take Scott Adams.

[NicknamedBob]

[SunkenCiv]

Astronomers Find a New Planet in Solar System
The New York Times | 7/29/05 | KENNETH CHANG
Posted on 07/29/2005 3:35:26 PM PDT by Right Wing Professor
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1453462/posts

[Brett66]

The estimates I read put an upper limit of around 4000 KM on it, but if they're now thinking it could be upwards of 9,500 KM, that puts it at Mars-sized. Pluto's definitely about have an identity crisis.

[tortoise]

The estimates I read put an upper limit of around 4000 KM on it, but if they're now thinking it could be upwards of 9,500 KM, that puts it at Mars-sized.

The problem is that they have no clue what the albedo of the object is. It probably will be more on the order 4000 km, but it will take a while to make that measurement.

The other monkey wrench is that this particular object is not really a trans-neptunian object like Pluto and others, but something that is sitting somewhere between the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud. Lacking experience with objects in that part of space, they do not have any baseline averages of what the albedo likely is.

[fish hawk]

Put it this way: IF the earth were scaled down to the size of a marble, the moon would be the size of a pea about 16 inches away. The sun would be the size of a four-foot beach ball and would be 490 feet away. The nearest star, Alpha Centauri, would still be about 24,000 miles away. The Milky Way Galaxy, would be about 55 billion miles wide. The Andromeda Galaxy, a member of our Local Group of galaxies, would be about 1 trillion miles away, even in our scaled down version of the universe. Awesome, yes.

[RightWhale]

The associations of astronomers do consider such things, but they know it is a low priority and doesn't matter at all.

[teldon30]

Paging Zechariah Sitchin........

[mdmathis6]

Awww Heck....change the definition of "planet" for any future planets discovered but let's just "grandfather Pluto" in as one of the original planets for old times sake...it will save time and money not having to reprint all those journals and books....(sarcasm lol)

[Future Snake Eater]

Unless I'm mistaken, wasn't Pluto actually "discovered" mathematically before it was ever spotted? I've also read that astronomers have known there was something larger than Pluto exerting gravitational forces on Neptune, but for some reason it's taken them this long to find anything else out there? Shouldn't mathematical/computer models have predicted the size and location of this planet years ago?

[mdmathis6]

I wonder if one must change one's view of the solar system as a star surrounded by relative flat orbital belts of planets and asteroids and instead view it as a star shrowded by a spheroid cloud of orbiting planets and debris which orbit sol in all manner of directions and angular ecclectics....including solar polar orbits!

[ThreePuttinDude]

I have a hard time believing anything from the NYT's.
I also think that an article should be reported by someone
that has a knowledge of the object of that report.
But that would be asking too much, for them to have credibility, I guess.

[RightWhale]

NYT does well on straight science.

[SunkenCiv]

the first one:

Large New World Discovered Beyond Neptune
space.com | 07-29-05 | WestVirginiaRebel
Posted on 07/29/2005 1:42:31 PM PDT by WestVirginiaRebel
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1453403/posts

[SunkenCiv]

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