They're coming, and they want our air.
Posted on 07/29/2005 3:35:26 PM PDT by Right Wing Professor
Add a 10th planet to the solar system - or possibly subtract one.
Astronomers announced today that they have found a lump of rock and ice that is larger than Pluto and the farthest known object in the solar system. The discovery will likely rekindle debate over the definition of "planet" and whether Pluto should still be regarded as one.
The new object - as yet unnamed - is currently 9 billion miles away from the Sun, or about three times Pluto's current distance from the Sun. But its 560-year orbit also brings it as close as 3.3 billion miles. Pluto's elliptical orbit ranges between 2.7 billion and 4.6 billion miles.
The astronomers do not have an exact size for the new planet, but its brightness and distance tell them that it is at least as large as Pluto.
"It is guaranteed bigger than Pluto," said Michael E. Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech, who led 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 using a 48-inch telescope at Palomar Observatory. The astronomers, however, were not able to see it using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which looks at infrared light. That means the planet is less than 1,800 miles in diameter.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Enough of this nonsense! Pluto should be grandfathered-in to the solar system and we should ignore all these newfangled bodies until Disney names a cartoon character after them and they rise to a position worthy of our respect.
Aha! So there is something unseemly going on in the Ivory Tower.
They're coming, and they want our air.
Does that make them the ambiguously gay duo?
The astronomers giveth and the astronomers taketh away.
it's Utopia. Send all leftists there.
Who cares what it will be called, can we mine it for Naquada?
Please provide links to news -- space.com isn't reporting 3
So you're one of those who believe it's a rather small planet?
Call it "Naboo", in honor of Star Wars. (Why not add a little levity to the mix?!)
Cerberus.
Urectum?!!! U damned near killed 'em!
Heh, actually yes. There has been some testiness on the astronomy lists, and a number of folks who are rather displeased with the behavior of Brown's group. Brown is trying to take control of the situation, including taking the discovery claim away from the Spanish amateur. Most of the other folks are having none of it since Brown did not catalog the objects in accordance with the rules he and all the other research groups are nominally playing by. From everyone else's perspective, if he got burned he deserved it.
Even astronomy is not immune from petty politics. :-)
The third is at the same distance as 2003 EL61, and probably modestly larger. It was last designated as 2005FY9 if I remember correctly. It has kind of fallen through the cracks, between the Spanish amateur scooping 2003 EL61 and 2003 UB313 being a really intriguing object.
The Spanish amateur discovering 2003 EL61 is great PR for astronomy.
I'd hate to think we chemists were unusual :-)
What sort of telescope does he have?
It gives the bourgeoise class a bad name. :)
Ignorance triumphs again? This story first appeared two days ago, and if memory serves me right, its orbit does not meet the requirements of the definition of a planet.
I'm actually on the minor planet mailing lists where this stuff happened. Brown published his data for 2003 EL61 plus the data for two additional massive KBOs, including the planet-sized 2003 UB313. Space.com only gets filtered bits and pieces of the raw stream, like most news aggregators.
For those that recognize the origin of my screen name, I am obviously required to propose
Kobold
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