If this is not 'Planet X', what is it? (biggest solar system body found in more than 70 years)

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | October 8 2002 | By Stephen Cauchi

[rightwingreligiousfanatic]

The Land of Lost Loser Liberals.

Let's send Daschle and gang, along with SoDamn Insane and his merry band of muslims there to create their own Utopia. I'll volunteer to punch their tickets! ;^)

[Alouette]

If this is not 'Planet X', what is it?

It's the Palestinian State.

[Jonah Hex]

Let's see.... it's small, cold, and stony.

Let's call it "Hillary's Heart"!

[pabianice]

Quaoar - named after the creation force of the Tongva Indian tribe, the original inhabitants of the Los Angeles area where the Caltech campus is located - was discovered in June, but not announced until yesterday.

Valuing the Difference of the Multicultural Diversity Alert! I'm sure the object was named for the Tongva because of their sophisticated lnowledge of astronomy...

[Young Werther]

Omigosh! Gasp!

[DonQ]

Who the heck named this "planet"?? There is an international committee for the naming of celestial bodies and I bet they had nothing to do with this.

[SengirV]

Planet X: Rogue planet in a binary orbit between our Sun and another star; it's supposedly due to pass between the Sun and Earth sometime late spring or early summer. Is this correct?

I hope this is not for real. You are joking right?

Firstly, This presumes that there is another star closer than the established closest star to our solar system, Proxima Centauri( 4.22 light years away) which is itself a memeber of a Alpha Centauri triple star system. So, from the best of modern astronomy, we do not have a close neighbor star(we'll call it "nemesis"), with which we are interacting.

Secondly, if there were a planent in binary orbit(presumably orbiting both stars) around us and nemesis, then it would be impossible to find it until it did make a very close passby of Sol. You see, if this planet is not emitting any light(non star's do not emit visible light - I know some joker will say something about jupiter), then the only light we would be able to see is that reflected from our star or reflected from nemesis. Since we can't find friggen nemesis itself, there is no hope of finding the planet until it came VERY close to Sol itself. If something like this actually did happen, it would be concidered a rogue interstellar planet anyway BECAUSE THERE IS NO NEMESIS!!!!!

Finally, don't you think a story like this would have gotten a little airtime by now?

[Aracelis]

Quaoar ping!

[1bigdictator]

A couple months ago an ex-Nasa employee was on some late-night radio talk program with that weirdo from Nevada who broadcasts late a t night. He, of course, claimed there was a cover-up to prevent global panic in the face of the coming catastrophe.

But why worry about Iraq and WMD if such an event were to occur?

[TBall]

A few months back someone mentioned Planet X on FR and I did a search on it. True or not, Planet X apparently has a rather large following.

[Darth Dan]

All your Quaoar are belong to us!

[PatrickHenry]

Quaoar ping!

There's something definitely queer about the name Quaoar. Why don't they name it Clinton? It sounds like this thing is a worthless lump, and nothing of any importance on Earth will ever bear Clinton's name.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Planet X is after planet W according to Porky Pig in "Duck Dodgers in the 21st and a half century."

[null and void]

Next thing we will find out that Earth is the garbage can of Universe where all the evil and rotten was dumped to :-)

That would explain a lot!

[null and void]

It should be named Rupert, BTW...

[conejo99]

I believe Larry Niven's "Protector" novel named it "Persephone" also.

[galt-jw]

good one.

[Redcloak]

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

[DonQ]

A professional astronomer who is a friend of mine has told me that the Planet X theory - although very vague - has support because of the odd behavior of Neptune & Pluto. Those two seem not to follow the pure mathematical rules of motion and it is as if another, unknown, planet was out there influencing their orbits. So Planet X exists on paper as a means of explaining some anomalies. But its "influences" are so vague and unpredictable that it has never been possible to pinpoint its location, much less spot it with a telescope.

I have no clue as to what would be the name of this planet. Considering that it is supposed to influence Pluto, who was king of the dead, maybe Orpheus. Or Mickey Mouse.

[Nick Danger]

Pluto may lose that privilege from the powers-that-be... "I think the International Astronomical Union are trying to get their nerve up on this (Pluto)," said Professor Taylor.

You Earthlings are so arrogant. What makes you think that you get to decide what's a planet and what isn't? Suppose we decided that Earth isn't a planet? What then, Mr. Big-shot humanoid?

Lemme tell you something about Pluto. We've been around longer than you have. In fact, we've had space travel for almost 200 years. You know those people you have that you call "Democrats?" Well, I've got news for you, buddy. They're all from Pluto. We got tired of 'em screwing up our elections, so we sent them to your stupid little planet.

Don't tell me, they don't follow the rules, do they? They cheat, and they lie, and they stack the courts to get away with it. Well, they're your problem now. Hah!