New Planet In Solar System Discovered
 

Just when you thought it was safe to go out after dark...

A NEW planet has just been discovered at the outer reaches of our solar system. It has been tentatively named Sedna, in honor of an Alaskan deity.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/0...ect/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/...like_body.html
http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...ns_030227.html

That brings the tally to 10! Of course, the debate rages on as to WHAT defines a planet at all... so it may get demoted along with Pluto, whilst some scientists are trying to boost the ratings of a myriad of other system objects (which could bring the planetary total as high as 2 dozen!). Eeks, even planets are fighting for their rights these days... :D

:muffit:

Whoa! That is neat! Man the things you miss when you don't watch the news!

Interesting that nobody had a definition of what a planet is...

I'll be interested to see if the definition gets adopted or not... and to see if we actually DO get a 10th (or 12th) planet...

--Rhonda

That would be a treat, if there were 12 of them, consider the possibilities...

hehehe

:D

(Thanks for the story, Muffit. Very interesting article.)

Hey I completely missed that BST and it was staring me right in the face!:wtf:

That's ok. I've done it myself -- too many times to mention. :laugh:

LOL BST! Instead of calling them Quaoar and Sedna (just rolls off the tongue, huh? ;) ), we could use, say, oh, Cappaberra - err, no, that's not right, Cup-o-noodles - ah heck, what was the name of that planet on that show...??? ;)

:muffit:

Cappuchino??



btw, didn't Cup-of-Noodles have a moon called 'Oodles'?

:D

I like Tantooine, Endor, of Degobah then I can imagine they are really out there:)

Well I guess this screws up the colonial fleet. Didn't the lightship guys specifically say to look for a system of NINE planets?

;)

Btw... Tom's Tiny Planet sounds like a good name to me!

i wish that someone would have a defining clue for a planet. I guess this would mess our beloved fleet up!

If you (scientist) discover it I think you want to call it a planet. If you (scientist) didn't discover it you want to call it an asteroid.

From what I have read Pluto and all these more distant objects discovered thus far are at best merely large asteroids. I am not 100% sure on this but I believe Pluto is not a true spheroid which I believe really defines a planet versuses an asteroid.

When you look at "moons" however you get a whole new monkeywrench. The moons in our solar system are either "planets" or asteroids that were captured by larger planets which now orbit around a common center of gravity. Are own "moon" is the largest moon relative to the planet it orbits in our solar system. Many scientist think it is more accurate to call the Earth/Moon a binary planet system. If our "moon" was in orbit purely around the sun and not with the Earth it would no doubt be considered a planet.

The "moons" of Mars are obviously asteroids.

Many of the "moons" of the larger planets should be considered captured planets. The "moon" Europa is probably the best place to look for life in our solar system outside Earth.

In the book "Pale Blue Dot" by Carl Sagen (Which I recommend if you like astrophysics), Carl Sagen overcame the semantic issues of planets versus moons by calling them "worlds".

I read that there is still some thought that a large planet that orbits our sun may still be out there at an extreme distance and lay undiscovered. Although not found it would explain some issues with gravitional perturbations that some scientist believe still exist when calculating current planetary and solar orbits.

Thank you will look for it ! I love his work! :D

Muffit thank you so much for posting this. I thought those stories were great.
Of course no one will be able to 'confirm' that 'Pluto' is actually a planet until
the trip is made ;)

I can't wait :D

Tom you all ready have a tiny planet it's called colonial fleets!!!:D

I thought that Pluto was Mickey Mouse's dog? :confused:




:D ;)

:no: oh boy I think someone is looking for an invite to the thwack thread ....;) :D

I'll be waiting for them :naughty:

You'll have to catch me first! :D

Oh no unowhoandwhy we don't chase people for the thwack thread you either report there due to your own guilty concience or your "invited" ;) or you need us to thwack someone for you in your personal life...:D

Voluntary thwacking, eh? I knew someone who...

Nevermind, but there's this club called Man-Ray in Boston that you should avoid if you don't like voluntary thwackings... ;)

LOL UWW!!
Egads, am sure glad you didn't bring up other possible meanings for Uranus...

Oops! Now I did it! Yikes! ;)
:muffit:

yes well if you read post 347 in that thread you will see you are not far off...