Alyeska wrote:If this object doesn't get officaly listed as a planet, Pluto needs to be officaly delisted.
Pluto is a planet in the same way Europe is a seperate continent from Asia. But yeah, please, if we start calling every big Kuiper belt object a planet pretty soon we'll have have dozens if not hundreds of them. For simplicity's sake I'd be more in favor of delisting Pluto than that.
Surlethe wrote:I like the last option. That swells our solar system's dick to five times its current size; nobody else will be able to compete with us in a pissing contest!
<Ahem>
Points to our neighbor Alpha Centauri which has three stars, the inner pair capable of both having planets as far out our as our Mars and the outer red dwarf capable of having a whole solar system of its own.
And that's not even getting into open clusters like the Hyades with hundreds of stars. Or God forbid I should be forced to bring in globular clusters, the largest of which can contain up to a million stars.
QT: what makes Mercury a planet when it's no larger that Luna, IIRC? Couldn't asteroid-type-thingys be in the inner solar system as well?
"If one needed proof that a guitar was more than wood and string, that a song was more than notes and words, and that a man could be more than a name and a few faded pictures, then Robert Johnson’s recordings were all one could ask for."
wolveraptor wrote:QT: what makes Mercury a planet when it's no larger that Luna, IIRC? Couldn't asteroid-type-thingys be in the inner solar system as well?
Convention, as much as anything. And the fact that it's all on its own and has a regular orbit around the primary.
wolveraptor wrote:QT: what makes Mercury a planet when it's no larger that Luna, IIRC? Couldn't asteroid-type-thingys be in the inner solar system as well?
I'm pretty sure Mercury is bigger than Luna by a fair margin.
Wikipedia gives VMerc. = 6.1E10 km^3; VMoon = 2.2E10 km^3
So, about 3 times the volume.
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Mercury has a mass of 3.302×10^23 kg and Luna 7.35×10^22kg.
That's a ratio of 4.5 to 1. Not a lot, actually: the Earth is more than nine times as massive as Mars, for instance. Incidentally, Mars is only twice as massive as Mercury, so you might want to reconsider not wanting to include Mercury unless Mars is to be "at risk" also.
Historically, a planet (lit. 'wanderer') was any consistently visible celestial object that moved against the background of fixed stars, i.e. the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Later, the Sun was promoted, and the Earth and Moon demoted to make way for the heiiocentric system. Then the outer planets came along, followed by the Kuiper Belt and all the confusion as to what a planet "really" is.
Personally, I maintain that we should wait and see about calling the tenth planet before we learn more about the Kuiper Belt. Regardless of what the future holds, we can still allow Pluto a "honorary" planet status.
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Frankly, we are going to discover loads of Kuiper Belt Objects just like it. No reason to call it a planet, really.
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So, that brings up an interesting question; how do we define a planet? Proximity to the local star? Size? A combination of both? What it's made out of? Proximity to other celestial bodies?
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Erik von Nein wrote:So, that brings up an interesting question; how do we define a planet? Proximity to the local star? Size? A combination of both? What it's made out of? Proximity to other celestial bodies?
Well, it has to be decently-sized (read: not asteroidal), and it has to primarily orbit the star. That's for starters.
A Government founded upon justice, and recognizing the equal rights of all men; claiming higher authority for existence, or sanction for its laws, that nature, reason, and the regularly ascertained will of the people; steadily refusing to put its sword and purse in the service of any religious creed or family is a standing offense to most of the Governments of the world, and to some narrow and bigoted people among ourselves.
If Pluto gets demoted off the rollcall of planets it won't be the first time. Ceres was considered a planet before they started finding all the other belt asteroids.
My guess is either the solar system ends up with eight planets or Pluto gets an honorary planet status.
Unfortunately, most of the Greek or Roman god names (particularly those associated with creation, which tend to be the major gods) were used back when the first asteroids were being discovered. If a name is already taken by an asteroid, the IAU would not allow that name to be used again. One such particularly apt name would have been Persephone. In Greek mythology Persephone is the (forcibly abducted) wife of Hades (Roman Pluto) who spends six months each year underground close to Hades. The new planet is on an orbit that could be described in similar terms; half of the time it is in the vicinity of Pluto and half of the time much further away. Sadly, the name Persephone was used in 1895 as a name for the 399th known asteroid. The perhaps more appropriate Roman version of the name, Persipina, was used even earlier for the 26th known asteroid. The same story can be told for almost any other Greek or Roman god of any consequence.
Robert Gilruth to Max Faget on the Apollo program: “Max, we’re going to go back there one day, and when we do, they’re going to find out how tough it is.”
I would like at least one astronomical object named after the first living thing to make the ultimate sacrifice in man's drive to enter space. ONE FRIGGING THING. Am I the only dog-lover here? Call the planet Laika, for crissakes.
Aw...oh...jebus. Xena?!?!? The Princess-titty-fucking-warrior?!?! In the words of Carl, "You gotta be frickin' kidding me."
"If one needed proof that a guitar was more than wood and string, that a song was more than notes and words, and that a man could be more than a name and a few faded pictures, then Robert Johnson’s recordings were all one could ask for."
Unfortunately, most of the Greek or Roman god names (particularly those associated with creation, which tend to be the major gods) were used back when the first asteroids were being discovered. If a name is already taken by an asteroid, the IAU would not allow that name to be used again. One such particularly apt name would have been Persephone. In Greek mythology Persephone is the (forcibly abducted) wife of Hades (Roman Pluto) who spends six months each year underground close to Hades. The new planet is on an orbit that could be described in similar terms; half of the time it is in the vicinity of Pluto and half of the time much further away. Sadly, the name Persephone was used in 1895 as a name for the 399th known asteroid. The perhaps more appropriate Roman version of the name, Persipina, was used even earlier for the 26th known asteroid. The same story can be told for almost any other Greek or Roman god of any consequence.
I guess we'll have to nuke some roids inorder to fee up planet names
[Uncle Jimbo] (pointing to the asteroid Persephone) It's comming right for us! [/Uncle Jimbo]
Unfortunately, most of the Greek or Roman god names (particularly those associated with creation, which tend to be the major gods) were used back when the first asteroids were being discovered. If a name is already taken by an asteroid, the IAU would not allow that name to be used again. One such particularly apt name would have been Persephone. In Greek mythology Persephone is the (forcibly abducted) wife of Hades (Roman Pluto) who spends six months each year underground close to Hades. The new planet is on an orbit that could be described in similar terms; half of the time it is in the vicinity of Pluto and half of the time much further away. Sadly, the name Persephone was used in 1895 as a name for the 399th known asteroid. The perhaps more appropriate Roman version of the name, Persipina, was used even earlier for the 26th known asteroid. The same story can be told for almost any other Greek or Roman god of any consequence.
I guess we'll have to nuke some roids inorder to fee up planet names
[Uncle Jimbo] (pointing to the asteroid Persephone) It's comming right for us! [/Uncle Jimbo]
Maybe Zed's Deathstar can make a pitstop in the belt, then we can call this new bastard Persephone untill it get's to it's orbit.
KhyronTheBackstabber wrote:Well she's got a name now.
Xena.
*twitch* What? You're kidding? Please tell me you're kidding. That's retarded. Of all the names they could have chosen ...
Apparently the discoverers used that as a nickname (that and 'Lila'), but they also submitted a different unknown one to the IAU, subject to approval.
Robert Gilruth to Max Faget on the Apollo program: “Max, we’re going to go back there one day, and when we do, they’re going to find out how tough it is.”
WE, however, do meddle in the affairs of others.
What part of [ ,, N() ] don't you understand?
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Hmm...what'd Orson Scott Card call the tenth planet in Ender's Game? The one the Bugs blacked out?
Chronological Incontinence: Time warps around the poster. The thread topic winks out of existence and reappears in 1d10 posts.
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Xena?!?!? The Princess-titty-fucking-warrior?!?! In the words of Carl, "You gotta be frickin' kidding me."
,
, N(
