did you hear the news?
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 42,828
Likes: 74
From: stuffed in a box
Originally Posted by The Raptor,Aug 16 2006, 11:46 AM
WTF is dumb about discovering new objects in the solar system?
they made an ASTEROID a planet now.
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 59,375
Likes: 1,617
From: La Crescenta, CA
The elite society of nine lordly bodies of rock, ice and gas would grow to at least 12 and as many as 53 members under a new definition of "planet" proposed Tuesday by the International Astronomical Union. The core of the definition? Planets are round. And they orbit a star. The proposal was hammered out after two years of intense astronomical debate among leading experts of the Astronomical Union, the international authority for naming celestial objects.
"We now have a new way to put the solar system together," said MIT astronomer Richard Binzel, a member of the committee that drafted the proposal. "We think this definition is reasonable." It will be voted on next week by the group's general assembly, which is now meeting in Prague, Czech Republic. Binzel said he was optimistic the definition would be approved.
The new list of planets would include UB313, which was recently discovered beyond Pluto's orbit, as well as two bodies that have previously been rejected for planetary status: Pluto's moon Charon and Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Charon and Pluto would become the solar system's first double planet, meaning they twirl around each other but neither dominates. They would become part of a new subclass of planets called "plutons," defined as having orbits around the sun that take at least 200 years.
There could be dozens more plutons added after the objects are further reviewed by the Astronomical Union. There are 12 awaiting evaluation.
Ceres would also become the sole member of a subclass called "dwarf planets."
"We now have a new way to put the solar system together," said MIT astronomer Richard Binzel, a member of the committee that drafted the proposal. "We think this definition is reasonable." It will be voted on next week by the group's general assembly, which is now meeting in Prague, Czech Republic. Binzel said he was optimistic the definition would be approved.
The new list of planets would include UB313, which was recently discovered beyond Pluto's orbit, as well as two bodies that have previously been rejected for planetary status: Pluto's moon Charon and Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Charon and Pluto would become the solar system's first double planet, meaning they twirl around each other but neither dominates. They would become part of a new subclass of planets called "plutons," defined as having orbits around the sun that take at least 200 years.
There could be dozens more plutons added after the objects are further reviewed by the Astronomical Union. There are 12 awaiting evaluation.
Ceres would also become the sole member of a subclass called "dwarf planets."
