Just when you thought you knew the solar system, shit decided to get weird. According to a newly proposed definition of the term "planet", we now have 12, instead of 8 or 9, planets. The definition, from an MIT news release:
"...two conditions must be satisfied for an object to be called a planet. First, the object must be in orbit around a star, while not being itself a star. Second, the object must be large enough (or, to be more technically correct, massive enough) for its own gravity to pull it into a nearly spherical shape."
I don't know about this definition. Condition number 1 seems straightforward enough, but what about that second one? What's "nearly spherical"? What degree of eccentricity are we allowing before the orbit is considered too ellipsoidal to be "nearly spherical"? Seems a bit shifty to me. Too much room for debate (orbital eccentricity was one of the key debate points over Pluto, after all, and it hardly seems resolved). That said, I don't know what the previous definition was, or if there even was one, so maybe this is a step in the right direction.
The new definition is certainly running into opposition, and it has one more test to pass, but it appears to be catching on:
"If the definition is approved this week at the IAU General Assembly in Prague, our solar system will include 12 planets, with more to come. They include the eight classical planets that dominate the system, three planets in a new and growing category of "plutons" - Pluto-like objects - and Ceres. Pluto remains a planet and is the prototype for the new category of plutons.
'It's time to rewrite the textbooks,' said Richard Binzel, an MIT professor of planetary science in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences."
Pending approval, say hello to your new Solar System:
PS: 2003 UB313 is a shitty name for a planet, especially when compared with slick-ass monikers like Ceres and Charon. Maybe we should have a Jackblog contest to name the poor bastard something proper?
Labels: science
posted by dan @ 10:41 AM
11 Comments:
well I don't care how many planets there are, just as long as they are consistantly labelled as a planet. There also is an argument that pluto is not a planet due to the fact it is so small jupiter has moons bigger then it.
Yeah, that's what I've always heard. That pluto is too small, it's orbit is too eccentric and it's orbital plane is way out of whack with the rest of the planets.
I don't know the difference between its and it's.
Okay. My own nomination for a new name is Acheron. I know it's not the best in that it wasn't the name of a specific figure, but rather a river. My case: 1) it nicely continues the death/underworld/borderlands theme of Pluto and Charon and 2) it sounds cool.
Now that I'm responsible for 75% of the comments on my boring planet-post, I'll pipe down.
I suggest the name Lazarus, in honor of Sci-Fi great Robert Heinlein and the protagonist from his novel "Time Enough For Love," Lazarus Long.
it needs to be Acheron for another reason. Jon McNeill and I ran a MUD in high shcool and college with the same name. COME ON!!!!
HOW ELSE WOULD WE KNOES THE SECRTES TO GETTING THE MJOLNIR?? OR THE SECRETS OF YETI? d, s, s, s, s, s,w, k yeti, s, move rock, get branch, light branch!!
Outrageous. Science is apalled at your display, gamemaster Sean.
I, however, am enchanted! Who wants to MUD?
In other Science news, yesterday a NASA release confirmed that we now have solid evidence for the existence of Dark Matter. This is a huge step toward working out all the various, frequently incompatible, integrated theories of matter and gravitation. Hurray, science! Read more here: http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/06_releases/press_082106.html
whoops. the ending tag of that is "/press_082106.html" if you want to look at it.
yeah good stuff! crazy to think about it: 5% visible matter 25% dark matter and 70% dark energy!! what?!
I'm all for mudding! let's go run on a Diku! or maybe an Aber! or perhaps an iDirt-based mud?!
it'll be a race to see how many domains we can get banned! Just like the good ol' days...
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home