Astronomers Claim Discovery of 10th Planet - Yahoo! 07/29/05

[BigPigletFan]

Article from Yahoo! News - July 29, 2005
Astronomers Claim Discovery of 10th Planet

LOS ANGELES - Astronomers announced Friday that they have discovered a new planet larger than Pluto in orbit around the sun. The finding will likely renew debate over what exactly is a planet and whether Pluto should keep its status.

The unnamed object — the farthest-known object in the solar system — is currently 9 billion miles away from the sun, or about three times Pluto's current distance from the sun. Astronomers do not know its exact size, but its brightness shows that it is at least as large as Pluto and could be up to 1 1/2 times bigger.

"This is the first object to be confirmed to be larger than Pluto in the outer solar system," Michael Brown, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology, said in a telephone briefing.

The new planet is rocky and icy, similar to Pluto, and is the third brightest object located in the Kuiper belt, a disc of icy debris beyond the orbit of Neptune, Brown said.

It has taken scientists this long to find the planet because its orbit is at an angle compared to the orbits of most planets.

Alan Stern of the Southwestern Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., said he was not surprised by the discovery since other objects around the size of Pluto have been found in the Kuiper Belt. What's unique about the latest finding is that the object appears to be bigger than Pluto, he said.

"Unless they've made a grave mistake, this is for real," said Stern, who had no role in the discovery.

So this is interesting news..... right?

[Olympicnut]

It IS interesting. But they need to determine exactly WHAT they consider a planet now, or what is merely a satellite, or a hunk of leftover space rock from the creation of the solar system etc etc. But a new planet would be pretty nifty I love astronomy!!

Speaking of planets, does anyone follow the Mars rovers still? I look at the website all the time and cant believe those little buggers are still buzzing around Mars. So cool! I just love looking at the photos. Same with the Cassini orbiter around Saturn.

[MiceMan]

Wow ...that's pretty amazing, but I wonder if that means Pluto will be de-classified as a planet and this new ... rock will be considered a planet of if they decide we will only have 8 planets? Interesting news for sure.

[Soulquarian]

Meh, you have to figure that there are millions of planets all across the universe. I think it's more a triumph of human technology being able to finally see a new planet rather than the planet itself...

[Morrigoon]

So... I suppose now that it's been found, it'll be named and we'll no longer get to refer to it as Planet X?

[MiceMan]

I think we should refer to it as ... PLANET STORM! .... ok, sorry, lame joke attempt there

[Anders]

Speaking of planets, does anyone follow the Mars rovers still? I look at the website all the time and cant believe those little buggers are still buzzing around Mars. So cool! I just love looking at the photos. Same with the Cassini orbiter around Saturn.

When i was in college at Arizona State in the Recreation Management and Tourism program we shared a building with the Mars rovers, since ASU had a lot of research and development with the program, so I got to see little videos everytime I went to our main building on campus.

[cstephens]

The 10th planet has to be named Rupert, of course!

[DisneyParkFan]

Article from Yahoo! News - July 29, 2005
Astronomers Claim Discovery of 10th Planet



So this is interesting news..... right?

BPF,
Being a Middle School Science teacher this isn't exactly new news, but it is NEWS. I have some links on my computer at school about scientists finding the 10th planet. When school starts up I look them up and send them to you. That is if the technology consultant didn't erase all my links over the summer.

[MoonLander]

What should be considered a planet? I think any spheroid that orbits the sun and not another celestial body (like a moon) should be considered a planet. A spheroid means it's close to being a sphere. No planet is a perfect sphere since the surface isn't exactly the same distance all around from the center.

While I'm playing the geek card, I'd like to trot out my nerd as well. The planet should be named Vulcan, and not just because of Star Trek. Vulcan is from Greek/Roman mythology, just like Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Also, about 100 years ago, there was an urban legend of another planet that was on Earth's exact orbit, but on the other side of the sun so that we could never see it. This imaginary planet was called Vulcan. So there you have it.