Star Trek

It’s past Pluto and half its size ... but weren’t they saying that Pluto didn’t really fit as a planet just a while ago?? What is the cut off size for something to be considered a planet? The definition seems vague: celestial body moving in an eliptical (?other solar systems have circular orbits) orbit around a star ... so an asteroid is considered a minor planet??

Yeah. I just saw that on the ’net today too. If it’s half Pluto’s size and if Pluto almost qualifies as an Asteroid or Minor Planet... then why in Bob’s name Is this planet that is half Pluto’s size even considered a PLANET? That is kinda wack.
Tai nasha no karosha.

huh? I need to check this out...

The way I heard it was that they weren’t calling this a planet, just a large body in the Kuiper belt. But there isn’t really any strict definition to separate a planet from a planetoid/asteroid, or even (on the other end) a super-Jovian planet from a "brown dwarf" star ... exactly how much fusion has to be taking place to be a "star"?

I guess "elliptical" is thrown in to distinguish from wandering comets, that might be traveling on hyperbolic orbits. A perfectly circular orbit is much less probable than an ellipse, since it would have to have eccentricity of exactly zero.

So why isn’t Pluto considered a body of the Kuiper Belt?

There must be hundreds of things orbiting around the Solar system that are that size and past Pluto...that is why they won’t call it a planet...plus Pluto is only barely a planet...it orbits outside the planetary plane...

BTW...If one of those rocks hits the Sun were are toast!!

that’s part of the debate.Some scientists want Pluto reclassified.In fact,if Pluto was first discovered this year it would never have been called a planet.

>If one of those rocks hits the Sun were are toast!

How do you figure? Wouldn’t it just vaporize the rock?

The reason that the new object is important isn’t because it’s a planet, it’s because it’s the largest CBO (Cuiper Belt Object) located to date. Scientists saw that there are millions of little tiny, 2-10 mile diameter, rocks in the Cuiper belt, and maybe a dozen pluto sized objects, the new CBO is proof at least that there are large things in the Cuiper Belt. besides, I thought Pluto was a CBO years ago, as have many other scientists. But who cares? it’s a little rock 3534000000 miles away.
Cheers. :)

Very true if we did found it now I would bet a lot on that Pluto would not be considered a planet. The regions of where Pluto is, is basically right by or in the Kuiper Belt and I would and other scientists (not all) would agree that it’s probably just an object of that belt.
Pluto we think was just [a very very very . . . long time ago] captured into erratic from Neptune’s orbit. For one thing look at its orbit it intercepts Neptune’s orbit every so many years and trades places.

So I think we really should change our record books and say there are 8 planets in our solar system and not 9 (or 10 if you want to throw in Quaoar). As far as we know there can be hundreds and hundreds of Pluto like size objects orbiting the sun at that great distance. Pluto is unique though, historically,, and that might be a good reason not to throw it out as a planet. There are really two ways to look at it. We shall see what happens and I could go on and on about both sides of a debate if we should say Pluto is a plant or not one.

Facts - Quaoar:
*One interesting thing about Quaoar is that its orbit goes through Neptune a bit.
*.5 times the size as Pluto = 800 miles in its diameter
*Found by California Institute of Technology
*Named after the creation god of Tongva people
*The Tongva people were Native Americans in the southern part of California.
...

Master Q
StarTrek_Master_Q@yahoo.com

Asteroids are not considered as planets since they move in irregular orbits and had different shapes and sizes. According to NASA, at one point Pluto was considered as another Neptune’s moon until scientists discovered it had a wide oval orbit that make it capable of travelling on its own outside Neptune for two hundred years before entering Neptune’s gravimetric influence. Also, Pluto had a moon, Charon, roughly half the size of the planet. NASA defined a planet as a circular astrometic body capable of moving in an independent orbit. As I recall, there are two NASA long range probes on their way to study Pluto within another ten years. We should be able to get some answers about the solar system’s smallest planet at that time.