New planet discovered - larger than Pluto

USA TODAY - Astronomers claim discovery of 10th planet

Cool! Very exciting! Read about it as well. They don't seem to know yet whether it might be a comet after all. It might even belong to the Kuiper belt.

but what are they going to call it, that's what I want to know...

That's the first thing I asked as well. Must be a female thing.

Brings me to two thoughts:

1) What exactly is a planet? (Is it the size that defines it, its revolution predictability, its origin), their have been notions that there are many planets beyond Pluto since a long time now. A recent article in New Scientist even claimed that we could have as much as 32 planets (if I remember correctly).

2) How significant is this find? What good did the nine planets do so we should we looking towards the tenth? Apart from a standard astronomical research, in my understanding their is nothing more to it ( atleast for now). Just might be a fancy new addition in children's textbooks, that we have now have 10 (11, 12 ..) planets in place of nine.

Me too! Anyone have any suggestions?

Actually i was thinking of running a TT pole yesterday.

i vote for planet bucket - im always on the outer edge of the solar system

What about "Thingy"?

i was thinking of running a poll as well
i think we need a few nominations first, though
how about "goofy"?

GandhiDeathSexPlanet ???

Well it IS out in the Milky Way, therefore I think that somebody should finally acknowledge us and call the planet..
Friesian

That's what I'm talking about.

This is cool news though. I think it is fascinating that we've been able to detect extra-solar planets for years now but are just finding another in our own solar system!

Xena I think

all brings back the controversy about whether Pluto should be downgraded to a minor planet again

that would get the astrology lobby a bit hot under the collar
even though they don't place too much importance on pluto, it would still bugger up their charts a bit

Previous discussion of whether Pluto is a planet and whether Charon is therefore a moon.
Well it's in there somewhere...

If it's out in the Kuiper Belt then it's not a planet unless we redefine "planet". It's just a very large TNO.
As is Pluto now I come to think of it

*ok crap joke alert*

Bigger than Pluto??



Boom Boom!

Revise opinion: if it's good enough for New Scientist then it's good enough for me
Far more romantic to think of it as a planet anyway.

As for a name, well it's miles from anywhere, freezing cold and devoid of life. How about Tasmania?
Edit: Oops, that's already been done...

The problem is that nobody is really certain what defines planethood. In fact, the body that has the "authority" to declare an object a planet is (I guess) the IAU - until they say it is, it isn't.

There was a big effort to reclassify Pluto as "not a planet" some years back - phenomologically it probably has more reason to be in the cloud of random objects that surround the solar system rather than either the terran or gas giant planets. It was eventually not done, as to be honest it serves little point. When planetary scientists try to model systems such as our own they're very happy if they have little planets on the inside, big planets on the outside and a big cloud of rubbish left over. That's hard enough...

Does this new planet have an eccentric orbit like Pluto?

Should call it... LV426 - anyone get that one?

I think they should call it 'Marvin the paranoid asteroid'. At least this way if it becomes a planet and then loses it's planet status and becomes a comet or something they wouldn't have to change the name.

Good one, Wibble. I'd vote for it.

Apparently its orbit is at 45 degrees to the rest, and they reckon it's in the Kuiper belt so I would guess it probably has an eccentric orbit. Not really my bit of astronomy though, I'm happy to be corrected if someone knows better.

Neptune also has an eccentric orbit and it's clearly a planet.

Pluto is only twice as large as Charon, and the two of them orbit around each other. It appears we're accepting Pluto as the smallest size for a planet; Sedna isn't much smaller but it's bigger than Charon.

The definition of a planet based on the Kuiper Belt being the outer limit falls apart if this thing is bigger than Pluto. What's the difference between the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the Kuiper Belt? Both are just regions of non-accreted material.

If this new Planet X (which should be named after a Roman god in keeping with the nomenclature) turns out to be in a regular orbit and is larger than Pluto, it is by definition a planet. As our telescopes get better, we're going to keep finding more objects.

The world is less likely to end if we designate another object as a planet than it was when Copernicus' Heliocentric model was put forward and later proven.

woof.

@BD: To be honest, I don't think that many people in the world of professional astronomy really care much whether it is designated a planet or not. When considering the solar system we'll continue to classify Pluto, Sedna, Xena etc. in the "who ordered that?" catagory of solar system objects. I said it before, to a planetary scientist the solar system is a star, some terran planets, some gas giants and a whole load of leftovers.

How eccentric does an orbit have to be before it's eccentric?
Not sure if that could be used as a criterion for planethood vs comethood...

Jeeves, Pluto is a planet that is on an eccentric orbit. Not only is it not in the same plane (is that the correct term?) as the other 8 planets, it's orbit moves inside the orbit of Neptune - i.e. for a period of Plutos orbit around the Sun it becomes the 8th planet furthest out from the Sun and Neptune becomes the 9th planet.

Since Pluto's orbit is irregular, eccentric, I was just wondering whether the new planet was as well and whether it had anything to do with being so far out from the Sun (where planetary forces might causes differences in orbit).

I'm just interested, any Astronomy buffs know?

Pluto's orbit is eccentric, but not very. Eccentricity is normally measured on a scale from 0 to 1, 0 being circular and 1 being parabolic (>1 is hyperbolic, which along with parabolic is not really an orbit). Pluto's eccentricity is 0.248, which is somewhat eccentric, but not really when you consider that Mercury's eccentricity is 0.206. That's not incredibly eccentric in the grand scheme of things. The typical eccentricity of a comet is much higher (not exactly sure, but I'm guessing 0.7-0.9).

Edit: I just thought I'd add that Pluto's orbit is only inclined with respect to the plane of the solar system (the ecliptic) by about 17 degrees, whereas this new one is around 45 degrees, isn't it?

Then obviously it should be called Ace Rimmer.

Thanks for a serious answer to my provoking question IPJ. That was my point, that Pluto's status as a planet can't be questioned/determined by the eccentricity of its orbit alone.

Naturally, I googled the numbers.

They should really name it Juno or Minerva or Proserpina or something. There's a serious lack of female goddesses amongst the planets.

Well, if you're talking female goddesses then call it Angelina

That's not very Roman I'm afraid Kebab. And I haven't heard any reports of tits, ass, or lips being spotted on the satellite.

Had exactly the same thought.

Works for me.



Unless you meant a different Angelina.

hehe as long as they don't call it Diana I don't care! Vulcan would be kinda cool though! (haven't a clue whether Vulcan is male or female, but prolly the former)

Diana is a Roman name, but Artemis has a way better ring to it. But I think that about all the Greek names.

Oh and KB, I've actually been to Vulcan. Silva possibly has as well.

@keydeck

Is there another Angelina?

@showem

Did they do their mind meld?

I've been in a Vulcan ( ) but not been to Vulcan!

if they're going with roman names (which is fine by me), then my first choice would be Minerva.
Juno or Maia would be great as well.
but they will no doubt go with a macho boys name, as flippin usual

There are already asteroids with these names, even Angelina.
Except for Vulcan, which seems to be reserved for hypothetical planets, so maybe it's about time it got used for a real one...