OT: And Then there were Ten

Thermodyne · #1 July 30th, 2005, 12:17 AM

And how many planets orbit our sun?

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-07-30-voa1.cfm

Renegade 13 · #2 July 30th, 2005, 01:46 AM

Very interesting. Though if Pluto was classified as it should be, a Kuiper Belt Object, then this "planet" would likely also be called a KBO, not a planet. Consider that the moon is larger than Pluto, then ask if Pluto or this new 10th planet should be considered KBO's or planets!

It is odd that this new discovery is so far above the plane of the ecliptic. It almost tends to suggest it may actually be a captured object, though if it is native to the solar system gravitational interactions could have thrown it out of the ecliptical plane long ago. Anyways, it is quite interesting.

narf poit chez BOOM · #3 July 30th, 2005, 12:18 PM

Bah! It's the tenth planet!

And if it doesn't have aliens, I'm going to be *Very* dissapointed.

* Well, not really.

PvK · #4 July 30th, 2005, 04:13 PM

Planet Deja Vu?

I seem to remember a similar report from a few years back - small planetoid beyond Pluto and on a cocked orbit, along with Kuper Belt classification questions... or maybe I've just come unhinged in time...

Raging Deadstar · #5 July 30th, 2005, 06:31 PM

Another Report on This.

Renegade 13 · #6 July 30th, 2005, 09:11 PM

Quote:

PvK said:
Planet Deja Vu?

I seem to remember a similar report from a few years back - small planetoid beyond Pluto and on a cocked orbit, along with Kuper Belt classification questions... or maybe I've just come unhinged in time...

Yep, you're correct. It's name was Quaoar (or something like that), but it was only half the size of Pluto, and not as far out.

Then there was another one a while back, called Sedna.

Renegade 13 · #7 July 31st, 2005, 12:30 AM

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=3401

A bit more info if you want it.

Kamog · #8 July 31st, 2005, 02:39 PM

It seems like all the large planets have already been discovered and whatever astronomers find from now on will be small, distant objects. Or will it? If they have only searched for new planets with orbits close to the ecliptic plane and this one is at 45 degrees, there's still a chance for a large planet at angles greater than 45 degrees, right?

Renegade 13 · #9 July 31st, 2005, 03:39 PM

Possible, but I'd say it's very unlikely. Though if the large planet was VERY far away, it could happen. Actually, there could be more large planets that orbit close by even, if the orbit was highly elliptical. If you look at the article I linked to, you'll see that one of the previous KBO's they discovered beyond Pluto's orbit (Sedna) has a very highly elliptical orbit. When it was discovered, it was 13.6 Billion km away from the Sun (Earth is a mere 149.6 million km away on average). But when it's at its farthest point from the sun, it will be 141 Billion km away from the sun. Now if there was a large planet, even one the size of Jupiter for example, if it was that far away, and had a similar elliptical orbit that could take it closer to the sun further into its orbit, it's very likely we would never detect it until it was a lot closer to the sun.

So yeah, large planets orbitting within our solar system are possible, but they're probably either too far away to be detected currently, or have very elliptical orbits and just happen to be at one of the further points that orbit would take them on.

I hope that made sense!

ToddT · #10 July 31st, 2005, 06:48 PM

Its been years but if i remember right there was an astronomer who had used a mathmatical model to predict the the existance of 9th planet, back when there were only eight located ( ithink uranus and neptune where found the same way) , but when pluto was found it was smaller than what was predicted, hence the on going hunt for a tenth planet. the equation envolved gavitational influences, and pluto didn't fit the bill, right orbit (more or less)but gravitaionally,to puny.