10th Planet Found ? (2002/10/08)

10th Planet Found ?

Posted by Philip Ayres on 2002/10/08 18:17

No not the legendary lost 4th Episode of the 1966 Doctor Who story but possibly
the real thing

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2306945.stm

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10th Planet Found ?

Posted by Nick Waterman on 2002/10/08 22:35

Isn't that about the 3rd or 4th time they've found a 10th planet?!?

Nick Waterman. Senior Blackberry Unix Systems Administrator,
Research In Motion http://www.rim.net/ #include <stddisclaimer>
Sent from my Blackberry Wireless Handheld!

10th Planet Found ?

Posted by Philip Ayres on 2002/10/08 22:40

Isn't that about the 3rd or 4th time they've found a 10th planet?!?

Possibly. But I thought it newsworthy.....

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10th Planet Found ?

Posted by Paul Ilsley on 2002/10/09 09:29

- Philip Ayres <philip_ayres@>
wrote:
>> Isn't that about the 3rd or 4th time they've
found
>> a 10th planet?!?
>
> Possibly. But I thought it newsworthy.....
>

So this isn't the evil Planet X that is about to
destroy the earth then?

Read all about rogue planet X (and why it's complete
nonsense) on Phil Plait's excellent Bad Astronomy
page.

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planetx/index.html

Cheers,

Paul

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10th Planet Found ?

Posted by Nick Waterman on 2002/10/09 11:11

So this isn't the evil Planet X that is about to
destroy the earth then?

Nah, turns out it's yet another kuiper belt object. A fair sized one,
admittedly, but nothing special. Every couple of years, another one is
discovered. They're all way out beyond pluto, where the sun looks like just
another bright star. Some of them are about as big as our moon. None of them
count as planets - I can't remember why, but it's not just based on size.
Every time one is discovered, the press say "tenth planet discovered!" and
seem to forget the "10th planet" that was discovered last time and the "10th
planet" that was discovered the time before. I suppose "yet another big
kuiper belt object discovered" doesn't make such impressive headlines
though, and besides, none of the peasants would understand it.

Nick Waterman. Senior Systems Administrator, Research In Motion
mailto:sig@ http://noseynick.com/ http://www.rim.net/
AX25:G7RZQ@#32.GBR.EU #include <stddisclaimer> Team *AMIGA*!

10th Planet Found ?

Posted by Daniel Celano on 2002/10/09 11:25

Hi,
In this case it is size as its only 800 miles across, far too small
for a planet.

Daniel

-----Original Message-----
From:Nick Waterman [SMTP:nwaterman@]
Sent:Wednesday, October 09, 2002 11:12 AM
To:'chat@'
Subject:RE: 10th Planet Found ?

So this isn't the evil Planet X that is about to
destroy the earth then?

Nah, turns out it's yet another kuiper belt object. A fair sized one,
admittedly, but nothing special. Every couple of years, another one is
discovered. They're all way out beyond pluto, where the sun looks like
just
another bright star. Some of them are about as big as our moon. None of
them
count as planets - I can't remember why, but it's not just based on size.
Every time one is discovered, the press say "tenth planet discovered!" and
seem to forget the "10th planet" that was discovered last time and the
"10th
planet" that was discovered the time before. I suppose "yet another big
kuiper belt object discovered" doesn't make such impressive headlines
though, and besides, none of the peasants would understand it.

--
Nick Waterman. Senior Systems Administrator, Research In Motion
mailto:sig@ http://noseynick.com/ http://www.rim.net/
AX25:G7RZQ@#32.GBR.EU #include <stddisclaimer> Team *AMIGA*!

10th Planet Found ?

Posted by Philip Ayres on 2002/10/09 17:26

Hi,
In this case it is size as its only 800 miles across, far too small
for a planet.

Are there hard an fast rules on the matter - I know there is a body of argument
that says Pluto is just a large Kuiper belt object. Pluto is smaller than the
moon and indeed several objects in the Jovian satelite system.

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