Scientists Discover 10th Planet of the Solar System [Archive]

TimTwoFace

07-30-2005, 12:46 PM

Awesome! I'm always excited by cool space discoveries like this; however, I thought a tenth planet was discovered last November or something. It had a name that began with "S" - did that just turn out to be a moon or something?

I remember when Charon was considered a tenth planet but, in the end, it turned out to just be one of Pluto's moons.

-Tim

silverwings

07-30-2005, 12:51 PM

Isn't this like the 3rd tenth planet we've discovered? :confused:

What happened to those other "tenth" planets? :p

Style

07-30-2005, 01:40 PM

These are all part of something known as the "Keiper Belt" which are composed of a sphere of a bunch of objects at the edge of the solar system. There's tons of it.

Keiper belt objects aren't usually considered "planets." But because Pluto was always considered a planet, and was the largest Keiper belt object, it was allowed to still be considered a "planet." (even though a lot of astronomers thought it should no longer be considered a planet once the belt was discovered.)

However, since this new thing is considered even larger than pluto, I guess that's why they're naming it a "planet" now, even though it's just another keiper belt object.

Michael24

07-30-2005, 01:41 PM

Maybe they should name it LV426. lol! Or Planet Bob. :D

Elven Moon

07-30-2005, 02:03 PM

What a BORING name :sweat: How about something like "Urectum" (Haha, Professor Farnsworth) or "McCool".

MonkeyFunk

07-30-2005, 02:16 PM

When Uranus was first discovered, they considered naming it after King George.

So, just be thankful...

Kagetsu

07-30-2005, 02:37 PM

Mr Cat Dog

07-30-2005, 02:39 PM

Bob would have been a better name... or maybe Kermit!

But, I suppose it's nice to have an extra planet or something, isn't it?

Kurtman

07-30-2005, 03:28 PM

Cool to know they discovered a new planet far away from pluto. Too bad it isn't named after some god like the others are.

sun

07-30-2005, 05:53 PM

Maybe they should name it LV426. lol! Or Planet Bob. :DLV426 is the planet that Ribley discovers the Alien on, and later goes back to in the sequel "Aliens," Aliens is my favorite movie of that type ever made, period. It is a great film...

Planet Bob...is from the last scene in a wonderful film,..(at least I think so) --tremendous animation...called Titan AE...If you haven't seen the first two Alien movies, directed by Ridley Scott, and James Cameroon...well see them...Titan AE was Don Bluth's latest film...I liked it.(although it lost a fortune) .Now Mods--this belongs in the "entertainment board" but since Micheal gave these references without explaination...let this stay..ok? Stuart

Phantasm

07-30-2005, 05:55 PM

It is scary to think that we are living suspended in the middle of blackness surrounded by...similarly suspended big chunks of stone.:eek:

Wanted

07-30-2005, 08:40 PM

Why do they bother calling these things "planets"? They're just rocks, Pluto included. As far as I'm concerned, there should only be eight planets.

How do I feel that Americans aren't going to accept this thing as a planet? After all, we're talking about the same group of people who rejected the Metric system (which was a bad idea).

Matt-a-Tastic

07-30-2005, 08:42 PM

I hereby humbaly re-name this planet:

Planet Matt!

MU HUH HUHU HAHAHAHAHHAHAlol ^_^

The Frog

07-30-2005, 08:52 PM

If they decide to name it after a Greek God, it would be cool if it was Apollo. Then the phrase you say to remember the first letters of the planets could be "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies Aardvark".

In fact, lets just name the planet Aardvark. Nope, there's no particular why we should. :p

Michael24

07-30-2005, 08:58 PM

Now Mods--this belongs in the "entertainment board" but since Micheal gave these references without explaination...let this stay..ok? Stuart
Um, did I do something wrong? :confused:

StarScream64

07-30-2005, 09:16 PM

I'm pretty sure they'll rename it at some point. I think they just start off everything with an alphanumeric designation then worry about naming it later. It still could end up with a decent name like......Micky.

How do I feel that Americans aren't going to accept this thing as a planet? After all, we're talking about the same group of people who rejected the Metric system (which was a bad idea).
It was a group of Americans that called it a planet in the first place. Why would we reject it when we've already claimed it as such? :confused: Unless you mean Americans as a as a whole? *tsk tsk* generalization is no one's friend. :)
So....what do they call French Toast in France? :p

purplehairedwonder

07-30-2005, 09:36 PM

I could have sworn they had discovered a tenth planet a few years back... then we heard nothing more about it. Now we get this. It's still fascinating, though.

Kagetsu

07-30-2005, 10:02 PM

LV426 is the planet that Ribley discovers the Alien on, and later goes back to in the sequel "Aliens," Aliens is my favorite movie of that type ever made, period. It is a great film...

Planet Bob...is from the last scene in a wonderful film,..(at least I think so) --tremendous animation...called Titan AE...If you haven't seen the first two Alien movies, directed by Ridley Scott, and James Cameroon...well see them...Titan AE was Don Bluth's latest film...I liked it.(although it lost a fortune) .Now Mods--this belongs in the "entertainment board" but since Micheal gave these references without explaination...let this stay..ok? Stuart Planet Bob I noticed, the Alien reference went right past me :sweat:

Oh and it was Ripley, Ships Navigator I believe (little typo) and actually Kane found the first alien. I couldn't sleep at all that night after seeing that movie. Segourney Weaver was WoW in the first two :D
Why do they bother calling these things "planets"? They're just rocks, Pluto included. As far as I'm concerned, there should only be eight planets.

How do I feel that Americans aren't going to accept this thing as a planet? After all, we're talking about the same group of people who rejected the Metric system (which was a bad idea). "Dirty snowball", more likely frozen amonia and nitrogen.

The Metric System was Napoleans idea because he hated England it's time to get over it :sad: I still use knotts/Nautical miles in some calculations, they're all human labels to organise the world into bits we can understand mathmatically

MahouShoujo13

07-30-2005, 10:22 PM

Wow.

But it's too far away...it's even far away from Pluto.

I wish it got a better name...not just numbers...like after Roman gods and godessess...like Apollo...Minerva....Vesta...although "Minerva" and "Vesta" were used for asteroids.

But...since we've discovered another "planet"...I demand another Sailor Scout! :p

Ben

07-30-2005, 10:25 PM

Except that liters and meters and grams make mathematical sense, while quarts and yards and ounces, well, don't. I'm with you on the Revolutionary calendar thing, though. I mean, "Fructidor?" Come on, frenchies.

And I love how the BBC article emphasizes over and over that the object's at a 44 degree angle from the Sun, then puts it on the same plane as all the other planets in the diagram, which would only happen what, once every three or four hundred years or so?

TrogdorNyimbhat

07-30-2005, 10:32 PM

What I would like to know is how come they don't even know all planets in our solar system if they have a picture of our galaxy - or is that just fan art? :D

Kagetsu

07-30-2005, 10:45 PM

What I would like to know is how come they don't even know all planets in our solar system if they have a picture of our galaxy - or is that just fan art? :D Um, they don't actually have a picture of our Galaxy, just a representation of star positions reletive to us. They generally use Pegasus Galaxy (our nearest Galaxy) to show what is thought the MilkyWay looks like. The proplem is planets beyond Neptune, the Kuiper belt objects and the Oort cloud don't emit light (more accurately "electro-magnetic radiation) like stars in the Galaxy.

Saelphronarf

07-31-2005, 09:20 AM

MonkeyFunk

07-31-2005, 09:20 AM

Awesome! I'm always excited by cool space discoveries like this; however, I thought a tenth planet was discovered last November or something. It had a name that began with "S" - did that just turn out to be a moon or something?

That's Sedna. Don't think it turned out to be a moon, but it was still too small to be considered a planet (smaller than Pluto)

If they decide to name it after a Greek God, it would be cool if it was Apollo.
Problem with Apollo is that he already has a heavenly body, the Sun.

Kagetsu

07-31-2005, 09:46 AM

I wonder if voyager has gone that far yet? I forgot some time ago. This is a very interesting find, but I doubt we'll learn much from it at that distance from us. By the time it is in our range we'd allready be pulled in by the sun's gravity force. It could have beter name though...

-Saelphronarf
As I remember (could be wrong) Voyagers I&II are going off at a steep angle from the System plane (plain?) and won't reach anything for century's. next stop, the Oort cloud. The power will have long since died. It's been many years since I last heard they were still transmitting data about deep space. Nothing much to sample anyway, but the scientists were thrilled :shrug:

To me as well this is kind of pointless. It can't tell much beyond the expected size of far system odjects. The comet and near earth asteroid probes are far more interesting.

Supermassive blackholes are even more interesting.

TimTwoFace

07-31-2005, 12:57 PM

That's Sedna. Don't think it turned out to be a moon, but it was still too small to be considered a planet (smaller than Pluto)OK, here's a question for you, or anyone - I obviously know the difference between a planet and a "moon", but really - how big does something that rotates the sun have to be, in order to be considered a "planet"?

Technically, for example, couldn't the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter be considered a million tiny planets? (And yes, there is that theory that it was once a planet that somehow got destroyed, too.)

-Tim

sdp

07-31-2005, 01:03 PM

With sedna they alAre you sure this isn't just an old article about sedna?

and yes they find stuff like this all the time but they don't know if they should cll the m planets or if they're just meteorites that got stuck .

MonkeyFunk

07-31-2005, 01:23 PM

Everything you ever wanted to know about Sedna (http://www.gps.caltech.edu/%7Embrown/sedna/)

Astoundingly, no precise scientific definition of the word "planet" currently exists. It is rare for scientists to have to define a word that is already in common usage and that everybody from school children on up already understand. Mercury through Pluto are planets, as is any newly discovered object larger than Pluto. This definition is, we believe, the one in most common colloquial use throughout the world, even if people don't realize that this is the definition they are using. Indeed, if Sedna had been larger than Pluto, most would have hailed it as a 10th planet.
The BBC report dates from yesterday and talks about an object bigger than Pluto, so it can't be about Sedna.
Sedna, it would appear, has vanished.

I.R Joey

07-31-2005, 02:51 PM

Didn't they already discover a 10th planet last year or the year before. I don't remember what it's name was but it began with the letter C I think.

Gatomon41

08-01-2005, 06:57 PM

Pluto has managed to hang on to it's planet statis because of it's observable moon. This new object is much farther out than I ever thought a dark matter object could be observable. Still too small and too close to be the Nemisis object.If this planet was made of Dark Matter, we wouldn't see it period. The only way you can detect Dark Matter is by Gravity, it would be invisible to everything else.

But...since we've discovered another "planet"...I demand another Sailor Scout! :p
Sailor , um, Bob? :p

Lord Dalek

08-01-2005, 09:14 PM

Sailor , um, Bob? :pI can just hear Rowan Atkinson now. :)

Dark Fact

08-02-2005, 09:11 PM

I could've sworn I've heard about a 10th planet discovered a while back that was 10x the size of Jupiter. What gives? :confused:

The Metric System was Napoleans idea because he hated England it's time to get over it I still use knotts/Nautical miles in some calculations, they're all human labels to organise the world into bits we can understand mathmatically
That and using Fahrenheit to measure temperature.

Gatomon41

08-03-2005, 08:33 AM

I could've sworn I've heard about a 10th planet discovered a while back that was 10x the size of Jupiter. What gives? :confused:
Maybe you're thinking about Extra-Solar Planets discovered outside the Solar System. Because Jovian or SuperJovian worlds are large enough, they're the only planets we can see orbitng stars.

Kagetsu

08-03-2005, 03:09 PM

If this planet was made of Dark Matter, we wouldn't see it period. The only way you can detect Dark Matter is by Gravity, it would be invisible to everything else. I'm a little fuzzy on this point. At one time dark matter was used to discribe any cosmic material other than stars that could add the gravity to explain why the expanding Universe is slowing. Other times (other than Futurama) dark matter seems to be discribing a super dense material like blackholes.

I also need to see if I can find any information about the massive gammaray bursts.

Sailor , um, Bob? :p :eek: that's just disturbing! [/lol]

Gatomon41

08-04-2005, 12:14 PM

I'm a little fuzzy on this point. At one time dark matter was used to discribe any cosmic material other than stars that could add the gravity to explain why the expanding Universe is slowing. Other times (other than Futurama) dark matter seems to be discribing a super dense material like blackholes.

I also need to see if I can find any information about the massive gammaray bursts.

"Parallel Worlds: A Journey through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos" by Michio Kaku is were I got some info on Dark Matter. It's an interesting book about Cosmology, Quantum Physics, and M-theory.

Also, I also learned about Dark Matter from reading "The Xeelee Squence" by Stephen Baxter.

Bubblegum Girl

08-05-2005, 12:25 PM

Finding Out the there's a 10th Planet - Cool :D

Naming it "2003 UB313" - Lame :sweat:

Romanesque

08-05-2005, 01:18 PM

If this planet was made of Dark Matter, we wouldn't see it period. The only way you can detect Dark Matter is by Gravity, it would be invisible to everything else.I think you've got that... backwards, maybe? The existence of dark matter is seemingly implied by gravitational effects on galaxies. We shouldn't be finding what we've observed unless there were much more mass present than we can see. Thus, dark matter... This doesn't imply that dark matter cannot be detected by any other means. Furthermore, current dark matter theories don't even have dark matter all being the same type of thing... some of it may well be ordinary matter that's not emitting any significant radiation, like MACHOs.

I'm a little fuzzy on this point. At one time dark matter was used to discribe any cosmic material other than stars that could add the gravity to explain why the expanding Universe is slowing.As noted above, dark matter was meant to explain the observed nature of galaxies. As for the Universe expanding, current observations actually suggest that it's accelerating, not slowing.

--Romey

Gatomon41

08-05-2005, 02:44 PM

I think you've got that... backwards, maybe? The existence of dark matter is seemingly implied by gravitational effects on galaxies. We shouldn't be finding what we've observed unless there were much more mass present than we can see. Thus, dark matter... This doesn't imply that dark matter cannot be detected by any other means. Furthermore, current dark matter theories don't even have dark matter all being the same type of thing... some of it may well be ordinary matter that's not emitting any significant radiation, like MACHOs.

--Romey
Hmm, maybe you're right. I'll recheck my notes to see about that.

Romanesque

08-05-2005, 03:48 PM

Hmm, maybe you're right. I'll recheck my notes to see about that.Of course, MACHOs aren't suspected to account for most of dark matter anyway...

Any other dark matter candidates I know of, like WIMPs, aren't the sort of particles that normally form "solid" objects, thus you couldn't really speak of them in terms of composing potentially visible things like planets.

--Romey

Artimus Gigan

08-05-2005, 03:54 PM

That's no planet, It's a battle station!

I think the should have given it a better name....like Batman

I mean think about it, all the other planets and some moons are of some reference to Greco/Roman gods and goddesses.....but since nobody worships them anymore, the next thing would be modern day Superheros....

Romanesque

08-05-2005, 03:57 PM

I think the should have given it a better name....like Batman. I mean think about it, all the other planets and some moons are of some reference to Greco/Roman gods and goddesses.....but since nobody worships them anymore, the next thing would be modern day Superheros....Heck, maybe in a few thousand years, people of the future will believe we actually worshiped superheroes. :sweat:

--Romey

Lucky Bob

08-05-2005, 06:44 PM

The largest object found in our Solar System since Neptune in 1846, it was first seen in 2003 - but important details have only now been confirmed.

Designated 2003 UB313, it is about 3,000km across...

...Scientists say it is three times as far away as Pluto, in an orbit at an angle to the orbits of the main planets.

http://www.kingwoodclc.net/home/showcaseoldfiles/londonoratory/star%20wars/links_files/death%20star%203.jpg

Uh-oh.

Artimus Gigan

08-05-2005, 07:05 PM

http://www.kingwoodclc.net/home/showcaseoldfiles/londonoratory/star%20wars/links_files/death%20star%203.jpg

Uh-oh.

I already made that joke...

That's no planet, It's a battle station!

Lucky Bob

08-05-2005, 07:34 PM

I already made that joke...
But YOU'RE not on hiatus.

Which is why it's funny.

mikestorm

08-07-2005, 10:02 AM

Given it's proximity to Uranus I vote we call it Perineum.

Cyporiean

08-07-2005, 05:42 PM

Before we start naming new stuff, can we give a name to that hunk of rock orbiting us?

Seriously..

"So What do you call your Moon?"
"Its the Moon."
"... just 'the Moon'?"
"No, its THE Moon."

Kagetsu

08-07-2005, 07:39 PM

Probably not. As the first observable, it gets the primary name. Just like "the Sun". A star viewed from a world in it's system is that worlds sun, the star is to us Vega. Though I've heard scifi movies attempt to give names like Sol, it's still "Sun" in another language. Terran does sound better than Earthling, it's the same term in another language. These objects are so deeply set in human culture and language, it's impossible to change it ourselves.
Given it's proximity to Uranus I vote we call it Perineum. hmm, though it has no proximity to Uranus, I had to go look up that word. :eek:

Gatomon41

08-08-2005, 05:21 PM

Of course, MACHOs aren't suspected to account for most of dark matter anyway...

Any other dark matter candidates I know of, like WIMPs, aren't the sort of particles that normally form "solid" objects, thus you couldn't really speak of them in terms of composing potentially visible things like planets.

--Romey
Dark Matter, acoording to the World Book encyclopedia, Dark Matter is invisble because so far "there is no evidence that it gives off, reflects, or absorbs visble light, radio waves, x-rays or any kind of electromagetic energy, Scienists have detected it only through it's gravitional effects."

It goes on to list theories of what it's made up like MACHOS, neutrinos, or WIMPS.