10th Planet Discovered

When was Pluto found? Was it in the early 1900s?

I can't quite remember but I know that is was defintely a recent addition to our family of planets

definition of recent: within the last century (100 hundred years)

 

Oh... how cool! I wonder if it's always been there and we just couldn't see it -- or if, in its trajectory, it was out of our telescopic range? It's so far out there -- I wonder what else is there? Space is so fascinating!

 

Not another one! As if we didn't have enough already. Now all the science textbooks will have to be rewritten! *deep sigh*

 

Tenth? Has poor Sebma been relegated to planetoid status already? I wonder what finding a larger body farther away will do for Pluto. I hear there's already been talk of demoting it to a planetoid.

 

This was predicted in the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy! Bonus points for anyone who remembers what it was called, because I can't.

 

In answer to Sniper's question above Pluto was found on Feb 18, 1939 by Clyde Tombaugh. The astronomer Percival Lowell had however predicted it's exsistence before his death in 1916. It's very handy having Brittanica installed on the computer sometimes Although as the article on Pluto is only a couple of thousand or so words long it is simplifying a complex history regarding it's discovery.

As Blatckthorne says there is a LOT of debate over whether Pluto can be generally regarded as a planet at all. Some people view it as an escaped moon for example.

 

ALF told everyone about the existence of the tenth planet back in the 80s. He said its name was Dave and he passed it on his way to Earth.

 

How many 10th and 11th planets have they found now? 5? 6? 7?

 

What is it exactly that gets a lump of rock circling the sun planet status? Is there a certain size it has to be or what?

 

Actually, yes. At least, that's what these scientists said. The new object is much bigger than Pluto.

So far, they only found objects that were smaller than Pluto. So small that they don't count as planet.

 

In the story I read today, those scientists wanted to name the new planet "Xena" after the warrior princess from TV. Surely they wouldn't. Surely?

 

It needs to be named after a Roman god in my opinion. How about Janus?

 

WTF?

 

I'm sorry I've got to say it.

"Thats no planet, it's a space station."

And all these times we've been told at school a solar system has only nine planets.

I agree Xena, wtf? Why not call it Sinbad, Conan, or Hercules?

 

IIRC, in ancient Greek "xenos" or "xena" could be translated as "stranger". I could be wrong though.

 

No, you're right. As practising xenophobe, I can confirm the foreignness of xeno.

 

OK, here's a potentionally stupid question. I too have read that there are times in Pluto's orbit where it is actually closer to the sun than Neptune is. It seems to me then, that at some point, the orbits of Neptune and Pluto should cross, meaning that a collision has the potential of occurring. However, given that our solar system is billions of years old, chances are if a collision were even remotely possible, it would have happened by now. So there must be some reason that it hasn't happened. Yes, Pluto is pretty darn small (diameter approximately the size the U.S. measuring in an east-west direction), but Neptune is pretty darn big, meaning they shouldn't even have to get that close for Pluto to be caught in the gravitaitonal pull of Neptune - or at least have its orbit distorted. Anyway, there must be some mechanism for why this doesn't happen.

As a side note, why don't comments ever hit anything either? They have eliptical orbits that cross over several planet orbits, and while the odds certainly indicate your chance of hitting a planet on any idividual go around would be low, the fact that they do this orbit for millions if not billions of years suggest that they should hit a planet, or an asteriod, or something, eventually.