A NEW planet discovered?

[Guest Madmartigan21]

This article:

 

Frozen World Found

 

somewhat confuses me. It seems to state that this new discovery is indeed a planet, but then uses that information to discount Pluto as planet.

 

Peering out 1 billion miles beyond Pluto, astronomers have discovered a frozen world 800 miles across in what marks the biggest find in the solar system since the ninth planet was spotted 72 years ago.

 

But later in the article it says:

 

As larger Kuiper Belt objects turn up, the case for Pluto as a planet weakens, astronomers said. Pluto lies within the Kuiper Belt and is considered by many merely among the largest of the bunch, and not a planet in its own right.

 

I don't exactly understand it.

[Guest Midnight Express83]

Well they been trying to discredit pluto as a planet for the last 30 years. So anything to make it no such, is a good thing to them.

[Guest Samurai_Goat]

What's wrong with Pluto? Why must everyone hate Pluto? It's my favorite planet!

[Guest Will Scarlet]

If Pluto is not a planet, then what is it supposed to be called? Being someone who knows little about astronomy, I am a tad curious.

[Guest Ram]

KB(insert numbers here)

 

Like KB101 or KB123 or something.

[Guest Flyboy]

KB(insert numbers here)

 

Like KB101 or KB123 or something.

Or you could be like me and call it "big ass thingie in space."

 

Whichever you prefer.

[Guest DrTom]

When I was mad into astronomy in my younger years (this would be the early 1980s), all the astronomy books I had mentioned that Neptune had an unusual orbit. They also mentioned that Pluto didn't really account for it, and that was the first I heard that Pluto might just be a moon for another planet even farther away.

 

Astronomy still intrigues me, so this is definitely worth following.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

how can you have a favorite planet?

 

It's not like you'll even viset the place, and what's Pluto ever done for you, huh? Seriously though, I could care less if they take planet status away from Pluto, it won't impact any single person's life differently.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Pluto is discounted as a single planet, since it and Charon pretty much whirl around each other like a bolo or something. They use the term Double Planet often for this.

 

Anyways, I've always heard rumblings about a tenth planet from the astronomy world. Since Neptune is awfully large, something as small as Pluto really doesn't account for its orbit. It could be downgraded to a planetoid if anything larger is found in the Kuiper belt.

 

Kotzenjunge

Finds All of This Vastly Interesting

[Guest Cancer Marney]

I've always liked Saturn. Those rings are cool.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

If we're going to have a Favorite Planet discussion, it'd be between Mars and Venus for me. The Gas Giants just don't tickle me that much.

 

Kotzenjunge

Likes Solid Ground

[Guest Flyboy]

how can you have a favorite planet?

Easily.

 

Saturn has cool rings.

 

Therefore, Saturn = My Favorite Planet.

 

Not hard.

[Guest DrTom]

I'm really surprised no one has said that their favorite planet is Uranus...

[Guest Cancer Marney]

I'm not going anywhere near Uranus, buddy.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

I feel like I've been lied to..Oh wait, I have been lied to.

 

My favorite planet is Earth..

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

No way, Mars is the best. Its moons are erratic, potato shape rocks named Phobos and Deimos. That's fuckin' tough. If I were a planet, I'd name my moons the same thing.

[Guest Cancer Marney]

If you were a planet, I don't think you'd have any rocks at all.

Just like now.

 

 

 

 

 

Couldn't resist. <g>

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

shit, I'd send ol' fear and panic crashing into your atmosphere, making some pretty gnarly craters.

[Guest Cancer Marney]

Pah. They'd be shattered and absorbed by my spinning, flashing RINGS OF ICE~!

 

 

 

 

 

ph34r

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

oooOOOOooooohh, what are you gonna do, send that moon with the real high albedo and have it be shiny at me?

[Guest Cancer Marney]

...

 

<had to look up "albedo">

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

A celestial body's capability to reflect light.

 

I also find it amusing as hell that you'd choose to be a frigid ball of gas. Methane and ammonia, if memory serves.

 

heh heh.

[Guest Cancer Marney]

Well, actually, I just said I think Saturn looks the coolest. And you have to admit those rings look pretty damn cool.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Yeah, as far as rings go, I guess they're in the top 3 ringed planets in the solar system.

[Guest Cancer Marney]

Anyway, if I were a planet, it'd be Venus. Named after the goddess of love. Volcanic rock and poison. Constant, brilliant, and admired by all, yet mysterious and unreachable.

 

 

 

And hotter than everyone else.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

and covered by thick clouds of crystalized sulfuric acid, with a retrograde rotation that makes a day on Venus longer than a year. Prone to violent thunderstorms, the surface is so toxic and inhospitable that the existance of life is impossible.

[Guest Cancer Marney]

Yep. Acidic and tempestuous too.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

...and "rotating" in a way contrary to other planets... wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more.

[Guest Cancer Marney]

<laughing>

[Guest Midnight Express83]

Seeing as I can only LIVE on earth. I say this is the best plantet. I can't think of any reason besides color and rings that a person would like another planet.