Please welcome Xena, Charon, and Ceres to the family
From CNN.com
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Our solar system would have 12 planets instead of nine under a proposed "Big Bang" expansion by leading astronomers, changing what billions of schoolchildren are taught about their corner of the cosmos.
Much-maligned Pluto would remain a planet -- and its largest moon plus two other heavenly bodies would join Earth's neighborhood -- under a draft resolution to be formally presented Wednesday to the International Astronomical Union, the arbiter of what is and is not a planet.
"Yes, Virginia, Pluto is a planet," quipped Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Our solar system would have 12 planets instead of nine under a proposed "Big Bang" expansion by leading astronomers, changing what billions of schoolchildren are taught about their corner of the cosmos.
Much-maligned Pluto would remain a planet -- and its largest moon plus two other heavenly bodies would join Earth's neighborhood -- under a draft resolution to be formally presented Wednesday to the International Astronomical Union, the arbiter of what is and is not a planet.
"Yes, Virginia, Pluto is a planet," quipped Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
posted by Jonathan at 12:45 PM
2 Comments:
I'm hopelessly out of the astronomy loop, but it seems counterintuitive to consider a moon a planet. I would have thought that a planet would be a very large body that orbits only a star. If it orbits a planet, it's a moon, not a planet itself.
Incredibly simplistic, yes, but it makes more sense. Anyway, to quote Bucky Katt, "I'm not closed-minded. You're just wrong."
Here's the thing.
Charon doesn't "orbit" Pluto; rather, they both orbit the sun in paths that take them around each other.
The best description of this is, strangely enough, in the Star Trek novel Spock's World. Ironically, it improperly says that Terra and Luna form a double planet system, whereas in fact they do not currently, however, if CNN.com is to be believed (here's the link - I don't know enough HTML to turn it into a link link : http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/18/moon.planet/index.html) eventually Luna will form a double planet with Earth.
Isn't science fun? Oh, had dinner with John Ringo and Travis Taylor Friday night. Eat your heart out....
Post a Comment
<< Home