Possible 10th Planet Found!

[Skyguy]

Astronomers may have found a tenth planet in our solar system! A Kuiper Belt object (KBO), (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt) currently labeled 2003 UB313, is quietly orbiting at roughly twice Pluto's distance. Or roughly, 11.8 billion km...
Current observations seem to point to the object being slightly larger than Pluto.
Pluto is currently thought to be the largest member of the KBO 'family', but that status may change if this discovery is confirmed by further observations.

Start thinking of some interesting names for the possible new addition!!


Important Notes:
-This kind of thing has been said before, and so far all the contenders have turned out to be smaller than Pluto upon further examination.
-The astronomers claim that even assuming 2003 UB313 has an albedo (reflectivity) of 100%, it would still be larger than pluto. (For distant planetary objects, albedo plays a key role in determining their actual size.)
-Dispite what you may think, there is no agreed upon definition as to what a 'planet' actually is. It's still very likely your kids will be continue being taught that our solar system has 9 planets for a very... VERY long time.

[Les Shaw]

Very cool

[Rustynut]

Cool!

[SuperFriend_XP]

What happened to all the other supposedly new planets?

[Mr. Apollo]

What happened to all the other supposedly new planets?
Those are extra-solar system planets. That is planets orbiting other suns.

[Skyguy]

Some pictures to provide a general idea of this object's size:

[Frogy]

Thanks Skyguy.

[Mouse]

That's just great!!!!

Another place I'll never get to in my life-time. :(

;)

[Ken_ver_1_5]

cool when do we move?

[Dierdra]

One day on the 10th planet (one orbit of the sun) apparently takes 560 years in earth-time.

Fugedaboudit.

[Skyguy]

cool when do we move?I'm sure the house prices would be cheap... But I've never been a fan of moving that far into the 'burbs.

Will this 'Urban Sprawl' thing ever end??? Geeze.
Even at light speed, it'd be a 11 hour commute every bloody morning!!

[Skyguy]

One day on the 10th planet (one orbit of the sun) apparently takes 560 years in earth-time.

Fugedaboudit.That sounds more like it's year rather than it's day...

[Mouse]

Yes. A day would be one revolution on it's axis.

Does it have one???

[Skyguy]

Yes. A day would be one revolution on it's axis.

Does it have one???
It's a sure bet... But I doubt that has been determined yet.

Determining the rotational periods for objects so small & far away is exceedingly difficult...


Ex. I don't believe they accurately pinned down the length of Pluto's day until just after the discovery of it's moon in '77. (Pluto & it's moon Charon are tidally locked - i.e. they always keep the same face towards each other. Find out the moon's orbital period & BANG!... you've found Pluto's rotational period.)

[Frogy]

cool when do we move?



I'm sure the house prices would be cheap... But I've never been a fan of moving that far into the 'burbs.

Will this 'Urban Sprawl' thing ever end??? Geeze.
Even at light speed, it'd be a 11 hour commute every bloody morning!!

hmm, 22 out of 24, not much work time and you'd have to sleep enroute. I guess you'd get to play the rest of the time. ;)

[Mouse]

Finally, employers will give work-from-home a chance. :)

[Skyguy]

For those of you who care... This article pretty clearly describes the difficulty of trying to define what is a planet & what is not a planet. (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050802_planet_definition.html)

Cutting to the chase... the problem comes down to fact that planets are not simply objects of purely scientific interest. For much, MUCH longer (into this century), they have been objects of great cultural significance.
-Remember the uproar when the International Astronomical Union considered officially 'demoting' Pluto to a KBO?
-Countries regularly pump out postage stamps of the current 9 'planets'...
-How would the astrologers in the world react to, say, Mercury being taken off the official list of planets?
-What would these astrologers do (if anything) if one day a Mars sized world was found floating out there??
-et cetera...

Think of it like trying to quantitatively define which actor/actress is merely famous vs. which is a superstar. At the extreme ends, it's pretty easy to tell. But what about that 95% of the bunch will lay somewhere inbetween??

[Skyguy]

Surprise! Surprise!

Further observations of the proposed new 10th planet of the solar system have revealed that it has it's own moon!

The new moon (nicknamed, Gabrielle) is estimated to be ~250 km in diameter.

The new moon's discovery is particularly important because it will help astronomers determine 2003 UB313's (or Xena, as it's nicknamed) characteristics with more accuracy. i.e. It's mass, rotation rate, density, albedo, et cetera... et cetera...