Plutoids: a new class of objects beyond Neptune, Astronomy, politics or damage control |
Plutoids: a new class of objects beyond Neptune, Astronomy, politics or damage control |
Jun 12 2008, 09:44 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 340 Joined: 11-April 08 From: Sydney, Australia Member No.: 4093 |
Article on the BBC website: 'Non-planet' Pluto gets new class
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7449735.stm QUOTE Now an IAU committee, meeting in Oslo, has suggested that small, nearly spherical objects orbiting beyond Neptune should carry the "plutoid" tag. It also goes on to say that not everybody is too excited about it: QUOTE "It's just some people in a smoke-filled room who dreamed it up," he told the Associated Press. "Plutoids or haemorrhoids, whatever they call it. This is irrelevant." -------------------- |
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Jun 19 2008, 05:13 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1887 Joined: 20-November 04 From: Iowa Member No.: 110 |
I noticed this in the IAU's press release
QUOTE for naming purposes, any Solar System body having (a) a semimajor axis greater than that of Neptune, and ( an absolute magnitude brighter than H = +1 (see Notes) magnitude will, for the purpose of naming, be considered to be a plutoid, and be named by the WGPSN and the CSBN. http://www.iau.org/public_press/news/release/iau0804/I guess this means 2005 FY9 and 2003 EL61 will be treated as Plutoids at least for the purpose of naming. How this affects the naming isn't apparent as there is no mention of a different naming convention being used for plutiods or dwarf planets in the press release or on the IAU's webpage. |
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