The 'planet' Debate |
The 'planet' Debate |
Aug 27 2005, 07:04 AM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 813 Joined: 8-February 04 From: Arabia Terra Member No.: 12 |
It seems that the IAU is having a tough time defining the term 'planet'. Why is a debate that is irrelevant to the understanding of the solar system proving so contentious?
Summaries of the suggestions so far and what they would do to the number of 'planets': Mike Brown, discoverer of 2003 UB313: Anything orbiting the Sun that is larger than Pluto is a planet. +2003 UB313 Brian Marsden, director of the IAU's Minor Planet Centre: Any newly discovered body orbiting the Sun must be larger than Mars to be called a planet. -Pluto (but not Mercury) Alan Stern, PI for New Horizons: Any body orbiting the sun that forms itself into a spheroid through self-gravity is a planet. +2003 UB313 and a dozen or more main belt asteroids and TNOs Iwan P Williams, president of the IAU's planet definition working group: No new planets, regardless of size. Thoughts on this from the forum? Also, does anyone have a complete list of the members of the planet definition working group? The IAU website is unhelpful. |
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Aug 27 2005, 07:39 AM
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#2
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Dublin Correspondent Group: Admin Posts: 1799 Joined: 28-March 05 From: Celbridge, Ireland Member No.: 220 |
QUOTE (SFJCody @ Aug 27 2005, 08:04 AM) Alan Stern, PI for New Horizons: Any body orbiting the sun that forms itself into a spheroid through self-gravity is a planet. +2003 UB313 and a dozen or more main belt asteroids and TNOs I like this one - if you think about what we would call objects we find orbiting around other suns then I think that would be a reasonable way to apply broad categorisation. |
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Aug 27 2005, 11:07 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 813 Joined: 8-February 04 From: Arabia Terra Member No.: 12 |
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