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Posted by Raving Loonie on July 29, 2005, 9:55 pm
Please log in for more thread options Double-A wrote:
> baalke@earthlink.net wrote:
> > http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/jul/HQ_05209_10th_Planet.html
> >
> > Dolores Beasley
> > Headquarters, Washington
> > (Phone: 202/358-1753)
> >
> > Jane Platt/Gay Hill
> > Jet Propulsion Laboratory
> > (Phone: 818-354-0880/0344)
> >
> > July 29, 2005
> >
> > RELEASE: 05-209
> >
> > Scientists Discover Tenth Planet
> >
> > A planet larger than Pluto has been discovered in the outlying regions
> > of the solar system.
> >
> > The planet was discovered using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar
> > Observatory near San Diego, Calif. The discovery was announced today by
> > planetary scientist Dr. Mike Brown of the California Institute of
> > Technology in Pasadena, Calif., whose research is partly funded by
> > NASA.
> >
> > The planet is a typical member of the Kuiper belt, but its sheer size
> > in
> > relation to the nine known planets means that it can only be classified
> > as a planet, Brown said. Currently about 97 times further from the sun
> > than the Earth, the planet is the farthest-known object in the solar
> > system, and the third brightest of the Kuiper belt objects.
> >
> > "It will be visible with a telescope over the next six months and is
> > currently almost directly overhead in the early-morning eastern sky, in
> > the constellation Cetus," said Brown, who made the discovery with
> > colleagues Chad Trujillo, of the Gemini Observatory in Mauna Kea,
> > Hawaii, and David Rabinowitz, of Yale University, New Haven, Conn., on
> > January 8.
> >
> > Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz first photographed the new planet with
> > the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope on October 31, 2003. However, the
> > object was so far away that its motion was not detected until they
> > reanalyzed the data in January of this year. In the last seven months,
> > the scientists have been studying the planet to better estimate its
> > size
> > and its motions.
> >
> > "It's definitely bigger than Pluto," said Brown, who is a professor of
> > planetary astronomy.
> >
> > Scientists can infer the size of a solar system object by its
> > brightness, just as one can infer the size of a faraway light bulb if
> > one knows its wattage. The reflectance of the planet is not yet known.
> > Scientists can not yet tell how much light from the sun is reflected
> > away, but the amount of light the planet reflects puts a lower limit on
> > its size.
> >
> > "Even if it reflected 100 percent of the light reaching it, it would
> > still be as big as Pluto," says Brown. "I'd say it's probably one and a
> > half times the size of Pluto, but we're not sure yet of the final size.
> >
> > "We are 100 percent confident that this is the first object bigger than
> > Pluto ever found in the outer solar system," Brown added.
> >
> > The size of the planet is limited by observations using NASA's Spitzer
> > Space Telescope, which has already proved its mettle in studying the
> > heat of dim, faint, faraway objects such as the Kuiper-belt bodies.
> > Because Spitzer is unable to detect the new planet, the overall
> > diameter
> > must be less than 2,000 miles, said Brown.
> >
> > A name for the new planet has been proposed by the discoverers to the
> > International Astronomical Union, and they are awaiting the decision of
> > this body before announcing the name.
> >
> > For more information on the discovery and to view images, visit:
> >
> > http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/newplanet-072905-images.html
> >
> > For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:
> >
> > http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html
> >
> > - end -
>
>
> I do think this is exciting. It's not every morning that you wake up
> to hear of a new planet being discovered in our solar system! While
> other objects have already been discovered beyond Pluto, this one may
> actually have the size to be called the tenth planet.
>
> Apparently it was actually discovered six months ago. I'm not sure why
> they waited so long to make the discovery public.
>
> I wish my father were alive for this. The planet Pluto was discovered
> during his lifetime. That was 75 years ago.
>
> Perhaps we need to look for more planets that are not aligned with the
> plane of the ecliptic. Perhaps the disk-like planetary alignment is
> only characteristic of the inner planets.
>
> Double-A
More confusiion
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050729_new_planet.html
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