New Frozen World Found Beyond Pluto 763
theBrownfury writes "BBC, Sydney Herald, and the Indian Express are reporting a new object, which is one-tenth the diameter of the Earth, and lies well beyond Pluto in an area of the Solar System known as the Kuiper Belt. The new world, which has been dubbed Quaoar, is about 1,280 kilometres (800 miles) across. Quaoar orbits the sun ever 288 years and is 1250 Km wide, about the size of all the asteroids combined. This discovery is being hailed as the most important solar system discovery in the past 72 years."
Will it stay named? (Score:4, Interesting)
Dimensions (Score:4, Interesting)
So which one is it? 1280? 1250? Both? Neither? CowboyNeal?
Funny (Score:2, Interesting)
In a related news quote from the LINEAR research team "Holy Shit, did you see the size of that rock floating out there!"
Great name! (Score:5, Interesting)
Quoth BBC:
I happen to think that that is way groovy. It's about time some other ancient belief systems got in on the planet-naming! :)
Re:The most important solar system discovery... (Score:1, Interesting)
Hmm...
Is Quaoar an obscure god? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Our solar system ... (Score:4, Interesting)
It is sometimes said by astronomers that our solar system is made up of the Sun, Jupiter, and bunch of other little clutter. The mass of the rocky planets, and even the smaller gas giants is dismal compared to Jupiter.
The borderline between planet and asteroid is blurry. We might as well stop counting at Pluto out of tradition. However, if something bigger than Pluto is found out there, then the debate will heat up again.
Hmmmmm. I wonder if the Sun is even the brightest star out at the distance of Qu...... whatchmacallit. I would guess that it still is. Although Sun is not a big star, Q is still far closer to it than others.
it should be named after the douglas adams subject (Score:2, Interesting)
What makes a planet? (Score:4, Interesting)
It seems to me the astronomy community can't decide. How hard can it be? It's an arbitrary classification that doesn't actually mean anything. It's all just hunks of rock orbiting the sun. It's a classification that doesn't actually mean anything. Somebody just make a decision and let's all stick to it. It's annoying not knowing how many planets have been discovered in our own solar system.
If like Pluto, not a planet (Score:4, Interesting)
So, if all we have with this new thingie is the second largest Kuiper Belt object after Pluto - so what? Isn't the news play just about trying to get more funding from the fine fellows who've identified it, which is more likely if the headlines scream "Tenth Planet!" What a cynical abuse of the press. Science should stop grubbing, and strive for purity of purpose, lest the results themselves be corrupted. Prostitution just isn't the same as free love.
Gravitational Wobble (Score:2, Interesting)
I had this theory that a much larger planet is further out, but is very dark in color, and thus it hasn't been seen by albedo, and no one was looking in the right place to see it eclipse out other stars.
Of course, I haven't taken a course in astronomy since the 1980s, and I may be totally missing something obvious ("If that were true then the Hubble's Heisenburg Compensator would have found it, duh!"), but I have always thought if I wanted the *correct* answer to something I should post something obviously wrong on Slashdot.
____________________
I had a Heisenberg-mobile, but every time I looked at the speedometer, I got lost [punkwalrus.com].
Don't break the damn pattern (Score:5, Interesting)
The naming of Pluto is a story by itself. Early suggestions of the name of the new planet were: Atlas, Zymal, Artemis, Perseus, Vulcan, Tantalus, Idana, Cronus. The New York Times suggested Minerva, reporters suggested Osiris, Bacchus, Apollo, Erebus. Lowell's widow suggested Zeus, but later changed her mind to Constance. Many people suggested the planet be named Lowell. The staff of the Flagstaff observatory, where Pluto was discovered, suggested Cronus, Minerva, and Pluto. A few months later the planet was officially named Pluto. The name Pluto was originally suggested by Venetia Burney, an 11-year-old schoolgirl in Oxford, England.
Re:Is it really? (Score:5, Interesting)
This new object will have difficulty becoming a 'Planet' by name.
Re:More Naming Crap (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, probably some academical SF. They, sometimes, are also good writers...
lies, damn lies! (Score:2, Interesting)
No, it orbits the sun once per year, just like everyone else. It just equates to 288 earth years :P
Re:Pluto Not A Planet? (Score:1, Interesting)
Now it's been a while since I read this so it could be debunked or just disregarded by now.
Re:What makes a planet? (Score:5, Interesting)
That's a tough question.
Size?
Yes. Generally, a body should be large enough that gravity makes it roughly spherical, before it can be considered a planet. However, this is apparently a necessary-but-not-sufficient criterion.
The presence of its own sattelites?
No. See Mercury and Venus.
An atmosphere?
No. See Mercury.
How hard can it be? It's an arbitrary classification that doesn't actually mean anything.
You just answered your own question. It's hard to draw the line between planet and non-planet precisely because the line is arbitrary and has no real meaning.
I think we should just call it a planet if it (1) orbits a star directly; (2) is massive enough to be roughly spherical; and (3) is not so massive that it is either a brown dwarf or a star. However, please note that this definition would include the asteroid Ceres, which is generally not considered a planet...maybe it should be.
(Ceres is 900 km in diameter, compared to this new one's 1250-km diameter).
The traditional name for Sol's 10th planet (Score:5, Interesting)
is Persephone. (per-SEF-oh-nee) This would be the chick from Greek mythology that ate the pomogranate seeds and thus had to stay in Hades for half the year (when the world grows cold), and gets to come out the other half (when the world warms up again).
Most of the SF and speculative fiction/nonfiction articles over the last few decades have all referred to a tenth planet as Persephone, on the assumption that we would continue naming major astronomical objects for ancient mythological figures.
Re:The traditional name for Sol's 10th planet (Score:5, Interesting)
Interestingly there are a few problems with the name Persephone. All of the major planets are named for Roman gods; Persephone is the Greek name for the goddess in Latin called Proserpina.
Second, there is the suggestion that Clarke (or maybe Asimov) made before Charon was discovered: he suggested that Pluto's moon, if one were ever discovered, be named Persephone, and that the name Charon be given to any trans-Plutonian planet, with I think Cerberus being reserved for any moons of that planet. That way someone from outside the system would have to pass Charon and Cerberus (or maybe it was Styx) to get to Pluto and Persephone.
See the Space Telescope Institute's Press Release [stsci.edu] for more information about Quaoar; on the name, this link [angelfire.com] may be of use; it looks like Quaoar is a name from mythology, albeit indigenous American mythology, which makes it consistent with the names of the minor planets and moons (which do not need to be named after Roman gods; the moons of Uranus are even named after characters from Shakespeare : e.g., Oberon and Titania from Much Ado About Nothing, and Ariel and Miranda from The Tempest).
For Gods sake choose another name! (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:In homage to Lovecraft... (Score:2, Interesting)
H.P. Lovecraft writing about the discovery of Pluto in a letter dated April 1st 1930:
One wonders what it is like, & what dim-litten fungi may sprout coldly on its frozen surface! I think I shall suggest its being named Yuggoth!
Selected Letters III (p. 136)
Quaoar Means.... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Pluto Not A Planet? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:"Sol" (Score:3, Interesting)
Language is *flexible*.
For the same reason that 'Photoshopping' is a verb, 'Sol' is the name of our sun. People use it, and the term sticks.
In a similar vein:
Sol
Luna
boxen
unices
Linux (over GNU/Linux)
Doh
phat
slashdotted
owned/0wnz3d
Re:tenth planet (Score:2, Interesting)
Mercury: messenger god, it moves fast
Venus: god of beauty, it's pretty
Mars: god of war, it's red
Jupiter: king of the gods, it's big
Saturn: Jupiter's dad, also big, I guess, although there's probably something else I'm missing
Uranus: god in exile, it's far away
Neptune: sea god, it's blue
Pluto: god of the underworld, it's cold and dark
Quaoar: force that created animals and people???
Persephone was Pluto's wife, who he tricked into marrying him, and is allowed to return to earth every year, causing the seasons via her mother, Demeter, who makes it cold while she's gone and warm when she's arround. Honestly, I think she works better for Pluto, since it comes closer than Neptune some of the time, but it's better than Quaoar for #10.
10th planet in ancient times (Score:1, Interesting)