New Planets

[Nick22]

The IAU has a proposal before it to add 3 new planets to the solar syatem. they are Charon (formerly Pluto's moon) Ceres (the largest asteriod) and Xena(which is just an informal nickname for the planet). Thoughts?

[pokeplayer984]

Based on the fact that Ceres is an asteroid, I don't think it should be refered to as a planet.  If that were the case, all asteroids should be called planets.

With Charon, since when has a moon been refered to as an official planet?  A moon revolves around a planet, which revolves around the sun.  Basically, unless it leaves Pluto's orbit completely and gets it's own, it's breaking rules.

As for the last one, I'm going to have to research that one before I can give a positive answer.

[Malte279]

I don't really know about the correct definitions of different celestial bodies, but I too think that planets ought to be on a direct orbit around the sun rather than orbiting around another planet that is orbiting around the sun. If we have an asteorid orbiting the sun, what would be the difference of that asteorid and a planet. A "drawback" of discovering more planets would be the fact that many cribs to remember our "nine" planets would be rendered useless. Are there such cribs in English too? In Germany we have for example the following nine word sentence with each word begining with the same letter as the respective planet:
Mein Vater erkl‰rt mir jeden Sonntag unsere neun Planeten.
(Every Sunday my father explains our nine planets to me.)

[pokeplayer984]

Hmm, according to Wikipedia, the new definintion of the term "planet" will soon be voted upon to change.

If it passes, this will be the new definintion:

"a celestial body that (a.) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (b.) is in orbit around a star, and is neither a star nor a satellite of a planet"

Ceres was the first asteroid discovered.  According to the pictures, it does have a nearly round shape, unlike other asteroids out there.

It has been discovered that Charon and Pluto actually revolve around one another. :blink: With such a new discovery, Charon is now questionable as a moon.

Xena, aka 2003 UB313, actually has it's own unique orbit.  Instead of the normal way that we all know of the traditional planets, the orbit of Xena is at an incline.  It still revolves around the sun, but at a completely different angle.

Hmm, with all this new info, my opinion on everything might change.  So give me some time to give my official opinion.

[Nick22]

yes, I had to learn lines like that in school as well malte. Mine went something like  'many very enormous men jumped swiftly under nearby plants"

[pokeplayer984]

Also Malte, there are those that are made up when some phrases are just hard to remember.

Here's one from an earlier classmate:

My Very Entergetic Mostly Juvinille Sister Unsuritally Neveres People.

Note that the sentence may be spelled wrong.  Some words I'm not too sure how to spell. -_-

[Petrie.]

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pancakes  

[Malte279]

I'm strictly against accepting Xena as a planet!!!
Imagine the situation if in some hundred years some visitors from a foreign galaxy ask out of interest what we've named our planets after:
"Well, Venus is the Roman god of love. Mars is the Roman god of War, Jupiter is the Roman godfather... and Xena was a 20th century TV series"  

[Nick22]

Xena is only its informal mickname, Malte, not its official name. It hasn't been given an official name yet...

[action9000]

The IAU has a proposal before it to add 3 new planets to the solar syatem. they are Charon (formerly Pluto's moon) Ceres (the largest asteriod) and Xena(which is just an informal nickname for the planet). Thoughts?

I read about this in the local newspaper a couple of days ago.  It's an interesting concept, though the new additions don't feel like they belong in the solar system as we know it.  

For example, the largest new object, Charon, is smaller than Earth's moon.  The article in my paper also stated that a body needs to be a minimum of, I believe, 805 km in diameter before it could be considered a planet.  The asteroid, Ceres, is just over 900 km and classifying that as a planet, I feel, is pushing the envelope just a little too far.  It's in the asteroid belt; it's an asteroid! :

It has been discovered that Charon and Pluto actually revolve around one another.  With such a new discovery, Charon is now questionable as a moon.

As for calling Pluto's moon Charon, a planet?  I must disagree that a body that clearly orbits a planet can be considered a planet itself.  Unless it is a true two-planet system where their orbits are interdependant (which is quite rare from what I understand), this does not seem reasonable to me.  In this case, I don't know enough about it, but if they do, indeed, revolve around Each Other, I will say yes, they could both be considered planets.

Xena is only its informal nickname, Malte, not its official name. It hasn't been given an official name yet...

I only hope Xena does not remain its final name.  I'm not especially comfortable with that idea... :

[NewOrder]

Are you sure it's Xena? I heard on the news a few years back that the planet that orbits pass Pluto was going to be called Sedna as for an esquimo Goddess.

I don't know if any of the objects from the Oort cloud such as Sedna or maybe Pluto shoud be considered a planet, but if you think of it they do orbit the sun and are way too big to be asteroids. As for Charon I didn't know that Pluto and Charon orbited around each other, none the less its mass is smaller than Pluto's so it should be considered a Moon an not a planet. Finally, as for Ceres, it's a very big asteroid, and it may help to solve the mistery over the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but one day it might brake up due to a crash against another big asteroid, then what are we going to call it? It's better to keep him as an asteroid.

[Nick22]

sedna is another possible planet. it is in between Pluto and Xena... several billion miles away from the SUN.

[pokeplayer984]

Though here's my little question, since it seems to be a pattern to name the different things in our solar system after Roman Gods, I'm just wondering if we've run out of names yet?

[action9000]

Though here's my little question, since it seems to be a pattern to name the different things in our solar system after Roman Gods, I'm just wondering if we've run out of names yet?

They may move to Greek Gods when they run out of Roman ones. :

[Malte279]

Which would be in a way kind of fantasyless as basically the Greek and the Roman gods are identical only with different names.
Perhaps it would be very adequate to introduce the gods of other cultures to change this focus on Europe only. Sedna is an example for this by the way, as Sedna is the Inuit goddes of the sea.
If it comes to naming planets we are faced with a serious disadvantage of Monotheism  
Maybe they will some day name planets after mortal characters of legend. It may be a cause for argument as the integrity of many such "heroes" can really be called into question... but so can the integrity of many of the gods after whom planets have already been names (which in turn provides us with many more names. The list of names of woman Zeus / Jupiter had affairs with would do for a small galaxy). I guess there are so many planets out there that we mustn't be too picky about names in the end. Still I do oppose naming planets after TV series while there are better alternatives at hand  
...
Could a planet be named "land before time", or "Saurus Rock", or could we name a galaxy "Mysterious Beyond"? Sure sounds poetic enough to qualify, yet the Xena fans might protest against this idea  

[Nick22]

 good one malte. I think they name objects based on the group they are found in. Anything having to with Pluto must be named afdter a character from the underworld. My guess for the next Pluto moon? Cerberus(sp)(the 3-headed dog).

[action9000]

So it's official:
According to the news reports today, Pluto has been demoted to a "Dwarf Planet" and is no longer considered to be one of the 9 planets of the Solar System.

Looks like some book and internet publishers have some work to do! :

[Nick22]

Yep, but that decision will likely be overturned since only about 400 members voted on it (everybody else had already gone home)

[action9000]

but that decision will likely be overturned since only about 400 members voted on it (everybody else had already gone home)

Bah. :   That's one reason I rarely watch the news; I always miss something.
I actually don't think that was mentioned at all in the brief news story I caught of it.

Thanks for clearing that up.  Let's see how this develops.

[NewOrder]

Actually I think it's official, I watch the news very thouroughly (going to be a future journalist I hope =P), and they said it's official 8 planets instead of 9

On other news, did you know that today by 0:30 GMT you'll be able to see Mars as the same size as the moon? It'll be very cool, I hope it's true and that I won't miss it