3.8.05

Planet #10 discovered


So far it has the catchy name of "2003UB313", but I'm sure that will get adjusted at some point.


The pictures show it's presence in the sky over time, which were how it was eventually discovered. An interesting feature of this discovery is that it raises the philosophical question of "what is a planet"? Pluto is currently the baseline for considering an object oribting the sun as being of sufficient size to qualify, but the Kuiper belt (the halo of comets and objects far out from the sun) has several Pluto sized objects that might merit consideration as 'planets' (smaller than Pluto objects are considered 'planetoids'). This latest discovery though is of an object aprox. 1.5 to 2 x the size of Pluto, and twice again as far out from the sun.

Whatever we call it, it's still damn cool to know that there are still things to discover about our solar system as basic as how many planets it has.

No comments: