[meteorite-list] What to name Planet X
Hi All, How 'bout planet Bumble, after the term of endearment for the Abominable Snow Monster from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? ;-) --R -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 10:53 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Meteorite Mailing List Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Astronomers to Decide What Makes a Planet Hi, Darren, Brown wanted Persephone, too. But it's taken, years ago, by a MINOR planet. ORCUS, a Greek name for the Afterlife is already taken by another really big KBO, 2000DW. Eurydice? Elysium? Minos? Hades? The Underworld names seems too negative for a happy object. They may all be taken by the 240,000 minor planets, some of whom are named for members of this List. Brown has been searching for years. I'll bet he long ago figured out a good name for the Whopper when he found it. We'll see. Sterling __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] What to name Planet X
Hi Rob, Yea, that's the one! He got his teeth removed by the wanna-be dentist elf. I forgot the elph's name, but a moon could certainly be named after him. Good choice. -Walter - - Original Message - From: Matson, Robert [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'Sterling K. Webb' [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Meteorite Mailing List meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 3:25 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] What to name Planet X Hi All, How 'bout planet Bumble, after the term of endearment for the Abominable Snow Monster from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? ;-) --R -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 10:53 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Meteorite Mailing List Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Astronomers to Decide What Makes a Planet Hi, Darren, Brown wanted Persephone, too. But it's taken, years ago, by a MINOR planet. ORCUS, a Greek name for the Afterlife is already taken by another really big KBO, 2000DW. Eurydice? Elysium? Minos? Hades? The Underworld names seems too negative for a happy object. They may all be taken by the 240,000 minor planets, some of whom are named for members of this List. Brown has been searching for years. I'll bet he long ago figured out a good name for the Whopper when he found it. We'll see. Sterling __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] What to name Planet X (OT)
Hola Rob and list, Planet X was already named Pluto! This has to be at least Planet Y:) After considerable thought, I've decided to nickname the new planet the Mushroom Planet. Likewise, my scientific one word name shall be Basidium, if Basidium-X isn't politically correct with the hyphen. If others' choose not to follow, all the better. My mind is made up. The Mushroom Planet was the 10th planet observed only by a special filter designed by Mr. Bass - and he knew where to look back in 1954. A short explanation: Canadian-born Californian Eleanor Cameron's (1912 - 1996) wonderful children's adventure novel The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, and its sequels in the 1950's captured the excitement of the discovery of Pluto as she herself was a teenager, the sudden focus on space travel in her 40's as she wrote the books, and the imagination, creativity and enthusiasm of kids from the 1950's to at least the late 1960's as they secretly beat Sputnik and Mercury years before JFK was president. Dave - with whom I could so well identify (and Cameron's only son in reality) - and his friend Chuck, with the help of an enigmatic astronomer who was a first rate engineer, not to mention their Uncle's with parts from the junk yard to build the rocket fulfilled dreams of a generation at the leading edge of the present discovery. By the way Sterling, you have overlooked one little detail. The classes' of planets nomenclature ought to be after the largest member of their group (e.g., Terra = Terrestrial Earth is largest; Jupiter = Jovian Jupiter is largest). So instead of Plutonian we will have the Xenanians...or some other similar periodic table of the elements sounding name. As others have pointed out, finding a name for this new Xenanian, or in my case, Basidomycetes order (fungi) of planets is difficult. Perfect! Fungi are not plan(e)ts for some and Basidium doesn't have to be a planet, except for keyboard-challenged listmembers. I think I'll just go on naming all the new discoveries after different fungi (mushrooms, puffballs, smuts, rusts and toadstools) since they like damp, cool places, low-light environments where people don't usually venture and frequently are ignorant even exist. That sums it up, I think. This naming of modern discoveries with ancient or medieval dieties is getting out of hand IMHO, what's next Tlaloc? Krisna? Jesus? Mohammed? Gautama? This IS a name game of a political nature of sorts, not childsplay by any means as some would suggest anything to do with a let's go out and play game. There is weak scientific classification need, if that. That's mostly why it hasn't been addressed before - not because the IAU has supplanted popular language, common sense and Oxford, Noah Webster, and Random House. And we are seeing game-theory and manuvering at its best by the mostly irrelevant scientific taxonomic community experts on planets, and others who have decided that a new planet is or isn't possible because we either do or don't allready know 'em all. As if calling Basidium a planet or not really is a relevant scientific question with the menagerie we already have out there! Basidium (Xena, tastes great, less filling, you can call me...) is a planet if its discoverer wants to call it so (who is more qualified than the guy that found it). It can be estimated to have about same surface area as Russia and Canada (the two largest countries), added together - and much, much, much more than the USA including Alaska. It is thought to be 56% the diameter of Mercury which means it would have about one third the surface area of Mercury. (And a bit over 5% the area of Earth). Mercury itself is 38% the diameter of Earth, so drawing the line between Mercury and Earth is much more logical and justified than between Mercury and Basidium... Saludos, Doug PS if the discoverer considers Basidium isn't a planet, that is his right, too, though it would introduce an inconsistency with Pluto and completely pull the lid off the can of worms. En un mensaje con fecha 08/03/2005 2:28:35 PM Mexico Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] escribe: Hi All, How 'bout planet Bumble, after the term of endearment for the Abominable Snow Monster from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? ;-) --R -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 10:53 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Meteorite Mailing List Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Astronomers to Decide What Makes a Planet Hi, Darren, Brown wanted Persephone, too. But it's taken, years ago, by a MINOR planet. ORCUS, a Greek name for the Afterlife is already taken by another really big KBO, 2000DW. Eurydice? Elysium? Minos? Hades? The Underworld names seems too negative for a happy object. They may all be taken by the 240,000 minor planets, some of whom are named for members
Re: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET?
Martin wrote: Not at all, it helps to understand, how garish the decision was to name that object after a TV-Show: Xena. Guess the next KBOs will be called: Hulk, Buck, Blob, (Larry, Moe and Curly), Fuzzy Lassie. Scotty! :-) OK, sorry, back to meteorites... Alex __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET?
On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 12:20:42 +0200, Martin Altmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi AlAll, The naming of a planet is left to the astronomical community and they tend to name after the Greek gods. Suggesting and speculating names on this list is simply a waste of time although fun. Not at all, it helps to understand, how garish the decision was to name that object after a TV-Show: Xena. Guess the next KBOs will be called: Hulk, Buck, Blob, (Larry, Moe and Curly), Fuzzy Lassie. Actually, they DIDN'T name it after a TV show. As usual in science stories, the news media are wrong. Xena is just an informal nickname they have been using for it and NOT a serious proposal as to what to name the KBO. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET?
Hi, These recent discoveries of new planets is going to heat up the on-going quarrel about what is and isn't a planet, with its increasingly long definitions and conditions statements designed to trim reality in the mold of the arguer's mind. Frankly, I used to belong to the no-more-planets school of opinion, but 2003 UB313 has flipped me over like a pancake on a griddle. It may do the same thing to others, or not. But whatever the definition is, it shouldn't be too complex or long or involved. It should be basic. The original definition of planet (from the Greek word Planetes, or wanderer) was the five lights in the sky that did not move with the stars: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Observations and calculations of their motions goes back 4000 years, possibly 6000. This original classification from the beginning contained two radically different kinds of worlds: terrestrials and gas giants, a fact that was not clear until the XVIIth century. Comets, once it was understood that they were solar system objects and not weather, were excluded. Ceres, the biggest asteroid, was first proposed for planethood (between Mars and Jupiter, I place a planet) when discovered, but rejected. Sorry, not big enough, and none of your small relatives either, Minor Planets is all you get to be. Pluto got to join the Planet Club right away, It was initially assumed to a small gas giant about 10,000 to 12,000 miles in diameter. Then, Kuiper discovered it couldn't be more than 6500 miles in diameter. Still bigger than Mars, but we're disappointed in you, I must say... Now we know that Pluto is not a big dog, but a runt (well, nice moon, anyway), and sure enough, there's a faction on the Membership Committee that feels we should ease this embarrassment out of The Club, discreetly to be sure, but it simply doesn't belong, you know... 2003 UB313 is going to stir all this up because that faction of the Membership Committee unwisely chose to discriminate against newer candidates on the grounds that they were not even as big as the unsuitable Pluto, and I'm willing to bet that the same people will now start tut-tut'ing over unsuitable inclinations. In the case of both 2003 UB313 and 2003 EL61, we see that these bodies are surprisingly bright and the first question that comes to mind is Why did nobody discover them before now? They weren't looking in the right place, and those who were confident that there were bodies out there bigger than Pluto have been justified in spades, redoubled. The question that starts nagging at me is why there isn't there just as great a likelihood that there is a high inclination body four or five times the size of Pluto (the size of our own little world) out at 140 or 150 AU? It would actually be dimmer than 2003 UB313, even at that size! The real reason that the existence of high inclination objects were dismissed is that current theory about solar system formation demanded that the planets be formed pretty much in the same plane. Well, theories are fine, as long as reality doesn't walk in and stomp all over them, but when it does, it behooves us to open our eyes a little bit wider. And, in case you didn't notice, reality just did that very thing. As soon as 2003 UB313 flipped me over like a pancake on a griddle on the planet question, a definition popped into my mind at the same moment. It's irrational to insist that a new planet be bigger than Pluto (because that was just an excuse to drag Pluto down, anyway). The proper comparison is to the most analogous excluded class, namely the 250,000 known minor planets. So, here goes: if it goes around the Sun and is demonstrably (the entire range of error bars above the Ceres diameter) larger than Ceres, it's a planet. Welcome to The Club! That keeps asteroidal riff-raff out of The Club, likewise really big comets (Charon?), and other oddities. And of course, we'll need to learn all those new names. That's a problem. For a start, I've learned to spell QUAOAR and even pronounce it (Kwa-Oar). So there. The people who discover these things really should be a bit more aware about the names that they pick. Naming a planet-sized body after an Eskimo Seal Goddess of Plenty is very PC, I'm sure, and I like SEDNA myself, but there are lots of unused names in the traditional lexicon of mythology, especially for figures of the nether regions. Persephone (Per-SEF-fon-ee), the Queen of Hades, is the most obvious example. But save Her for that Earth-sized KBO, all right? She is The Queen, after all... Let the sniping begin! Sterling K. Webb __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET?
In the case of both 2003 UB313 and 2003 EL61, we see that these bodies are surprisingly bright and the first question that comes to mind is Why did nobody discover them before now? They weren't looking in the right place,... Hence I propose as a name for one of them:Waldo Buckleboo! Martin - Original Message - From: Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite List meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 10:16 AM Subject: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET? __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET?
Hi Sterlinglist, The naming issue seems to me almost the more interesting problem than the definition, from when on a lump of rock should be called planet (greek: wandering star). Does size matter? Perhaps. (at the moment a range from tiny Mercury and Pluto up to giant objects around other stars). Inclination? No. Just bad luck, if the chunk once was kicked off from the plane. Formation and Society is the point. Has it a family of similar members, built in the same region and of similar physical properties? Is there a belt? To decide, how to call it, is more a question of history, guess Doug will write us a nice homework about. At least it is easier to ask if Pluto should be called a planet, than to discuss each time, after a new large KBO will have been detected, whether thius then should be a planet or not. The naming. Names can be changed. In a schoolbook, I have here, I find orbiting the sun beyond Saturn the planets Herschel and Leverier. The dictionary of minor planets' name is to expensive for me. Maybe somone else could outline a little bit the development of trends in naming: classical mythology, groups of names from epics, names of towns, wives, pets, dead persons with scientific merits, living persons with scientific merits (the asteroid Ssssteve, I heard, was found to be only a tiny satellite orbiting Rob Haag), dead persons with no scientific merits, first brand names... Cool would be a diagram, where the distribution of brightness of the minor planets in opposition would be plotted against those thematic name groups. If it's true, that Pluto was baptized also to give the initials of Percival Lowell and as it's not en vogue anymore to continue with classical greek and latin names, we have to find a name starting with Mb.. to honour the discoverer. Guess we have to study some African myths...would be perfect super-PC, like Quaoar from Tongva, Sedna from the Inuit Hey, would have been a great fun and test, how far the PC really reaches, to give the new object a christian name, hehe. May you imagine what an immense outcry this would cause in the media? But would be quite suitable, think to the old woodcuts and medieval drawings with the heliocentric system, where adjacent to the sphere of fixed stars are following the spheres of the angels according their hierarchy. As we we don't know, how many more KBO will be found more far away, we should choose a name from the lowest rank, thus I choose an archangel and to honour the discoverer, I propose the name: Michael Hummm, Sedna - Goddess of sea, Eskimo, sounds cold - Pluto, death...perhaps it's better to plunder the mythologies for personnel with cold, dark icy attributes, to reflect the physical nature of the KBOs? In Norse mythology we have the three giants of rime. Hymir Daddy of the god of war Tyr. Lives at the edge of heaven. He has a huge cauldron, wherein he brews all the beer for the gods. Skol! Once he was on a fishing trip with the boss, Thor. Who was so stupid to catch the Midgard Snake, which entwines around the whole world. But Hymir cut the fishing line. Thjazi Had some family struggles, always hungry. Was slain by Odin, who pulled of Thjazi's eyes, throw them to heaven, where they formed a pair of stars. Thjazi I felled, | the giant fierce, And I hurled the eyes | of Alvaldi's son To the heavens hot above; Of my deeds the mightiest | marks are these, That all men since can see. What, Harbarth, didst thou the while? (Who the heck is Harbath?) Gymir Dad of beauty queen Gerda. She symbolises also the seasons, in wintertime.. Ooops, I forgot! Those names are not acceptable. Poor Snorri, poor Icelanders - the Sagas and the Edda still have a WagnerNazi smell and are allowed only as poor copies in miserable fantasy literature computer role-playing games. Bad luck. So other suggestions? Buckleboo! Martin - Original Message - From: Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite List meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 10:16 AM Subject: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET? Hi, These recent discoveries of new planets is going to heat up the on-going quarrel about what is and isn't a planet, with its increasingly long definitions and conditions statements designed to trim reality in the mold of the arguer's mind. . __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET?
I'm happy enough for now keeping the definition loose. We have nine objects that we call planets for historical reasons; I'd be cautious adding more until we have a better understanding of their formation. I would lean away from calling anything significantly off the ecliptic a planet, unless we know that they it formed in the same process that produced the other planets. The reason this whole question comes up is because planet has a powerful colloquial meaning quite independent of any possible scientific definition. Perhaps the best solution is simply to remove planet from the table and leave it to its traditional use. All we need is a formal definition for bodies orbiting stars (possibly on a common plane), with enough mass to form near-spherical surfaces (and maybe a few other criteria). Perhaps planetoid could be used for that. Chris * Chris L Peterson Cloudbait Observatory http://www.cloudbait.com - Original Message - From: Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite List meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 2:16 AM Subject: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET? These recent discoveries of new planets is going to heat up the on-going quarrel about what is and isn't a planet, with its increasingly long definitions and conditions statements designed to trim reality in the mold of the arguer's mind. ... So, here goes: if it goes around the Sun and is demonstrably (the entire range of error bars above the Ceres diameter) larger than Ceres, it's a planet. Welcome to The Club! __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET?
On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 14:34:50 +0200, Martin Altmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In Norse mythology we have the three giants of rime. I think that you are looking for the word ice, not rime. Those names are not acceptable. Poor Snorri, poor Icelanders - the Sagas and the Edda still have a WagnerNazi smell and are allowed only as poor copies in miserable fantasy literature computer role-playing games. Bad luck. And that's WAY out of left feild! Some of our days of the week are named after Norse gods. Anyway, you forgot Ymir, which would be a good name for the largest KBO http://www.pantheon.org/articles/y/ymir.html Personally, I'm of the opinion that NO KBOs should be called planets, including Pluto. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET?
not en vogue anymore to continue with classical greek and latin names, we have to find a name starting with Mb.. to honour the discoverer. Guess we have to study some African myths...would be perfect super-PC, like Quaoar from Tongva, Sedna from the Inuit Hey, would have been a great fun and test, how far the PC really reaches, to give the new object a christian name, hehe. May you imagine what an immense outcry this would cause in the media? But would be quite suitable, think to the old woodcuts and medieval drawings with the heliocentric system, where adjacent to the sphere of fixed stars are following the spheres of the angels according their hierarchy. As we we don't know, how many more KBO will be found more far away, we should choose a name from the lowest rank, thus I choose an archangel and to honour the discoverer, I propose the name: Michael Hummm, Sedna - Goddess of sea, Eskimo, sounds cold - Pluto, death...perhaps it's better to plunder the mythologies for personnel with cold, dark icy attributes, to reflect the physical nature of the KBOs? In Norse mythology we have the three giants of rime. Hymir Daddy of the god of war Tyr. Lives at the edge of heaven. He has a huge cauldron, wherein he brews all the beer for the gods. Skol! Once he was on a fishing trip with the boss, Thor. Who was so stupid to catch the Midgard Snake, which entwines around the whole world. But Hymir cut the fishing line. Thjazi Had some family struggles, always hungry. Was slain by Odin, who pulled of Thjazi's eyes, throw them to heaven, where they formed a pair of stars. Thjazi I felled, | the giant fierce, And I hurled the eyes | of Alvaldi's son To the heavens hot above; Of my deeds the mightiest | marks are these, That all men since can see. What, Harbarth, didst thou the while? (Who the heck is Harbath?) Gymir Dad of beauty queen Gerda. She symbolises also the seasons, in wintertime.. Ooops, I forgot! Those names are not acceptable. Poor Snorri, poor Icelanders - the Sagas and the Edda still have a WagnerNazi smell and are allowed only as poor copies in miserable fantasy literature computer role-playing games. Bad luck. So other suggestions? Buckleboo! Martin - Original Message - From: Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite List meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 10:16 AM Subject: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET? Hi, These recent discoveries of new planets is going to heat up the on-going quarrel about what is and isn't a planet, with its increasingly long definitions and conditions statements designed to trim reality in the mold of the arguer's mind. . __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET?
Hi, Just a minor correction: the quote below should read: In 1,534,000 years, we will have a major star less than a light year (0.78) away. The star is Gliese 710. I can't wait... Sterling K. Webb wrote: In 534,000 years (1/8000ths of the life of the solar system), we will have a major star less than a light year (0.78) away. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET?
Darren and list, While we are in the spelling correction/definition mode, rime IS ice! TW --- Darren Garrison [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 14:34:50 +0200, Martin Altmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In Norse mythology we have the three giants of rime. I think that you are looking for the word ice, not rime. Those names are not acceptable. Poor Snorri, poor Icelanders - the Sagas and the Edda still have a WagnerNazi smell and are allowed only as poor copies in miserable fantasy literature computer role-playing games. Bad luck. And that's WAY out of left feild! Some of our days of the week are named after Norse gods. Anyway, you forgot Ymir, which would be a good name for the largest KBO http://www.pantheon.org/articles/y/ymir.html Personally, I'm of the opinion that NO KBOs should be called planets, including Pluto. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET?
On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 14:22:23 -0700 (PDT), Thomas Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Darren and list, While we are in the spelling correction/definition mode, rime IS ice! I know that rime is a word for a type of ice-- specificly it is A coating of ice, as on grass and trees, formed when extremely cold water droplets freeze almost instantly on a cold surface Now, the ancient Norse MAY have been telling great epic stories of Gods of Thin Skins of Ice on Blades of Grass, but I somehow think that it is more likely that they were speaking of something thicker and more substantial. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET?
Hi Sterling, Martin and all, Although some might considered off topic (what is a planet) it is on topic as we don't know where some of the unique meteorites in our collections come from or any new type that may be discovered. It also fits the description in the Meteoritical Society's front page. I had the privilege of talking to Clyde Tombaugh (discover of Pluto) at an astronomical league national convention. He joined us one of the clear observing nights. Although I did a bit of observing it seem more important to me to talk to Clyde. Many of the other amateurs seem more enthusiastic about observing rather than tapping the knowledge from Clyde. I had a nice half an hour talk with him. One of the questions that have come up in this thread is how we could have missed such an object. Clyde mentioned searching from -50 degrees south to +50 degrees north, however there were spots missing from this search due the W.W.II. The search had to be discontinued for more important reasons. Some areas were missing down to 20 degree north. No doubt objects could have been in the missed areas but Clyde seem to think we had covered our bases pretty good. Not to say it wouldn't be impossible for another discovery. Also those doing the work on the blink comparitors, could have always missed a spot when doing the search for other objects. Clyde mentioned problems with Pluto, size, makeup and other interesting items. So they were more than aware. The discovery of Pluto created a big stir back then and there was a big media frenzy. The Lowell staff kept things quiet as long as they could because they were needing to prepare. Also they wanted to pick out a name before others in the astronomical community had a chance to ruin this for them. Back then (and probably still today) others were eager to try to steal the spot light of such an important event and take over. Try to take away from those who had done the work and much work had been done. Those wanting to demote Pluto to a lesser object would probably be cast out of society by those folks. I personally don't like changing such significant historical discoveries, rewriting history. Let Pluto stay even if it is a lesser object. I know that Clyde later on expressed this and was somewhat hurt by others trying to demote the planet while he was still living. I agree until we explore further out in our solar system (and we need to) examine what lies out in the great beyond, we will continue to debate issues that can only be answered by exploration. (what happened to the Pluto express??) I agree with Francis Graham it would be nice to find a meteorite from out in those regions even though the probability is not good. One thing for sure is until we know more about the make up of those objects, it will be hard to know one way or the other if we do indeed have one. The naming of a planet is left to the astronomical community and they tend to name after the Greek gods. Suggesting and speculating names on this list is simply a waste of time although fun. --AL Mitterling __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] WHAT IS A PLANET?
Hi List, One other thing I might mention, is that Clyde wrote a book on the discovery of Pluto. The title is Out Of The Darkness, The Planet Pluto by Clyde W. Tombaugh. Worth a read for those wanting to know more about the details and politics of this significant discovery. --AL __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
