Phil, Gary, List,
Well, they COULD be planets, but we have
not been able to determine if they are round
enough. We think "probably" but it hasn't
been sufficiently studied to be sure.
I count Haumea despite the fact that it is
multiply elongated. Its density is so high it
has to be mostly rock (2.85 +/- 0.3). It has
to be reasonably solid or its spin would disrupt
it. So it was (likely) spinning as it cooled. That
would class it as in a kind of dynamic hydrostatic
equilibrium.
But, sure, with enough data, we could have
50 or more planets. We do need a size cut-off
because some "round" objects are very small.
250 kilometers? Anybody's guess.
What's the big deal? Give Pluto the darn (word
substituted for a better word) stamp already...
Honor the achievement instead of trying to find
the littlest kid on the playground to pick on.
Not that I accuse anybody of that motive, but to
oppose a lousy stamp for a major feat of space
exploration (and astronomical discovery) seems,
well... petty.
Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "dorifry" <[email protected]>
To: "Sterling K. Webb" <[email protected]>;
<[email protected]>; "Meteorite List"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2012 12:58 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Petition For a Pluto New Horizons Stamp
Hey, watch it, I'm 5' 9 and 3/4"!
Seriously though, if you count all the other trans Neptunian objects,
such as Charon, Chaos, Deucalion, Huya, Ixion, Makemake, Orcus,
Quaoar, Sedna, Varuna and my personal favorite, Rhadamanthus, there
are millions of planets.
Phil Whitmer
Joshua Tree Earth & Space Museum
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>; "Meteorite List"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2012 1:14 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Petition For a Pluto New Horizons Stamp
Gary, List,
If it's not a planet, why do we call it a dwarf PLANET?
Do you refer to everyone you know who is less than
five-foot-ten as a "dwarf person"? So-and-so isn't a person;
he's a dwarf person? Adjectives do not negate the thing
they describe.
So, we have dwarf planets, gas planets, rocky planets,
etc, but they're ALL planets. I take the IAU at its literal
word, not its irrational intent. As far as I am concerned,
Pluto is a planet, Ceres is a planet, Eris is a planet,
Makemake and Haumea are... You get the idea. Since
Vesta (now that we've seen it) probably formed "round"
and has been chipped away at ever since, it's a planet
(and likely Pallas and Hygeia too).
There are at least 23 planets, (despite the eccentric
opinions of an Uruguayan cosmologist to whom I would
suggest in reply that Brazil is a nation and Uruguay is
only a dwarf nation).
IAU: "A planet is 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." I would add the phrase
"unless distorted by dynamic equilibrium," a condition
that unless added would eliminate Jupiter and Saturn
and even the Earth as planets!
Planet quarrels. Good times...
Sterling K. Webb
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary K. Foote" <[email protected]>
To: "Meteorite List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2012 6:55 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Petition For a Pluto New Horizons Stamp
But Pluto isn't a planet anymore. Its a dwarf planet. Maybe
they'll make
really tiny stamps ;)
Gary
On Wed, February 1, 2012 11:46 pm, Sterling K. Webb wrote:
Of course, in March 2015, if all goes well, the
New Horizons mission will reach Pluto. Don't
you think it will deserve a stamp of its own to
correct that 1991 stamp when it gets there,
in 2015?
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