Hi, E.P., List
Clyde was a great guy. Mike Brown's probably a great
guy, too. He's done a great job of finding, at any rate.
The Minor Planet numbers are all over the System and
have been for decades. Orcus, Quaoar, and Sedna all have
Minor Planet numbers, the Trojans, Chiron, an "asteroid"
that goes all the way out to Oortville with an aphelion of
over 1000 AU. They're everywhere.
Sterling K. Webb
--------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "E.P. Grondine" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Larry Lebofsky" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2006 6:35 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] 'Plutons' Push Planet Total Up To 12
Hi all -
Everybody loved Clyde, so they don't want to take the
honor of discovering a planet away from him. But for
the future, making him the discoverer of the first KBO
would not be that much of a demotion, and might be a
raise - that is the FIRST KBO.
Minor Planets are those located between Mars and
Jupiter at some point in their orbits, plus a few that
are betweeen the Earth and Jupiter.
I hope this clears everything up.
Now while they're all together there, do any of these
guys and gals know where the 64 fragments of
Schwassmann Wachmann 3 are going to be in 2022?
good hunting,
Ed
--- Larry Lebofsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi Chris:
Since your two posts on this subjsetc, I think some
of the responders have
gotten a little out of hand and think that they know
more than everyone else.
1. This is the second committee to have dealt with
the issue of determining a
definition of a planet.
2. A lot of the discussion of the second committee
was based heavily on what
the first committee did.
3. A lot of effort was put into the formation of
this committee to get a
crosssection of the community from a variety of
countries and included a
premier science writer and an astronomy historian.
To some of you listening, do
you think that in the two or three milliseconds that
you thought about what was
proposed by this IAU committee that you are better
qualified to come up with a
solution?
4. Now that I have vented my splean, I will respond
to your emails, Chris.
5. Yes, the IAU does have the authority to make such
decisions! They are the
organization recognized by ALL astronomers as the
organization who can do such
things. They OK the names of asteroids and comets
and are the organization who
came up with the 88 constellations that we have
today.
6. Which brings me back to your second (I think)
email. First a side note to
Ed, I think (am losing track of the emails, I dumped
enough on Sterling).
Granted there are only 7 continents and 7 seas,
should we limit ourselves to 9
US states because that is all you can remember or 9
countries (I will not go
there)?
7. I have spent nearly two decades doing science
education (3.5 doing science)
and one of the most important things that we can
teach are kids is that science
is dynamic and that numbers change. When I grew up
there were 32 moons in the
Solar System and no extra solar planets (and no
Kuiper Belt Objects). However,
I have changes what I teach as we learn more. That
is the true nature of
science. If you were teaching in 1930 would you have
left the Solar System with
8 planets? or in the early 1700s, kept the Solar
System at 6 planets?
Traditionally, the Earth is the center of the
universe, why not let well enough
alone? Get a little off track, sorry.
8. A lot of effort and a lot of thought went into
this decision both from a
SCIENTIFIC (not technical) perspective and from an
historical perspective. I
know all of the people on the first committee and
many of the people on the
second one and I have respect for them and for their
decision. While this is
only a proposal to the IAU General Assembly and may
change before next week
(doubt there will be much of a change), I think that
you are doing a disservice
to your students by telling them that there are only
nine planets (it is all
over the news, how can they miss it).
Chris, if you want to continue this discussion
offline, please feel free to
contact me.
Larry
--
Dr. Larry A. Lebofsky
Senior Research Scientist
Co-editor, Meteorite "If you
give a man a fish,
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory you
feed him for a day.
1541 East University If you
teach a man to fish,
University of Arizona you
feed him for a lifetime."
Tucson, AZ 85721-0063
~Chinese Proverb
Phone: 520-621-6947
FAX: 520-621-8364
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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