What is this planet orbiting, exactly?

tafkabb

T
Screenshot-Original.png

Er.. apologies for the MAHOOSIVE screenie
 
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Tychu9

T
It's a double planetary system. 7+8 orbit each other, and 7 is more massive than the other, so the center of their Gravity is closer to 7
 

Hordriss

Hordriss
No need to apologise for the big screenie either. My eyesight isn't that great so I appreciate bigger screenshots!
 

EponymousCowherd

EponymousCowherd
dangerzone said:
Every time I see Pluto mentioned I think "Yeah, when I was in school that was a planet".

And now it's nothing. 8 Planets in the solar system? You'll never convince me.
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Well, its a dwarf planet. To be a planet it must have cleared its orbit of other matter. It is actually a lot smaller than our own Moon.
 

dangerzone

dangerzone
EponymousCowherd said:
Well, its a dwarf planet. To be a planet it must have cleared its orbit of other matter. It is actually a lot smaller than our own Moon.
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By our own scientific definition, of course. It's not labelled a planet as some dude, somewhere, drew up a bunch of rules as to how we should all perceive the universe based off his/ her opinion.

I still have books that list the solar system as a 9 planet system. Sure, it's old, but I wouldn't have expected the system to lose planets as we went forward.
 

EponymousCowherd

EponymousCowherd
I think the problem is that, until very recently, Pluto's size was unknown. It was, effectively, a point source when it was discovered. The recently discovered Eris (2005) is actually larger.

So, I kind of agree with the demotion, sad though it is.

I do a bit of astronomy myself (I now have a Celestron C9.25 on an "Evolution" AltAz mount). Quite cool being able to "visit" the the things I have seen through the eyepiece.
 

dangerzone

dangerzone
EponymousCowherd said:
I think the problem is that, until very recently, Pluto's size was unknown. It was, effectively, a point source when it was discovered. The recently discovered Eris (2005) is actually larger.

So, I kind of agree with the demotion, sad though it is.

I do a bit of astronomy myself (I now have a Celestron C9.25 on an "Evolution" AltAz mount). Quite cool being able to "visit" the the things I have seen through the eyepiece.
Click to expand...

When you say that Pluto hasn't "cleared it's orbit" can you go into more detail on what exactly that entails? Because if the reason that Pluto isn't a planet is that it's orbit has asteroids and a significant mass (Charon) object relatively close then I've got some real bad news for Earth and Mars.
 

dangerzone

dangerzone
EponymousCowherd said:
Try this

Is it just me, or should that Λ have a little circle above it ;)
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Thanks. Notice that there is disagreement on what a planet should be and technically speaking, Earth hasn't quite cleared it's own orbit either along with most solar planets. The IIAU's own "planet" definition seems a bit hypocritical given the requirements needed to be labelled a planet. They're splitting straw.
 

EponymousCowherd

EponymousCowherd
I guess they have to draw a line somewhere or you could call any sperical lump of rock orbiting the Sun a planet. Probably is a bit arbitrary, but hey, Pluto is small ( only 65% of our Moon, and smaller than a number of recently discoverered Kuyper belt objects, too.
 
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