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Friday, August 18, 2006

New planets

The IAU draft definition of "planet" and "plutons"

If you call Pluto a planet then there are other, larger objects in our solar system that should also be planets. So, either bring them all in or scratch Pluto from the list. Well, how about a compromise:

The new planets

We'll count Ceres, Charon, and Xena (informal codename of the yet unnamed "2003 UB313") as planets, but distinguish them and Pluto from the 8 "classic planets" and as "plutons". That's the International Astronomical Union proposal anyway. The new definition of a planet would be:

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.

But, that opens the door to another 12 objects being added later: 2003 EL61, 2005 FY9, Sedna, Orcus, Quaoar, 2002 TX300, 2002 AW197, Varuna, Ixion, Vesta, Pallas, Hygiea

Potential planets to watch

I wonder is the IAU considered at all what impact this would have on my RPM version codename scheme.

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