A new planet is discoverd

[shygirl4]

A new planet has been discoverd and named Sedna, but should it be clasified as a planet  as it is very small, maybe it should just be clasified as a large asteroid, what you guys think ?

shy  ::)

a better name for it would have been Arakis  ::)

[thomas]

arrakis would be good, or geidi prime ;D

[bryorama]

In the name of god, we should rename Earth, Caladan.

And then we all are Atreides citizens, and the army are fremen tribes roaming the land.

[Acriku]

Well, they kept Pluto as a planet so if it's bigger than Pluto then it should be a planet.

[Vanguard3000]

Well, it seems as though it's smaller than Pluto, so I wouldn't be inclined to call it a planet (remember the whole Quaoar discovery last year?).  It seems as though it has some hydrogen and oxygen on it, so we'll probably be hearing quite a bit about it in the next while.

[Seal89999]

Has a news story been posted someplace? I havent heard anything about it until now.

[Andrew]

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/15/distant.object/index.html

I say keep it simple keep it 9.

[Vanguard3000]

http://www.canada.com/search/story.html?id=7e1d8899-fca2-48ba-afe2-0a2fc1a781b6

[Seal89999]

Wow, thats pretty cool news! I hope to see more on the story as more details unfold. This is quite exciting!

[Nyarlathotep]

Well, I just went check it out, it was the planet in our solar system, right? The one called "Quaoar" or something like that right? Or is there a new one?

Read the articles posted, it's a new one :)

-240 C... *shivers*...

[Terror]

What a nice little planet... I bet i could almost change it's dipers...  8)

[Timenn]

One thing you could check if it applies to the "rule" of planet distances to the sun:

(4+3*2^n)/10

Where Mercurius has n = -inf. Venus: n = 0, Earth: n = 1, Mars n = 2, Asteroid Belt: n = 3, Jupiter: n = 4, and so on.

This new planet should have n = 9

Thus:

(4+3*2^9)/10 = (4 + 3 * 512) / 10 = 1540 / 10 = 154,0

That means that this planet should have a distance of 154 times the distance sun - earth, which is about 8 light minutes.

so 154,0 * 8 = 1232 light minutes.

I could do some more math, but first I would like to know on what distance of the sun this planet has been located at. And yes, I'll keep in consideration that relative "young" planets  do not apply so very well to this rule, but it is still a guideline...

[Necroticon]

Wha?

[Caid Ivik]

Pluto and Mercury are smaller than Moon (and there are about five another such big moons in solar system) and they are still considered as planets. So why not Sedna would be the X? Altough that name is rather weird...

[Dante]

There is actually a 'standard' size that bodies have to be before they can be classed as planets, though I don't know what it is. Pluto just makes it so I'd be doubtful if anything smaller would.

Still, they're still looking for something BIG to effect the gravity of the others like that...

Maybe there USED to be something there and it's not any more...

[Caid Ivik]

Planet XI?  ::)

[Dante]

Maybe.

[Cybopache]

Lets see what they find out about it,is is aprox the size of PLUTO.

And Planet IX is a good one.

Going to buy me a  telescope, one of these days(I`m gonna cut you into little pices) good Pink Floyd song tho.

Cybo commander

[Inoculator9]

I believe anything spherical in nature and orbits the sun constitutes a planet. There are plenty of roaming asteroids, but they are young compared to "Sedna." Since Sedna has obviously been around long enough to take on that shape, implies a long time spent in what would appear to be a stable orbit of the sun.

[Dunenewt]

They were looking for a planet about 10x as massive as Jupiter for it to affect the gravitational forces as much as it seems to.  Maybe the planet is super-heavy?  Although it does say it has an Icy core like Pluto I think.

[Caid Ivik]

Well, I have a book from 1991, which suggested that X should be only 3-times larger than Earth. It seems this Sedna won't be the last.

[Dunenewt]

Being larger and being more massive are different things.

[Timenn]

That's right. Saturnus is a hell lot bigger in size then Earth, while they have almost the same gravitational effect on other objects.

It is the density which matters, so this planet which needs to be find, must be:

A very very large gas giant

A large solid planet (totally solid), but it doesn't necassarily have to be bigger then Jupiter.

Apart from that, I don't think it is likely that there is such a heavy (qua gravitation) planet out their, farther away then Pluto. Because Pluto has a hard time staying into orbit of the sun, and a next planet would have such a great distance to the sun, that that planet can leave the sun's orbit quite easily. Because:

1) The planet is very heavy, so it isn't affected much by the sun's gravity

2) The planet is light, and so it is easily drawn out of orbit by another heavy object.

[shygirl4]

I thourt you might be interested in these photos of sedna,one is a nasa released artists impresion, (my favourite).

shy  ::)[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[shygirl4]

this one too

shy  ::)[attachment archived by Gobalopper]