SCI/TECH: Astronomers Claim Discovery of 10th Planet

Astronomers, who first photographed it in October 2003, have announced the discovery of a new planet in our solar system. The planet is bigger than Pluto. It's movement went undetected until data could be analyzed.



This is pretty exciting, although I'm not sure what it all means. Certainly, it gives a new perspective on our solar system and conjures up questions about how much we don't know about our solar system. It would be fun if there were to be a contest to name the new planet.

For years I have heard of a mythical PLANET X. Perhaps it was not a myth, after all.
As I get older, I get bigger around the middle. Apparently, so does the Solar System.

I don't think that this is the "mythical" Planet X, but wouldn't it be cool if they named it Planet X, since X is also the Roman numeral for 10, the tenth planet? Get it?

www.planet-x.150m.com...


[edit on 2005/7/29 by GradyPhilpott]

Then, there is this one (or two)
that was announced before the 10th planet..
Smaller thatn Pluto, yet, is a two body system...Like the
Pluto/Charon combo..
www.space.com...

These discoverers must have been ticked off, when later in the evening, an even bigger body was announced..Moving their discovery to the category of
"no longer the big news of the day"

What do we call this one?

I'm thinking PluTwo..LOL

Nah I say we kick out pluto, no reason to have that planet, heck this new planet can even take its name. All pluto is, is this tiny lil speck of ice and dust, I never have really considered it much of a planet anyway, and I am almost certain that some scientists believe that it is just a large like asteriod.

You know this is very interesting. I have this three book manga from Japan called "2001 Nights" by Yukinobu Hoshino, a rare beautiful piece of work, made in the late 1960s and early 1970s, about near realistic space opera and humanity in space.

In the first book, the seventh chapter of "2001 Nights" was about mankind's discovery of the tenth planet, titled "Lucifer Rising". Remember, that chapter was written in the late 1960s before the rest of the world heard of and Zecharia Stichin knew of a tenth planet. Hoshino gave the name of the tenth planet: Lucifer, a dark gaseous planet even larger than Jupiter.

It was a great intriguing chapter to read, seem like a near prophecy to me, IMHO. You should check it out on eBay if you can find it.

good to see it being finally discovered

I hope they call it Galileo, Korolev or Sagan

thanks,
drfunk

Well by naming conventions, they have to name the planet after a Roman god or goddess, so there's only so many of them left.

It could be Vulcan (that'd be cool for Star Trek fans like me), or Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Lares, Fortuna, Quirinus, Juno, Vesta, Janus, Apollo, Bacchus, Cupid, Maia, Proserpine etc...

I guess my bet would be on Proserpine, the Queen of the underworld, to go with Pluto the King of the underworld...

[edit on 7/29/2005 by djohnsto77]

Originally posted by djohnsto77
It could be Vulcan (that'd be cool for Star Trek fans like me), or Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Lares, Fortuna, Quirinus, Juno, Vesta, Janus, Apollo, Bacchus, Cupid, Maia, Proserpine etc...

[edit on 7/29/2005 by djohnsto77]

Almost all of those names have already been taken up. Ceres, for instance, is already the name of an asteroid that is so large that it was originakky considered a planet.

This is why so many bodies, lately, have been named for Hindu or other non-western gods and godesses (Sedna, Varuna, etc)

Ok, I guess Ceres is already taken...still I think it's almost a certainty that a new planet would be named after a Roman god/goddess. They all are with the exception of Earth.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
I don't think that this is the "mythical" Planet X, but wouldn't it be cool if they named it Planet X, since X is also the Roman numeral for 10, the tenth planet? Get it?

[edit on 2005/7/29 by GradyPhilpott]

you had to explain that

sorry, i just found it funny...

this is great news BTW...

Originally posted by djohnsto77
Ok, I guess Ceres is already taken...still I think it's almost a certainty that a new planet would be named after a Roman god/goddess. They all are with the exception of Earth.

According to this, Uranus is named after a Greek god of the sky. No mention is made of a Roman correlate.

www.factmonster.com...

HeHeHeh, I'd call it Niburu just in case

This is great, but kinda scary too...any pics of it yet?

Uranus has the same name in both Greek and Roman mythology.

Wow, this is sure going to set the Planet X'ers off, and maybe the fallen angel crowd. I wonder if it will be called Wormwood.

I'm a complete stoopid-head when it comes to astronomy and planetology. Can someone explain what is the categorical difference between a planet and an asteroid? When does a chunk of rock and ice orbiting around a star become a planet? Is it related to possession of an atmosphere? Distance from the star? Symmetry of orbit?

PS: Please don't berate me if my question was answered in the article - it won't load for me.

[edit on 2005-7-30 by wecomeinpeace]

I reckon they should call it Goofy. It is next to Pluto after all.

Originally posted by djohnsto77


It could be Vulcan (that'd be cool for Star Trek fans like me), or Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Lares, Fortuna, Quirinus, Juno, Vesta, Janus, Apollo, Bacchus, Cupid, Maia, Proserpine etc...

Vulcan ? No way the plant has to be named Romulus.
The discovery of a 10th plant is very intresting indeed no doubt a few text books will have to be rewritten.
Lets hope the plant gets a better name then 2003 UB313.

Is it just me that finds the fact we know so little about whats around us rather worrying?

I mean, we can destroy entire cities with a single bomb, travel deep in the depths of ocean, and cure disease that would otherwise kill hundreds of thousands...but we still cling to this ball of rock that we call Earth.

[edit on 30-7-2005 by UK Wizard]

It would be awesome if they gave it a Star Wars name, like Tatooine or Endor.

Planet-X: Home of the X-MEN!



No Seriously, what are they Going to Call it?

Can we Vote on that Issue?