10th planet discovered!!!

[Brent]

From space.com

Astronomers have discovered a new planet in our solar system, a world larger than Pluto.

It is the first time an object so big has been found in our solar system since the discovery of Pluto 75 years ago.

The discovery, announced today by Mike Brown of Caltech, came just hours after another newfound object, one slightly smaller than Pluto, was announced.

The new planet, temporarily named 2003 UB313, is about three times as far from the Sun as is Pluto.

"It's definitely bigger than Pluto," said Brown, who is professor of planetary astronomy. The object could be up to twice as large as Pluto, Brown told reporters in a hastily called teleconference Friday evening.

It was found using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory.

The object is highly inclined to the main plane of the solar system, where most of the other planets orbit. Some astronomers may view it as a Kuiper Belt Object and not a planet. Pluto itself is called a Kuiper Belt Object by many astronomers.

"Pluto has been a planet for so long that the world is comfortable with that," Brown said in the teleconference. "It seems to me a logical extension that anything bigger than Pluto and farther out is a planet."

The assertion is one that several astronomers have dreamed of making in recent years as a bevy of objects roughly half the size of Pluto have been found.

The new world is about 97 astronomical units from the Sun. An astronomical unit is the distance between the Sun and Earth. The new planet becomes the farthest-known object in the solar system, and the third brightest of the Kuiper belt objects.

Backyard astronomers with large telescopes may be able to spot the planet No. 10.

"It will be visible over the next six months and is currently almost directly overhead in the early-morning eastern sky, in the constellation Cetus," says Brown, who made the discovery with colleagues Chad Trujillo, of the Gemini Observatory, and David Rabinowitz, of Yale University, on Jan. 8.

The team had hoped to analyze the data further before announcing the planet but were forced to do so Friday evening because word had leaked out, Brown said.

Brown and Trujillo first photographed the new planet with the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope on Oct. 31, 2003. However, the object was so far away that its motion was not detected until they reanalyzed the data in January of this year. In the last seven months, the scientists have been studying the planet to better estimate its size and its motions.

Scientists infer the size of a solar-system object by its brightness and distance. The reflectiveness of the new planet is not known, however, which is why the estimate of it's diameter ranges from one to two times the size of Pluto. But those constraints are well supported by the data, Brown said.

"Even if it reflected 100 percent of the light reaching it, it would still be as big as Pluto," says Brown. "I'd say it's probably one and a half times the size of Pluto, but we're not sure yet of the final size. But we are 100 percent confident that this is the first object bigger than Pluto ever found in the outer solar system."

The upper size limit is constrained by results from the Spitzer Space Telescope, which records heat in the form of infrared light. Because the Spitzer can't detect the new planet, the overall diameter must be less twice Pluto's size, Brown said.

Brown and his colleagues have proposed a name for the new planet to the International Astronomical Union, and they are awaiting the decision of this body before announcing the name.

[ohiostorm]

Very crazy information. Its hard to believe that after all those years and everything you've learned in science class, that they've found another planet in our solar system. Kinda awesome.

[Swimdude]

Hahahaha EXCELLENT. One more planet for those 2nd graders to memorize!

[kevin]

Pluto being classified as a planet opens up a whole can of worms, eh?

[Brent]

Hahahaha EXCELLENT. One more planet for those 2nd graders to memorize!

LOL...

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas

Been 10 years and I still remember.

[streetsoldier]

So, what will they name this one? We're running out of Roman gods...

[kevin]

I recommend Bacchus.

[Wnghs2007]

I heard on another board that the Name Proposed is "Xena"

[streetsoldier]

Has Diana/Artemis (goddess of the hunt) been taken yet?

[kevin]

Good idea! Can they be goddesses? I thought for some reason they had to be male gods

[The Big Dog]

The astrologers are gonna go nuts when they hear this. All their karma maps and whatnot are gonna be messed up. They'll probably sue.

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

If its one in a half to twice as big as Pluto then yes there is no quastion what it is. Also it might also not reflect the light that good. So it might be upwards of 3 times as big as Pluto. If so end of discussion.

But thats just what I get out of all this.

[The Big Dog]

If its one in a half to twice as big as Pluto then yes there is no quastion what it is. Also it might also not reflect the light that good. So it might be upwards of 3 times as big as Pluto. If so end of discussion.

But thats just what I get out of all this.

Well, if you're implying that it's a planet just because it's bigger than Pluto, then you should also know that there is a lot of debate over whether or not Pluto should be considered a planet.

[kevin]

Pluto isn't a planet in any meaningful way. It wasn't formed in the way the other planets were. Pluto is basically an object which orbits the sun in a way different from the planets.

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/faculty/jewitt/kb.html

Nevertheless, it is named after a disney dog, so who doesn't love Pluto?

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

If it go's around the sun in is a sphere its a planet. If its 2 times bigger then pluto thats more proof to it. If they find it bigger then that then thats a quastion to ask when we get the final reselts in.

What are we going to need to find before we call something a planet. Another Mars size world. Heck Titan would be called a planet in a second if it was not moving around saturn.

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

They are saying it is 1,677 miles in Diameter. In it could be larger!!!

Mercury

Metric | English | Scientific Notation

Distance from the Sun: 57,909,175 km


Equatorial Radius: 2,439.7 km


Volume: 60,827,200,000 km3


Mass: 330,220,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg



Not to much bigger. In fact if they find the new planet larger then they will need to talk about down grading Mercury.


I hope they find this planet to be much larger more like 3 or 4 times the size of Pluto. That will lock it a spot.

How about floating worlds that got loss from there suns. They sure as heck are not moving around a star.

[beenthru6]

If this object can be seen by people with backyard telescopes, then I find it very weird that scientists with their much, much more powerful telescopes have just now discovered it.

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

Also Jupiter or Saturn are more like undeveloped stars. So about demote them to unformed stars. They are made of about the same darn thing.


The funny thing is they don't even have a lock on how big this thing is. If this has a dark surface it is likely much much bigger. If this is as big as Mercury. I guest we have to demote that pile of steaming rock.

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

I got a idea how about point Hubble at it? If the darn telescope can see other worlds 100 of light years away. Why in the world can it not see this?

We need to find out how big it is. I say if it is twice the size of Pluto make it a planet.

[banshee]

The astrologers are gonna go nuts when they hear this. All their karma maps and whatnot are gonna be messed up. They'll probably sue

Is that why my readings are always wrong.... they never had all the planets in the mix

Ok, thats it, I'm calling Dion, I want my money back.