Here we go, hang on! UPDATED!
You know, sometimes I enjoy living during historical times, when landmark discoveries are made.
Water on Mars
Water on Mars (tee hee)
2003UB313 (largest planetary discovery since Neptune)
These are just the planetary things; I could go on for days about earthly groundbreaking discoveries such as our understanding of DNA (which has gone from near nil to "reprogrammable" in the time since I was a sophomore in high school).
Other times, I lament living during this time.
That day
Unrest in earth's womb
Mayor: Katrina Death Toll May Hit 10,000
So, that said, how bad do y'all think this "war" is gonna get?
Bush Nominates Roberts for Chief Justice
posted by GFreak @ 9:32 AM
3 Comments:
Now I have a question, and please, pardon my ignorance, but one site is calling this thing a 10th planet and another site is calling it an asteroid. Seems to me like a big difference there. What's the deal?
There is a massive debate going on right now about the distinction between planets and asteroids and comets.
The bottom line is that these objects are all sun-orbiting objects; comets tend to have very elliptical orbits, and asteroids and (traditional) planets tend to be "large" and have nearly circular orbits.
The debate really began a couple of years ago when Quaoar was discovered. It is now accepted that Quaoar is not a planet, though this new discovery supports the theory (that I fully believe) that we will eventually find a continuum of objects bridging the distinctions between all three of these solar-orbiting types.
When you get down to it they're just chunks of rock and ice, with little besides size and age to distinguish them.
I think the most compelling argument for delineation is to categorize by origin; i.e. stuff that's left over from solar-disk accretion and stellar formation (major planets and most asteroids) versus captured objects (comets and a few asteroids). Perhaps another category for things like the moon and some asteroids that are leftovers from celestial collisions.
OK... that does make sense.
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