New Frozen World Found Beyond Pluto

theBrownfury writes "BBC, Sydney Herald, and the Indian Express are reporting a new object, which is one-tenth the diameter of the Earth, and lies well beyond Pluto in an area of the Solar System known as the Kuiper Belt. The new world, which has been dubbed Quaoar, is about 1,280 kilometres (800 miles) across. Quaoar orbits the sun ever 288 years and is 1250 Km wide, about the size of all the asteroids combined. This discovery is being hailed as the most important solar system discovery in the past 72 years."

Comments

Will it stay named?

[Astin]

After all, they threatened to delist Pluto as a planet.

Dimensions

[red_dragon]

... The new world, which has been dubbed Quaoar, is about 1,280 kilometres (800 miles) across. Quaoar orbits the sun ever 288 years and is 1250 Km wide, about the size of all the asteroids combined.

So which one is it? 1280? 1250? Both? Neither? CowboyNeal?

Great name!

[Ravagin]

Quoth BBC:

Astronomers named the new object Quaoar, after the creation myth of the Tongva people who inhabited the Los Angeles area before the arrival of the Spanish and other European settlers.

I happen to think that that is way groovy. It's about time some other ancient belief systems got in on the planet-naming! :)

Re:Our solar system ...

[Tablizer]

is made up of nine planets .... er ... Our solar system is made up of ten planets ...

It is sometimes said by astronomers that our solar system is made up of the Sun, Jupiter, and bunch of other little clutter. The mass of the rocky planets, and even the smaller gas giants is dismal compared to Jupiter.

The borderline between planet and asteroid is blurry. We might as well stop counting at Pluto out of tradition. However, if something bigger than Pluto is found out there, then the debate will heat up again.

Hmmmmm. I wonder if the Sun is even the brightest star out at the distance of Qu...... whatchmacallit. I would guess that it still is. Although Sun is not a big star, Q is still far closer to it than others.

What makes a planet?

[Fugly]

What makes an object a planet? Size? The presence of its own sattelites? An atmosphere? What separates planets from large asteroids?

It seems to me the astronomy community can't decide. How hard can it be? It's an arbitrary classification that doesn't actually mean anything. It's all just hunks of rock orbiting the sun. It's a classification that doesn't actually mean anything. Somebody just make a decision and let's all stick to it. It's annoying not knowing how many planets have been discovered in our own solar system.

Re:What makes a planet?

[LMCBoy]

What makes an object a planet?

That's a tough question.

Size?

Yes. Generally, a body should be large enough that gravity makes it roughly spherical, before it can be considered a planet. However, this is apparently a necessary-but-not-sufficient criterion.

The presence of its own sattelites?
No. See Mercury and Venus.

An atmosphere?
No. See Mercury.

How hard can it be? It's an arbitrary classification that doesn't actually mean anything.

You just answered your own question. It's hard to draw the line between planet and non-planet precisely because the line is arbitrary and has no real meaning.

I think we should just call it a planet if it (1) orbits a star directly; (2) is massive enough to be roughly spherical; and (3) is not so massive that it is either a brown dwarf or a star. However, please note that this definition would include the asteroid Ceres, which is generally not considered a planet...maybe it should be.
(Ceres is 900 km in diameter, compared to this new one's 1250-km diameter).

If like Pluto, not a planet

[wytcld]

See this note from the American Museum of Natural History on the controversy and their suggested conclusion, along with National Geographic's account of the demotion.

So, if all we have with this new thingie is the second largest Kuiper Belt object after Pluto - so what? Isn't the news play just about trying to get more funding from the fine fellows who've identified it, which is more likely if the headlines scream "Tenth Planet!" What a cynical abuse of the press. Science should stop grubbing, and strive for purity of purpose, lest the results themselves be corrupted. Prostitution just isn't the same as free love.

Don't break the damn pattern

[cryptochrome]

If it's a planet, give it a proper name from the list of the major Roman gods. When they named Pluto they suggested the following (from Appolonius.net). I vote for Baccus, god of wine and mysteries, or secondly Cronus.:

The naming of Pluto is a story by itself. Early suggestions of the name of the new planet were: Atlas, Zymal, Artemis, Perseus, Vulcan, Tantalus, Idana, Cronus. The New York Times suggested Minerva, reporters suggested Osiris, Bacchus, Apollo, Erebus. Lowell's widow suggested Zeus, but later changed her mind to Constance. Many people suggested the planet be named Lowell. The staff of the Flagstaff observatory, where Pluto was discovered, suggested Cronus, Minerva, and Pluto. A few months later the planet was officially named Pluto. The name Pluto was originally suggested by Venetia Burney, an 11-year-old schoolgirl in Oxford, England.

Re:Is it really?

[Atzanteol]

That's because the term "Planet" is rather loosely defined. Nobody has ever really set a lower-limit on the size of a planet. Asteroids are 'small bodies' that orbit the sun. Planets are 'larger bodies' that orbit the sun. Pluto is smaller than our Moon, yet many still consider it a planet simply because it orbits the Sun.

This new object will have difficulty becoming a 'Planet' by name.

Re:More Naming Crap

[Ektanoor]

No, they are probably afraid of naming it Nemesis - the Death Star. There are some theories about the Sun having an older sister in the form of a brown dwarf. Some consider alternatively the existence of a planet somewhat bigger than Jupiter. They use these theories to explain the episodical extinctions on Earth, supposedly caused by swarms of Kuiper belt comets falling inside the Solar system. This hypothetical "star/planet" is supposed to be much far away than Quaoar. Some theories give its orbit the fantastic period of 3 million years, and some consider it the reason why we can't find it...

Well, probably some academical SF. They, sometimes, are also good writers...

The traditional name for Sol's 10th planet

[devphil]

is Persephone. (per-SEF-oh-nee) This would be the chick from Greek mythology that ate the pomogranate seeds and thus had to stay in Hades for half the year (when the world grows cold), and gets to come out the other half (when the world warms up again).

Most of the SF and speculative fiction/nonfiction articles over the last few decades have all referred to a tenth planet as Persephone, on the assumption that we would continue naming major astronomical objects for ancient mythological figures.

Re:The traditional name for Sol's 10th planet

[kalidasa]

Interestingly there are a few problems with the name Persephone. All of the major planets are named for Roman gods; Persephone is the Greek name for the goddess in Latin called Proserpina.

Second, there is the suggestion that Clarke (or maybe Asimov) made before Charon was discovered: he suggested that Pluto's moon, if one were ever discovered, be named Persephone, and that the name Charon be given to any trans-Plutonian planet, with I think Cerberus being reserved for any moons of that planet. That way someone from outside the system would have to pass Charon and Cerberus (or maybe it was Styx) to get to Pluto and Persephone.

See the Space Telescope Institute's Press Release for more information about Quaoar; on the name, this link may be of use; it looks like Quaoar is a name from mythology, albeit indigenous American mythology, which makes it consistent with the names of the minor planets and moons (which do not need to be named after Roman gods; the moons of Uranus are even named after characters from Shakespeare : e.g., Oberon and Titania from Much Ado About Nothing, and Ariel and Miranda from The Tempest).