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Planet X Larger Than Pluto?
nova_planitia writes "The Minor Planet mailing list is buzzing with the discovery by an amateur astronomer of a 17th magnitude object 51 astronomical units from the Sun, tentatively designated 2003 EL61. For those not versed in astronomical lingo, this is an object several times brighter than Pluto even though it is 25% farther out from the Sun (the orbit vizualised by JPL). This means that barring a strangely reflective surface, this object is larger than Pluto, possibly Mars-sized! The debate whether Pluto is a planet is likely to get rekindled by this discovery."
You are a victim of the Slashdot good ol boy's club...been there myself.
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
How about you RTFA, this is not Sedna. This object was discovered by the same group that discovered Sedna in 2004. According to my calendar, it's 2005.
Slashdot.. Land of nerds, trolls, and FlameBait..
[i]Something non-Greek/Roman at last.[/i]
Sedna, the Inuit godess of the sea is the namesake of a trans-Neptonian Object. Toutatis, a Celtic war God, featured in the French comic [i]Asterix[/i], has a asteroid named after him, as do several Egyption gods. The transition away from Greco-Roman mythology has already begun.
Cale: I'll call it planet Bob.
Akima: You can't call a planet "Bob."
Cale: So now you're the boss. You're the King of Bob?
Akima: Can't we just call it "Earth"?
Cale: No one said you have to live on Bob.
Akima: I'm never calling it that.
Titan AE
When I tell an object to delete this, am I killing it or telling it to kill me?
Before Einstein explained the precession of Mercury's perihelion, many scientists believed there was a planet Vulcan inside Mercury's orbit. Some even "spotted" it.
(For the "spotted" link, search on "Vulcan".)
You can also read about it here.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?