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New Tenth Planet Has a Moon

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the everybody's-doin'-it dept.

starexplorer writes "SPACE.com is reporting that the recently discovered 10th planet of our solar system has a neighbor - a moon. The discovery team also have nicknamed the planet 'Xena' and the moon 'Gabrielle'. Many scientists are objecting to whether the new planet really is a new planet - so what do you call a moon with no planet?"

2 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Smaller object orbiting a larger... by Caine · · Score: 5, Insightful
    so what do you call a moon with no planet?


    Do people never think about why the flimsy pieces of metal flying about above us are called what they are? The answer to your question is: A satellite.

  2. Re:What is a planet? by hattig · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Don't try to bring sense into this debate.

    Because someone will reply "if it is not part of an orbiting belt of material" to try and cut out Ceres and this new planet, to keep the status quo.

    Never mind the fact that the asteroid belt is in fact very sparsely populated, and merely a bunch of bodies in space in a reasonably common orbit, possibly created from the destruction of a single larger body or two.

    I'm happy with our solar system having 5 rocky planets, 4 gas planets and 2+ remote ice planets.