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Aug. 16th, 2006 12:30 pmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4795755.stm
Huh. So we do have a tenth planet now. (Or at least, we're well on our way, they still need to make it fully official.)
Actually, we have twelve. Minimum.
Weirdly, that includes Pluto's 'moon' Charon - it doesn't actually orbit Pluto so much as they go around the same centre of gravity so the two get bundled as twin planets, plus asteroids Ceres and Xena/UB313/whateverit'sgonnabecalled. (That's so going to be like Persephone/Rupert in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.) And they're working on a bunch of the other asteroids and things out in the back of beyond of the solar system.
Apparently, to be a planet, something's gotta be in orbit round a star but not be a star itself, and be big enough to have had gravity pull it into a sphere. Seems pretty straightforward to me; even if it does mean cue list of planets the length of my arm.
Whoo. This is kinda cool.
(Cue many, many Sailor Moon references.)
Huh. So we do have a tenth planet now. (Or at least, we're well on our way, they still need to make it fully official.)
Actually, we have twelve. Minimum.
Weirdly, that includes Pluto's 'moon' Charon - it doesn't actually orbit Pluto so much as they go around the same centre of gravity so the two get bundled as twin planets, plus asteroids Ceres and Xena/UB313/whateverit'sgonnabecalled. (That's so going to be like Persephone/Rupert in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.) And they're working on a bunch of the other asteroids and things out in the back of beyond of the solar system.
Apparently, to be a planet, something's gotta be in orbit round a star but not be a star itself, and be big enough to have had gravity pull it into a sphere. Seems pretty straightforward to me; even if it does mean cue list of planets the length of my arm.
Whoo. This is kinda cool.
(Cue many, many Sailor Moon references.)
