News Forum Phone database

> New Topic
> Reply
< Esato Forum Index > General discussions > Non mobile discussion > New 10th planet maybe. UB313 Bookmark topic

I found this while i was on AOL, so i dont have a link to it, but aparently we may have a new planet.

LOS ANGELES (Feb. 1) - Scientists say they have confirmed that a so-called 10th planet discovered last year is bigger than Pluto, but that likely won't quell the debate over what makes a planet.
The astronomers who spotted the icy, rocky body - informally called UB313 - had reported only a rough estimate of its size based on its brightness.

But another group of researchers has come up with what is believed to be the first calculation of UB313's diameter.

By measuring how much heat it radiates, German scientists led by Frank Bertoldi of the University of Bonn estimated that UB313 was about 1,864 miles across. That makes it larger than Pluto, which has a diameter of about 1,429 miles.

"It is now increasingly hard to justify calling Pluto a planet if UB313 is not also given this status," Bertoldi said in a statement.

Details were published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Some astronomers have debated over what is a planet and whether Pluto should keep its status. The difficulty is there is no official definition and some argue that setting standards like size limits opens the door too wide.

Michael Brown, the astronomer at the California Institute of Technology who discovered UB313 and announced it last July, said the Germans' measurement seemed plausible. He said his team is using the Hubble Space Telescope to directly figure out its size.

Brown previously reported that UB313 was thought to be larger than Pluto and estimated that it was most likely between 1,398 miles and 2,175 miles in diameter.

If it is determined to be the 10th planet, it would be the farthest-known body in the solar system.

-------

a few facts:
UB313's diameter is appx. 1,864 miles.

3.5 billion miles is the distance between UB313 and the sun at the nearest point in its elongated orbit.

It takes 560 earth years for UB313 to orbit the sun once.
--
Posted: 2006-02-02 00:43:25
Edit : Quote


noone thinks this is interesting?
--
Posted: 2006-02-04 07:08:55
Edit : Quote


I actually thought your article was very interesting when you first made the post,but unfortunately due to my hectic time schedule and other things i had to do (you know what) i could'nt post a reply.

Its funny because only the other day i was having a discussion with someone about guess what surprise surprise: politics and Religion,and space came into the discussion somehow, anyway to cut a long story short in Islam it mentions that we have 11 planets in our solar system the Quran clearly states it,and that was written 1400 years ago...so the discovery of one new planet is quite amazing so im trying to put it all in context with the religion,i would be stunned if discovery of a 11th planet is made!
--
Posted: 2006-02-04 07:49:20
Edit : Quote

---

New Topic   Reply

Forum Index