That clears it up a bit for me

Like many of you I have been bothered a bit by certain criteria that have been established for the definition of a planet. These criteria have demoted Pluto and other Trans-Neptunian Objects, like Quaoar and Eris, to dwarf planet status. One of the criteria that really stuck in my craw was the one that stated that a planet (or uberplanet) has to have cleared its orbital zone. Well, Neptune has not done that with Pluto nor has Earth (with the near-Earth asteroids in its orbital zone) or Jupiter for that matter with the Trojan asteroids in its path. A clarification made this much more understandable to me:

A planet is deemed as such as long as it is the dominant mass in its vicinity. So, in the case of Earth, it is many times more massive than all of the near-Earth asteroids combined. This would also include Neptune because of its size in relation to Pluto and its moons Charon, Nix, and Hydra. This is the current understanding of what it means for one of the eight classical uberplanets to have cleared their neighborhood.

And it makes me feel much more at ease. I hope you feel the same way.

Comments

  1. MelissaMarch 5, 2009 at 1:13 PM

    I don't think I'll ever be at ease that they rescinded Pluto's planet status, no matter what the explanation. My elementary science education feels like a farce.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mark DudleyMarch 5, 2009 at 4:23 PM

    I hear you, Melissa. Pluto was always very cool. For me, cooler still are the other TNOs out there that are even bigger. Just think - it is one less thing our kids will have to store in their brains. Or one more thing. Oh forget it.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

tightvnc keyboard mapping problem in Ubuntu 9.04

Image
I have been, off and on, having an issue with the keys on my keyboard mapping to the correct values when using the tightvnc client when paired with the vncserver vino in Ubuntu 9.04. I am not exactly sure what keyboard layout the client and server was expecting, but it seemed like every time I restarted the OS the keyboard mapping problem would come back and I would be at square one again. Well, I think I have found the workaround I was looking for . Hopefully this will help anyone else that is having this issue.
Read more

The manifestation of the "I" and the gift of self - Part 1

I am continuing my journey through Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and I had never realized how body-focused the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Genesis truly are.  But then it all makes so much more sense when it was brought to my attention that the body we have been given in a manifestation of me, or to put it another way, the "I". And it goes beyond that still. Not only does it reveal me, but my body also reveals, in no small measure, the image of God. That is not to say that God is made of flesh like me as is depicted in so many Renaissance paintings. The old man in the sky is nothing like the God as revealed in the Bible. However, the love that God is, the holiness that he is, the justice he is, the righteousness that he is...all of it is shown to the world through my body. In a very real way, my body allows for others, and for me, to participate in the mystery (the hiddenness) of the image of God. That is by design; from the beginning.  If God is revealed in nature...
Read more

Let me learn what I need to learn

In the “I don’t know what God is trying to produce in me…” portion of the blog: I work across (not with) an incredibly loud person. We are in cubes and he refuses to use a handset when he is in a conference call…or headphones. Everything is done via speaker phone. Maybe his handset is broken? I don’t know and am too timid (read “interested in keeping the peace”) to ask him. Of course he shouts into his speaker phone as well when he talks. Now he even refuses to use a keyboard. He has a speech recognition program that allows him to speak to the computer rather than type. Good for him! Now we can all hear “Comma…open parenthesis…close parenthesis…tab…tab...tab…” Was it my sin or my parents sin that relegated me to this placement in the office. We all know the answer to that but man…it sure feels like I am getting punished for something.
Read more