does that make it the 10th planet?, Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news63994327.html

http://www.physorg.com/news63994327.html

If pluto is a planet, and xena is bigger, does that make it the 10th planet?

What make something a planet anyways?

I believe Chiron is the tenth planet, to be discovered within our solar system.. but maybe you could read up elsewhere on the explanation of a planet, I (not to be rude) suggest an encyclopedia. Because I could not make the time to explain it, and probably badly, so I won't try.

Tell me more about Chiron, is it a 'reserved name' or an actual object ??

Did you mean "Charon"? Charon is Pluto's largest moon. Because Charon is so large in comparison with Pluto (I think it might be about half Pluto's size) some people think that Pluto and Charon should be considered a double planet instead of a planet and a moon.

The reason for the big debate about whether Xena is a planet is the fact that the scientific community has not really decided whether Pluto is a planet. Pluto and Xena both belong to a collection of ice balls on the fringes of the solar system, called the "Kuiper Belt Objects." They are all fairly small and they all have orbits that are tilted away from the plane of the solar system by a considerable amount. Some people think that they should all be considered planets, in which case our solar system would have about two dozen or so planets. Others think that none of them should be considered planets. In my opinion, if Pluto is a planet then Xena certainly should be a planet. I am also inclined toward calling all the Kuiper Belt objects planets, since (as far as I know) they are all globes, unlike many asteroids; but that is just my opinion.

so theres no way of telling if something is a planet? like a certain size that an object has to be to be cosidered a planet?

Maybe they should just re-classify Pluto as a planetoid & save all the fuss ???

Maybe they should just re-classify Pluto as a planetoid & save all the fuss ???

If it has a direct orbit of the Sun and not any other body...also has its own rotation that results in "night and day"...

The size only comes into play if another body (planet) is close enough or massive enough to cause a deviation or "warp" in it's orbit of the Sun...

Not yet. One reason that it is so difficult for the scientists to come to a decision on this is culture and popular opinion. If the scientists were to tell people who have been thinking of Pluto as a planet all their lives, that it is no longer to be considered a planet, there could be quite a fuss made about it. Conversely, some people might be upset if a dozen objects that most people never think about were suddenly declared planets.

Well its decided .... its a dwarf planet, but I prefer the term planetoid it just sounds better

anyway now we have these dwarf-planets (planetoids) ---> Ceres (yay!!!) Xena & a 'twin' planetoid Pluto & Charon .... is that right ? please correct me and let me know have any other dwarf-planets been confirmed yet ? how do they get confirmed ??

Is anyone uncomfortable about gas giants being planets or could they be classified as something in their own right... this latest convention has raised so many questions lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2060_Chiron

I heard that Chiron was a Planet from astrology books I believe.

Did you miss all the fuss about Pluto losing its planet status last year tikay?

Pluto has been redefined as a Dwarf Planet and Charon also fits the criteria for being a dwarf planet.

BTW. I just looked up planet Xena. Some tosser has gone and renamed it to Eris. What a poxy name, Xena was much cooler. I bet it will only be a few stuffy academics who use the name Eris, everyone else will call it Xena.

tikay. You mean astronomy books?

Hi kaneda,
Nope...I studied astrological chart interpretations for a while in the past, there was a referance to Chiron as a new planet in one of the books I read....alas it appears to be, only a centaur...like Saggitarius.
I have never studied astronomy, sorry to say!

NOM...hello!
I think we are on different Planetoids? LOL
Not actually but...the subject matter....Charon is I believe a moon of Pluto?
Chiron...a centaur, comet or asteroid....debate ensues.

From wikipedia:
Centaurs are not in stable orbits and will eventually be removed by gravitational perturbation by the giant planets, moving to different orbits or leaving the solar system altogether.

It has been calculated that in 1664 BC Chiron approached Saturn to within approximately 16 million kilometres; only 3 million km further away than Saturn's largest outer moon...


Oh! Pluto....how dare they try to remove the status of our tiny planet! Okay a planetoid....or dwarf, seems okay by me. We do so have to catagorize in order to understand, it seems.

Charon....debate? Moon or dwarf planet...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon_%28moo...dwarf_planet.3F

This post has been edited by tikay on Apr 8 2007, 10:55 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet