new planet?

[rileyj]

you guys hear about the knew planet in our solar system begins with an S. is that in or out of the orit<--(however it is spelled) cloud?

[Tormod]

It's Sedna. And yeah, it's believed to be the first object observed in the hypothetical Oort cloud.

But it is not a planet. It is smaller than Pluto, which is still struggling to be accepted as a planet. It also orbits so far away and in an extreme ellipse (13 billion kilometers at the closest, up to 150 billion kilometers at the furthest from the Sun) that it is more likely to be recognized as an asteroid.

But the interesting thing is that there may be millions of these objects out there...

Tormod

[Tim_Lou]

i heard of it in school.....
as tormod said, its not really a planet lol.

i know that some people are debating about Pluto being a planet or not. it is said that its is so far away and too small. there are also some other objects have similar size and similar orbitals, so they might be accepted as planets if Pluto is really a planet.

[Tormod]

I think Pluto will remain a planet for sentimental reasons. If we accept Sedna as a planet then there will be millions of applicants eventually.

Titan, one of Saturn's moon, is actually larger than both Mercury and Pluto...at the Astronomy.com forums someone argued that it should be labeled a planet as well. But then what about our Moon, it is quite big.

I guess we need a more precise definition of the term "planet".

Tormod

[Tim_Lou]

well, but titan is revolving around saturn, not sun lol.
i guess thats why its not a planet.

well, pluto is too popular now, many people cannot accept it and books have to change if its not accepted as a planet...lol

[Tormod]

Originally posted by: Tim_Lou
well, but titan is revolving around saturn, not sun lol. i guess thats why its not a planet.

Yes, that was my point. Some moons are actually bigger than planets. But since they revolve around a planet they are called moons, not planets.

But when you look at Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune it is astonishing how similar they are to solar systems - if we were somehow able build a base on, say, Titan, I wonder if they would actually feel like they live on a moon or on a planet. I gather Saturn would be pretty big in the sky.

Ah, too many sci-fi books again!

Tormod

[Tim_Lou]

hmmm, i remember i saw a video on the space, is says that whatever moon (forgot the name) is in the stage of earily earth (it is earth made). w/ lightning, methane.....all that stuffs. it might turn into something similar to our earth. somehow we might be able to live there.

well, but when the time the planet blocks the sun, it would be pretty cold....lol

[Evanescence]

isn't that titan? or something beginning with 't' lol! and isn't there a rover on it's way there or something? i cant remember lol...