Space/Science

Pluto's Not Only A Planet - It's The Dominant Class Of Planets

Mark Eby — 9/7/2005 12:04:44 AM (archived)

When Copernicus Smiled by Alan Stern at Spacedaily.

"Planetary science is awakening to the realization that our solar system contains many more planets than any 20th century textbook ever envisioned. It's not your father's solar system."

"Modern simulations of planetary formation, performed by different research groups around the world, led to broad agreement that in the process of forming the giant planets, some hundreds to thousands of smaller worlds, ranging from a goodly fraction of Pluto's size to at least Earth's size, were also formed.

Most of these bodies were dwarf planets, like Pluto, with steeply declining populations at larger and larger sizes, so that only a few or few tens of bodies Earth's size were formed."

sorry no ub313

Solar System size Comparisons including UB313

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto includes drawing like image above with ub313

Regards,
Mark

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The whole thread (26 posts)

• Pluto's Not Only A Planet - It's The Dominant Class Of Planets - Mark Eby - 9/7/2005 12:04:44 AM
  • planetary defs and voyager anomalies - Sawyer - 9/9/2005 8:54:18 AM
    • re: planetary defs and voyager anomalies - LJK - 9/9/2005 1:22:18 PM
  • The news is cool, don't get me wrong - alcaray - 9/8/2005 1:04:38 AM
    • Alan Stern is probably... - Adam - 9/8/2005 10:30:58 AM
      • Thanks For Pointing Out What Alcaray Missed - Mark Eby - 9/9/2005 2:48:14 AM
        • What did I miss? - alcaray - 9/9/2005 4:09:57 PM
          • That KBO's May Be Terrestrial Planets As Well As Ice Balls (n/t) - Mark Eby - 9/10/2005 11:17:23 PM
            • I said that's what I expeced in advance of the discovery - alcaray - 9/11/2005 3:11:52 PM
              • Actually You Didn't Say That At All. - Mark Eby - 9/11/2005 7:27:43 PM
              • Just Old Fashioned Enough To Expect People To Mean What They Say - Mark Eby - 9/11/2005 7:21:24 PM
                • They aren't "Volatiles organized in bodies of varying sizes."??? - alcaray - 9/12/2005 2:49:39 PM
                  • Not Controversial, Just Not Accurate - Mark Eby - 9/12/2005 11:17:34 PM
                    • Would you buy: predominately volitiles? - alcaray - 9/13/2005 2:46:22 PM
                      • The Whole Topic Is Quibling - Mark Eby - 9/13/2005 10:56:42 PM
                        • Agreed on the topic of planetary status quibbling - alcaray - 9/14/2005 2:53:17 PM
                    • Just curious.... - R.L. - 9/12/2005 11:44:26 PM
                      • ??? I See The Sense Of Humor Runs In The Family As Well - Mark Eby - 9/13/2005 12:05:04 AM
                        • No antagonism... - R.L. - 9/13/2005 5:12:23 AM
                          • I'd Have Chuckled If I Took It Right - Mark Eby - 9/13/2005 10:50:02 PM
        • There's a point... - Adam - 9/9/2005 12:28:51 PM
    • Planets Not Comets - Mark Eby - 9/8/2005 1:44:33 AM
      • Volatiles organized in bodies of varying sizes. (n/t) - alcaray - 9/8/2005 3:28:52 PM
  • Interesting implications - Robert - 9/7/2005 6:43:40 PM
    • Plaentoids with Satellites Web site - LJK - 9/14/2005 2:46:49 PM
      • Photometric Observations Constraining the Size, Shape, and Albedo of 2003 El61 - LJK - 9/15/2005 1:10:37 PM