tucsoncoyote
06-15-2007, 03:53 AM
Related Link(s): http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19229718/
Well Pluto today got another 'Slap' in the face..
Just last year Pluto was being challenged as a planet that wasn't one. (I mean here's that thread from Last Year. (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=172446&highlight=Pluto)
But now that scientists have been looking at both Pluto and other small "Dwarf Planets" (which is the new Sub-category" Astronomers have made, Pluto isn't even the largest of those!)
according to the article:
When the International Astronomical Union redefined planets last year, it created the new subcategory dwarf planets, and Pluto was thought to be the largest in that group.
Planetary astronomy professor Michael E. Brown and graduate student Schaller found otherwise while studying Dysnomia, the moon of Eris, another dwarf planet.
Using the Keck Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope they were able to calculate the movement of Dysnomia and, with that information, calculate the mass of Eris at 27 percent more than Pluto. But even though Eris tops Pluto, Earth is still 360 times more massive.
"Pluto and Eris are essentially twins — except that Eris is slightly the pudgier of the two," Brown said.
Now a lot of folks are wondering what this Dwarf Planet Eris is and I found in this article (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14825585/) and this thread on TZ.net, (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=172676&highlight=Pluto) that they made Eris (Which was formerly called 'Xena', a 10th planet while it too is a "Dwarf Planet" as well. Pluto and Eris are in fact identical but Eris is a little bit larger then Pluto is..
Oh the indignity.. going from Planet down to Dwarf Planet, and now being reduced to not even being the largest of those..
Poor Pluto.. it's getting demoted everyday it seems.
But Let's Discuss this.. what is going to happen when things for Pluto make it so small it's considered a pebble?
:coyote:
Well Pluto today got another 'Slap' in the face..
Just last year Pluto was being challenged as a planet that wasn't one. (I mean here's that thread from Last Year. (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=172446&highlight=Pluto)
But now that scientists have been looking at both Pluto and other small "Dwarf Planets" (which is the new Sub-category" Astronomers have made, Pluto isn't even the largest of those!)
according to the article:
When the International Astronomical Union redefined planets last year, it created the new subcategory dwarf planets, and Pluto was thought to be the largest in that group.
Planetary astronomy professor Michael E. Brown and graduate student Schaller found otherwise while studying Dysnomia, the moon of Eris, another dwarf planet.
Using the Keck Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope they were able to calculate the movement of Dysnomia and, with that information, calculate the mass of Eris at 27 percent more than Pluto. But even though Eris tops Pluto, Earth is still 360 times more massive.
"Pluto and Eris are essentially twins — except that Eris is slightly the pudgier of the two," Brown said.
Now a lot of folks are wondering what this Dwarf Planet Eris is and I found in this article (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14825585/) and this thread on TZ.net, (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=172676&highlight=Pluto) that they made Eris (Which was formerly called 'Xena', a 10th planet while it too is a "Dwarf Planet" as well. Pluto and Eris are in fact identical but Eris is a little bit larger then Pluto is..
Oh the indignity.. going from Planet down to Dwarf Planet, and now being reduced to not even being the largest of those..
Poor Pluto.. it's getting demoted everyday it seems.
But Let's Discuss this.. what is going to happen when things for Pluto make it so small it's considered a pebble?
:coyote: