Astronomers find frozen world beyond Pluto
 

http://cbc.ca/stories/2002/10/07/quaoar021007

"Astronomers have found the biggest celestial object orbiting the sun since the discovery of Pluto in 1930, but the new find isn't a planet, they said Monday.

The object is half the size of the ninth planet. It orbits the sun once every 288 years and is found a billion miles beyond Pluto, in an area called the Kuiper Belt that's packed with icy objects. "

"They said the findings could weaken the case for Pluto because some consider it to be merely the largest of the Kuiper Belt objects rather than a planet in its own right."

most astronomers don't really consider pluto a planet

There is quite a debate about it. I remember seeing a show about it on TV and a few scientists were in shock about how irrational and emotional other scientists were. Scientists are suppose to be logical, not emotional!

I could care less if Pluto was categorized out of being a planet, if that is the truth.

If Pluto is not a planet, what is it then?

Far away and utterly boring :winkwink:

a large astroid that came from the kuiper belt

there are many more like that

Like the article says: "They said the findings could weaken the case for Pluto because some consider it to be merely the largest of the Kuiper Belt objects rather than a planet in its own right."

Everything about Pluto shows that it is NOT a planet. Apparently a panel of astromers (a few years ago) decided that it was a planet. It was largely based on the fact that 1,000,000's of kids have been taught for years that we have 9 planets. I would think scientists, of all people, would be the ones that take in new evidence and are NOT opinionated, but I guess not. So, it is officially a planet, but for all the wrong reasons.

good article :)

hey juge u should know this... what's the difference between the speed of light and the velocity of light?? or is it the same thing?? this has been puzzling me for the last day or so

Velocity = Speed.

Velocity is a vector, it is a direction and a length. Speed is just the length. speed = |velocity| speed = the absolute value of velocity. absolute value of a vector = length of the vector.

Now your are talkin..

About 5 years I was a Astrophysics major in collage. Now in days.. I'm so god damn busy.. I have to get my space news on GFY.

Pathetic :(

...but for what bawdy was getting at, speed=velocity. A comparison of the similar dimensions of both are equivalent. You can't really compare 2 dimensions to 1.

Heh. Take a look at this page: http://www.nineplanets.org/kboc.html I always knew about the Oort cloud, but did not know until a few days ago how it is thought that it is 50,000 AU's from the sun.

"In 1950 Jan Oort noticed that:
1. no comet has been observed with an orbit that indicates that it came from interstellar space,
2. there is a strong tendency for aphelia of long period comet orbits to lie at a distance of about 50,000 AU, and
3. there is no preferential direction from which comets come.

From this he proposed that comets reside in a vast cloud at the outer reaches of the solar system. This has come to be known as the Oort Cloud. The statistics imply that it may contain as many as a trillion (1e12) comets. Unfortunately, since the individual comets are so small and at such large distances, we have no direct evidence about the Oort Cloud.

The Oort Cloud may account for a significant fraction of the mass of the solar system, perhaps as much or even more than Jupiter. (This is highly speculative, however; we don't know how many comets there are out there nor how big they are.) "

50,000 AUs is fucking far away. 50,000 times the distance the Earth is from the Sun. Wow.

Mr. Andersen, this answer your question partially. :)