Sedna, the 10th planet??

[le Voyageur]

 

A most interesting read....

 

http://news.bbc.com.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3511678.stm

 

 

[le Voyageur]

ooops....typo, try this

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3511678.stm

[evmori]

Sedna is the mythical Inuit Goddess of the sea.

 

Or Andes spelled backwards!

 

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[NJCubScouter]

Here is an article that gives the subject a slightly different "spin," leaving out the "tenth planet?" angle.

 

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/16mar_sedna.htm

 

And here is an article about the "Is Pluto a Planet?" controversy.

 

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0%2C1282%2C41328%2C00.html

 

Though in reading this article, there appears to be one short paragraph (2 sentences) that belong in a different article.

 

I find the whole thing pretty interesting. I have always been interested in astronomy in general, though I can only identify a few constellations. But I remember what I learned about the solar system in school in the 60's: There are nine planets, and there's an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Saturn has a ring, and that's about it. I knew that Jupiter had the most moons, with 12, and that Pluto was discovered in 1930 by an American astronomer who was able to find it because of its effect on Neptune's orbit. What scientists have learned since then, just about our own little neighborhood, is mind-boggling. Now we know there are thousands of objects (including this new one) beyond Neptune; that Pluto may simply be the largest one, or maybe not even that; that Pluto actually is not the object the American scientist was looking for, and that whatever causes a slight wobble in Neptune's orbit has never been discovered; that Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus all have rings; that there are literally dozens of moons that were unknown in the 60's, bringing Jupiter's total to about 60 (many of which are just big rocks), and one of which is a moon of Pluto that was discovered in the late 70's. It also seems to me that at one time I "knew" that Mercury was the smallest planet, but I think the discoveries in the 70's changed that, to where we now know Pluto is less than half the size of Mercury. And finally, there is now doubt that the idea of "nine planets" really has any validity; it may just be that there are thousands of natural objects circling the Sun, some of which are bigger than others.