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Post by teancum79 on Aug 24, 2006 14:46:19 GMT -5
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Post by Tara on Aug 25, 2006 16:37:52 GMT -5
Yeah... I heard about that... "Brown added impetus to the decades-old debate on the definition of a planet when he discovered UB313 in 2003. Xena, as it is nicknamed, is larger than Pluto, instantly creating a buzz over whether a new planet had been discovered.
The scientists agreed that, to be called a planet, a celestial body must be in orbit around a star while not itself being a star.
It must be large enough in mass for its own gravity to pull it into a nearly spherical shape and have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.
Pluto was disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's. Xena also does not make the grade of being a planet, and will also be known as a dwarf planet."
I was also somehow expecting that more planets would soon be discovered. Of course, there is always someone working on that.
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Post by teancum79 on Aug 29, 2006 22:27:06 GMT -5
Under the old definition we would be up to like 14 now. Oh well 8 is easier to memorize in school.
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Post by Tara on Sept 6, 2006 11:19:08 GMT -5
lol Now all the books are going to have to change. There have already been more than enough tax cuts concerning education...
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