[meteorite-list] Pluto - Part 2 of 2
From: bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:50 2004 Message-ID: <DIIE.0000003F00001C1D_at_paulinet.de> Sky & Telescope, March 1990, pp. 295-296: A Far Out Planet, George Lovi, excerpt: Finally, a rather interesting astronomical issue has surfaced as to whether Pluto should legitimately be included in the roster of nine major planets. Its decidedly small size (some 2,280 km across) makes it considerably smaller than any other planet, even smaller than several planetary satellites (including our own Moon). It also has a most unplanetary, asteroid-like orbit. For sometime people have suggested that Pluto is an escaped satellite of Neptune, one resembling Triton. Others have proposed that Pluto might be some sort of condensed clumping of icy cometary nuclei, or the material that makes up these bodies. It's really too bad that we cannot look forward anytime soon to a probe answering some of our questions about this "neither fish nor fowl" planet - or whatever it happens to be. CRUIKSHANK D.P. (1999) Pluto and Charon edited by S. Alan Stern and David Tholen (MAPS 34-4, 1999, 682, excerpt): While this book is at least a wonderful compilation of our best understanding of Pluto and Charon, it also represents a window on the other small bodies of the outer solar system, notably Triton, a few other outer planet satellites, and the newly revealed population of icy bodies constituting the Kuiper Disk. Many Kuiper Disk objects share Pluto's orbital resonance with Neptune; vastly more lie beyond Pluto and form a distribution that may extend to 200 AU or more. Indeed, Pluto and Charon appear to be only the largest known representatives of this new-found component of the solar system. Although the exploration of the Kuiper Disk is in its infancy, this book about the properties of Pluto and Charon in its broader context helps to establish the importance of primitive icy bodies and is a kind of guidebook toward the understanding of their physical properties. This excellent book is a credit to the Arizona series, to its editors, and to the chapter authors. I recommended it to investigators in the field, advanced students, and science libraries without reservation. (D.P. Cruikshank) Received on Tue 16 Mar 2004 11:43:53 AM PST |
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