[meteorite-list] OT: HOW MANY PLANETS?

From: Norm Lehrman <nlehrman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Aug 3 19:42:04 2005
Message-ID: <20050803234152.68687.qmail_at_web81009.mail.yahoo.com>

Doug, Sterling, and all you other amazing brains,

(Deity or planetary name of your choice), it's good to
to listen to you guys with IQs in the clouds. Some
people do word-searches or crosswords to exercize
their brains. For some of us, it's the MetList.

Thanks (and Garcias to you, Doug---)
Norm
http://tektitesource.com



--- MexicoDoug_at_aol.com wrote:

> Ron B. wrote:
>
> >Incidently, if you demote Pluto from being a
> planet, then the
> >definition for a planet becomes much easier. If
> you include
> >Pluto as a planet, then the definition is going to
> get
> >more complicated.
>
> Complicated it can be, not dumbed down, with or
> without Pluto. Arbitrary
> numerical criteria are useless to science in the
> long run whether they be "9
> units", "20 degrees" or "3025 miles". They are more
> like taxing authorities
> saying..."if you own more than 20% of the company's
> stock, you must make
> special declarations". That is a foolish angle for
> the IAU to put itself in, and
> more typical of the thinking of mediocre government
> employees or bureacrats
> looking to reduce their workloads (not that we
> aren't all guilty at times).
>
> My personal thoughts of a planet rely on a permanent
> atmosphere or proven or
> potential geological process (major igneous
> activity, liberally considered)
> basis and prime orbit about the Sun. If Earth
> suddenly was catapulted into a
> 25 degree inclination ...would it cease being a
> planet? Perhaps my
> definition even excludes Pluto by not for a
> senseless inclination cutoff, especially
> after its hypothetical encounter with Neptune sent
> it there, or perhaps not.
> Vesta is always as bright or brighter than Neptune,
> and occasionally trumps
> Uranus, so something is out of wack here...the
> ancients would have called
> Vesta a wanderer if they didn't carelessly overlook
> documenting it. (It owes
> that brightness to 'geo'logical processes, namely
> the reflectivity of eucrite.)
>
> If Earth were catapulted into the Kuiper Belt would
> it cease being a planet?
> Wait until an Earth sized ball is found out
> there...How about
> Differentiated Planets, Gaseous Planets, and Frozen
> Planets to replace the "inner" and
> "outer" planets? Remember - for minor planets, a
> comet for all practical
> purposes becomes an asteroid - but it is still a
> minor planet, under current use...
> Kids can still memorize the Inner, Gaseous and Pluto
> (because Pluto is
> sometimes closer than Neptune, a very very important
> criterion from an earthly
> viewpoint of numbering successively the billiard
> balls starting with the bright
> white cue, and all you have to do is say the first 9
> planets out..)
> Saludos, Doug
>
>
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Received on Wed 03 Aug 2005 07:41:52 PM PDT