[meteorite-list] Petition For a Pluto New Horizons Stamp

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2012 13:58:46 -0600
Message-ID: <6980DA28346E4D079879A5CAFA9CD5BC_at_ATARIENGINE2>

Phil, Gary, List,

Well, they COULD be planets, but we have
not been able to determine if they are round
enough. We think "probably" but it hasn't
been sufficiently studied to be sure.

I count Haumea despite the fact that it is
multiply elongated. Its density is so high it
has to be mostly rock (2.85 +/- 0.3). It has
to be reasonably solid or its spin would disrupt
it. So it was (likely) spinning as it cooled. That
would class it as in a kind of dynamic hydrostatic
equilibrium.

But, sure, with enough data, we could have
50 or more planets. We do need a size cut-off
because some "round" objects are very small.
250 kilometers? Anybody's guess.

What's the big deal? Give Pluto the darn (word
substituted for a better word) stamp already...
Honor the achievement instead of trying to find
the littlest kid on the playground to pick on.

Not that I accuse anybody of that motive, but to
oppose a lousy stamp for a major feat of space
exploration (and astronomical discovery) seems,
well... petty.


Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "dorifry" <dorifry at embarqmail.com>
To: "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>;
<gary at webbers.com>; "Meteorite List"
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2012 12:58 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Petition For a Pluto New Horizons Stamp


> Hey, watch it, I'm 5' 9 and 3/4"!
>
> Seriously though, if you count all the other trans Neptunian objects,
> such as Charon, Chaos, Deucalion, Huya, Ixion, Makemake, Orcus,
> Quaoar, Sedna, Varuna and my personal favorite, Rhadamanthus, there
> are millions of planets.
>
> Phil Whitmer
> Joshua Tree Earth & Space Museum
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
> To: <gary at webbers.com>; "Meteorite List"
> <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2012 1:14 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Petition For a Pluto New Horizons Stamp
>
>
>> Gary, List,
>>
>> If it's not a planet, why do we call it a dwarf PLANET?
>> Do you refer to everyone you know who is less than
>> five-foot-ten as a "dwarf person"? So-and-so isn't a person;
>> he's a dwarf person? Adjectives do not negate the thing
>> they describe.
>>
>> So, we have dwarf planets, gas planets, rocky planets,
>> etc, but they're ALL planets. I take the IAU at its literal
>> word, not its irrational intent. As far as I am concerned,
>> Pluto is a planet, Ceres is a planet, Eris is a planet,
>> Makemake and Haumea are... You get the idea. Since
>> Vesta (now that we've seen it) probably formed "round"
>> and has been chipped away at ever since, it's a planet
>> (and likely Pallas and Hygeia too).
>>
>> There are at least 23 planets, (despite the eccentric
>> opinions of an Uruguayan cosmologist to whom I would
>> suggest in reply that Brazil is a nation and Uruguay is
>> only a dwarf nation).
>>
>> IAU: "A planet is a celestial body that (a) has sufficient
>> mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so
>> that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round)
>> shape, and (b) is in orbit around a star, and is neither
>> a star nor a satellite of a planet." I would add the phrase
>> "unless distorted by dynamic equilibrium," a condition
>> that unless added would eliminate Jupiter and Saturn
>> and even the Earth as planets!
>>
>> Planet quarrels. Good times...
>>
>>
>> Sterling K. Webb
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Gary K. Foote" <gary at webbers.com>
>> To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
>> Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2012 6:55 AM
>> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Petition For a Pluto New Horizons Stamp
>>
>>
>>> But Pluto isn't a planet anymore. Its a dwarf planet. Maybe
>>> they'll make
>>> really tiny stamps ;)
>>>
>>> Gary
>>>
>>> On Wed, February 1, 2012 11:46 pm, Sterling K. Webb wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Of course, in March 2015, if all goes well, the
>>>> New Horizons mission will reach Pluto. Don't
>>>> you think it will deserve a stamp of its own to
>>>> correct that 1991 stamp when it gets there,
>>>> in 2015?
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Received on Thu 02 Feb 2012 02:58:46 PM PST