[extropy-chat] 10th Planet Discovered

[Brent Neal]

 (3/17/04 12:25) Mike Lorrey <mlorrey at yahoo.com> wrote:

>If this is so, there quite a number of superjovians orbiting other
>stars which wouldn't be 'planets' if obital eccentricity is a criteria.

As I understand it, its not the absolute values but rather the differences from median values.

>
>Similarly, jovians may have rocks in their cores, but they are
>primarily cores of light elements like hydrogen that have condensed to
>metal under pressure. This would also preclude any jovian from being a
>'planet'.

Jovian cores are still solid and homogeneous, which I imagine is why they 'count'


>
>Sounds to me like some astronomers are inventing criteria like some
>early 20th century scientists did to invent definitions of aryan superiority.

That sounds fairly accurate. People like to wave their hands a lot before settling down to the hard part of actually writing decent specifications/rules/laws, etc.


B
-- 
Brent Neal
Geek of all Trades
http://brentn.freeshell.org

"Specialization is for insects" -- Robert A. Heinlein