Canopus56 wrote:
I loose no sleep wondering if Sedna, Xena or Pluto are planets.
Just a reminder that the discovery team has stressed that Xena is only the working name used amongst team members and is not the name officially submitted to the IAU. Even so I must admit that Xena has started growing on me (although on the tv series I always preferred Xena's side kick Gabrielle). As an aside, remember that when Herschel discovered what we now call Uranus, he named it George (for King George III).
My intent was to show that IAU could reduce the amount of energy that people put into this nonsensical question by adopting _any_ formal scientific criteria for the definition of a planet. Apologies to those who get News as this was in this morning's edition, but for non-News subscribers:
+++++ Astronomers To Decide What Makes A Planet The discovery of a new addition to our Solar System has prompted astronomers to fast-track plans to decide what is and is not a planet. http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050801/full/050801-2.html +++++ Nothing to do with planets but this next gave me a chuckle when it showed up in my in box. And, no, Guy is not the author, or at least I don't think he is. :-) A couple had been debating the purchase of a new vehicle for weeks. He wanted a truck. She wanted a sports car. He would probably have settled on any beat up old truck, but everything she seemed to like was way out of their price range. "Look!" she said. "I want something that goes from 0 to 200 in 4 seconds or less. And my birthday is coming up. Surprise me." So he bought her a brand new bathroom scale. Services will be at Downing funeral home on Monday.