(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

OH OH ITEM OF COOLNESS:

Tenth Planet Discovered!

That is kind of cool. Although, you know, if Pluto is 40AU out and Planet X is 97 AU* out, is that a planet or just a supah-large Oort Cloud object? How far out is the Oort Cloud anyway?

Okay, Wikipedia Says 50,000-100,000 AU out. Which, dude, is a long way to travel for long-period comets, I never really thought about that before. Anyway. So I guess not a supermassive Oort cloud object. And it's bigger than Kuiper belt objects because they think it's bigger than Pluto which kind of sits on the fine line- some people think it's a planet, some people think it's a big Kuiper belt object.

Um, anyway. Yay, new planet? I don't really have an appropriate icon for this...

*1 AU=Astronomical Unit= distance from Earth to Sun

Comments

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

How abnormal is it that I recognise the words Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt??

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

But having read the article, I realised I didn't quite know what either of them was, exceot that they had comets in them.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Um, you did fifth form science, right? In other words, not abnormal at all... it's general knowledge! Um

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

I don't yhink they were in year 11. I mostly only recall it being phases of the moon and advantages and disadvantages of space travel.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

We-ell.... I thought it was pretty common knowledge, I have to say. :p Are you sure?

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

Well it's common knowledge for us. I'm always being mortified at how much more trivia I know than other people.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Um, not, i thought it was common knowledge for everyone.

And, if you don't mind me saying so, that seems to be an extremely wrongheaded reason to be mortified. And somewhat indicative of a superior attitude I find sort of repellent.

A tip: if you assume everyone else knows what you know, maybe sometimes you have to stop and explain yourself, but it's a hell of a lot better than assuming you know more than everyone. Because, you know, people do not react even remotely well to that, and, furthermore, it's generally incorrect.

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

Actually I think you'll find it's all about self-hatred.

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

(that is, I think I'm massively INFERIOR for knowing too much)

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I understand what you're saying. :-/ But, look, be proud of what you know- otherwise there's no point- but don't... oh, this is too hard to explan. *facepalm* Sorry. *hugs* Apologies...

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

that's fine. Complicated situation of having a self-esteem that's convinced its owner is an abomination *hugs back* I'm still working on trying to convince myself that I'm a person, not a worm.

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

ETA haha, Kuiper

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

Naw, Oort is so much classier.

Oort, oort.

OO-Oort!

Oort.

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

Kuiper's the surname of one of the Canty linguistics professors.

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

start calling EM Oort.


Stupid leaving out words.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

My one, actually.

Actually, he's really good and very funny. *recommends*

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

he did the linguistics talk at the open day. He was cool.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*nods* He is.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I always want to spell it with more os. You know, like Ooort...

Well...

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

Check This Out (http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.fan.pratchett/browse_thread/thread/ebad2ae0751daaea/59b3d3bdd391e895#59b3d3bdd391e895)

Wasn't there one of these a few days ago? And one about a year ago?

This tenth planet thing seems kinda pointless unless they can figure out how many tenths there are...

Re: Well...

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Heheheh well true, but on the other hand they tend to be way smaller than Pluto, and Pluto's always been on that kind of dodgy dividing line. Whereas this one is apparently significantly larger than Pluto.

Re: Well...

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

What do you think they're going to call it?

As a classics student I'd suggest... Um...

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

Bacchus.

It's about time he got some cosmic recognition.

Failing that, Apollo was a big news god. Though then the moon missions could get confusing. Diana?

Perhaps these more distant objects should have demi-god names? Theseus? Perseus? Hercules?

Re: As a classics student I'd suggest... Um...

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*snickering*

Ooh, I like Perseus, actually. But isn't that the wrong mythology? Jupiter, etc are all Roman, so that's where I'd be looking, if I were you.

Re: As a classics student I'd suggest... Um...

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

*omg unobservant* it's Le Petit Prince!

Re: As a classics student I'd suggest... Um...

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

OMG it is too, like, wow?

:P

I second your vote for Bnumber.

Re: As a classics student I'd suggest... Um...

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

(I vote that they call it B612.)

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

The whole Roman/Greek mythos is getting more and more blurred as I go deeper down the rabbit hole.

Basically, the Romans didn't use Heroes as divine subjects really. They had plenty of personifications but that doesn't seem right either. But Hercules? Is spelled Herakles by the Greeks, so the other way is the Latin version. See what I mean?

Most of the big name Gods are gone except for Bacchus, Apollo, Diana, Ceres (actually, isn't that something else in space?), Minerva.

Hey Minerva might be good.

But all the other planets have REASONS they are a particular Gods name whereas anything at this poiint is kinda random. Maybe once they find out some more about Bnumber we can go mythological.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I'm aware that all the gods are basically the same. But existing planet names use the Roman names, don't they? Mercury not Hermes, Mars not Ares, Venus not Aphrodite, Jupiter not Zeus, Neptune not Poseidon, Pluto instead of Hades, Uranus not Ouranos, and Saturn not... whatever Saturn's counterpart is. Wiki says Chronos.

Minerva would be a cool one. I sort of think it's a shame Hermes/Mercuruy's been taken because that's definitely a wanderer, or far from home or whatever... In that vein, I like Aeneas or Odysseus, come to think of it. ;)

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

Actually, what I'm finding now is that the Gods could be quite different at favious stages. It's all very interesting really.

Um.. What do you mean about the Roman names thing? I was saying that the demigods were taken somewhat into Roman culture, though definately not as much as otehr ideas. Hence Herakles to Hercules. Leaving hErcules as an appropriate name. Or at least within pattern.

Actually Aeneas isn't bad, although there's a sense of origin to that. Ullyses is the Latin of Oddyseus, so it would have to be that really.

Re: Well...

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

Did you check the link? He mentions the size may be much smaller than they think... But still seems to be about Pluto's size so...

Re: Well...

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I did. He said that even if it was 100% reflective- which would be, like, a planet made out of mirrors- it would still have to be about Pluto's size. And then he went on to say the best estimate was about 1.5 Plutos. I dunno, it will be interesting to see.

[tisis.livejournal.com]

TOTALLY not reading all of the responses, so maybe this has been said, BUT I don't really know that saying that whether Pluto is a planet or not is debated is justified, because with Charon it's regarded as a bi-planetary system. Same as Earth and the Moon are, in fact, a bi-planetary system, due to size, EXCEPT that what I'm saying here (in my convoluted, tangential way) is that if Charon makes Pluto half of a bi-planetary pair, then it has to be a planet because it's bigger than Charon.

Which is all totally subjective, anyway. Why make a cut-off for planet/non-planet at that particular point anyway?

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

You're right, it's all subjective. Um, and I don't really know all that much about the Pluto debate, so I'll just nod and agree. :P

[(Anonymous)]

i think it should be named after me
cat

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*raises eyebrows* I think that's a very bad idea.

It would go to your head.

[(Anonymous)]

no it wouldnt it would just reinforce what i know already :P

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I think my point is made. You really don't need any encouragement. ;)

[(Anonymous)]

yes but dont you think itd be fantastic!!! I think its a GREAT idea!

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*head. desk. head. desk*

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell the only debate is over the fact that Charon is so near to Pluto's size and their orbital center (which they both dance around) is above Pluto's surface.

I'm not sure what other elements they use to define planets. But if its bigger, that seems enough surely?