Originally posted by KneverKnightI think they shouldn't be called planets unless they're inhabited.
Has a moon. Gabrielle!
These are just nicknames for the new objects but I hope they keep them.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/10/01/new.planet.moon.ap/index.html
Other orbital things could be called: Space rocks.
No. That doesn't make sense.
I think that any object which has a secondary object rotating around it has the right to be called a planet.
So, if Pluto has a moon, it's a planet.
As for Xena and Gabrielle....dear oh dear....
Originally posted by shavixmirPluto does have a moon, Charon.
I think they shouldn't be called planets unless they're inhabited.
Other orbital things could be called: Space rocks.
No. That doesn't make sense.
I think that any object which has a secondary object rotating around it has the right to be called a planet.
So, if Pluto has a moon, it's a planet.
As for Xena and Gabrielle....dear oh dear....
Mercury and Venus don't.
Originally posted by shavixmirWhat about if they are inhabited only by bacteria?
I think they shouldn't be called planets unless they're inhabited.
Other orbital things could be called: Space rocks.
No. That doesn't make sense.
I think that any object which has a secondary object rotating around it has the right to be called a planet.
So, if Pluto has a moon, it's a planet.
As for Xena and Gabrielle....dear oh dear....
Like mars may be, speculation with evidence for now but may
be proven in a few years. That would make only two 'Planets'
in our solar system? Venus right now is a pretty big pile of Space
rock, hot rocks but if we succeeded in terraforming it, then we have
three?
What about planets, excuse me, space rocks which have been
accidently contaminated by earthy probes? Evidence for that one
has already been proven: One of the Apollo flights had a task to
find an old mariner or early lander and cut open a cable and bring
it back to earth. Said cable had a nice colony of earth bacteria
happily chewing on the plastic of the cable.
With that in mind, the mars probes and rovers may have already
contaminated the place with earth cells. Would that then make mars
a planet?
The biggest deal about Xena having a moon is when you complete
the measurements of orbital times and eccentricity, you can compute
the mass of both, er, space rocks.