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March 16, 2004
Is it a bird, is it a 'plane ... Nope, it's probably a planet!
As our ability to see further and further into space improves, so also objects closer to "home" become much easier to spot. So it is with the newly discovered planet beyond Pluto. It was photographed in 1982 - but not recognised until quite recently.
If ever there was an argument for keeping Hubble going - indeed for enhancing it or launching an improved version - this must surely be it. As the BBC website says ...
"Quaoar, as it has been dubbed, is about 1,280 kilometres across (800 miles) and is the biggest find in the Solar System since Pluto itself 72 years ago.
The object is about one-tenth the diameter of Earth and circles the Sun every 288 years."
Given too that Hubble has located and photographed planets in distant star systems, given us images of nebula where stars are being born and no doubt planets forming, surely this must be a call to invest in the exploration of our Solar system and explore the options for the human race out among the stars.
This new "planet" is about one third the size of the Moon, and half the size of Pluto - but a third again as big as Charon pluto's moon, so it hardly rates as a place which could be a future habitation of humanity. Apart from anything else its far to cold - but each discovery of this nature pushes the boundaries of what we know, what we may deduce but must still confirm and what we have still to discover.
Scientists speculate that there may be other bodies similar to this one lurking out there in the Kuiper Belt, that vast cloud of primordial debris left over from the formation of our Solar system. The new "planet" has an orbital period of 288 years, which means that by the time it is next at this point in its orbit, man may be travelling between the planets. I certainly hope so, because, if not, it will mean that the forces of terrorism, bureaucratic inertia and anti-science have succeeded in dragging us all back into a Dark Age of ignorance and superstition.
These and other discoveries made since the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment should not frighten believers in any faith since they actually confirm that the God we worship is far more magnificent and creative than we could ever have imagined. The more we learn, the more we can appreciate the wonder of creation.
Posted by The Gray Monk at March 16, 2004 02:54 PM
Comments
Last I had heard, Pluto was no longer being classified as a planet, mostly due to size, so it seems strange to hear this classified as a planet. Are you sure they're not thinking of it as a big, isolated asteroid as they're saying Pluto really is?
Posted by: Jeremy Pierce at March 16, 2004 04:47 PM
I actually thought the problem with Pluto was that the orbit was not (a) the right shape and (b) in the same plane as the other orbits. In other words the reason for suspecting it of being an asteroid was that it has an orbit like and asteroid (not a planet) and it crosses the plane like an asteroid.
On the other hand I cannot explain where I picked up that useless bit of trivia so it may be as irrelevant as anything else you read today.
Posted by: Ozguru at March 16, 2004 10:59 PM
I got the "planet" bit from the BBC, sometimes known for its accuracy. I think the debate about Pluto seems to have settled on planet, the orbital argument is now acknowledged as being the result of Charon causing a slewing effect on the orbit, which, is apparently reasonably stable, if irregular. It does swing inside of the 8th planetary orbit as well, which complicates things and the size of its neighbour and the influence of the mass present in the Kuiper Belt also seems to be a factor.
Is it a planet? No doubt this will be argued by the scientific community for a long time yet!
Posted by: The Gray Monk at March 17, 2004 10:14 AM