Re: Astronomers Dismiss NASA's claim to have found a New Planet


Posted by Pasti on Mar 16, 2004 at 21:03
(67.69.236.94)

Re: Astronomers Dismiss NASA's claim to have found a New Planet (Mike Kremer)

It seems people are fighting over the semantics of classification, which every now and then turns out to be a pain (in various locations of the body).

I haven't spent too much time on this issue, but I understand the orbit of the new object has been
calculated.
Did,however,the object travel a full orbit yet,or these are just calculations based on a few observed positions?In other words, is the orbit stable, or even closed? When it comes to the complexity of the problem, if the calculations are off by only a few percent or less, what appears to be a closed orbit might be an open orbit,and unstable, and so on and so forth.

And if it isn't stable, or closed, the whole debate about naming it, or about what it is becomes pretty much superfluous/useless.


Follow Ups:



Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:

Subject:
Comments:


[ Forum ] [ New Message ]