5 ms·

The same happened to Ceres first. To be fair, Make Ceres A Planet Again!

by rini17 1y ago

metalman 1y ago
Ya, I know but Ceres is going to get pushed into an intersection with Mars to generate an atmosphere and a hydrological cycle .......testing on fusion rocket drives is ongoing https://newatlas.com/space/pulsar-fusion-rocket-design-slash-space-travel-times/ https://newatlas.com/space/pulsar-fusion-rocket-design-slash...
- QuadmasterXLII 1y ago
  I mean, if you’re pushing ceres around, teller and ulam already designed the ideal fusion rocket
- Qem 1y ago
  Hopefully the energy released would also remelt it and restart it's magnetic field, to avoid volatile loss again.
  - rini17 1y ago
    Remelting whole planet is such a nonsense, it would take millions of years for the large body as Mars to cool enough for surface to be usable. By the way, the loss of atmosphere takes millions of years too. The popular "we must restart mars magnetic field" trope likes to omit the fact. In the end occassional replenishment of volatiles would probably be cheaper.
juped 1y ago
Yes, Pluto is the tenth planet. To discover Planet 9, simply open your ephemerides and look for "Neptune".
- db48x 1y ago
  Back in the day Mercury, Venus, Earth, Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, Juno, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune were the 12 planets. You could kinda consider Pluto to be the 13th planet, but in 1930 when it was discovered there were already over 1000 named asteroids. So Pluto is the 1146th planet.
  - juped 1y ago
    Pallas and Vesta aren't gravitationally rounded, though. But then again, the Moon is (being much larger than Ceres). (It's just better numbered as planet 3-1.)
    - db48x 1y ago
      That wasn’t a requirement in 1930.
      - juped 1y ago
        It is required by me, now!
echelon 1y ago
If planets are required to clear their orbits, what was Jupiter called while the solar system was forming? A dwarf planet? A proto planet? The entire time? Was earth not a planet shortly before and after collision with Theia? The naming pedantry seems ridiculous given that we have such a small sample size.
- anton-c 1y ago
  I find that to be the most weird one too. I don't know much about orbital mechanics but in the unlikely chance 2 bodies shared an orbit does that mean they aren't planets then? How close can two planets be before losing that designation? I share your ire.
- stouset 1y ago
  Every single definition that segments a real world set of continuous objects into discrete buckets has surprising edge cases. This is basically inescapable. To steal a quote: All definitions are wrong. Some are useful.
- lupusreal 1y ago
  > If planets are required to clear their orbits, what was Jupiter called while the solar system was forming? Hell, what's it called now? Jupiter's orbit is shared with millions of Trojans. Many of them are more than a hundred kilometers in diameter; for reference, Deimos, one of Mars' moons, has a mean radius of about 6 km.

The same happened to Ceres first. To be fair, Make Ceres A Planet Again!

by rini17 1y ago

The same happened to Ceres first. To be fair, Make Ceres A Planet Again!

Ya, I know but Ceres is going to get pushed into an intersection with Mars to generate an atmosphere and a hydrological cycle .......testing on fusion rocket drives is ongoing https://newatlas.com/space/pulsar-fusion-rocket-design-slash-space-travel-times/ https://newatlas.com/space/pulsar-fusion-rocket-design-slash...

QuadmasterXLII 1y ago
I mean, if you’re pushing ceres around, teller and ulam already designed the ideal fusion rocket
Qem 1y ago
Hopefully the energy released would also remelt it and restart it's magnetic field, to avoid volatile loss again.
- rini17 1y ago
  Remelting whole planet is such a nonsense, it would take millions of years for the large body as Mars to cool enough for surface to be usable. By the way, the loss of atmosphere takes millions of years too. The popular "we must restart mars magnetic field" trope likes to omit the fact. In the end occassional replenishment of volatiles would probably be cheaper.

juped 1y ago

Yes, Pluto is the tenth planet. To discover Planet 9, simply open your ephemerides and look for "Neptune".

db48x 1y ago
Back in the day Mercury, Venus, Earth, Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, Juno, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune were the 12 planets. You could kinda consider Pluto to be the 13th planet, but in 1930 when it was discovered there were already over 1000 named asteroids. So Pluto is the 1146th planet.
- juped 1y ago
  Pallas and Vesta aren't gravitationally rounded, though. But then again, the Moon is (being much larger than Ceres). (It's just better numbered as planet 3-1.)
  - db48x 1y ago
    That wasn’t a requirement in 1930.
    - juped 1y ago
      It is required by me, now!

echelon 1y ago

If planets are required to clear their orbits, what was Jupiter called while the solar system was forming? A dwarf planet? A proto planet? The entire time? Was earth not a planet shortly before and after collision with Theia? The naming pedantry seems ridiculous given that we have such a small sample size.

anton-c 1y ago
I find that to be the most weird one too. I don't know much about orbital mechanics but in the unlikely chance 2 bodies shared an orbit does that mean they aren't planets then? How close can two planets be before losing that designation? I share your ire.
stouset 1y ago
Every single definition that segments a real world set of continuous objects into discrete buckets has surprising edge cases. This is basically inescapable. To steal a quote: All definitions are wrong. Some are useful.
lupusreal 1y ago
> If planets are required to clear their orbits, what was Jupiter called while the solar system was forming? Hell, what's it called now? Jupiter's orbit is shared with millions of Trojans. Many of them are more than a hundred kilometers in diameter; for reference, Deimos, one of Mars' moons, has a mean radius of about 6 km.