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Eris is essentially the same size as Pluto and has a larger mass.
by calmbell 1y ago
Eris is essentially the same size as Pluto and has a larger mass.
- naikrovek 1y agoThen ADD Eros. Don’t remove Pluto.
- p_j_w 1y agoWhy?
- naikrovek 1y ago> Why? Why remove Pluto? The definition of a Planet could be whatever we want. It could be "these named entities are planets, other things are not planets" if we wanted. That makes a hell of a lot more sense to me than anything else, because eventually we are going to find planets which really blur the boundaries we have currently. Until we observe the entire universe, any set of rules we come up with are going to appear to be wrong in some situations.
- p_j_w 1y ago"It's not perfect so we should just do it arbitrarily instead" is a pretty silly scientific proposition.
- kuschku 1y agoCongrats, the solar system would then contain these planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Eris, Makemake (Plus some more).
- jajko 1y agoSo what? Is 10 some mental limit of names for most population? If I can memorize 8 I can handle 12 or 15, or neither. Making up sub-categories is such a typical bureaucrat's approach to problems. Why should giant planets be in same category as normal ones? Why mixing ringed with non-ringed? Why mixing moonless with moon-enabled? Gas/liquid ones and solids? I could go on for a long time.
- kuschku 1y ago> If I can memorize 8 I can handle 12 or 15, or neither. Current estimates expect about 200 Pluto-sized objects in the Kuiper belt and about 10'000 in the surrounding region. Compared with 4 rocky planets, 2 gas giants and 2 ice giants.