http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4730061.stm
A bit larger than Pluto and ~three times further away. No sign of Elvis yet though.
A bit larger than Pluto and ~three times further away. No sign of Elvis yet though.
Astronomers discover Planet X
- Thread starter nutball
- Start date
Woah... so from now on we can say the solar system has 10 planets? What r they gonna call this?
This is kinda major.
This is kinda major.
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
The only way it will catch on is if they name it after some Roman god, so it fits in with all the other planets.
If it's three times as far away as pluto - which is already pretty darn far away - can it really be said to be part of the solar system at all? What's the time for one orbit around the sun, ten thousand years? 
Guden Oden said:If it's three times as far away as pluto - which is already pretty darn far away - can it really be said to be part of the solar system at all? What's the time for one orbit around the sun, ten thousand years?
If it orbits our sun then yes it's part of our solar system.
Here's the IAU's definition of a planet:
http://www.iau.org/IAU/FAQ/sedna.html
So that clears that up then, not! Although numerous other objects have been found out at that distance, it would appear that so far they've all been smaller than Pluto. As to whether it's part of the Solar system, well if it's gravitationally bound to the Sun then it pretty much has to be.
http://www.iau.org/IAU/FAQ/sedna.html
So that clears that up then, not!
Although numerous other objects have been found out at that distance, it would appear that so far they've all been smaller than Pluto. As to whether it's part of the Solar system, well if it's gravitationally bound to the Sun then it pretty much has to be.Reason #15482645....64452147 why the SETI project is hippie BS.
We still don't know our own friggin solar system, but some people still keep on wasting time, energy and money trying to communicate with other, potentially, inhabited planets...
Talk about putting the cart before the horse.
Oh, and I hope this new planet is the homeland of dangerous creatures that swore human annihilation aeons ago, before being exiled in this far away planet by the super-heros of this galaxy, the amazing Ron Hubbard and his acolyte Xenu!
We still don't know our own friggin solar system, but some people still keep on wasting time, energy and money trying to communicate with other, potentially, inhabited planets...
Talk about putting the cart before the horse.
Oh, and I hope this new planet is the homeland of dangerous creatures that swore human annihilation aeons ago, before being exiled in this far away planet by the super-heros of this galaxy, the amazing Ron Hubbard and his acolyte Xenu!
Although I was just jesting around, like I often do, in this case I do really think that SETI is huge hippie toy project.Neeyik said:
Anyone can freely spend their hard earned money, and their CPU time (SETI@home) how they see fit. I'm not discussing this.
I just happen to dislike SETI.
What I hate about the SETI project is that it's a pure waste of time, money and knownledge, things that could be injected in other, useful, projects.
SETI is, just, fundamentally useless...
Let's take the perfect case example, some transmissions are received, and are decoded. Clearly the undeniable sign that some technological advanced form of life exist in space.
Ok... So now what? What are we going to do?
Communicate with them? We can't do that, the distance is too large for any reasonable communication and we'd have to assume that they're listning to the space signals, in the first place (If they're really evolved they won't spend their time and ressources with this
).We're going to try to go to they planet? No way, not until a few hundred years and the discovery of new methods to travel in time and space (If it's a thing that is humanly possible).
What I'm trying to say is that SETI is clearly a pure case of putting the cart before the horse.
If SETI finds anything (And that's a big IF, seeing how inefficient is the technique used by the SETI project), it will be a simple information: "There's life out there" and that's all...
There'll be nothing we could do about it for generations.
Sure all the Sci-Fi fans will rejoice and will start imagining they way those ETs are, some fruitless academic debates will happen, some books will be updated... And that's all...
But as far as I'm concerned this money/time could be injected in better projects.
And no, not necessarily medical projects. There's tons of scientific project out there that lacks funds, and seeing that they don't sound as cool as "Looking for real aliens, just for fun", they're struggling for funds...
That's my €2cents (approx. $5.2Millions).
Logically yes, but if we should find some planet(s) orbiting well outside the oort cloud, can they really be thought of "spiritually" as actually being part of our system? Just because they spin around our star doesn't have to mean they really belong with us. 3x the distance away from pluto is a rediculously large distance, by human standards at least.PC-Engine said:
ShootMyMonkey
Veteran
Maybe if the orbit was highly irregular, it could pass for being drunk, thereby earning the name Bacchus.
Or maybe if its gravity affects loads of asteroids in the Oort cloud, it could earn the name of Inuus.
On that basis you might as well hate the entire PC and console gaming industry - it's equally as fundamentally useless and a waste of time, money and resources; or one could apply the same argument to cosmology or the study of quasars or the sex life of the common earthworm. Is this reason to hate any of them though?Vysez said:
The SETI project then finishes, just like any other that reaches its goals.
Communication isn't one of those goals - it's a simple case of whether there is or isn't anything "else out there".Communicate with them? We can't do that, the distance is too large for any reasonable communication and we'd have to assume that they're listning to the space signals, in the first place (If they're really evolved they won't spend their time and ressources with this
And what's wrong with that? What is wrong with simply doing something for the sake of knowledge?
There are two questions to be asked here: (1) why does SETI actually receive private funding and (2) why are so many scientific projects lacking sufficient funds? The answers to both are clearly related - because people are willing to fund SETI due to the interest in the project and the associated side-projects (such as SETI@home). However, these people are free to be courted by other scientific projects; if they're sufficiently interesting or important then they're likely to get funding.
As an aside, I can understand the disappointment many of my friends have felt when they've been unable to raise capital for research projects; none of them have ever felt bitter towards those ventures that have been successful in raising funds though, regardless to what people think of the relevance of the work.
Last year, the UK population spent over £3 billion on chocolate - now surely that could have been money better spent.
Vysez said:
Nothing. The goal of the SETI programme is to find signs of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe. That goal in and of itself is worthwhile pursuing, and will have an enormous impact on mankind.
It's certainly seeking to answer a deeper and more significant question than a lot of the other tedious-detail-oriented crap that the scientific community spend public money on.
Entertaiment is important for the development of any human being. Psychologically speaking.Neeyik said:
Because this particular knowledge, in this point of time, in the human cycle of civilisation, is, for me, useless.Neeyik said:
Personally, I know that, based purely on the law of probability, there's must be other forms of life in the universe known, and unknown. There's just too many planets and too many different scenarios.
But do I care about knowing if these forms life are civilized enough to emit radio transmissions? No, I don't care, because by the time humans will be able to reach this ET civilisation, it could have already disappeared.
SETI on the paper, in itself, is a viable project, I'm not disussing this (true).
What i'm discussing is the timing... SETI is not a project for our time... The methodology used by the project is so archaic that it's like searching a needle in a haystack.
As of now, SETI could only serve as a philosophical project. We're only looking for a simple philosophical question "are we alone?".
And the price of the answer is quite expensive, especially if you consider that most philosophical questions are not meant to be answered.
