On Oct 24, 1:32*pm, Mark Earnest wrote:
On Oct 24, 2:03*am, Dan Birchall
wrote:



(Mark Earnest) wrote:
*I have been searching the Internet about the two newest planets
*discovered, Sedna and Eris.

Actually, Sedna can't officially be labeled a planet yet, for the
reason given below. *And Makemake was discovered after those two,
so I guess it's the newest dwarf planet in our

*I can't even find a model or map of the Solar System with the orbits
*of these two new planets on them.

I googled: map of solar system showing dwarf planets
First hit washttp://www.vtaide.com/png/solar-system.htm
To be fair, although it does show Eris and Ceres, it doesn't show
Sedna, Haumea or Makemake, and it's surely not to scale. *But it
at least gives a feel for the order of things, heading out from
the sun.

*So how many planets do we now have? *9? *10? *11?
*Maybe no one knows.

8 planets, 5 dwarf planets[1], and dozens, maybe even hundreds of
objects - including Sedna - that we haven't yet been able to observe
well enough to determine whether they have a near-spherical shape[2]. *

The number of non-dwarf planets in our solar system seems likely to
remain at 8. *The number of dwarf planets, though, seems certain to
increase, and likely to reach the point where no one can remember
them all, any more than anyone can remember the names of all the
comets, or all the asteroids.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet
[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dwarf_planet_candidates

--
djb@ | Dan Birchall - Observation System Associate - Subaru Telescope.
naoj | Views I express are my own, certainly not those of my employer.
.org | Why do phasers have fewer settings than Kitchenaid bowl mixers?

Thanks for the information about the current consensus.
But I grew up with big beautiful maps of the nine planets, including
Pluto.
It was so neat to think of Pluto as a rogue planet, possibly escaping
from Neptune and going
within Neptune's orbit.

Now we discover two more rogue planets, Sedna and Eris.
They ought to have the same status as Pluto once had.

They orbit the Sun on their own, just like planets do.

Leave the asteroids to the asteroid belt, they don't need to be
promoted to the status of planets of any type. *They are just rubble,
and probably
run into one another every once in awhile, making even more rubble.

As soon as I get an orderly map of the Solar System, then I will feel
more
certain that knowledge of the Solar System is in order, where even
first graders
can learn about all the planets, like I did.

Everyone wants to rule reality, and astronomers want to rule the
reality of the planets.
They're not ruling my reality.

Good for you, and don't let your guard down or turn your back on a
mainstreamer that's only out to kill off anyone thinking outside the
box.

~ BG