In article ,
Bob Officer @no-net wrote:
On Mon, 15 Mar 2004 07:59:24 -0500, in alt.astrology, Jim Phillips
wrote:

On Sun, 14 Mar 2004, The Ice Cream Bandit wrote:

Greg Neill wrote:

"The Ice Cream Bandit" wrote in message
...

NASA Schedules News Briefing About Unusual Solar Object

The discovery of a mysterious object in our solar system is the topic of
a listen-and-log-on news briefing on Monday, March 15, at 1 p.m. EST.

Dr. Michael Brown, associate professor of planetary astronomy,
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. will present his
discovery of the most distant object ever detected orbiting the sun. He
and colleagues made the discovery as part of a NASA-funded research
project.



2004 DW?
Some info:

http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~chad/2004dw/

I don't think so. This one is smaller than Pluto. They're calling it
"Sedna".

According to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/default.stm:

2003 VB16
Between 750-1500 miles across (1/2 to the same size as Pluto).
Currently 90 AU away (AU=Earth's distance from Sun); orbit could take it
more than 10 times farther out. Its distance is farther than the
theoretical limit of the Kuiper belt, so it may be a different kind
of object. Maybe another planet?

Since it seems to lie outside the current KB. or we need to rethink the
outer limit of the KB.

considering the current state of what we know about the KB, I think keeping
options open is the proper thing to do.

During the initial ignition phase of our sun it might have been more
massive, During the ignition large amounts of mass were blown off as the
mass started heating and collapsing. If the computations of the outer KB is
based upon our current sun's mass and not the initial solar mass at time of
initial heating during collapse phase, We may be under estimating what sort
of small mass bodies might be in orbit at the outer reaches of the our
Solar System. It sure leaves lots of room for speculation.

Has anyone decided if this body is spherical?

I Think finding Sedna, may help demote Pluto from it status as a planet.
Note the announcement calls it a "Solar Object", not a planet.

Seems to me that the classification of objects orbiting the sun as
"planet" or not reflects human perspectives but not necessarily intrinsic
qualities of the objects themselves. If a more objective technical
definition is called for, it may have to be explicitly stated every
time the word is used in the presence of laypeople.
In any case, such composers as Terry Winter Owens, Paul Hindemith,
etc. have sometimes attributed inspiration to astronomy.


--
Matthew H. Fields http://personal.www.umich.edu/~fields
Music: Splendor in Sound
"Hey, don't knock Placebo, its the only thing effective for my hypochondria."
Brights have a naturalistic world-view. http://www.the-brights.net/