"Larry" wrote in message
...
I was going to mention QI, but some people say there are 10 planets in the
solar system (depends if you count Quaror - I think thats it, if spelt
wrong). Also, does anyone know about that moon, cuithney or something?

Larry

"Mike Williams" wrote in message
...
Wasn't it who wrote:
perhaps a very silly question...

a while ago, there was a move to downgrade
the status of Pluto - from "planet" to "minor body"

I was told today that it was now "definitive",
and astronomers no longer call it a planet

so, what *is* the current statue of Pluto ???

Your query coincides with a question on this topic broadcast on the "QI"
program, so I guess that's where your information came from.

The "correct" answers to questions on QI seem to often be quite
different from what is normally accepted as reality. QI isn't a quiz in
the conventional sense, the questions are there mainly to provoke
"interesting" discussions, and points are awarded for interestingness
rather than correctness. Similarly the "correct" answers seem often to
be chosen for being interesting rather than for being correct.

In QI, the contestants are penalized for providing boring answers. The
boring answer to "How many planets are there in the solar system?" was
"nine" and the interesting answer was "eight". Similarly the boring
answer to "How many moons does the Earth have?" was "one" and the
interesting answer was "two".


Cruithne is an asteroid with a mean orbital period around the Sun of one
year. It has some interesting resonances with Earth so that every so often
it approaches closely and then gradually moves some way around the orbit, a
long way from Earth. It cannot collide with the Earth, but is co-orbital
rather than being in orbit around the Earth.

So the answer to the QI question should have started with "Could you please
define exactly what you mean by moon?"

There are also a few asteroids in orbits between Earth and Mars.

--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove "pants" spamblock to send e-mail)