Inclusive planetary taxonomy (URL, abstract)

Hello, everyone, and it is my great pleasure to share a first version
of an article entitled "Planetary Taxonomy: An inclusive and
multidimensional approach" addressing both the Solar System and
extrasolar planets.

http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/inclusive_planet_def100.txt

For those who might want a quick summary of the basic approach, a bit
different as far as I know than anything proposed in the Prague
discussions leading up to the IAU resolutions of 24 August 2006,
here's an abstract, with the full text at the above URL.

Of course, I'd also be glad to post the full text here, if this is
consistent with the customs of the newsgroup; but I know that often
posting a URL for longer texts can be more efficient and save
bandwidth.


* * *


ABSTRACT: This article presents an inclusive approach to the
classification of both solar and extrasolar planets. A planetary mass
object or planemo is any celestial body larger than a meteoroid and
less massive than a fusor (i.e. a main sequence star or brown dwarf).

Any planemo is classified as macro/micro depending on whether it has
sufficient mass for self-gravitationally constrained near-sphericity
or hydrostatic equilibrium. Stellar system planets (planemos orbiting
fusors) are additionally classified as major/minor based on a test of
dynamical dominance or "clearing the neighborhood." The macro/micro
and major/minor dimensions are taken as orthogonal.

Unbound or free-floating planemos may optionally also be called
"free-floating planets," and subtyped according to their histories (if
ascertainable) as "sub-brown dwarfs" formed by primary core accretion
or "ejected planets" formed in protoplanetary disks.

Satellites, non-fusors orbiting other non-fusors, may be classified in
a scheme combining a macro/micro dimension (as with other planemos)
and a major/minor dimension focusing on dynamical dominance within the
satellite's orbital region of the planet-satellite system (e.g. a
moonlet in a ring system situated in a gap or embedded within a ring).

Binary/multiple planet systems as defined by a barycenter test
(e.g. Pluto-Charon) and "quasi-binary" planet-satellite systems with
comparably sized members (e.g. Earth-Moon) might usefully be placed
on a continuum of "companion planemo relations" which considers both
barycenter location and mass ratios. The wealth of microplanet-
microsatellite or binary/multiple microplanet systems in our own Solar
System (e.g. the asteroid belt) should help to enrich our understanding
of this continuum of possibilities for extrasolar planetary systems.

Most appreciatively,

Margo Schulter