Dollieh Sanctuary

Pluto Pluto New Horizons had reached Pluto! Then again I can remember when Voyager II probes reached Uranus and Neptune. Today, July 15, they're expecting the real stuff to start pouring in, pictures, data. It could still be made of green cheese or Unobtanium or ice and rock and cow farts. I didn't even know it had more moons than Charon.

And it looks like NASA will be taking public input to name the features on the worlds! Will they continue with the demons and underworld mythology theme?

Recent info from New Horizons is showing that Pluto is bigger than the IAU thought. In short, they may have to eat their words in that whole "Pluto isn't really a planet" thing.

embyquinn wrote:Recent info from New Horizons is showing that Pluto is bigger than the IAU thought. In short, they may have to eat their words in that whole "Pluto isn't really a planet" thing.

Pluto's revenge.

Scientists might have found Mordor on Charon and they want to name the big heart on Pluto after its discoverer Clyde Tombaugh. Just this morning science discovered something inside is warming the two worlds enough to resurface them and erase impact craters but they can't quite say what.

Who wants to guess a lake of fire?

embyquinn wrote:Recent info from New Horizons is showing that Pluto is bigger than the IAU thought. In short, they may have to eat their words in that whole "Pluto isn't really a planet" thing.

Actually, Pluto is a dwarf planet not because of its absolute size, but because of its orbit. Pluto's orbit is different from those of the other planets because of its shape(it's more oblong than the others'), and because it has debris in its path. Both of these things are related to Pluto's size, however, so the "dwarf planet" name was chosen to describe planets with this behavior.

Is Ceres in the asteroid belt considered a dwarf planet too? I remember hearing its just big enough to be round.

Yes, Ceres is a dwarf planet. There are four official dwarf planets in our inner solar system: Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake. The Kuiper belt likely contains hundreds more and beyond that even more. It's amazing watching our understanding of our solar system grow.