Planet X Larger Than Pluto?

nova_planitia writes "The Minor Planet mailing list is buzzing with the discovery by an amateur astronomer of a 17th magnitude object 51 astronomical units from the Sun, tentatively designated 2003 EL61. For those not versed in astronomical lingo, this is an object several times brighter than Pluto even though it is 25% farther out from the Sun (the orbit vizualised by JPL). This means that barring a strangely reflective surface, this object is larger than Pluto, possibly Mars-sized! The debate whether Pluto is a planet is likely to get rekindled by this discovery."

If Pluto is a planet...

[BlackCobra43]

This rock I have in my backyard is a mountain.

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[SamBeckett]

Goofy

Simple answer.

[zenmojodaddy]

In order to avoid confusion as to whether Pluto is a planet, call the new planet Pluto and rename old Pluto something else, like Herbert The Cow. Or Mr Gazpacho. Or Hellish Creamcheese.

It's Friday afternoon, and 5pm looks a LOOOONG way away. Can you tell?

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[richdun]

Well, if Planet X is sooo Gen X... It should be called iPlanet, or when someone tries to claim it, myPlanet.

Re:It's all a conspiracy

[Tanmi-Daiow]

"Pluto doesn't really exist, and we haven't landed on the moon."

Thats what they want you to think. We really have a super secret base on the moon. And Pluto is really our version of the Deathstar perched on the edge of the solar system in case any of the aliens on Mars get too far out of control.

I for one

[Ruprecht the Monkeyb]

I, for one, welcome our new 2003-EL61ian overlords.

Sorry...I've never gotten to do one of those before.

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[Mr Guy]

Clearly, THAT is Pluto, and what we thought was Pluto wasn't. The new Pluto will know be known as Pluto, while the old Pluto will be forgotten.

There can be only one Pluto.

Name for it:

[wowbagger]

OK, since most of the planets were named after Roman gods, here's a name for it:

Bacchus [wikipedia.org] - the party planet! Party all night - and it's ALWAYS night!

At the fractal level

[wiredog]

it is.

Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

A reflective surface you say?

That's no moon, It's a discoball!

*cue imperial march*

Abbot/Costello

[scaverdilly]

Costello: "We could call it planet Y."

Abbot: "Y?"

Costello: "Because"

Abbot: "Because why?"

Costello: "I don't know"

Abbot: "Third Base!"

ooh - I know!

[consequentemente]

How about Vista? That has such a nice ring to it :-)

Someone call Duck Dodgers

[The Famous Brett Wat]

Excellent! A new source of Illudium Phosdex, no doubt. It will probably be over three hundred years before we can get there, though, by which time our supplies will be alarmingly low.

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[WidescreenFreak]

(Planet X is soooo Gen X...)

But ... Planet X ... that's where we need to get our next supply of Illudium Phosdex, the shaving cream atom.

I saw it in a highly-scientific production that was made about 60 years ago.

(Yes, humorless mods, that's a joke. If you don't understand it, you need to watch classic, WB cartoons from the 1940s and 50s.)

Old versus new

[Yeechang Lee]

Pluto: Old and busted.
Planet X: The new hotness!

Ok someone at NASA is taking this joke WAY too far

[Anonymous Coward]

... my mom's name is Sedna. :-(

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[JeffTL]

Pronounce that "Planet Ten," and it'll seem a bit more modern, but there's still not much of a vista to experience if you're living on Earth.

Hah

[Sheepdot]

Cue the Uranus jokes:
"Speaking of size, what about Uranus?"
"How can be possible comment on this new planet when we still have yet to send a probe to Uranus?"

Some wise astronomers have tried to change the speech from "your anus" to "urine us" or "you're in us". Unfortunately the planet seems to just be plain doomed as far as American English pronounciation goes.

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[castlec]

Cale: I'll call it planet Bob. Akima: You can't call a planet "Bob." Cale: So now you're the boss. You're the King of Bob? Akima: Can't we just call it "Earth"? Cale: No one said you have to live on Bob. Akima: I'm never calling it that.

I'm waiting...

[ZOmegaZ]

When's the first astrologer going to sue because the discovery of this planet has deformed her horoscope?

Strangely reflectant surface???

[jurt1235]

Discovered by an amateur, not seen before with all hightech equipment, strangely reflectant surface almost rendering it invisible?? Round (asuming it is a ballshaped object): It is a super borg sphere!! Run to the closet and get your bathlets! They can not fight against that!

Ok, the other possibility: Independence day...

And the last option: It is a cloacked deathstar!

Re:New Scientist Coverage

[NemosomeN]

Well if several people submit the same story, only one can be accepted.

With a uid so low, you should know better than that.

Well, I don't know about most slashdotters...

[benhocking]

But when I was in high school, Pluto didn't have a moon, and it's mass was about the same as Mercury. This planet might have been the one they were teaching me about. :)

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[NtroP]

but there's still not much of a vista to experience if you're living on Earth

How about "Vista"?

After all:

• It's been rumored to exist for a long time (under a different name)
• It's supposed to be "bigger and brighter" than what everyone is choosing to compare it to
• It doesn't even really exist yet, but people are already proclaiming the "death" of its nearest competitor
• We know nothing about it, except that it's supposed to be [ooh] "shiny" and that is quite a long way off

New Name?

[jav1231]

Someone suggested moving Uranus' name to this planet. I think there should be a contest! Possible new names:
Vaginus
Clitorum
Vulvus
I mean, why not. It's frigid and inaccessible to those who want to "study" it most!

Re:Simple answer.

[Halthar]

That's easy. Name the new one New Pluto, and call the old one Pluto Classic. That way, if the new one turns out not to be a planet at all, you can forget about it, and people will still enjoy Pluto, in it's classic form.

2003 EL61 is not a planet

[Gorimek]

It's just Big Boned!

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[Dagny Taggert]

Here's the real question: is it larger than Uranus? If so, we're all in trouble

Re:Abbot/Costello

[Luyseyal]

Costello: "Whose base?"

Abbot: "Your base!"

Costello: "It's not mine."

Abbot: "are belong to us!"

Costello: "What the he-"

Abbot: "You have no chance to survive. Make your time."

Costello: "OK, I have no idea WTF you're talking about. You hear that? I'm going home, you fscking maroon."

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[Chosen Reject]

How about Nike? /ducks

Re:Never noticed it before?

[lsetia]

Pluto takes a few hundred years to orbit the sun

here in pluto we orbit the sun in one pluto year, you insensitive clod!

Re:Simple answer.

[Insensitive_Claudio]

Herbert the cow made me fall out of my chair laughing. Then I realized that cows are females.

Perhaps Gertrude the Cow would be a better fit.

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not call it Pluto 2.0? The new one, I mean. And the old one can be Pluto 1.0.

Unless you want to go with Open Source version numbers. Then the old one would be Pluto 0.1 and the new one would be Pluto 0.2. That gives plenty of room to name other random heavenly bodies until we find the real Pluto 1.0.

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[Zenaku]

Persephone? Persephone! People don't want planets named after hungry old Greek broads! They want names like "Mustang" and "Cheetah"--vicious animal names!

Re:Pluto is a planet?

[stevesliva]

That's awesome!

Could you now please define--with exclusivity--Lake, Pond, Brook, Stream, River, Sea, Gulf, Bay, Ocean, Hill, Mountain and Continent?

Re:New Scientist Coverage

[DG]

Huh? What? Did somebody say something?

Damn kids keep interrupting my nap.

DG

Rupert!

[Klowner]

They loooove our television there, and our mail-order furniture.

I hope this isn't Rupert....

[GldisAter]

If it is then it's time to start evacuating before the Grebulons destroy the Earth because is rising into capricorn.

ahh screw it... Let's just go to Stavro Mueller Beta and watch the show...

Re:Trick to Finding This Object

[servognome]

Who wants to memorize the 85 planets of our solar system?

Worse, think of all the styrofoam balls and toothpicks you'll need to complete your model

Re:Rupert!

[Kippesoep]

Perfect for monitoring! Let's hope they won't decide to blow us up when Earth rises in Capricorn...

Re:ooh - I know!

[JordanH]

That has such a nice ring to it :-)

A planet with a nice ring? That'd be Saturn.

call it oid

[notnAP]

Call it "oid"
That way, the name will be informative, and will help alleviate future pointless debate over whether it is a planet (It is, and it's called Oid) or a planetoid (that's what I said... planet-oid). -nAP

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[Nuskrad]

Actually, it'd be quite interesting if they auctioned the naming rights on eBay... then again, Planet GoldenPalaceCasino.com doesn't quite have the right ring to it.

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[Elwood P Dowd]

Shut up, Dave.

Re:New Scientist Coverage

[iabervon]

Back in my day, we didn't have these duplicate articles. We only had one story about any article, and we had to fetch it manually. With TCP! Upstream both ways! And we liked it that way!

Re:Oh bloody hell, I can hear the republicans alre

[Johnny5000]

Planet Reagan
*shiver*

Nah, they'd stick to naming planets after gods...

Planet Jesus.

Re:Pioneer

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, if it has a tractor beam.

Thats no moon!! (ducks)

Re:ooh - I know!

[Alsee]

In that case we should just run an auction. We might just wind up naming it Pepsi.

-

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[Creepy]

option a)
rename Pluto Plutonium and notice its rapid decay from being called a "Planet" to a "big ass rock."

Then name 2003 EL61 as Pluto so it can be the next planet to be renamed Plutonium for its rapid decay to massive frozen rock in the near future.

option b)
define what, exactly, a planet is already.

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[VirtuousPagan]

dave's not here...

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[Anonymous Coward]

Forget the gods, let's call it Dave.

I'm afraid I cannot do that Dave.

6,000 Year Old News

[StarWreck]

The planet's name is Nibiru. At least thats what the Ancient Sumerians called it.

They Sumerians knew about all planets we currently know about, including Pluto which we didn't discover for ourselves until 1930. However, they also knew about a 10th planet past Pluto that they called Nibiru. According to the Sumerians, this 10th planet had a highly eliptical orbit and orbited the sun in the opposite direction to the rest of the planets.

The Sumerian's even believed an alien race, known as the Annunaki, inhabited this planet and possessed space travel technology that allows them to visit earth while their planet is inside the asteroid belt because of its highly eliptical orbit.

If it's a Cyberplanet...

[jd]

...then it HAS to be Mondas [drwhoguide.com]. But it's late! It should have reached perihelion in 1986.

Far Out and Beyond All Recovery

[RedLaggedTeut]

Well, since we are into tech names in this thread:

How about naming the planet(-ino)
"foo" and its moon "bar" ?

because cleary it is Far Out and Beyond All Recovery

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[Anonymous Coward]

Planet Goatse

You mean Uranus?