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Good Day, Dear reader,

In my ongoing effort to keep the readership at Blogger Party informed, and amused, I am going to share my new found information on the new planets in our solar system.

Some may remember that our fine planet, Earth, almost met her Waterloo recently, when we were just-missed by a passing ASTEROID. however, we are still here, and that is neither here nor there.

Some may remember the ancient rhyme we, as school children, used to remember the planets names, and order.

To wit:
"Mother Very Thoughtfully Made A Jelly sandwich Under No Protest."
Which translates:
"Mercury, Venus, Terra (that's us, Earth!), Mars, Asteroids (the asteroid belt), Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto."

Now there are Twelve, and the jelly sandwich is clearly (perhaps not) obsolete.

As you will note in the article which follows, the nearest of the new planets, now known as "Ceres", was previously deemed an asteroid. It is by far the largest of the asteroids, and is spherical. here is a picture, for what its worth.

Ceres (seer'-eez (key), IPA /ˈsiriz/, Latin: Cerçs) was the first asteroid to be discovered (indicated by the '1' in its name). Its official designation is (1) Ceres, but the parentheses are often dropped when talking about named asteroids and, in the case of the more important ones, the number is often dropped altogether —Ceres can thus refer to the asteroid or the Roman goddess named Ceres, depending on context. It was discovered on January 1, 1801, by Giuseppe Piazzi. With a diameter of about 950 km it is by far the largest and most massive asteroid in the asteroid belt: It contains approximately a third of the belt's total mass.

Here, as promised, is the News Story

PRAGUE (AFP) - The solar system may soon be home to a dozen planets, with three new additions to the club and more to come, if astronomers meeting in the Czech capital approve a new planetary definition, the conference organizer has said.

The proposal before the 26th general assembly of the International Astronomical Union distinguishes between planets and smaller celestial bodies such as comets and asteroids.
That results in a 12-planet solar system with eight classical planets and three bodies including Pluto in a new and growing category called "plutons" - Pluto-like objects - plus a former asteroid, Ceres, the IAU said.
Powerful new telescopes that have discovered large objects in the outer regions of the solar system present a challenge to the historically based definition of a "planet", which comes from the Greek word meaning "wanderer".
"Recent new discoveries have been made of objects in the outer regions of our solar system that have sizes comparable to and larger than Pluto," said IAU President Ron Ekers in a statement.
"These discoveries have rightfully called into question whether or not they should be considered as new 'planets'."
According to the draft definition, a "planet" must be in orbit around a star, while not being itself a star, and it must be massive enough for its own gravity to pull it into a nearly spherical shape.
"Our goal was to find a scientific basis for a new definition of planet and we chose gravity as the determining factor. Nature decides whether or not an object is a planet," said Richard Binzel, a member of the defining committee.
That puts about dozen "candidate planets" on the IAU watchlist, which means even more planets could be named in the future.
If the current proposal is passed by the IAU assembly, the solar system would consist of the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon and 2003 UB313 (a "real" name to be chosen later).
The new "plutons" are distinguished from classical planets in that they reside in orbits around the sun that take longer than 200 years to complete -- meaning they are in orbit beyond Neptune.
The draft "planet definition" resolution will be discussed and refined during the Prague meeting and put up for a vote on August 24

Posted in Ceres | planets | solar system BigBadJohnny | | | | 380 reads