this post was submitted on 23 May 2025
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Astronomy

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[–] wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 35 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This far-flung orbit may be the result of an encounter with a giant planet, which ejected the candidate dwarf planet out of the solar system, say the researchers.

Poor guy. Hopefully he's out there finding his own family.

At least it doesn't have to deal with the toxicity Pluto does, being in the family one day and then coldly rejected from the family from the planet club the next. And we wonder why it's exterior is frozen...

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 9 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Dwarf or not, Pluto is STILL a planet.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 24 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's not, actually. "Planet" and "Dwarf planet" are disjoint sets, according to the IAU.

Is a sea lion still a lion? Same thing.

[–] LanguageIsCool@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

It’s also not a sea

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Well, screw the IAU. What the hell does "clearing your neighborhood" even mean?

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 15 points 2 months ago

This article goes into great detail about the various methods that one can use to measure or calculate the orbit-clearing capability of an orbiting body.

It turns out that for all of these different methods, you will find an extremely clear bimodal distribution that groups the 8 planets together as being highly capable of clearing their orbits whereas everything else falls into a statistically distinct non-clearing group. This is because there's sound dynamic reasons for why objects would fall into one group or the other with nothing lasting long in the "grey area" between them. Once an object becomes significantly better than its orbital neighbors at clearing the neighborhood it snowballs due to the feedback loop of scattering or absorbing its neighbors into itself.

That makes this a good criterion for classification. As the old saying goes, "cleave nature at the joints."

[–] MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

There are so many nasty potential jokes I decided not to get involved. Fuck it I ain’t touching that with a 30-foot pole.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 months ago

it means that either pluto isn't a planet, or basically the entire fucking asteroid belt it's part of is all planets

[–] tiny_hedgehog@lemm.ee 19 points 2 months ago (6 children)

“The object is currently about 90.5 astronomical units (AU) away from us, or roughly 90 times as far from Earth as the sun is.”

This sentence pissed me off so much and I stopped reading after it.

It is 90.5 times as far from the Sun as the Earth is from the Sun. Why’d you have to go and change the frame of reference to Earth?

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 20 points 2 months ago

Well it's a good frame of reference because it's where most of us keep all our stuff.

[–] Kichae@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It didn't. It's 90.5 AU from us, and us is Earth. Or do you live on the Sun?

[–] tiny_hedgehog@lemm.ee -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If we are 1AU from the sun, and this planet is 90AU from the sun, then it is between 89 and 91 AUs from earth depending on the progress of our orbits (assuming perfectly circular orbits). So they did change the frame of reference.

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago

They didn't change the reference, they defined an AU.

[–] powerofm@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

"It's 20.5°C outside or roughly 20 notches on your thermometer (except for americans)"

[–] AlbinoPython@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I mean, they said "roughly".

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Like, give or take one AU, throughout the year.

[–] tiny_hedgehog@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago

Fair, but annoying to the pendantic.

[–] ThermonuclearEgg@hexbear.net 1 points 2 months ago

Here's another article that doesn't do this for anyone else that would prefer it:

https://phys.org/news/2025-05-extreme-cousin-pluto-dwarf-planet.html

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 12 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Ugh, didn't read the "dwarf" part and got my hopes up for planet 9. When they eventually do find it they have to name it something with P so that the old mnemonics still work.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I've heard that the sign of a fair bargain is that everybody leaves unhappy. So how about we name it "Pluto?" That should annoy pretty much everyone.

[–] SuperEars@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago
[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

“Planet 9” starts with “P”

[–] Microw@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This study authors btw say that their models for 2017 OF201's orbit work best without the influence of a hypothetical planet 9

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 1 points 2 months ago
[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Obviously there's a Planet X out there, where else would Chemical X come from

[–] JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 months ago

They prefer to be called little planets, tyvm.

[–] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Pluto defenders in shambles

But I am not sure how to process this as a planet X fan

[–] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

planet X

my-hero 🪐

Edit: Also, Pluto would totally whoop Planet X's ass one-to-one!

[–] MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So, draft planet 8.1 ? 8.3 because of Pluto and Charron?

[–] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Don't forget Eris. Weighs more than Pluto.

[–] MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

Oh shit yeah… So, 8.4 then?

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 4 points 2 months ago

When we hit the floor you just watch them move aside
We will take them for a ride of rides
They all love your miniature ways
You know what they say about small boys

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago

How do Sedna and that new one have a stable orbit? Are they that fast, to be able to compensate the movement of Pluto?

[–] MasterBlaster@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 months ago