Study Confirms '10th Planet' Indeed Larger than Pluto - space.com/Nature

We're still waiting for the International Astronomical Union to define what is a planet!

Sailom

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060201_tenth_planet.html

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 01 February 200601:00 pm ET

An object discovered earlier this year and considered by some to be our solar system’s 10th planet is indeed larger than Pluto, a new study confirms.

The object, catalogued as 2003 UB313, is by many accounts a planet. It is round and orbits the Sun.

But because several other objects meet those criteria and also approach Pluto’s size, astronomers have been wrangling for months over how to define the word “planet.” It is not known if or when the International Astronomical Union, which rules on such things, will issue a decision. Members of an advisory board weighing the issue can’t even agree on the parameters of a definition.

Meanwhile, 2003 UB313 is now known to be about 1,860 miles (3,000 kilometers) in diameter, give or take 190 miles (300 kilometers).

Pluto is 1,430 miles (2,300 kilometers) wide.

The object’s size was initially calculated based on an estimate of how much sunlight it reflects. But astronomers don’t know exactly what its surface is made of, so they could not be sure how reflective it is.

The new study, led by Frank Bertoldi from the University of Bonn, relies on new observation of 2003 UB313’s thermal emission. The calculations are based on the object’s size and its surface temperature, which can be estimated based on the object’s distance from the Sun.

The results are detailed in the Feb. 2 issue of the journal Nature.

"Since UB313 is decidedly larger than Pluto," Bertoldi said, "it is now increasingly hard to justify calling Pluto a planet if UB313 is not also given this status."

But 2003 UB313 is much farther away. Its elongated orbit takes it far out into the icy Kuiper Belt, twice as far from the Sun as Pluto. Many astronomers now say Pluto is a Kuiper Belt Object and should never have been called a planet.

So if 2003 UB313 is termed a planet, as some suggest, then a handful of other good-sized, round worlds known to exist—and perhaps hundreds yet to be found in the Kuiper Belt—would also have to be called planets. Among the other candidates: Sedna, which is about three-fourths as large as Pluto, 2004 DW and Quaoar.

One suggestion is to call the outer worlds “dwarf planets.”

Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institute of Washington takes this view:

“Whichever way you care to count them, with the discovery and measurement of the size of 2003 UB313 there are no longer nine major planets in the solar system,” Sheppard writes in an analysis for Nature.

Sheppard also notes a surprise that’s come from this study and others recently.

Astronomers have now accurately measured the diameter and reflectiveness, or albedo, of a handful of Kuiper Belt Objects.

“It seems that the largest objects have the highest albedos,” Sheppard said. “This could be because gravity on these objects is large enough for them to have active atmospheres and so be able to retain volatile gaseous substances that could brighten their surfaces.”

The Discovery of 2003 UB313
The Debate over 2003 UB313 and Planet Definition
Crazy Names: The Solar System's Nomenclature Wars


http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060130/full/060130-7.html


News
Published online: 1 February 2006; doi:10.1038/news060130-7

'Tenth Planet' found to be a whopper

Large size of 2003 UB313 fuels debate over what is and isn't a planet.
Mark Peplow

The recently discovered 'tenth planet' of our Solar System is substantially larger than Pluto, astronomers have found.

For many, the discovery that object 2003 UB313 is about 3,000 kilometres across will remove any doubt that it deserves to be called a planet.

"Since UB313 is decidedly larger than Pluto, it is now increasingly hard to justify calling Pluto a planet if UB313 is not also given this status," says Frank Bertoldi, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn, Germany, and part of the team that reveals UB313's size in this week's Nature1.

When astronomer Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena unveiled 2003 UB313 to the world in July 2005, his team was already confident that the new object was at least as large as Pluto, and deserved the status of 'planet'.

But UB313's elongated orbit takes it almost twice as far away from the Sun as Pluto ever gets, making it very difficult to measure its diameter precisely. One clue to its larger size came from the fact that it is slightly brighter than Pluto; a larger mirror would reflect more of the Sun's light. But an alternative explanation could have been that UB313 is simply made of a more reflective material than Pluto.

Ice maiden

Using the Institute for Millimetre Radio Astronomy (IRAM) 30-metre telescope in Spain, Bertoldi's team has now studied the radiowaves coming from UB313, which reveal how much of the Sun's rays are absorbed and re-radiated as heat. Because very little reflected sunlight is emitted at these wavelengths, the object's brightness in radiowaves depends only on its size and surface temperature.

Based on its enormous distance from the Sun, UB313 is calculated to be tremendously cold: a staggering -248 °C. Bertoldi and his colleagues combined this value with their measurements of UB313's radiation to determine its reflectivity and size.

Although this first estimate of 3,000 kilometres may be out by as much as 400 kilometres, this still puts UB313 well ahead of 2,300-kilometre-wide Pluto in the size stakes, making it the largest body found in the Solar System since the discovery of Neptune in 1846.

The research also shows that UB313 has a reflectivity, or albedo, of about 60%. This is roughly the same as Pluto's, suggesting that the two objects' surfaces are made of very similar materials, such as frozen methane and nitrogen snow. Only a very frosty world could produce an albedo of 60%, says Brown.

How does the 'tenth planet' measure up against other bits of the Solar System? Click here to find out.

Brown has also been trying to measure the size of UB313 by using the Hubble Space Telescope. Although he released preliminary findings on 25 January at a public meeting at Foothill College in Los Altos Hill, California, suggesting that UB313 was just a few percent larger than Pluto, he now says that measurement is wrong. "It was an extremely preliminary estimate," he explains.

A planet with no name

2003 UB313 is not the catchiest name, but unfortunately this temporary designation will have to stick until the International Astronomical Union (IAU) decides whether it is indeed a planet that warrants a name from classical mythology.

Since 1992, more than 1,000 similar, albeit smaller, objects have been found in the region around Pluto known as the Kuiper Belt, and astronomers estimate that there may be more than half a million still waiting to be discovered. As more of these icy remnants from the Solar System's birth turn up, Pluto blends into the crowd and its claim to be a unique planet grows slimmer and slimmer.

Some astronomers argue that Pluto should be stripped of its title, to become a Kuiper Belt Object like its orbital fellows. Others suggest that anything larger than Pluto found in the outskirts of the Solar System should also be called a 'planet', which would include UB313. "I'd prefer to keep Pluto as a planet, for historical reasons," says Bertoldi.

The IAU set up a committee of 19 top astronomers to come up with a workable definition for a planet that would rule UB313 in or out, but in November 2005 the group finally admitted defeat after failing to reach a clear consensus. The IAU has promised action later this year, but Brown is already impatient. "Imagine how you'd feel if your baby didn't have a name for seven months," he says.

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