The NASA site lists PSR 1257 as the first extrasolar planet to be discovered, in 1991. So while thousands of years of naked-eye observation followed by hundreds of years of peering through telescopes never even got us to double digits, a little over a decade and a half has us more than a quarter of the way to quadruple digits. And it's no understatement to say that we're barely scratching the surface.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
I Remember When There Were Nine
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2 comments:
NOT SO GREAT IDEAS OF WESTERN MAN...
If they had simply set the SIZE limit for planets at the size of Pluto (because it's an arbitrary determination anyway), they would have had to add only ONE more planet to the Solar System. What's wrong with that? But n-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o....
--W.M. Bear
TWO CRITERIA, ACTUALLY --
1) A planet has to orbit a star directly (since there are satellites larger than Pluto)
AND
2) A planet has to be as large or larger than Pluto (again, since Pluto was already defined as a planet, simply make it the minimum standard).
The current IAU definition of "planet" leaves a lot of room for ambiguity. The above criteria leave NONE.
--WMB
weevee: bikeuro (I swear!)
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