ScienceCasts: Smallest Terrestrial Planet?

[Tounushi]

Dwarf planet: differentiated, spherical body.

Vesta may be differentiated, but it is by no means spherical. It's more like a big potato.

[Skaarjguy]

If the IAU calls Vesta a Dwarf Planet then that means they'll be violating their own rules of planethood. If anything it should be a new class of asteroid, the only one of its kind besides Ceres. If that means calling it something silly like Vestoid then so be it.

[HostileNegotiator]

I admit I was upset when Pluto was downgraded to a planetiod. But in the aftermath I have realized there are classes of planets as we discover more and more. I have a feeling planets like Pluto will once again join our planetary family but defined in a class. Wow. Even science is classist.

[Pyrolonn]

@HostileNegotiator Actually, Pluto was downgraded to a "dwarf planet" (not asteroid), which is what the NASA investigator is claiming Vesta to be. (Pluto was given a minor planet number but still gets the dwarf planet status) Ceres already has dwarf planet status.

[HostileNegotiator]

@Pyrolonn Cool, thanks for clarifying :) I can't wait to learn about the super sized Earth like planet they discovered. Keppler 22b I think is its name.

[Tiggification]

This is a wonderful opportunity! So glad it was successful thus far. Any knowledge we can gain is tremendous.

As for categorizing Vesta, to me the IAU are goofballs- no telling what they'll decide to label Vesta as. The decisions of a few scientists over the many, sigh. Poor Pluto, would have at least waited till New Horizons got there :-) but names and labels can be trivial.

[TheTrieye]

checkout my vids ppl

[MikeAvenger08]

The IAU hasn't been to Vesta so they have no right to make those rules. Call Vesta whatever you wanna call it.

[declaration963]

Jupiter : HAHAHA ! Vesta you got pwned !

Vesta : Damn Jupiter, i can't go bigger because of you !

[Samura1dM]

maybe they need to classify planets and dwarf planets and asteroids and such into more catagories (? can't spell) as they do with the plant and animal kingdoms

[docatomics]

...little Vesta shall make a splendid planetiod ship most likely,

~after it is mined out and this solar system needs a getaway far ark

=to another star that will extend life further beyond extinction from the same creator super novas that stared it all

[solarcradle]

@docatomics Nice to see you here. Wanted to thank you for your yt:stretch and quality tag help. It worked great on many older videos. Peace

[docatomics]

@solarcradle this time it is more about stretching tax holes for common survival spending;

~which is far more sustainable than endless spending on destruction for fake wars to justify the Industrial Military Complex

= which is in the opposite direction of mass survival

[jomerod]

One of the reasons that Vesta features "terrestrial" characteristics may might be that it is harboring evolving life, visible manifestation of which surely will be based on primary elements or biogenetic elements that sustain life on Earth.

[mikerodeman]

It's definitely a dwarf planet by definition.

[VladiSSius]

i like NASA... 

[jasleil]

If I can vote, I woul vote for Vesta to be a drawft planet.

[THE16THPHANTOM]

@jasleil

well you can't.

[jasleil]

@THE16THPHANTOM Um... Hopefully enough members of the IAU will vote for it to be a drawf planet.

[laurele861]

@jasleil It should not be up to the IAU to determine whether Vesta gets to be a planet or a dwarf planet. Most IAU members are not planetary scientists anyway, and they've already messed up big time with Pluto. Let the data be the determining factor.

[jasleil]

@laurele861 *Sigh* WHY!? Oh well, let's hope that Vesta become a drawf planet. The only darwf planet that I know of is Pluto.

[laurele861]

@jasleil The IAU wrongly claims that dwarf planets are not planets at all. That makes no sense and runs counter to the intention of the astronomer who first coined the term dwarf planet. The IAU did a terrible job attempting to define "planet" in 2006 and continues to refuse to reopen this discussion. The only "authority" they have is that which people give them. Today, many professional and amateur astronomers reject the notion that only the IAU has the right to make such decisions.

[jasleil]

@laurele861 IAU should hear more detail before making a huge deicision like making Pluto a drawf planet a while back.

[Hagenfels]

@jasleil Right now listed as Dwarf Planets are:

Vestas big Brother: Ceres

Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Eris

Pluto is actualy the second largest of the Dwarf Planets, Eris was mostly the reason Pluto was demoted because of the fact that Eris was a little bit larger and thus forced scientists to rething the term Planet or they would have been forced to up the number of planets significantly over time, from 9 to 13 (and maybe more if more are discovered)

[jasleil]

@Hagenfels 13 Planets? Wow, that's going to be hard to fit into a science textbook. Good thing that I still have books during which Pluto was still a planet. Where is Eris located anyways, Kelper Belt or the Asteroid Belt? I'm thinking about the Kelper Belt.

[Hagenfels]

@jasleil

Eris Haumea and Makemake are located in the Kuiper Belt

Ceres in the Asteroid belt.

My best guess is, that any further Dwarf Planets that are going to be discovered are located in the Kuiper Belt or in the Oort Cloud, as the Asteroid belt has been relatively good observed and any major objects there have already been found.

[laurele861]

@jasleil Eris is in the outer part of the Kuiper Belt known as the Scattered disk. Objects there have much more inclined orbits. As for textbooks, they will have to adapt, just like we will, to a universe with billions of planets. Just describe each subtype of planet and its characteristics; a list of solar system planets with their correct subcategories can be placed in a table on one page. If a Kuiper Belt object is large enough to be spherical, it's a planet.

[jasleil]

@laurele861 0.o. Wow. Still I would want to know what will Vesta be at the end.

[laurele861]

@Hagenfels @Hagenfels Actually, Eris is not larger than Pluto. This was discovered only recently, in November 2010, when Eris occulted a star, and astronomers were able to more accurately determine its mass and size. Scientists were not "forced" to rethink anything. Both Pluto and Eris are planets because they are large enough to be in hydrostatic equilibrium. The argument that we need to keep the number of planets small has no scientific merit.

[laurele861]

@THE16THPHANTOM That's not exactly true. The astronomy community remains divided about the issue of planet definition. If you study astronomy and join an astronomy club, you too can have a voice in this discussion.

[YummYumYumY]

s my d

[LBurris597]

I thought I saw the Little Prince! Very cool video!

[lordedvard8]

Pluto was once a planet too...

[jonvrix]

@lordedvard8 but it's not terrestrial

[Jonsoncao]

@lordedvard8 Pluto used to be a planet, until it took an arrow in the knee.

[laurele861]

@lordedvard8 Pluto is still a planet. Only four percent of the IAU voted on this, and most are not planetary scientists. Their decision was immediately opposed by hundreds of professional astronomers in a formal petition led by New Horizons Principal Investigator Dr. Alan Stern. Stern created the term dwarf planet but he never intended for dwarf planets to not be considered planets at all, just for dwarf planets to be a 3rd class of planets in addition to terrestrials and jovians.

[Hagenfels]

@laurele861

In my opinion the decision to add the "Dwarf Planet" categorie was a correct and necessary one. The number of Dwarf Planets is probably increasing in the future with further observations, and it was needed to draw a line about what you call Planet.

[laurele861]

@Hagenfels No, it was not necessary to "draw a line" about what we call planets. We don't do that with stars and galaxies to keep the number small. It makes no sense to arbitrarily say that dwarf planets, which have structure, composition and processes that planets have, are not planets at all. Instead, we should add dwarf planet as a subcategory of the broader term planet. Eventually, as understand exoplanets more, there will likely be many more subcategories.