Re: about newtons gravitation theory

On Sep 18, 12:30 pm, oriel36 <kelleher.ger...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

A few years ago everyone here could give the answer to how many
planets there are in the solar system (even allowing for the size of
Pluto) yet today kids no longer are taught that that there are 9
planets .The chance to stabilise the situation failed for the same
reason that brought this debacle to the forefront in the first place -
the people speaking for astronomy are sub-geocentric astrologers who
can now only expose their vacuous reasoning rather than conceal it.

We don't know how many bodies are orbiting the Sun, because there are
innumerable small rocky objects in the asteroid belts and sharing the
orbits of many comets (leading, in some cases, to the annual meteor
showers).

How many of those objects are big and important enough to call
planets?

When Ceres was discovered, it was called a new planet. But when, after
the first four asteroids were discovered, the number increased to
dozens, people decided to relegate them to a less important category.

When Kuiper Belt Objects other than Pluto started to be discovered,
and especially when the one now called Eris, which is larger than
Pluto, was discovered, did we really want to view the Solar System as
having a very large number of bodies orbiting the Sun that we would
consider as major bodies of the first rank, or did it make more sense
to again consider these objects as less significant?

That is a subjective decision, so the whole Pluto debacle indicates
nothing about a lack of knowledge about the objective physical facts
of the Solar System.

John Savard
.

Relevant Pages

  • New Horizons Update - September 2005
    ... spaceship to Pluto. ... we were taught that our solar system ... contains four rocky planets on the inside, ... Neptune on a retrograde orbit that is the hallmark of gravitational ...
    (sci.space.news)
  • Re: Soon 12 planets in the solar system !
    ... And I did talk about other other things than the current 9 planets. ... about the solar system and don´t mention Pluto. ... Who says you shall not mention Pluto? ... Reason is the minimum requirement in science. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: How important is GR inorder to calc the precession of Mercury (banned reply)
    ... Solar system is demonstrated and is analyzed. ... of this law is the existence of groups consisting from four planets. ... Sprouts of New Gravitation Without Mathematical Chimeras of XX Century ... Reduction of a symmetry in a gravitational many bodies problem ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: How important is GR inorder to calc the precession of Mercury (banned reply)
    ... Solar system is demonstrated and is analyzed. ... of this law is the existence of groups consisting from four planets. ... Sprouts of New Gravitation Without Mathematical Chimeras of XX Century ... Reduction of a symmetry in a gravitational many bodies problem ...
    (sci.astro)
  • Why Xena Must Not Become a Planet!
    ... either nicely makes the point that in our Solar System, ... KBO or a Scattered Disk Object) raise questions about the "Nine Major Planets" ... how to classify Pluto, the fact that it is a belt object rather than a dominant ... this "planetary discriminant" should be used, ...
    (sci.astro)