telescopic observations have confirmed that C and D have cleared their orbits; why else would they be called planets?
Maybe whomever inserted the unusual planets into this solar system accidentally used the cross product instead of the dot product.
Even God may not be above fat-fingering his Ti-83
5 Likes
Obviously not telescopic observation, but they didn’t detect any other similar size objects in the same orbit, and I doubt you will find anyone seriously considering that an object several times the size of Earth could have comparable mass in its orbit otherwise. Just like nobody would say they aren’t round despite not having seen them.
Actually, something I like about the orbit clearing definition is that it would definitely apply to most of the extrasolar planets we have found, since some techniques like redshift more or less require them to not be part of belts. There are a few systems where the transit method has found a few large objects in the same orbit, but as dichotomies go, I think that one holds up better than almost anything else.
Of course, the IAU technically requires planets to go around the sun, so these are all exoplanets instead. But aside from that.
2 Likes
Margot’s ∏ uses values we know:
m=9.8
M= 0.86
a=0.1795
k needs to be calculated, but if we use k=807 (the value for earth), which probably a bad idea, the equation yields 79522-- that’s more planet like than Jupiter.
IIRC, the current definitions for planet say nothing about orbital inclination.
Thank-you. Please continue to wear your maths-whizz uniform, I may have further questions later.
1 Like
Curious, but not brain-breaking.
The inner planet(s) were, per usual, formed out of the protostellar disk and orbit comfortably in the ecliptic.The two others (C and D) were captured later with no history in the original disk and thus no ecliptic bias.
Now, how they were captured – that’s another (and very interesting) question. I wonder what their rotational axes are.
3 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
