Neko- wrote:If you want to punch holes in fanon, or even canon:
Meh. I don't subscribe to that ruling, especially since it was a minority vote riddled with politics. Any celestial body that has three moons is a planet in my book. Just shows that internationally recognized astronomers can be just as stupid as anyone else.
I forget the exact figures, but IIRC, less than 30% of the astronomers who were society members were allowed to cast votes when that definition came up on the docket.
bneef wrote:The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter has long been thought to be either a failed planet, or a planet the was destroyed by comets (or even rouge planets.) The distribution of asteroids is similar to the distribution of debris in Saturn's rings, i. e., relatively evenly distributed. The belt also occupies a spot for a reasonably sized planet. I don't remember what the mass was supposed to have been, though.
The most common name for that supposed planet (it's been more or less proven that the asteroids were never a planet, just debris) is Minerva, I seem to recall.
bneef wrote:Planet X is used to refer to an unidentified planetary body. Pluto was Planet X, until its confirmed discovery and naming. Xena was the next Planet X, until its chance discovery and confirmation. The current Planet X is the one with the mass of Neptune and is now thought to be in the Kuiper Belt, where Pluto and Xena reside.
No one believes in a Planet X anymore. That theory was from before the information age, and since then, more precise measurements of planetary motion have blown that theory out of the water.