space in a rock!

On December 22nd 1998 (give or take a day) the Boston Globe published an article entitled "Planetary Demotion", which suggested that Pluto might be downgraded to a normal asteroid in the near future by decision of the IAU. This article has caused a lot of interest internationally. In fact, what was being debated really was how to mark the numbering of asteroid number 10 000.

contrary to what dr.cruz said abt pluto bein an asteroid, well it not yet proven anyways.

What would the reasons be for down-grading Pluto? Even for those emotionally tied to it as a planet, they are fairly convincing. It is now known that the mass of Pluto is only about one fifth of the mass of the Moon and, as such, it is very hard to claim that Pluto really is a planet. However, this still means that its mass is about 1.5x1022kg - about a dozen times the mass of Ceres, the largest asteroid. In fact, of the known TNOs, Pluto is still about a factor of 100 more massive than any other, apart from its satellite Charon and Charon is, by far, the second largest known TNO

wala lang. i just found it interesting. ive always been fascinated with the celestial body since i was in grade school. this is quite cheesy but whenever i go home to rizal, i go to the garden and i gaze at the multitudes of tiny lights that seem to make our world smaller. our imagination has been challenged by the pictures of the planets in our grade school books and encyclopedias, and sadly most of our imaginations never evolved from what we were thought...so i tried to imagine, what if the earth, being relative to the other "planets" "asteroids" "stars" "meteors" "comets" were just like the human cell, then the universe could have been one organ or part of the human (well not really human) organismic (ahem , wala akong maisip na word) body.

we have always baffled ourselves with question just like three-year-olds debating how the sky turned blue, or how airplanes fly. i was just wondering, probably there so many secrets behing the "universe" that we were born with.

oh well its just a thought.

well more abt pluto.... the debate abt pluto bein a planet/ asteroid is bec of its unusual size and orbit. hehe un lang