• mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    but don’t try to justify ignoring the other few dozen planetoids poorly.

    There’s 200+ kuiper belt objects that are large enough to be spherical, and most don’t have names

    • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      200+ dwarf planet candidates. Lots of them have very low densities, and most are too far away to know hardly anything about them. Pluto was only confirmed to be in hydrostatic equilibrium with New Horizons, and Quaoar has a Dwarf Planet name, but probably isn’t in hydrostatic equilibrium.

      It’s not the specific bodies I’m worried about, it’s a useful idea of a planet. Finding dozens or hundreds more of them should be exciting, not a reason to throw up our hands and disqualify them.