How many planets in the Solar System?

[SillyMidOff]

Simple question - I just saw it on some stupid late-night quiz show.

Answers were: 9, 10, 12, or 13.

I didn't have a clue!

I actually thought it was 11 - Pluto, then Xena, then Sedna... ha!

Is there any official word on this?

[NEOWatcher]

I didn't have a clue!

It seems like nobody does

Is there any official word on this?

Have you browsed the board for the discussions? It's kind of an overwhelming situation (almost controversial). Everyone has thier own opinion what it should be, and what it really is.

[hhEb09'1]

Officially nine. Unofficially, eight or ten

[jkmccrann]

I would go for 8 myself, but hhEb09'1 is completely right, officially its nine until the IAU makes a determination on how they're going to define what a planet is for the rest of us.

BTW SillyMidOff, are you referring to Hotdogs and his oh so lame excuse for a show? I wonder how much money that show is creaming off the poor suckers out there, it must be making them dosh because its still on the air, must have been almost 2 months now.

please note, the following information is probably for Australians only

BTW, if you want to look at something funny, go to this site
[Note: URL deleted by Wolverine.]

Make sure you check out the Fan Art Gallery if you want a laugh.

[JohnW]

Four, plus gravel.

[SillyMidOff]

Yes, the question was on Hotdogs game show.

This show is sooooo horrendous, it's almost watchable!

None of the questions & answers make any sense!

[Wolverine]

BTW, if you want to look at something funny, go to this site

[Note: URL deleted by Wolverine.]

Make sure you check out the Fan Art Gallery if you want a laugh.

jkmccrann, the site you linked to contains adult imagery and language, and was totally inappropriate for this community. The gallery you mentioned includes pornographic imagery. You need to review the FAQ:

3. Language

No cursing. This goes along with being polite. This website is read by a lot of kids, including young school kids who want to learn about astronomy, space, and space exploration. The Universe is a marvelous place, full of beauty and wonder, and if you despoil it by using bad language you will quickly invoke the ire of the administrators and moderators. Think of the language used on TV during an after-school special and you'll get the idea. Deliberately misspelled bad words, or replacing key letters with different characters or numbers will not be tolerated. Same goes with adult topics -- talk about them somewhere else. If you do need to post something risqué, stick with arcane scientific terminology.

This includes avatars: since you can upload an image to be your avatar, use care in choosing that image. Contact a moderator or administrator if you have any doubts.

Same goes for linking to adult material on websites. Consider yourself strongly warned not to do this again. If you do, you will be permanently banned.

[jkmccrann]

Fair enough Wolverine, my mistake, I apologise to anyone out there who may have been offended by clicking through to that website.

[SillyMidOff]

My goodness, Wolverine, that's ridiculous ruling! We are adults, after all? I thought the website link was hilarious. You don't have to look at/chase after it if you are easily offended, yes?

[Kaptain K]

...We are adults, after all?...

Wake up! As has been said before, this is a family website! Yes, many (most) of us are adults , but many are not. One sign of being "an adult" is realizing that you are a guest here and accepting (and abiding by) the rules that the hosts have laid out. You come into my house, you don't spit on the floor. I don't care how acceptable it is where you came from.

[Wolverine]

My goodness, Wolverine, that's ridiculous ruling! We are adults, after all?

Not everyone reading/participating here is an adult. Please review my preivous post as well as the FAQ. The forum rules are explicitly clear in this regard.

I thought the website link was hilarious. You don't have to look at/chase after it if you are easily offended, yes?

Whether or not someone's easily offended is quite irrelevant. Participants on this forum are not allowed to post or link to sites containing pornographic material.

[Ken G]

I think the question should be, how many Major Planets are there. It is much better to bandy definitions of subclasses of things. The general definition of a planet should be inclusive of anything that obeys the same basic internal physics of the main planets we know and love. Otherwise our classification schemes are not rooted in physics, and this is avoided for good reason. Using this argument, a planet would be any object that is held together primarily by its own gravity, and whose sources of internal heat are gravity and radioactive decay (not fusion).

[Planetwatcher]

Wolverine was correct in his actions and reason for it.
This is a site for people seeking knowledge, not entertainment. There are people of all ages on here.

jkmccrann admitted his mistake and was very adult like about it.
So we should let the matter drop and move on with the subject matter of this thread.

[SillyMidOff]

Wake up! As has been said before, this is a family website! Yes, many (most) of us are adults , but many are not. One sign of being "an adult" is realizing that you are a guest here and accepting (and abiding by) the rules that the hosts have laid out. You come into my house, you don't spit on the floor. I don't care how acceptable it is where you came from.

Golly! I was away a couple of weeks, and look at this! Sorry for rattling the old dusty bones...

Personally, I would not like my child reading this forum. For the reason: there is a distinct "closuring" of thought processes here. I want my child to grow up a free thinker, not a cold-hearted materialistic skeptic.

You people seem to think you have a handle on "Truth".

Goodbye!

[Kaptain K]

So, please explain how posting a link to porn on an astronomy bulletin board equates to "free thinking"?

[Planetwatcher]

I want my child to grow up a free thinker, not a cold-hearted materialistic skeptic.

So, please explain how posting a link to porn on an astronomy bulletin board equates to "free thinking"?

I sure hope he's not exposing his child to porn as a means to promote "free thinking".

But let's get back on track here. According to the program Hot Dogs, how many planets are there?

[Jorge]

I supose 9 would have been the anwer in the show... our school text books say 9 aswel.
Although i disagree but thats my personal opinion...
But didn't the IAU (sp?) make a statment about that some time ago?
I haven't been following since i was away for a large part of the discosion and i got confused... exuse my bad spelling, i reread it but can't put my finger on it this time.

[Planetwatcher]

On the origional program the choices of answers were: 9, 10, 12, or 13.
Until next year's conference, the tenitive official answer is 10.

[Novitium]

I believe the official answer is 9, but soon will be 10.

Here are some good links on the 9 "planets".
http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/special/planets.htm

and of course the 10th "planet"
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...ul_planetx.htm


I think [Ken G] made a good clarification in the questions, ie. How many Major planets...

Technically, any object orbiting the sun could be called a planet, but then how do you count the asteroid belt? Some of those asteroids are the size of small moons. In addition, some of our solar systems moons are large enough to be planets.

So, where do you divide the line? Diameter, Mass, type of orbit, distance to Sol? Frankly, I think we should just pick the top 10 largest and call them Solar Orbiting Objects, the rest is just "space dust" (said with Carl Sagan intonation).

As to answering the original post, the answer should be "at this time...9", but this could always change.

Brian

[Ken G]

Welcome to the forum Novitium! And thanks for the support in using the term Major planet, which I think avoids a lot of confusion.

[jkmccrann]

I sure hope he's not exposing his child to porn as a means to promote "free thinking".

But let's get back on track here. According to the program Hot Dogs, how many planets are there?

The answer would have been 9 on the show. Though I agree I think its becoming clearer by the day that the distinction between Minor & Major planets is something that's going to have to be explained to people in future, as we learn more about the wonderful Universe we live in.

For the record, HotDogs is a PG/G rated TV show hosted by a `lovable loser' type guy. He was on the Australian Big Brother and for some unknown reason, soon after his eviction he was offered the hosting role in this late-night b-grade quiz show. The show itself is not in the least bit objectionable.

[quote=Kaptain K]
So, please explain how posting a link to porn on an astronomy bulletin board equates to "free thinking"? [quote]

As to the link I posted, it was not to a porn site, the site is a take-off of this hotdogs fellow. However, I acknowledged my mistake, and I still agree it was wrong of me to post the link because despite the site being a take-off of hotdogs, it does contain objectionable material on it, even if that is not the primary purpose of the site. I did not intentionally post a link to a porn site, however I did post a link to a site that did contain inappropriate material, that was the mistake I made and I accept it as such.


Cheers

[Kaptain K]

jkmccrann,

I know that you acknowledged your mistake (more power to you). My response was to this post:

SillyMidOff
Personally, I would not like my child reading this forum. For the reason: there is a distinct "closuring" of thought processes here. I want my child to grow up a free thinker, not a cold-hearted materialistic skeptic.

[Planetwatcher]

jkmccrann,
Kaptain K. right. Nobody is faulting you anymore. You were adult enough to admit your mistake. It's over. Those who keep bringing it back no longer have an arguement with you, but with the person who thought it wasn't wrong.
But I think we should all just let that part of the matter go, so that there is no misunderstanding.

[SillyMidOff]

I sure hope he's not exposing his child to porn as a means to promote "free thinking".

BTW, "Planetwatcher", that comment was quite DISGUSTING. I've been meaning to come back at you for that for a while now.

I hope YOU don't have children. I shudder to think what secretly goes on in YOUR perverted mind.