Howdy!

[DodoBrd]

... Howdy ( one can never say howdy enough), this my first post on this message board. Though I have been reading a whole bunch of your posts... to be more specific, those in the Planet X thread.

I'd like to ask a question then make a comment about you all.


The question... a bit back I heard that Neptune( I believe it was neptune) was not where it was predicted to be. Not that we had lost it or anything, just that the little rascal had decided to go some where we didnt think it would.

One, I wanted to know if this was true... did the planet move from where we thought it should be.

And secondly, if it is true, have we figured out why it wasnt where we predicted it to be. Was it a math error or is there something out there tugging on the planet?


Now the comment, you people rock... this is a FACT. I'm not too good at math however if necessary I'm certain your rockingness( if it isnt a word, it is now) can be proven by mathematical(sp) means.

After reading some of the threads in the Planet X section, I have come to see that you people are witty, smart, nice... and have patience that seems to have no end.

... well thats about it.

I'll probably post in the future, in the Planet X section... where I will most likely start by sticking both of my feet in my mouth. Lol.

Ya'll have a good day.

[cyswxman]

Neptune (and all the other planets) are right where they are supposed to be, and have been. Nothing unusual has happened. :wink: :wink:

Welcome to the Board!!

[parejkoj]

The question... a bit back I heard that Neptune( I believe it was neptune) was not where it was predicted to be. Not that we had lost it or anything, just that the little rascal had decided to go some where we didnt think it would.

You might be thinking about two of Saturn's moons, Prometheus and Pandora. Last year, they were found a significant distance from where they should have been, given what we knew about their orbits. It seems their motion was actually chaotic*, and has since been modeled appropriately. There may be other, smaller objects in the rings affecting Prometheus's and Pandora's orbits, but we'll have to wait until Cassini gets there next July to find out (shameless plug for the mission I work for ).

As far as Neptune goes, as far as I know it is right where we expected it to be, and has been right on track for years.

*Mathematically, a chaotic system is defined as a one with "sensitive dependence on initial conditions." What that means is that if you start from two points close to each-other, after some amount of time, their resulting positions will be far apart and unless you know every detail about the system, you won't even be able to tell how far apart they are! Cool stuff..

[Mainframes]

Welcome to the board first and foremost.

I think you are refering to the discrepancy in the orbit of Uranus when it was dicovered. This discrepancy led to the discovery of Neptune using mathematical methods. However there was still an error in the orbit which was being blamed on yet another orbiting body called 'Planet X'.

The search for planet X actually ended with discovery of Pluto.

The mystery was resolved when one of the deep space probes (i forget which one) made a flyby and using its trajectory scientists recalculated the mass of the planets and found an error of 3% from the original estimates which thus elimanted the error.

Nowadays Neptune and Uranus are right where they are meant to be.

[DodoBrd]

Thanks for the warm welcome and thank you for all the information. Cleared up my question.