12 planets (or plus) in our Solar System? But...?

Question

Please, read this page before: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0608/16planets/

Okay, So, if the proposed 12 planets in our Solar System according the official report "will be Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon and 2003 UB313"...

But Is not Charon the moon that orbit Pluto? Can a moon that orbit a planet be a planet? So, why not Triton, Europa, Titan, etc can be also considered as planets? A weird question.

Also, do you think there is life in several big moons of our Solar System? I say "Yes". What do you think?

Answer 1

personally, i feel that the current system of classifying the bodies in the solar system is too simple and needs change. the solar system is more complex. my personal feeling is that pluto does not have the orbital and physical characteristics that fit the pattern set by the major bodies in the solar system. hundreds of other bodies with orbital and physical characteristics similar to pluto are now known to exist and should be considered as a group and different from the major bodies in the solar system. the major bodies in the solar system should also be differentiated and possibly put into three groups.

the international astronomical union apparently does not plan to stop calling pluto a planet, but pluto will be the prototype for a new group called "plutons". the international astronomical union plans to publish its definition of planet in early september 2006. depending on how they decide to define planet, the solar system may then have at least 12 planets and possibly as many as 23, 39, or even 53 planets.

http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0601/iau0601_release.html

Answer 2

If you read the article, a planet cannot be in orbit around another celetial body other than a star. So if Charon is orbiting Pluto then it cannot be consitered a planet.

I suspect it is possible for life to exist on one of the larger moons of Saturn or Pluto. If it is there than that would explain all the alleged extra-terrestrial activity (IE: Alien abductions, Area 51, etc...) Though I somehow doubt that humanity would be all that willing to share the solar system if there is life out there.

Answer 3

The Pluto-Charon system is considered to be a binary planet. What distinguishes Charon from other large moons is that it is large enough relative to Pluto that the center of mass of the system is in free space. So Charon doesn't actually orbit Pluto; both planets orbit a point in space near Pluto.

Answer 4

I don't get the distinction in the first answer - the moon orbits the earth and they both orbit the sun - that would make the moon a planet?
In answer to the second part of your question, I think there's a good possibility that some kind of very primative life will be found in our own solar system - perhaps on one of the big moons - but I stress the word "primitive" as in single cell or other simple organisms.

Answer 5

Charon and Pluto orbit so close together it looks like one but in 2016 they are sending a object to get a better look at Pluto. Because no one has ever gotton close enough to see it it pictures are taken miles away to at least know about they are not very sure it's a planet or. We will find out soon.

Answer 6

Charon and Pluto orbit each other while orbiting the sun together. Thus they are considered a "binary planet". That's the distinction.

Answer 7

I think there is primitive life on Mars. Possibly on Europa too. I also think that there are alien bases on many, perhaps most planets and moons in the solar system. Why not stick with 8 planets, and just call the rest planetoids, asteroids, or whatever?

Answer 8

If you have heard of Binary Star systems it would help to explain that answer. In that situation to stars rotate around each other, yet both can still be full blown Stars. In this case you have a binary planet system. Moon "natural satellite" can be relative. The Moon is the natural satellite of the Earth. Yet the Earth is one of the natural satellites of the Sun.

Answer 9

For question one, it's all semantics. It's absurd to change the definition of "planet" to include other bodies. I'm all for inclusion, but political correctness has its limits.

For question two, the possibility is sooo slim I seriously doubt it. Even if scientists find remnants of a bacteria on another planet (or satellite, meteor, etc) it seems superfluous because the chance that evolution produced other sentient life that's humanoid (though I love Roddenberry's work) is pretty ridiculous.

Live long and prosper >:-)

Answer 10

charon,as it turns out,does not orbit pluto.instead,it they orbit around each other,as they center of gravity is between the two.astronomers are calling this a "double planet".


as for your other question,i think yes.on eceladus and callisto and europa ther is believed to be water.