this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
621 points (99.1% liked)

Science Memes

11261 readers
2753 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
621
Pluto's Orbit (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
34 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago (3 children)

How can we even know it's a planet when we haven't observed a single orbit, yet?
Maybe it's just a really big comet.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

We've observed enough of its orbit to know what shape it is.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How can you be so sure it doesn't just decide to leave

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

And who could blame it?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's not really big. There are multiple Pluto like planetoids. Also there is a hunk of rock in the asteroid belt youcould name a planet.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ceres is more than a third of the mass of the asteroid belt. It's at least an order of magnitude bigger than anything else in its orbit. It's hardly a hunk of rock

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

There's also not that much rock, only 73% of the mass. The rest is ice and mud, with half it's volume being water in some form.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

By measuring how fast it's moving and where it is you can find the orbit