Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Pluto Gets Some Cache Back

It seems they are naming dwarf planets after Pluto by calling them "plutoids."

"Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighborhood around their orbit."

You figure there would be quite a few plutoids out there in the The Kuiper belt and the Oort Cloud. I think Oort Cloud would be a great name for a cat as well. Here, oort come have dinner!

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