Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!ucbvax!space
From: KFL@MIT-MC.ARPA ("Keith F. Lynch")
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Tenth planet
Message-ID: <[MC.LCS.MIT.EDU].761714.851219.KFL>
Date: Thu, 19-Dec-85 22:05:49 EST
Article-I.D.: <[MC.LCS.MIT.EDU].761714.851219.KFL>
Posted: Thu Dec 19 22:05:49 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Dec-85 06:26:50 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 21


  I recall that the reason a ninth planet was looked for was because
one was necessary to explain perurbations in the orbits of Uranus and
Neptune.  Pluto was found.  But it appeared to be too small to expalin
the perturbations unless it had an unbelievably high density or unless
the disk we were seeing was not the whole planet but just a bright
spot, a reflection of the Sun on the shiny sphere.
  A few years ago, a moon on Pluto was discovered.  Study of its orbit
has proven that Pluto is small, that we have seen the whole disk,
which is not shiny, and that its density is low.
  Nobody seems to have mentioned that that puts us back in where we
were before Pluto was discovered.  What IS causing those
perturbations?  Is there a tenth planet?  Could it have gone
undiscovered for this long?
  Does anyone know what the explanation is?  Is anyone looking for
a tenth planet, or am I missing something?
  If the perturbations are still unexplained, where can I get data on
where Uranus and Neptune have been?  I would like to use such data to
try figuring out the mass and location of the tenth planet myself.

								...Keith