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Because new planets are discovered infrequently, the IAU did not have any mechanism for their definition and naming. After the discovery of Sedna, it set up a 19-member committee in 2005, with the British astronomer Iwan Williams in the chair, to consider the definition of a planet. It proposed three definitions that could be adopted: Cultural
Planetary nomenclature, like terrestrial nomenclature, is a system of uniquely identifying features on the surface of a planet or natural satellite so that the features can be easily located, described, and discussed. [1]
[3] [30] [31] [6] Proponents of Stern and Levinson's geophysical definition have shown that such conceptions of what a planet is have been used by planetary scientists for decades, and continued after the IAU definition was established, and that asteroids have routinely been regarded as "minor" planets, though usage varies considerably.
The middle layer was characterized by the presence of sodium, with a jet stream blowing circularly around the planet at about 43,500 miles (70,000 km) per hour - stronger than any winds in our ...
Under the criteria of classifying these Kuiper belt objects (KBOs), it became dubious whether Pluto would have been considered a planet had it been discovered in the 1990s. Its mass is now known to be much smaller than once thought and, with the discovery of Eris , it is simply one of the two largest known trans-Neptunian objects.
"Clearing the neighbourhood" is one of three necessary criteria for a celestial body to be considered a planet in the Solar System, according to the definition adopted in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). [1] In 2015, a proposal was made to extend the definition to exoplanets. [2]
The layers of the Earth, a differentiated planetary body. In planetary science, planetary differentiation is the process by which the chemical elements of a planetary body accumulate in different areas of that body, due to their physical or chemical behavior (e.g. density and chemical affinities).
As minor planet discoveries are confirmed, they are given a permanent number by the IAU's Minor Planet Center (MPC), and the discoverers can then submit names for them, following the IAU's naming conventions. The list below concerns those minor planets in the specified number-range that have received names, and explains the meanings of those names.