Water, water everywhere

Ceres, a minor planet in the asteroid belt, may have more freshwater than Earth...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9247925/
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050907_ceres_planet.html

This is so cool. If true, this would definately be a MAJOR destination for future space exploration. Large amounts of water in a low gravity-well is a great pit stop.

Also, Ceres is the only planetoid I know of that was given full planet status only to lose it later.

For those of you keeping track, here what I consider to be the planets of the Sol system:

Object

System

Radius km

Sid. Period

Sem-Maj. Axis

Eccentricity

Ang. Diam. arcsecs

Gas Giants (not shown)

EARTH	Sun	6371.00 ±0.01	365.256363	1.00000102	0.01670863	-	-
VENUS	Sun	6051.84 ±0.01	224.700800	0.72332982	0.00677192	9.56	65.43
MARS	Sun	3389.92 ±0.04	686.979853	1.52367934	0.09340065	3.48	25.64
GANYMEDE	Jupiter	2631.2 ±1.7	7.154553	1070400	0.0011	1.12	1.85
TITAN	Saturn	2575 ±2	15.945446	1221803	0.0291	0.64	0.89
MERCURY	Sun	2439.7 ±1.0	87.969256	0.38709831	0.20563175	4.53	13.03
CALLISTO	Jupiter	2410.3 ±1.5	16.689018	1882700	0.0074	1.02	1.70
IO	Jupiter	1821.3 ±0.2	1.769138	421800	0.0041	0.78	1.28
LUNA	Earth	1737.5 ±0.1	27.321662	384404.377	0.05554553	1766.39	1974.39
EUROPA	Jupiter	1560.8 ±0.5	3.551181	671100	0.0094	0.66	1.10
2003UB313	Sun	~ 1430 ?	556.5	67.659	0.442	0.04	0.11
TRITON	Neptune	1353.4 ±0.9	5.87685	354759	0.00002	0.12	0.13
PLUTO	Sun	1164 ±22.9	247.92065	39.48168677	0.24880766	0.06	0.11
2005FY9	Sun	~ 900 ?	309.4	45.740	0.155	0.05	0.07
2003VB12	Sun	~ 875	11274.8	502.807	0.849	0.00	0.03
TITANIA	Uranus	788.9 ±1.8	8.705867	436298	0.0014	0.10	0.13
RHEA	Saturn	764 ±4	4.517503	527367	0.0003	0.19	0.26
OBERON	Uranus	761.4 ±2.6	13.463234	583519	0.0016	0.10	0.12
2004DW	Sun	~ 759	247.8	39.453	0.218	0.04	0.07
2003EL61	Sun	~ 750 ?	285.4	43.344	0.189	0.04	0.06
IAPETUS	Saturn	718 ±8	79.330954	3561850	0.0283	0.18	0.25
2002LM60	Sun	630 ±95	286.9	43.502	0.035	0.04	0.04
CHARON	Pluto	621 ±20.6	6.38725	19636	0.0002	0.03	0.06
2002TC302	Sun	~ 602	409.4	55.139	0.293	0.02	0.04
UMBRIEL	Uranus	584.7 ±2.8	4.144176	265998	0.0039	0.08	0.09
ARIEL	Uranus	578.9 ±0.6	2.520379	190945	0.0012	0.08	0.09
DIONE	Saturn	559 ±5	2.736916	377654	0.0022	0.14	0.19
TETHYS	Saturn	529.8 ±1.5	1.887803	294992	0.0001	0.13	0.18
1996TL66	Sun	~ 479	757.3	83.085	0.578	0.01	0.04
CERES	Sun	475.5 ±3.9	1680.71	2.766412164	0.07911582	0.32	0.86

http://www.tenspheres.com/tools/largestlist.htm

Huh, 2003UB313 is the so-called tenth planet. I don't remember there being so many big sun-orbiting bodies though...



Lurker
(Listening to Coast to Coast AM)