[meteorite-list] There Were Once 18 Planets...

[Larry Lebofsky]

All:

10 Hygiea (cvorrect spelling, though sometimes seen as Hygeia). Nice asteroid 
(on the "list" for dwarf planet), looked at it lots of times (C-class).

Larry

Quoting Ron Baalke <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>:

> 
> http://www.spaceweather.com/
> 
> SpaceWeather.com
> September 12, 2006
> 
> 18 PLANETS:  Have you ever heard of the planet Hygea? It's 
> listed in the 1850 Annual of Scientific Discovery along 
> with 17 other planets:
> 
> [Full Text Graphic]
> http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2006/13sep06/Pollock1.jpg
> Courtesy Joe Pollock, Appalachian State University. 
> 
> In those days, large asteroids such as Hygea, Ceres and 
> Vesta were widely deemed planets. They appeared so in 
> textbooks and scientific journals. Adding asteroids to the 
> other known planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, 
> Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, gave a grand total of 18. Imagine 
> the mnemonic: "My Very Educated [insert ten adjectives here] 
> Mother Just Served Us Noodles."
> 
> The asteroids were eventually demoted. It was a long, 
> drawn-out affair, marked by decades of disagreement and 
> confusion. (Sound familiar?) By 1900, however, order was 
> restored to the Solar System: the planet count was down to 
> eight.
> 
> And then came Pluto...
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