back to article Haumea: Mysterious radioactive rugby-ball world

The fifth "dwarf planet" of the solar system, Haumea, is shaped like a rugby ball 2,000km long and its icy surface is warmed by radioactive uranium and thorium ores in its interior. The strange ellipsoid world is thought to have a day just four hours long, and is attended by a brace of moons as it circles the Sun far out in the …

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  1. LPF
    Thumb Up

    Pluto is a PLANET

    Get over it , and no bunch of no marks voting after everyone else had gone home is going to change that! :D

    1. Bumpy Cat
      Happy

      Doesn't bother me

      But then we will have lots of planets in our Solar System, not just nine. I really don't care much either way, but we either have to settle on eight, or thirteen (with the possibility of more later). Pluto isn't that special.

      1. CaptainHook
        Stop

        8 Planets

        We have eight planets in our solar system, no one counts that weedy little upstart Pluto any more.

    2. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
      Troll

      And the proper end to open your egg...

      ...is the big end.

    3. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

      Re: Pluto is a PLANET

      Better let the IAU know they're wrong. Also, send them they're CV, they'll be thrilled to have someone who knows so much on the team.

      1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

        Whoops, thinko.

        "...send them *your* CV..."

    4. Annihilator
      Coat

      @LPF

      "The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it!" - Abe Simpson, 1995

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Could the red spot be ....

    where the Grebulons are after moving from Rupert ?

  3. The Fuzzy Wotnot
    Happy

    Oh dear, showing my age!

    Anyone else reminded of Mork and Mindy??

    Nanoo, nanoo!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    mine it to get nuclear fuel for fast ships

    If green peace does not allowed to shot nucluear fuel into orbit to be used in fast ships for humans, about if we get the nuclear fuel from that dwarf with the red spot , with robotic probes?

    1. James Hughes 1

      Becasue....

      you need nuclear ships to get their in the first pace.....this dwarf planet is a very very VERY VERY long way away.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Pint

        well

        When dwindling reserves of radioactives become an issue on earth we should be able to construct vessels, stations and, facilities to exploit the various resources in the solar system (that is if we've decided we're going to survive as a species) otherwise the species will either be pretty much dead due to conflict, or pretty much a dark ages society if we decided that power and technology is bad.

        To paraphrase "How do you know he's the king?"

        "Coz he doesn't smell of shit like the rest of us!"

        It'd be interesting to be a fly on the wall in a few hundred years to see how Humans are working out.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Boffin

        Re: Becasue....

        "this dwarf planet is a very very VERY VERY long way away."

        Indeed. Around 34AU at its closest to the sun, whereas Neptune orbits at around 30AU. The perennial favourite manned mission target, Mars, with all the "it would take astronauts months if not years to get there" lamentation, lies at a mere 1.5AU.

        Yes, that "not to scale" illustration of the Solar System in that schoolbook was very pretty, but didn't give much indication of the jaw-dropping distances involved.

  5. Roger Greenwood
    Happy

    Red spot?

    It's just shy. (Well wouldn't you be with a telescope that size pointed at you?)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Sedna

    You forgot Sedna. All this fuss about scrawny old Pluto, and you miss out more interesting and larger relative that is more of a proper planet than Pluto will ever be. Hypocrites, that's what you all are.

    1. Tim Parker

      Re : Sedna

      Alas Sedna is smaller than Pluto, currently reckoned to be somewhere inbetween the diameter of Pluto and Quaoar (not bigger than 1800km seems to the best guess on an upper limit).

  7. Mark York 3 Silver badge
    Coat

    Showing My Age

    Looks more like Terminal (Blakes 7) to me.

    Need a Liberator Icon, so I'll get me coat & teleport bracelet.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Lolz

      Just what I was thinking.

      I'm ancient, too.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Glass

    I waited ages for a story to mention the non-crystalline nature of glass, then two come along in one day.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You..

      really should get out more

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Phlebas says....

    That really looks like a GSV...! (-o-)

  10. AbnormalChunks

    Alien spacecraft crash site anyone

    Perhaps...?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Pfft. You're all wrong.

    Its a culture GSV with it's shields up, with a few escort ships.

    Given the collective intelligence of our parliment(s) and the over-subscription to the darwin awards by the rest of the populous, I'd say on of them is the Grey Matter having a bit of fun on a planetary scale.

    1. Graham Marsden
      Alien

      Erm...

      ... I think you mean "Gray Area" aka "Meatfucker" ;-)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Maybe...

      More likely, if it were a real GSV, we probably wouldn't be able to see it, unless it wanted to be seen.

      2000 km's. Probably Systems class or larger with presumably fields extended. Or possibly a rock.

      Grey Area was a GCU, which means it was probably substantially smaller.

      1. M Gale

        I believe the term is...

        ...an Orbital. Or for the uninitiated, a small planet with a Mind in it. Capital M to indicate the hyperintelligence levels.

        And there was me thinking I'd be different for making an Iain M Banks-related post on some other article. Oh well, I'm just waiting for the BBC to (refuse to) play David Bowie's Space Oddity on request for "the good ship Arbitrary and all who sail aboard her."

      2. M Gale

        Also...

        ...if That Ship were in orbit, I don't think we'd have much of a problem with dictators and ..well, politicians in general any more. As I understand it, Grey has something of a.. fetish, with regards meting out psychopathically righteous and ironic "justice" to genocidal maniacs and other ne'er-do-wells.

        I think it (she?) would find Earth to be a positively orgasmic source of fun!

  12. ravenviz Silver badge
    Coat

    It's Rama!

    It's coming to star in the Best Film Never Made, obviously the Ramans haven't been keeping up with the news!

  13. Charlie van Becelaere
    Pint

    I'm wondering

    whether non-crystalline water ice would be better at chilling a drink.

    Perhaps it would be sturdy enough to be the bottle for the Akvavit I keep in my freezer!

    It's Friday, and I'm ready for it.

    1. ravenviz Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: I'm wondering

      No one's ready for Akvavit!

  14. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    "its icy surface is warmed by radioactive uranium and thorium ores in its interior."

    Well, so is Earth's.

    Oh God, this is The Register, isn't it, we don't talk about that here.

  15. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Black Helicopters

    GSV?

    Internet Hivemind!

  16. Thomas 4

    Damn

    Really should get that rash checked out. Could be catching.

  17. The last doughnut
    Dead Vulture

    Would prefer it, El Reg

    If you would clearly label the pic, "Artists Impression" or somesuch. This is clearly not a telescope image.

    Has it got an inscription in Sanscrit?

    1. ravenviz Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Re: Would prefer it, El Reg

      Nearly downvoted that comment! :-P

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That.

    That would be a nightmare to try and calculate an orbit for.

  19. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    Nothing strange

    Just a starship parked with the engine idling...

    How do you think we got to this planet in the first place?

  20. Blasmeme
    Stop

    Paking is rough

    You come all this way in your 2000 km long ship and some noob engineer leaves the bloody reactor on. Thetans took all the best staff.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Red spot

    Maybe Haumea has a rash? We should send it a giant tube of ointment.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    icons

    where the hell are my new icons?

  23. Simon Hurr
    Coffee/keyboard

    Red Spot

    Pfeh, more likely someone accidentally dripped some tomato sauce on the imager. Happens to the best of us.

    Keyboard, cos its dirrrty.

  24. Purlieu

    re: Quaoar

    Now all we need is a dual dwarf planet that looks like a pair of tits and call it Phuaoar !!

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Off world reactor.

    'nuff said.

    In other news, I can't wait for the VLT to be supplanted by the new BFO telescope when it comes off the drawing board

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