Ah, yes, Chuck is right. However, the astronaut would have to sneeze with enough energy for the ejecta to escape earth orbit and become gravitationally bound to the sun. In that instance, perhaps other parts of the astronaut would also attain escape velocity. I'm sure that the definitions quoted to me were more specific - I just can't find the reference. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chuck Hards" <chuckhards@yahoo.com> To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 2:44 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] planets - or not | That definition is a bit too broad. Water in zero-G | will form spheres of microscopic size. I'm sure there | are other materials that can form spheres in a vacuum | and at very low temperatures. | We must take it as given that those favoring that | particular definition are talking about "threshold | mass" rockpiles and extremely large volumes of gas and | liquids, in a DIRECT orbit around a star. Otherwise | astronauts in space would create planets when they | sneeze. ;) | | --- Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote: | | > Very good point, Kim. When I was talking with my | > son, Sky, the other | > day he suggested the same definition for a planet, | > large enough that | > its gravity forms it into a sphere and in orbit | > around a star. | | __________________________________________________ | Do You Yahoo!? | Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around | http://mail.yahoo.com | | _______________________________________________ | Utah-Astronomy mailing list | Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com | http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy | Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com | | ______________________________________________________________________ | This e-mail has been scanned by Cut.Net Managed Email Content Service, using Skeptic(tm) technology powered by MessageLabs. For more information on Cut.Nets Content Service, visit http://www.cut.net | ______________________________________________________________________ | |