buck%NRL-CSS@sri-unix.UUCP (03/10/84)
From: Joe Buck <buck@NRL-CSS> The search for the planet Pluto started because of disturbances in the orbit of Uranus and Neptune. However, estimates of the mass of Pluto seem to go down every time more information comes in, to the point where it hardly qualifies as a planet any more. This suggests that there is another massive object out there somewhere, and that its location might be found by calculation, as Neptune's was. By the way, if the "death star" is much larger than Jupiter, shouldn't it radiate a lot of infrared from gravitational contraction (Jupiter radiates more energy than it receives from the sun, apparently for this reason)? If so, it should be very bright to an IRAS-type sattelite. -Joe