[net.space] Another reason to take the "death star" seriously

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