Talk:Ice dwarf

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[edit] Ice dwarf v Plutonian object

Ice dwarf or plutonian object? Which one should be the article name?--Sonjaaa 19:03, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Why merge? (to dwarf planet)

I’m surprised you write staff without a single reference. I’m puzzled what is the reason to ‘merge’ the information from the well document, formal discussion on one term with the article on another term, sometimes used, especially in popular literature but the one which is hardly used in TNO literature (as far as I can judge). Please try to find a reference to this term in the dozens of papers quoted in our TNO-related article. Maybe you'd find a couple but it is hardly a widely used term. If the term is neither widely used nor official what is the point of creating the confusion by merging? Why did you delete the graphs showing the layman what was on offer and how it changed? A puzzled Eurocommuter 20:02, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

The term is very widespread, and is thus far more important than an unnamed word! The term is used by TNO-studying scientists regularly in interviews, see Alan Stern here [1] and Brian Marsden here [2]. It has been called to be used officially by a think tank here [3]. It is defined online in space encyclopedias here [4] and here[5]. 86.30.150.9 16:17, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I thought ice dwarf only referred to one of the minor roles in the Snow White sequence of the Disney 'Holiday on Ice' spectacular. --Wetman 02:41, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ice dwarf / Plutonian object / Dwarf planet

This article really got messed up. Somebody identified "ice dwarf" with the term "pluton" or "plutonian object". This is entirely incorrect -- "pluton" was a proposed name for a type of what is now called Dwarf planet, but only a few ice dwarfs are dwarf planets, and at least one dwarf planet is not an ice dwarf. Ice dwarfs seem to me to be an odd synonym for TNO, but the text of the article obscured that. I reverted it to the last (pre-merge) form of Ice dwarfs, a stub that existed before the erroneous equation of ice dwarf and pluton. However, I don't think that it really needs to exist as an independent article. If it were to be merged with another article, very little of it would survive as it is poorly sourced. RandomCritic 16:06, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Actually this isn't quite right. There are three terms here, overlapping but distinct:
1) Ice dwarf - a small body composed of ice that orbits the Sun (but isn't a comet). The vast majority of KBOs are ice dwarfs. This is a term that has been used for years by Alan Stern, among others.
2) Dwarf planet - a body that is round from self gravity but hasn't cleared its orbit, regardless or composition. Most dwarf planets are ice dwarfs but don't have to be. Ceres is a dwarf planet made of rock, as would be Pallas, Vesta & Hygiea if they are accepted. This is an entirely new category never before referenced until the 2006 vote.
3) "Pluton"/"Plutonian object"/Whatever it comes to be called - A dwarf planet that orbits an extreme distance from the Sun. Again, Ceres wouldn't qualify as it is in the inner solar system.
NB. Before the vote, as far as I'm aware an "ice dwarf" need not be round, but seeing that "dwarf" seems to reference one that is big enough to be round an "ice dwarf" might just be a type of dwarf planet from now on. Regardless, all three terms need to have separate pages. 86.30.150.9 16:04, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ceres is, or Triton isn't

The article states that ice dwarves have more ice than asteroids, and then lists Triton as an example. However, the Triton article says that Triton is estimated to be 25% ice (doesn't say whether by mass or by volume), whereas Ceres is estimated to be 30-60% ice by volume, and perhaps 25% by mass. Pluto is supposed to be 30-50% ice. Are we just assuming that something far out is icy, and something closer in is rocky? kwami (talk) 09:49, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Rewrote with the pre-Pluto demotion usage of dividing the planets into three groups. In such a conception it doesn't matter whether ice dwarfs have significantly more ice than Ceres. kwami (talk) 14:58, 6 December 2007 (UTC)