August 1st, 2005
Discovery of a 10th Planet in Our Solar System Leaked by Hacker
By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
Astronomers are really, really cautious people. Apparently they have been keeping the discovery of a 10th planet a secret for years until a hacker infiltrated their research and leaked the news.
“As previously reported, CalTech astronomers announced the discovery of a 10th planet this week. The planet is yet to be named and even its exact size is still unknown. It’s all very exciting but it was strange that the announcement seemed a touch hasty, especially since the planet was detected back in January (from pictures taken in 2003, no less). It’s normal for astronomers to wait to announce a discovery until the full details have been locked down. So, why the hasty announcement this time? Well, it could be that a hacker had infiltrated the astronomers’ secured site and threatened to leak the discovery — thereby forcing the astronomers to make two big announcements last week. So, kudos to the astronomers for the discovery, but maybe they should look into some better security measures.” Source: TechDirt
–More Information on the Planet Yahoo News
–More Information on the Hack The Inquirer
EXCLUSIVE UPDATE:
Here’s a cool and extremely detailed look at the planet written by the man who discoved the planet, Michael Brown.
And his comment on the hack:
“All of this came about because of the perfect confluence of three factors: we used our actual code name in publically available abstracts (dumb on our part), we assumed that no one would piece together information from the internet and figure things out (naive on our part), someone with astronomical knowledge was willing to go to some effort to obtain our data (unethical on their part).
We have been greatly saddened by this experience but have learned many lessons. It seems likely, however, that determined people with no ethics will continue to find ways to cause problems in all fields.”
Lockergnome's Tech News Watch says:
Discovery of a 10th Planet in Our Solar System Leaked by Hacker
Astronomers are really, really cautious people. Apparently they have been keeping the discovery of a 10th planet a secret for years until a hacker infiltrated their research and leaked the news. “As previously reported, CalTech astronomers announced t…
August 1st, 2005 at 12:26 pm
James says:
The name of the planet will start with an ‘S’. Now repeat after me ‘My very eager mother just served up nine pickle slices’.
August 1st, 2005 at 8:56 pm
Bob says:
It wasn’t that much of a secret. It has been discussed for years by many in astronomy/physics circles. I thought there had been a public announcement several years ago.
3/15/2004
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040315/planet.html
August 2nd, 2005 at 1:07 am
Ohad Hageby says:
Let’s call it Rupert! (Like in D. Adams book “Mostly Harmless”) And on the same spirit - does it means that all the previouse centuries astrology calculations were crap???
No more Horoscope for me ….
August 2nd, 2005 at 9:53 am
PuffinFresh says:
They should sell the naming rights.
Coca-Cola Presents XXXXXX
The marketing writes itself.
“Coca-Cola, cooler than XXXXXX”
August 2nd, 2005 at 10:04 am
M says:
Why do you feel that you need to hide this from the rest of the world? Do you think that you are so privledged that you’re the only one that should know? Do you think that you own this new planet and therefore it’s your secret to keep?
Just grow up!
August 2nd, 2005 at 11:57 am
M-replier says:
Ever think that they were worried about the social implications of it?
August 2nd, 2005 at 12:02 pm
JC in SD says:
Re: commenter #6, you’ve gotta be kidding us, right? Think about it for a minute, and you can come up with plenty of reasons, not the least of which was probably their primary: scientific rigor. Make sure you’re right before you blab to the world. How lame would it be if scientific journals were full of any crazy theory some wacko thought was true? Perhaps you should stick to reading religious journals.
And hey, just think what this will do to astrology!
August 2nd, 2005 at 2:31 pm
X says:
commenter #6 you are an absolute idiot
August 5th, 2005 at 10:16 am
Will says:
Do you think that you are so privledged that you’re the only one that should know?
January 19th, 2006 at 9:52 am
jim sattler says:
In the 4 book series “Earth Chronicles” by Zecharia Sitchin, he tells of the story how the original planet in orbit #3 of today’s earth was knocked out of orbit by our earth and it went out into far space beyond Pluto. The populace therefrom came back to earth and started our education into becoming civilized. Many of the unexplained ancient devices were given to the Sumerians before the ice age and were accredited to later civilizations as their discoveries! Read it.
July 10th, 2007 at 8:54 am
ClapekDodki says:
maggiorette
July 16th, 2007 at 7:49 am
ClapekDodki says:
racconti
July 17th, 2007 at 4:28 am