Re: Planet X Cover-Up: Rationale?

Bill Nelson wrote:
> No need - all that has to be known is the mass, the composition
> and size are immaterial.
> We have an accurate mass for Jupiter, from the satellite missions.

If the composition and size are immaterial, then why is a probe needed
to determine the mass?  It is, is it not, the PERTURBATION EFFECT that
determines the mass, which is computed, in all cases.

Bill Nelson wrote:
> Jupiter perturbs Pluto/Charon - which allows us to calculate the
> mass of the Pluto/Charon system.  We know the distance between
> Pluto and Charon, as well as where the center of mass between the
> two is located. This allows us to determine the masses of both Pluto
> and Charon.

Thank you for confirming my point that the mass/weight (whatever term
used) of a planet is COMPUTED based on its orbit and influence on other
bodies. Jos was referring, I believe, to a wobble in our outer planets
NOT RESOLVED when Pluto was discovered, ergo the search for Planet X.
This is the process:
1. wobble exists in outer planet (steady pull in a certain direction, at
   a regular point in its orbit, or in a moving point in its orbit implying
   the perturbing body also is moving)
2. source of perturbation is identified (does it always wobble in the
   same place, or is the pull moving in a regular manner, i.e. an orbit of
   the as-yet-undiscovered-but-surmised perturbing body)
3. mass/weight of perturbing body is computed

Now, the search for Planet X took place BECAUSE the perturbations in the
outer planets was not resolved by the placement or orbit or size of
Pluto.  Adding weight to any of the known objects does not change this,
as if it did THE SEARCH WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BEGUN IN THE FIRST PLACE!
It would have been resolved in one of those math sessions at the board.
Also, ALL the planets lean in their obits in the direction of Orion.
Now, what perturbing body is causing THAT?  Below, brief quotes from the
Planet X: Search 1, 2, and 3 postings of articles going into the search
for Planet X.  They all mention the UNEXPLAINED perturbations.

    Astronomers are readying telescopes to probe the outer
    reaches of our solar system for an elusive planet much
    larger than Earth. Its existence would explain a
    160-year-old mystery. ... The pull exerted by its gravity
    would account for a wobble in Uranus' orbit that was
    first detected in 1821 by a French astronomer, Alexis
    Bouvard. Beyond Pluto, in the cold, dark regions of
    space, may lie an undiscovered tenth planet two to five
    times the size of Earth.


    The hunt for new worlds hasn't ended. Both Uranus and
    Neptune follow irregular paths that observers can explain
    only by assuming the presence of an unknown body whose
    gravity tugs at the two planets.

    The space agency said
    that persistent irregularities in the orbits of Uranus and
    Neptune "suggest some kind of mystery object is really
    there" with its distance depending on what it is.

    When scientists noticed that Uranus wasn't following its
    predicted orbit for example, they didn't question their
    theories. Instead they blamed the anomalies on an as yet
    unseen planet and, sure enough, Neptune was discovered in
    1846. Now astronomers are using the same strategy to
    explain quirks in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune.

    Something out there beyond the farthest reaches of the
    known solar system seems to be tugging at Uranus and
    Neptune. Some gravitational force keeps perturbing the
    two giant planets, causing irregularities in their orbits.
    The force suggests a presence far away and unseen, a large
    object that may be the long- sought Planet X.