The Omnifarium - Sudoku/36.html

Notice

I am no longer posting new puzzles to this blog. For all of my Sudoku puzzles, old and new, please visit Sudoku in another section of this website. I will still create and offer new puzzles, in batches of a couple of hundred, once a week or so.

Sudoku #36

Category: Sudoku
Sat, 30 Jul 2005, 15:42

Astronomers recently announced the discovery of a new Kuiper Belt Object (KBO), orbiting beyond Pluto. Tentatively named "2003 EL61", it is interesting because it may be the first KBO discovered that's bigger than Pluto. This would then add more fuel to the argument that Pluto should not be considered a planet.

As one astronomer describes, the solar system contains six types of objects: a star, rocky planets, asteroids, gas giant planets, Kuiper belt objects, and the Oort cloud. Each class of object has its own unique characteristics. Although most people like to call Pluto a planet, it has much more in common with KBO's. In fact, there's no useful classification system that puts Pluto in the same class as other planets without also including some asteroids and other KBO's.

Already, at least one major planetarium omits Pluto from its list of planets. And so now with the discovery of a KBO that's likely bigger than Pluto, it may well be time for people to start getting used to the idea of a solar system with just eight planets. Even if it turns out that 2003 EL61 is not bigger than Pluto, astronomers believe it's just a matter of time anyways before such a KBO is discovered.

The puzzle I had first intended to be #36 turned out to be too easy after I fed it to a more recent version of my Sudoku solver. So I'm posting something else. Todays Sudoku puzzle might be the toughest I've posted yet!

Hans

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