Pluto Demoted

[troutman]

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Space/20...773512-ap.html

Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.

After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is — and isn’t — a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.

Agree or disagree?

I think they made the right call; otherwise, there are too many objects in the Kuiper Belt that would qualify as planets.

Much-maligned Pluto doesn’t make the grade under the new rules for a planet: “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”

Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune’s.

Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of “dwarf planets,” similar to what long have been termed “minor planets.” The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun — “small solar system bodies,” a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites.

A poll:

http://planetary.org/explore/topics/pluto/poll.html

[Mr.Coffee]

And Pluto feels shame.

[Flash Walken]

Man, I can't keep up with this.

Just last week the cbc and ubc told me that there are now 12 official planets, with the definition of a planet being a cosmic object which revolves around a star.

Damned scientists and their book learnin'!

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

This is Bull****!!!

I was raised with 9 planets and I'll die with 9 plantes.

Just cause these guys have fancy PHD's don't mean nothing!!!!!!

[J pold]

[Table 5]

well, there goes another first round bust. hopefully he can shape up and get his confidence in the minors, and be right back in the big leagues soon enough.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

This is Bull****!!!

I was raised with 9 planets and I'll die with 9 plantes.

Just cause these guys have fancy PHD's don't mean nothing!!!!!!

If it makes you feel better, we have already discovered 100 extra-solar planets:

http://planetary.org/explore/topics/...solar_planets/

[browna]

Pretty much sounds like a group of Astronomers trying to justify the existence of this special organization of theirs.

Love how a bunch of the geeks of the group appluad after the vote...as if they've fixed some socieital injustice.

If it circles the sun, its a planet.

[nfotiu]

They add an ocean and take away a planet. Everything I know is wrong! I think I have to go back and take elementary school over again.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by browna

Pretty much sounds like a group of Astronomers trying to justify the existence of this special organization of theirs.

Love how a bunch of the geeks of the group appluad after the vote...as if they've fixed some socieital injustice.

If it circles the sun, its a planet.

Pluto does not "circle" the sun. It has an oblong orbit.

[Bobblehead]

This makes sense. Pluto's orbit crosses Neptune's, and is on a different plane. Sad to know, but it is just correcting a previous wrong.

And from what I read, the organization that was trying to come up with the definition initially decided upon 2 criteria, and under those conditions Pluto and a few other bodies would have been planets, bringing the count to 12. But then another body requested another criteria, and this is the one that finally removed Pluto's status.

And Troutman, CNews has moved the story, your first link is dead.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Well, I'm going to wait for Bill O'Reilly to tell me what I should think about this one.

[RedHot25]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

And Pluto feels shame.

Originally Posted by Table 5

well, there goes another first round bust. hopefully he can shape up and get his confidence in the minors, and be right back in the big leagues soon enough.

Poor Pluto.

(multi-quote is great!).

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

And Troutman, CNews has moved the story, your first link is dead.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/0....ap/index.html

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

What will My Very Educated Mother Just Serve Us Now? WHAT NOW? Damn scienticians and their learnedness!

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Ahhh but what of when the NASA New Horizons probe does a flyby of Pluto on July 14, 2015? Will nerds eat crow? Will we be mesmerized and demand it be reinstated to the Taxi Squad?

7 years to get there.... sheesh...everyone stop complaining about their commutes already.....

[troutman]

July 19, 2006:
Exactly six months after its January 19 launch, and with nine years to go before its closest approach to Pluto in June of 2015, New Horizons is "screaming its way across the solar system" said mission Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute. Moving at 70,000 kilometers (43,500 miles) per hour, New Horizons is crossing the solar system faster than anything that has ever been launched said Stern, and it will approach Jupiter and its satellites only 13 months after launch. To get an idea of just how fast this is, consider that the Jupiter orbiter Galileo, launched in 1989, took six years to arrive at its destination.

http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/new_horizons/

[Flashpoint]

Good.

Now we can get rid of all that damned plutonium floating around. WMD's my ass.

[evman150]

Originally Posted by browna

Pretty much sounds like a group of Astronomers trying to justify the existence of this special organization of theirs.

Love how a bunch of the geeks of the group appluad after the vote...as if they've fixed some socieital injustice.

If it circles the sun, its a planet.

That last statement there is horribly wrong. There are millions (billions or even more depending on the limiting resolution) of objects orbiting the Sun. They are not all planets, not even close.

Pluto never should have been a planet in the first place. This decision is merely righting a wrong made 76 years ago.

I applaud this decision. Does that make me a "geeky astronomer"? Well, I guess it does. I don't think that's such a bad thing.

[photon]

So what about a "circular" body that used to orbit a star but got ejected and is now in interstellar space? If that's not a planet what do we call that? How round does "nearly round" have to be? How big a neighbourhood does it have to clear? Does Charon count as an uncleared object? Or is that a satellite? Or another dwarf planet (because they orbit each other)?

It's all semantics and coming up with a standard definition for things, but the ones they've chosen seem too vague to me... If you want to pick a definition pick it and make it clear.

As the Bad Astronomer said, since Pluto crosses Neptune's orbit, does that mean Neptune hasn't cleared out it's neighbourhood and is therefore not a planet?