Author Topic: Buh bye Pluto. I'll always think of you as a planet... (Read 3057 times)

K Frame · « **on:** August 24, 2006, 05:43:27 AM »

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Scientists from around the world on Thursday approved a new definition of a planet, downgrading Pluto's status to leave just eight classical planets.

After a heated debate, 2,500 scientists and astronomers voted at the International Astronomers Union General Assembly that Pluto, which has been called a planet since being discovered in 1930, would be put into a category of planets called "dwarf planets".

mtnbkr · « **Reply #1 on:** August 24, 2006, 05:48:14 AM »

Isn't Mercury smaller than Pluto? Why wasn't it reclassified?

Chris

K Frame · « **Reply #2 on:** August 24, 2006, 06:00:50 AM »

No, Mercury is a little over double Pluto's diameter.

charby · « **Reply #3 on:** August 24, 2006, 06:02:50 AM »

Sounds like these scientists have nothing better to do.

K Frame · « **Reply #4 on:** August 24, 2006, 06:05:22 AM »

Actually, as astronomers and astrophysicists, they're doing EXACTLY what they're supposed to do.

El Tejon · « **Reply #5 on:** August 24, 2006, 06:05:35 AM »

How can a dog be a planet?

Isn't a dog a sun? The dog star?

El Tejon=scientific marvel

Ben · « **Reply #6 on:** August 24, 2006, 06:05:45 AM »

Doesn't Pluto have tenure by now? How are they gonna fire it without a major court battle? Tongue

K Frame · « **Reply #7 on:** August 24, 2006, 06:07:19 AM »

You know, you might laugh, Ben, but I could actually see some people getting pissed enough about this to file a lawsuit.

roo_ster · « **Reply #8 on:** August 24, 2006, 06:20:28 AM »

I expect the PCLU* to sue the pants off those astronomers and win representation of Pluto back in the list of planets with full planetary rights. Then, they'll sue the astronomers to allow gay marriage and free whisky for 12 year olds. On Pluto.

Pluto Civil Liberties Union.

Harold Tuttle · « **Reply #9 on:** August 24, 2006, 06:45:51 AM »

heck, once they get out there, they will prolly find Pluto is the cloaked remnants of a Vogon battle star

Headless Thompson Gunner · « **Reply #10 on:** August 24, 2006, 07:08:32 AM »

Quote from: Harold Tuttle

heck, once they get out there, they will prolly find Pluto is the cloaked remnants of a Vogon battle star

I'd prefer they spend their time figuring out how to get there rather than arguing about what to classify it. Ain't my life, tho...

K Frame · « **Reply #11 on:** August 24, 2006, 07:10:52 AM »

"I'd prefer they spend their time figuring out how to get there..."

Uhm... They have figured that out, and are on the way. A probe launched earlier this year. It'll take nearly 10 years to get there.

crt360 · « **Reply #12 on:** August 24, 2006, 10:01:54 AM »

Am I going to be retroactively docked a letter grade for my third grade mobile in which I included Pluto as a planet?

K Frame · « **Reply #13 on:** August 24, 2006, 10:17:45 AM »

No, but you will have to retake Science 101 in order to maintain your high school diploma.

Someone brought up a very good point on another board...

One of the reasons that Pluto is being excluded is because its orbit transverses Neptune's.

If that's the case, why isn't Neptune being delisted?

crt360 · « **Reply #14 on:** August 24, 2006, 12:01:25 PM »

Pluto will have its revenge. One day, when nobody is looking, it will use its transverse orbit to smash Uranus to bits. Or is it Neptune? Which ever.

grampster · « **Reply #15 on:** August 24, 2006, 01:29:50 PM »

Why don't they just rename Uranus, Pluto. Then we won't have to smirk when we discuss the planets.

Azrael256 · « **Reply #16 on:** August 24, 2006, 03:26:23 PM »

Quote

If that's the case, why isn't Neptune being delisted?

Because Neptune's orbit lies in the same plane as the rest of the planets. Pluto is a remnant from an earlier phase of the development of the system (pre-other 8 planets) and has an orbit with a pretty good tilt to it relative to the rest of us.

Quote

heck, once they get out there, they will prolly find Pluto is the cloaked remnants of a Vogon battle star

Bah! Nonsense! They'll find the remnants of a second Grebulon ship that colonized Pluto for a reason they can't remember.

Ben · « **Reply #17 on:** August 25, 2006, 05:15:24 AM »

Quote

Bah! Nonsense! They'll find the remnants of a second Grebulon ship that colonized Pluto for a reason they can't remember.

Wrong again. They'll find that the Star Trek Next Generation crew used a gravimetric diversification beam to purposely change Pluto's orbit and introduce planetary multiculturalism as per StarFleet Diversity Directive J-15437C (the one right after the one where they put men in dresses).

Edited becuz i cant spel

K Frame · « **Reply #18 on:** August 25, 2006, 05:55:54 AM »

Yer all a bunch of morons.

Pluto is where Gort and Klaatu hang out.

mfree · « **Reply #19 on:** August 25, 2006, 06:20:39 AM »

Pluto... smaller than our own moon, orbiting with a bunch of other detritus (Orcus, Ixion), can't even run around with it's own moon (Charon) without the [strike]bathycenter[/strike] barycentre (center of gravity) being outside it's sphere (Pluto and Charon pirouette around a point in empty space)...

...not very planet-like to me. Now, if Triton hadn't been captured by Neptune, there likely would have been a mercury-sized ninth planet by now because it's likely large enough to gather all the plutinos (pluto orbit objects).

Then there's Sedna and 2005UB313, but I digress...

--
edited for brain fart, bathycenter means nothing but would be "center of ocean".

Brad Johnson · « **Reply #20 on:** August 25, 2006, 07:51:45 AM »

Quote

Yer all a bunch of morons.

Pluto is where Gort and Klaatu hang out.

Darmok and Jilad... at Tanagra

Brad

K Frame · « **Reply #21 on:** August 25, 2006, 08:00:31 AM »

"Darmok and Jilad... at Tanagra"

Cheesy

One of the better episodes!

AJ Dual · « **Reply #22 on:** August 25, 2006, 09:25:12 AM »

Quote from: grampster

Why don't they just rename Uranus, Pluto. Then we won't have to smirk when we discuss the planets.

That is an excelent idea! You should e-mail the IAU.

The main problem is that they're likely to find dozens, if not hundreds of "Plutons" or "Large KBO's" (Kuiper Belt Objects), in the future, and saying the Solar System has hundreds of "planets" is kind of silly&

Guest · « **Reply #23 on:** August 25, 2006, 02:53:12 PM »

Our definition of a "planet" is completely arbitrary. The only reason Pluto doesnt count as a planet is because a bunch of scientists in an utterly valueless discipline needed to get into the newspaper, and there werent any handy "earth killing" meteors to point at.

Spec ops Grunt · « **Reply #24 on:** August 25, 2006, 02:56:00 PM »

I propose we rename Uranus! It shall be called Urectum!

A cookie to whoever gets the reference.

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Author Topic: Buh bye Pluto. I'll always think of you as a planet... (Read 3057 times)

Guest