Bye Bye Pluto

[Msterbeau]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060824/ap_on_...lanet_mutiny_10

[kellygrrrrrl]

They shouldv'e just ADDED to the solar system.

Rather than taken away. Wouldv'e made things so much interesting!!

I'm gonna miss you Pluto!

[phee]

Poor Roman God of the Underworld...

[BrassFusion]

My very educated mother just sold us nine...

???

Guess we'll have to change it.

My very emaciated mother just sold us narcotics.

[Anathema]

one question though... UB313, was deemed planet x (correct?) or am i thinking of something else?

i guess they'd better call in the text book publishers to update school books...once again.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Pluto, UB313 (Xena) and Ceres are now considered Minor Plantets. Charon is still a moon.

[BrassFusion]

Pluto, UB313 (Xena) and Ceres are now considered Minor Plantets. Charon is still a moon.

sure on that? i remember hearing it had a unique orbit with pluto such that they both orbited around a point between the two instead of it orbiting pluto. maybe i'm mistaken... but is a moon still a moon if it orbits a "minor" planet?

[Msterbeau]

Pluto is now termed a "dwarf planet".

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Yes, I'm sure on that. Charon's status was not changed.

[Homicidalheathen]

Its....its.....planet discrimination! Call pluto a dwarf will you scientists! Humph!

[sass_in_the_pants]

It's still a planet.

Eff the man.

[Guest Game of Chance]

You sure Ceres isn't still just considered an asteroid?

[BrassFusion]

it did mention in that article that pluto and ceres are now the same classification. i guess it is splitting hairs when you find something way far out with an elliptical orbit, whether it's a "planet" or an "asteroid."

[kellygrrrrrl]

So I guess this means "Marc" will be demoted to a dwarf too?

hahahahahah good opportunity to abuse Marc once again!!!!

[Msterbeau]

Do you really want to do that when I have all those photos of you? :fear

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Yes, it's splitting hairs... but we (the world) have never had a definded definition of what is and is not a planet. Oddly, we have had one for what is a moon. That was the whole point of the top 2,500 astronomers from 75 countries getting together for two weeks to hammer it out.

Now, two of the objects that at one point were cruising toward possible full-fledged planethood will join Pluto as dwarfs: the asteroid Ceres, which was a planet in the 1800s before it got demoted, and 2003 UB313, an icy object slightly larger than Pluto whose discoverer, Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, has nicknamed "Xena."

Charon, the largest of Pluto's three moons, is no longer under consideration for any special designation.

Brown was pleased by the decision. He had argued that Pluto and similar bodies didn't deserve planet status, saying that would "take the magic out of the solar system."

"UB313 is the largest dwarf planet. That's kind of cool," he said.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

The "requirements' for something being called a planet, even when i was hardcore into such things, i remember as being annoyingly vauge. There STILL is no full consensus on which stars make up wich constelations, that'll be next i bet.

I was sort of put-off by the "pluto isnt a planet" thing, but after thinking about it, and the way solar systems form... its really not of the same "stuff" as the other planets.

Although calling it a "dwarf planet" seems sort of lame, since that still implies its a planet. Should have some seprate name like "large solar object" or something.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Large Solar Object is used. Thats for anything over a certian mass that is not a comet, not a moon, nor a Dwarf planet.

[Fierce Critter]

Pluto is now termed a "dwarf planet".

But prefers the more PC "Little Planet".

[Gothmama25]

My very educated mother just sold us nine...

???

Guess we'll have to change it.

My very emaciated mother just sold us narcotics.

Thats a good one.

[Msterbeau]

Thats a good one.

I'm helping out with the young astronauts program at my daughters' school. Apparently it is now "My Very Educated Mother Served Us Noodles".

[torn asunder]

I'm helping out with the young astronauts program at my daughters' school. Apparently it is now "My Very Educated Mother Served Us Noodles".

you left out jupiter!!

[BrassFusion]

That's just kinda ridiculous... So were going to try to pretend Pluto doesn't exist anymore? We're not gonna tell the little kids about it?

What are they going to make of Interplanet Janet? You know, if any records of it aren't destroyed by the government.

"And Pluto, little Pluto, is the farthest planet from the sun... whoa oh..."

[Troy Spiral (13)]

On further thought i like it. It doesnt really matter all that much, but at least it puts a spotlight on "astronomy".

Anything that gets people talking in some shape or form about such subjects is better than some peice on american idol.

[BrassFusion]

bleh, trumped again.