Pluto no longer a planet

[Slater]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14489259/

Wow, huh? The debates and all the ideas of this have finally come to reach a sense of closure.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

"I'm embarrassed for astronomy. Less than 5 percent of the world's astronomers voted," said Alan Stern, leader of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto and a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute.

I'm now disregarding that entire validity of that article. 5% vote to decide what's official? That's just dumb. I don't care!

Pluto is still a planet to me.

[Shao Feng-Li]

Still seems to be a lump of rock no matter what they call it...

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Still seems to be a lump of rock no matter what they call it...

Well don't we look at the glass half-empty

[Rev. Doc]

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

They can call it anything they want. For many of us it will always be a planet.

[Tenshi no Ai]

Eh, not like it was anything important in the first place^^ Just a hunk of rock floating somewhere far far away from here that doesn't have much of a point to it, but sit there and look pretty... I guess^^ I think the only thing this can mess up is stuff like Sailor Moon... guess Setsuna's out of a job :/

[Mithrandir]

The MSN collumn is a distillation of the space.com article, which can be here:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060824_planet_definition.html


I'm afraid I disgree with your assertion of a "sense of closure;" it isn't really the whole story. Less than 5% of astronomers voted and the international astronomy community is likely going to overturn the vote soon, according to the orignial article.

[Puritan]

Mmm, I liked the other plan better: make a second class of planets and induct several new ones. Pluto's been a planet for so long now that throwing it out just doesn't make sense to me, and I really don't see the problem with having many smaller planets. Eh, not that it matters much anyway, but it does seems strange to demote a stellar object after almost a century of precident.

[PigtailsJazz]

whoa! craziness!

[Nate]

It doesn't help that there is no solid definition for what constitutes a planet anyway.

Pluto's been a planet for a while, but if Pluto's a planet, Charon needs to be too. Pluto and Charon orbit each other, and at the same time orbit around the sun. So technically, they're both kinda moons and planets at the same time, I guess.

[GhostontheNet]

I'm now disregarding that entire validity of that article. 5% vote to decide what's official? That's just dumb. I don't care!

Pluto is still a planet to me.

Welcome to Democracy - if that criteria holds than our country never has any rightfully elected officials because too few people bother to vote.

[Htom Sirveaux]

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

So, you're saying planets have different smells? What would Pluto smell like?

[Nate]

What would Pluto smell like?

A dog. *bad joke*

[Radical Dreamer]

I think the only thing this can mess up is stuff like Sailor Moon... guess Setsuna's out of a job :/

XD Not necessarily! I mean, the moon's not a planet...

As far as this whole debate goes, I think it's really rediculous. Pluto's been regarded as a planet for a really long time. 'Course, since it was only voted on by 5% of the astronomers, I wouldn't put a whole lot of stock into their decision. XD Whatever, I'll still call it a planet. XD

[RedMage]

So, you're saying planets have different smells? What would Pluto smell like?

Point Professor Farnsworth's Smell-o-scope at it and find out.

[Slater]

well this isn't so much about Pluto, but it is about the definition of a planet. Heck, if Pluto were to be considered a planet, then what's stopping most of Jupiter's moons from being recognized as planets?

BTW, someone made a crack about democracy a few posts back or something. Don't appreciate that, this isn't about national governments here.

[Nate]

Heck, if Pluto were to be considered a planet, then what's stopping most of Jupiter's moons from being recognized as planets?

If they added the qualifier of orbiting around the sun, Jupiter's moons would not be planets, as they orbit Jupiter. That's why Jupiter's moons would still not have been planets under the new definition, but the asteroid Ceres would.

[Kaligraphic]

A rose, by any other name, still has thorns.

[FarmGirl]

The new classification, while they might have thought of a better name for it (dwarf planets?), sorta makes sense.
While there will be weeping for what once was, be grateful. If they had kept Pluto a planet, Xena would also be a planet.

[TheMelodyMaker]

I think the only thing this can mess up is stuff like Sailor Moon... guess Setsuna's out of a job :/

I wonder now -- is there a "Sailor 2003 UB313" in the future?

That article left me totally confused; I'm still calling a Pluto a planet.

[Spiritsword]

To me it'll always be a planet. Hope the vote is overturned. Besides, the guy who discovered Pluto was born in Streator, IL, which is like 10-15 minutes from where I grew up. So it's a sentimental favorite too.

[joeblade]

Oh it's official alright and let me tell you Pluto is ****. You see, come to find out Pluto is actually inhabited (somewhat ironicly) by a race of ice dwarves, and they are fuming. Watch out Earth, you just watch out.

[Dante]

I got back from a conversation on this topic in SPS (society of physics students) at ASU, frankly I have no idea what constitutes a planet now, but should pluto have remained a planet, the other idea was that any planet with a large enough gravity to cause it's surface to be smooth, aka to make it into a speroid, would be classified as a planet. This ended up adding a great number of "planets" to our solar system, including Xena (whose name I already took the time to memorize, so frankly, as I dislike memorizing worthless data, it will remain a "planet" in my definition. ) Mind you sps is composed of physics majors and the school doesn't have a seperate "astronomy" department, so we are basically the physicists and astronomers there... among the official conclusions we came to, were 1: launch one of the other "plutons" at pluto at a slow enough velocity that they would merge to create a new larger body of matter which could then be declared a planet or 2: create a singularity on another pluton to gather all the matter together in our solar system into a black hole... as we are all dying (falling into the event horizon and being "spaggetified" ) we can then argue whether or not the black hole is a planet now that it has swallowed everything in the solar system...

yes this is goofy and ridiculous... but you have just witnessed the erudite arcane clandestine goings on within the great halls of science... and yes, this is how we determine the solutions to such things...

On a more formal note, we concluded that the definition of a planet was more social than scientific, and even if lofty astronomical "experts" deem somthing to be a "non-planet" it is society that truly determines whether or not they are willing to except such a thing... in the end, it doesn't matter scientifically... it's not as though some major law of the universe will change with the definition of the term planet... it is just a social term given to hunks of matter floating about the sun... astroids and comets also fall under this category, but for some reason we deem it necessary to give them different names... what makes them different, I really can't say, except maybe that their not speroids... but such shape prejudice seems unessary and really has no place within the halls of science... Yes... I am really really bored... and I was the same way earlier today.

Pascal

[Sammy Boy]

Pluto's been a planet for a while, but if Pluto's a planet, Charon needs to be too. Pluto and Charon orbit each other, and at the same time orbit around the sun. So technically, they're both kinda moons and planets at the same time, I guess.

So.. let me see if I understand you right. You're saying Charon orbits the Sun as well, and not just Pluto?

-------

I think for historical reasons whatever has been a planet should continue to be considered as planets. The new batch can be categorised in different ways as the astronomical community sees fit.

I think it would be helpful to define a a body in its context. Those that orbit a star directly of a certain size or above would be plants, if smaller they'd be asteroids. Bodies that orbit around other planets would be satellites. My two cents.

[Nate]

So.. let me see if I understand you right. You're saying Charon orbits the Sun as well, and not just Pluto?

Pluto and Charon orbit each other. While orbiting each other, they also orbit the sun.

The best example I can think of, is a ride from the carnival called the Scrambler. Each "arm" on the Scrambler contains three cars for people. The three cars on each arm, orbit the center of the arm, but at the same time, they also all spin around the center of the Scrambler. Pluto and Charon orbit each other while they orbit the sun much like that.

To put it in scientific terms:

"Under the rejected planet definition proposal, since they orbit each other around a center of mass that is outside either body, they would have been officially considered a binary planet system."

[Sammy Boy]

Okay, I think I get it....

And this would be different in the case of the Earth and the Moon, because the Moon orbits the Earth, whilst the centre of mass is not outside either body, like the way Pluto's and Charon's is?

Are there other planets in our system like Pluto and Charon in this way? Planetary motions is not my thing...

Thanks.

[Technomancer]

This ended up adding a great number of "planets" to our solar system, including Xena (whose name I already took the time to memorize, so frankly, as I dislike memorizing worthless data, it will remain a "planet" in my definition. )

The most recent proposal would have added Ceres, Charon and "Xena" (that name is provisional, let's hope it changes). Since astronomers believe many other Pluto-sized objects exist as part of the Kuiper belt, the number of "planets" could have become rather large.

among the official conclusions we came to, were 1: launch one of the other "plutons"

This is actually another bone of contention. Geologists already use the term "pluton" to mean something else and have requested that astronomers not use the same term to describe the large Kuiper belt objects.

[Kurama]

I'm now disregarding that entire validity of that article. 5% vote to decide what's official? That's just dumb. I don't care!

Pluto is still a planet to me.

Same here! it kinda ticked me off when they said it wasent a planet. Now Sailor Moon is no more...Sailor Pluto...what is to become of her...XD

[mitsuki lover]

Well she can join Sailor Moon as the only two Sailor Senshi's not named for a planet.
Salior Xena,now something is totally wrong with the picture without even
needing anyone to draw it!
Sailor Gabrielle makes more sense.

[rocklobster]

OK, cancer and AIDS still don't have a cure and this is more important? Something tells me these scientists need to work on their priorities.