Posted on 06/15/2007 8:04:06 PM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature
Reclassification
The discovery of Eris, formerly known as 2003 UB313, marked the beginning of the end for Pluto as a planet.
Previous measurements from the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed that Eris was larger in diameter than Pluto, leading the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to rule in 2006 that Pluto could no longer be classed as a planet.
ERIS - WORLD OF DISCORD
First seen in 2003 but finally recognised in 2005 Given the designation 2003 UB313 until formal naming Highly elongated orbit around Sun lasting 560 years Currently positioned some 14.5 billion km from Earth Has extremely frigid surface temperature of -250C May have thin atmosphere when closest to Sun Is accompanied by a satellite called Dysnomia
A new category of dwarf planets was adopted, into which Pluto, Eris and another body called Ceres, which is located in the asteroid belt, were placed.
Eris lies some 14.5 billion km from Earth in a region of space known as the Kuiper Belt. It has a highly elongated orbit around the Sun that lasts 560 years.
Snip - more at link
Pluto will always be a planet in my book.
Same here. Mess with Pluto and you mess with all the baby-boomers. Do so at your peril!
I’m reasonable. We can include the others too.
Eris is an illegal immigrant who’s taken up shop to put Pluto out of a job!
RESIST!
I never understood why they were so scared of just adding more planets.
Are you kidding? More mouths to feed.........sheesh......
My very elegant mother just sat upon nine....used to be porcupines....maybe now it’s elephants...
Oh, thought you were talking about me. Nevermind.
Because odds are within a couple decades we'd have 50+ or 100+ planets if you count stuff like Pluto and Eris.
People actually get paid to argue about this shyt?
Where do I sign up? Easy money, LOL!
I found a bottle scuba diving. “Pluto Water - America’s Physic”.
It’s interesting since the bottom of the bottle has a relief of “Pluto”.
The god, not the planet.
And the bottle contained seawater, not Pluto Water, when I retrieved it from it’s natural environment.
Hmmm, I was ahead of the fishing commercial...
Let’s blow Eris up.
I agree, think of all the science fair projects that will have to be shelved and the awards given back.
Pluto- the Rodney Dangerfield of the Solar System.
Ain’t that the truth.
We already went through this two centuries ago with the discovery of Ceres, closely followed by a “series” of other asteroids. Initially, Ceres was hailed as the ninth planet. Note that in the TV series, “The Ascent of Man”, Jacob Bronowski invokes Ceres’ status as a planet to ridicule Hegel, somewhat unjustly IMHO.
Bronowski states that Ceres’ discovery confounded Hegel’s putative “proof” that there could only be 8 planets. I took the trouble to obtain a copy of Hegel’s thesis and found that he made a more limited claim. He criticized “Bode’s Law” on the basis that it allowed any number of planets, and said that any such law should accommodate only the known planets. Well, it’s much of a muchness.
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