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To: Willie Green
It is quite difficult to argue that Pluto isn't a planet when Pluto has it's own moon Charon,

If it is large enough for it's gravity to capture a moon then it is a planet.

It isn't the Planet X people were imagining past Neptune, but it is a planet.

20 posted on 10/07/2002 2:44:46 PM PDT by ContentiousObjector
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To: ContentiousObjector
Pluto's no planet.

The fact that it has another piece of matter revolving around its gravitational pull doesn't make it a planet.

If Kate Moss was hovering in Space outside the distance of Pluto, she could have a very fattening keylme pie revolving around her but she'd still be moving around the Sun and I wouldn't call her a planet.

She's not a planet. She's a STAR, yes ...

Pluto is midget wrestling. Interesting, but nobody at NASA is aiming any missions that direction.

Planet needs to have a singular influence in size, interest and solar system fun ... ness ... to warrant our care.

The outer gas giants annoy us enough. OK Neptune ... you are a coagulation of ammonia and sulferous and nitrous oxide .... We're not going to make a movie about you housing a tribe of beautiful women wearing swimsuit uniforms and sporting perfectly cone shaped breasts.

21 posted on 10/07/2002 10:03:02 PM PDT by ArneFufkin
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To: ContentiousObjector
"It is quite difficult to argue that Pluto isn't a planet when Pluto has it's own moon Charon ..."

There are asteroids that have smaller asteroids orbiting them, but that doesn't make them (major) planets.

And you can argue that Charon isn't a satellite of Pluto. Turns out that the center of Charon's orbit is outside Pluto's surface: in other words, both Pluto and Charon orbit each other around a common point that's between them. So Pluto and Charon are more like a binary planet than planet and satellite.

Also: there's only one moon in the solar system, and that's the Moon. All other bodies orbiting planets are satellites, whether they are natural or artificial.
25 posted on 10/08/2002 8:32:14 AM PDT by RonF
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