Posted on 06/08/2015 10:44:57 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt, and NASA's Dawn spacecraft will arrive there on March 6.
Pluto is the largest object in the Kuiper belt, and NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will arrive there on July 15...
The efforts of a very small clique of Pluto-haters within the International Astronomical Union (IAU) plutoed Pluto in 2006. Of the approximately 10,000 internationally registered members of the IAU in 2006, only 237 voted in favor of the resolution redefining Pluto as a "dwarf planet" while 157 voted against; the other 9,500 members were not present...
Unlike the larger planets, however, Ceres, like Pluto, according to the IAU definition, "has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." ...Some planetary astronomers would argue that were the Earth placed in the Kuiper Belt, it would not be able to clear its neighborhood and thus would not be considered, by the IAU definition, a planet; apparently location matters. Here a planet, there not a planet...
Ceres was discovered on New Year's Day in 1801, by Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, a member of an international team of astronomers dubbed the Celestial Police, who were searching for a supposedly missing planet in between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter... But within a few years... William Herschel suggested that Ceres and Pallas and any other smaller solar system objects should be called asteroids... But Ceres does still stand out. It's the largest asteroid, by far, nearly 1,000 kilometers across (twice as large in diameter as Vesta, the second largest asteroid), though not perfectly spherical in shape...
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.discovermagazine.com ...
If I was a typical Obamabot, I would say, ‘We should ask the citizens of Pluto if they want to be a planet.’ or say, ‘Should we ask Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy if Pluto a planet?’
At least make Pluto an honorary planet.
It’s not like it’s going to go around bragging about it.
I was watching a show called “Universe” this weekend. They said the sun was created that 8 planets were formed.
Later I watched a BBC show on Planet Earth and the narrator kept inserting global climate change into the show.
We have a 9th planet and the weather changes everyday during the 4 seasons.
I hate when propaganda is used.
I recommend Mike Brown’s “How I Killed Pluto and why it had it coming”.
He was the guy who actually caused the uproar to start with when he found Eris. The vote to make it a planet again is irrelevant. It would still be a dwarf. Mercury probably should be classified as one too.
Pluto is a dwarf planet at best. Time to move on to more important subjects, like, why is the weather always bad when I want to do some observing.
Pluto is a planet and will be
Perpetually
ACCORDING TO ME.
Wholeheartedly agree.
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