Posted on 08/25/2006 10:52:01 AM PDT by neverdem
Pluto got its walking papers yesterday.
Throw away the place mats. Redraw the classroom charts. Take a pair of scissors to the solar system mobile.
After years of wrangling and a week of debate, astronomers voted for a sweeping reclassification of the solar system. In what many of them described as a triumph of science over sentiment, Pluto was demoted to the status of a dwarf planet.
In the new solar system as defined by the International Astronomical Union, meeting in Prague, there are eight planets instead of nine, at least three dwarf planets and tens of thousands of so-called smaller solar system bodies, like comets and most asteroids.
For now, the other dwarf planets are Ceres, the largest asteroid, and an object known as 2003 UB 313, nicknamed Xena, that is larger than Pluto and, like it, orbits beyond Neptune in a zone of icy debris known as the Kuiper Belt. But there are dozens more potential dwarf planets known in that zone, planetary scientists say, and so the number in the category could quickly swell.
In a nod to Plutos fans, the astronomers declared it to be the prototype for a new category of such trans-Neptunian objects, but declined in a close vote to approve the name plutonians for them.
The outcome yesterday completed a stunning turnaround from only a week ago, when the assembled astronomers were presented a proposal that would have increased the number of planets in the solar system to 12, retaining Pluto and adding Ceres, Xena and even Plutos moon Charon.
The reversal, said Dr. Alan P. Boss, a planetary theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, speaks to the integrity of the planet defining process.
The officers were willing to change their resolution, Dr. Boss said, and find something that would stand up...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Pluto is a planet and I personally don't care what a bunch of dimwits on a committee say it is or isn't because now they make the rules! Its been a planet for 75 years and is still a planet.
I want the next dwarf planet to be named Dopey, or Grumpy, or maybe Doc (but only if it looks intelligent).
With people like Barbra Streisand, and Harry Reid, and Bela Pelosi around, absolutley nothinig.
However, the IAU -is- the chief governing body (in the scientific sense) for the world's astronomers. What they say, goes.
It won't happen overnight, but I think the law has been set.
I took our letter to the IAU,
They put it in their stack.
Bright 'n' early next morning,
They sent our letter back.
They wrote upon it:
"Return to Sedna -- status unknown.
No such planet, go on home."
Hey, we're not Quaoar .... bigger than that
I wrote for details but my letter keeps coming back...
Again I dropped it at the Union
And marked it special "D"
Bright 'n' early next morning
It came right back to me.
They wrote upon it:
"Return to Sedna -- status unknown.
No such planet, go on home."
So I guess we're gonna-
Return to Sedna....
Return to Sedna....
Return to Sedna....
Is this real science or is it like the man causing global warming crap?
"Pluto, the tribe has spoken." Poof.
It's gotta be a Global Warming issue. That President of ours...what a joker he is.
My old roomate's doctoral dissertation showed how a trans-solar body made Pluto from a moon of Neptune (capture-release-capture). Or could have made, anyway. I can't remember how far back in time the trajectories had to go to make it work, but he did graduate :)
I tend to agree. A planet is a nonluminous celestial body larger than an asteroid or comet, illuminated by light from a star it revolves. Exactly what part of that definition does not describe Pluto?
In 1999, International Astronomical Union (IAU) reaffirmed that Pluto was a planet because of its size and its satellite, something no comet was known to have. What has changed?
>>...the International Astronomical Union, meeting in Prague...<<
The U.N. of astronomy.
Mary's Violet Eyes Make John Stay Up Nights Pining.
Now it has to be: Mary's Violet Eyes Make John Stay Up Nights....wondering what the hell happened to Pluto!
Planetary deconstructionism.
(And Pluto is pourer for it.)
Planets tend to clear out their region eventually; nothing would have broken Pluto or Pluto's own moons away from Neptune. Pluto is more likely one of the (sub)planetary bodies in Neptune's region that did not get collected into Neptune nor sent elsewhere like happened with other such bodies because the harmonic resonance of its orbit is such that Pluto is always ans always has been elsewhere when Neptune comes by.
My Very Elderly Mother Just Sold Us Nine Planets... Neptune!
I think I would have preferred to have 12 planets instead of 8.
That's what I told him, but he wanted to go with a third body solution. It does have a certain draw, since Pluto is so far out of the ecliptic...
But, if in the model we allow objects to come from outside the solar system and pass through disrupting everything they can before they continue on their way, we could come up with a lot of possibilities. Those objects could be very large and very fast, and could be on the point of coming through right now; we couldn't spot them ahead of time and certainly couldn't do more than watch what happens.
How do you make something in the universe disappear? It is still Pluto. It is still there. The next thing you know they will be trying to tell us that humans are causing global warming. Sheessh. This people are really something.
I always remembered the planets by "My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" Now she will have to serve us noodles
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