Who offed Pluto and why?
Posted on 08/22/2006 7:29:52 PM PDT by mathprof
Pluto was looking more and more like a goner yesterday as astronomers meeting in Prague continued to debate the definition of a planet.
“I think that today can go down as the ‘day we lost Pluto,’ ” said Jay Pasachoff of Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., in an e-mail message from Prague.
Under fire from other astronomers and the public, a committee appointed by the International Astronomical Union revised and then revised again a definition proposed last week that would have expanded the number of official planets to 12, locking in Pluto as well as the newly discovered Xena in the outer solar system, as well as the asteroid Ceres and Pluto’s moon Charon.
The new definition offered yesterday would set up a three-tiered classification scheme with eight “planets”; a group of “dwarf planets” that would include Pluto, Ceres, Xena and many other icy balls in the outer solar system; and thousands of “smaller solar system bodies,” like comets and asteroids.
The bottom line, said the Harvard astronomer Owen Gingerich, chairman of the Planet Definition Committee of the union, is that in the new definition, “Pluto is not a planet.”
“There’s not happiness all around, believe me,” he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
You say tomayto, I say tomahhto.
Am I supposed to be all in distress about some astronomer who can't sleep at night because "It's a planet!" "No, it's an asteroid" "Callin it an asteroid, them's fighting words!!"
Someone needs to get a real, productive life, and it ain't me, I'm busy upgrading CICS!
Later!
;-)
What happened to Pluto?
Pluto doesn't need to be a planet. Planets should be something special - not a matter of "no iceball left behind" as the IAU proposed.. Pluto being considered a planet is an accident of history, and no one will much care once those who grew up with it are all gone, just like no one cares anymore that Ceres is not a planet as it was in the early 1800s.
Relax Jay. Pluto isn't lost. It's right there behind Uranus.
The new one should be called Rupert.
Good. Last I heard, the Earth's moon is bigger than Pluto, as are Jupiter's moon Ganymede and Saturn's moon Titan.
Nothing. It's still right there behind Uranus.
Does this mean black holes will henceforth be known as sphincters?
Who offed Pluto and why?
The new progressive astronomer --- we don't want to hurt Pluto's moon's feelings so we'll make it a planet. I know ..... let's make them cohabiplanets and call them Pluto & Blutus - a marriage made in the heavens - in honor of our poor deviant brothers here on this breeder's planet.
And it isn't the asteroids fault that it either never made to full planethood before being cosmically aborted or was blasted into oblivion by some mean-spirited celestial body.
ok - so it's getting too late to write decent humor about some idiots ideas of pseudo-science
"Good. Last I heard, the Earth's moon is bigger than Pluto, as are Jupiter's moon Ganymede and Saturn's moon Titan."
All of those moons are planetary satellites, not planets, so mass or size shouldn't matter. If you get rid of Pluto, why does Mercury get to stay?
Pluto status ping!
This whole thing sounds like a bunch of idle scientists trying to justify the huge government grant that they no doubt received for this study.
I'd be concerned about myself if a thread about Pluto segued into homo-obsession in my mind..
I prefer Goofy!
Didn't "Saturday Night Live" do a skit on a liquid product with two different uses?
"It's a Floor Wax!"
"It's a Mouthwash!"
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