Posted on 09/01/2006 7:28:28 AM PDT by jonno
Pluto has been demoted. The ninth planet of our solar system has been officially stripped of its planetary status. A committee from the International Astronomical Union has formally amended the defining qualifications of planethood, thus reducing small, nonconformist Pluto to the ranks of "dwarf planet." The change is being deemed a victory of science over sentiment.
But the sentimental among us are not accepting defeat. Some are taking the news almost personally. T-shirts have already appeared for sale on the internet proclaiming defiantly, "Pluto IS a planet." One natural history museum curator has noted what essentially amounts to hate mail from second-graders. Others have responded with a general sense of dismay, surprise, or offense. "What I really wish is that we'd just grandfather Pluto in and then close all the loopholes," jests one editorialist. "Planets, like Supreme Court justices, are appointed for life, and you can't blithely oust them no matter how eccentric, skewed or unqualified they may prove to be."(1)
I find myself reacting to the news with a similar disposition. For many of us, Pluto is something of a planetary mascot--the inadequate misfit of the solar system, a marginal being in a vast universe. For the last 76 years, the icy rock has been known as the farthest planet from the sun--and they can simply erase this? At the very least, our clever solar system mnemonic is now far from clever: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine ---. But more troubling than this, the skies seem to have almost literally shifted on us. In the words of one best seller, someone has moved our cheese, and many of us are simply uneasy about it.
Perspective is a difficult thing to alter, for there is always so much more than vision involved. We are shaped as much...
(Excerpt) Read more at rzim.org ...
Pluto is still Pluto whether we call it a planet, a dwarf planet, or an ice ball. And no matter what definitions or classifications we assign, our solar system is still astounding. With something as vast as the universe, it's bound to surprise us. How much more so this must be true of the one who made it.
God is the same today, yesterday, and forever. But He is also surprising. The Scriptures introduce us to a God who makes Himself known again and again, whose revelation is both piecemeal and profound. Yet whatever we see, there is more.
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us -Nine --- Noodles.
Planetary Politics: Protecting Pluto
Space dot com | 7 September 2006 | Edna DeVore
Posted on 09/09/2006 11:17:25 AM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1698389/posts
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