Only eight planets left!

[MystyGlyttyr]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/content/article/2006/08/24/pluto935.html

Grade school just became very strange for the next few days...




Edited: Please do not copy and paste articles. Possible copyright infringement.

[Sunsetsky]

My biology teacher mentioned that to us in class an hour ago. It's a bit weird to me because I remember being taught that Pluto was a planet when I was a kid.

[CanadaGirl]

Poor Pluto :(

:lol:

[LostMyMind]

Prime example of people with not enough things to do.

[TNT]

My question is: What can we, as citizens, do to save Pluto's rightful place in the universe?

I'm going to miss it.

Pluto, we hardly knew ye.

[PuckishOne]

I smell a telethon!! :D

[South Texan]

Well so much for the way I learned to remember planet names:

My (Mercury)
Very (Venus)
Educated (Earth)
Mother (Mars)
Just (Jupiter)
Served (Saturn)
Us (Uranus)
Nine (Neptune)
Pizzas (Pluto)

[air914]

This is so dumb.... I agree... not enough time on your hands.... I mean my gosh it's the furthest one away anyway - why change everything? Did we really need to re-define the word "planet?" Were we all confused about it or something?

[technical.angel]

Well so much for the way I learned to remember planet names:

My (Mercury)
Very (Venus)
Educated (Earth)
Mother (Mars)
Just (Jupiter)
Served (Saturn)
Us (Uranus)
Nine (Neptune)
Pizzas (Pluto)

Now it can be My very educated mother just served us nachos!

Jenni :angel:

[One-Fang]

They define a planet as: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."

Then say: "Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's."

I don't see "it's orbit must not overlap another planet's" on there. Heck, if that's the reason, let's say Neptune isn't a planet because it's orbit overlaps Pluto's.

[tacohuman]

This is so dumb.... I agree... not enough time on your hands.... I mean my gosh it's the furthest one away anyway - why change everything? Did we really need to re-define the word "planet?" Were we all confused about it or something?

Prime example of people with not enough things to do.

why belittle the work of people who've spent years just trying to clarify something that's never been clear? i don't understand why people feel the need to do that when faced with change. are they really that threatened by it? study and clarification to advance knowledge are what every branch of science is all about. just because it may not be that important to the public at large doesn't mean it isn't very important to those who've spent their lives studying it.

and as for re-defining planet...well, no we didn't need to re-define it. it was never clearly defined in astronomical terms in the first place. the international astronomical union has been debating this definition for years, because under the most commonly accepted (by the general public) definition of planet, our solar system has dozens, including our own moon.

[Retail's Bitch]

Now it can be My very educated mother just served us nachos!

Jenni :angel:

Hmmm I suppose that's better than my first thought for substitution... "Nipples." but I have sex on the brain lately... :-)

[Mikkel]

Prime example of people with not enough things to do.
I dunno, they are doing their job. I will miss Pluto-as-a-planet too, though.

[protege]

Prime example of people with not enough things to do.

I thought so too. I mean, the world has many other more important problems than deciding whether or not Pluto is a planet. Couldn't we have put the same amount of energy into developing new fuel sources, stopping terrorism, or trying to clean up the environment?

[tacohuman]

I thought so too. I mean, the world has many other more important problems than deciding whether or not Pluto is a planet. Couldn't we have put the same amount of energy into developing new fuel sources, stopping terrorism, or trying to clean up the environment?

they could have, if that was their job, but it's not. they're astronomers. really, how would you feel if someone told you you were just wasting time and energy doing something you love and have devoted your life to when there are 'more important' things to worry about?

[technical.angel]

I'd just like to remind everyone, that Pluto doesn't care whether it's a planet or not. There's more important things for us to argue about, like which customers suck the most, and if cell phones are the devil. (which I believe they are not, so there!!!)

So, can we ratchet down the unhappy a little?

Jenni :angel:

[LostMyMind]

But if they decide Pluto is not a planet because it's too small. What's next, you must be at least 4 feet to be human otherwise you're a dwar.... nevermind that train of thought.

[MystyGlyttyr]

Imagine how I feel! I spend all my time inventing new offensive moves for a pseudo-sport with a script and grown men in pink plastic tights! My newest invention, the inverted Spike DDT, is meaningless! :cry:

See, there are stupider things to dedicate your life to. :lol:

[Severen13]

Part of my job is to put up various scientific articles on the web. Yesterday was a story about Pluto. The article itself was fine, the only problem was the art department kept sending me pics of Jupiter to go with it.....:confused:

[LostMyMind]

:lol: oh man I hope you return it to the art department with a note telling them where they can find a 3rd grade science book.

[AFpheonix]

Well, it's a dwarf planet now, along with Xena.

That's the nature of science, unfortunately. As we discover more about the universe, our definitions have to change along with it. Would you have had the original system model, the one that had the earth at the center with everything else rotating about it, stay the same, just because that was what people in Copernicus' time was used to? No, of course not. This is the same thing.

[Severen13]

oh man I hope you return it to the art department with a note telling them where they can find a 3rd grade science book.

Actually, after being sent pics of Jupiter *twice* the editor finally gave up and told me to just put the story up without the pic.

The art department doesn't usually screw up this badly so I don't know what the hell was going on up there.

[Spiffy McMoron]

study and clarification to advance knowledge are what every branch of science is all about.

Exactly-in an article I read, several of the people interviewed in the story were excited by it, because it showed children (and the general public, too) that science is always changing and dynamic. Of course, in the same article, one little girl was afraid that Pluto's demotion shouldn't have happened, because it would hurt Pluto's feelings. :lol:

They define a planet as: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."

<snip>

I don't see "it's orbit must not overlap another planet's" on there. Heck, if that's the reason, let's say Neptune isn't a planet because it's orbit overlaps Pluto's.

Actually, is was said by the line "...and has cleared the neighbourhood around it's orbit". That means that it's gone around all of the other planets closer to the sun than it. Neptune is a planet because it goes around the planets closer to the sun-Pluto just kind of shoehorns itself in.

[One-Fang]

But to me, "cleared it's orbit" means there aren't any floating detritus in it's orbit (was that the right word? here I am trying to look smart). I don't know if there is for Pluto, but the paths crossing thing must equally apply to both planets that cross.

Heck, I'm not arguing the reasoning of highly educated and experienced astronomers, but the public explanation of it is severely lacking.

[LostMyMind]

Public explanation is severely lacking because they're still fighting over what really is a planet. There are still astronomers calling this new denotation BS. Before we know it, they're going to get bored with planets and start with new notations for what is really a star.

Science by council is just as messy as Policing by council (i.e. U.N.).

[BusBus]

I thought that Pluto was not considered a planet because it's orbit crossed through the Kuyper Belt, not Neptune's orbit?