PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Leading astronomers approved historic new planet guidelines Thursday — downsizing Earth's neighborhood from nine principal heavenly bodies to eight by demoting distant Pluto.
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After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is — and isn't — a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 6:41 am Posts: 5867 Location: Providence, RI Gender: Male
Think of all the posters in elementary school classrooms that are now out of date! Do you really think teachers are going to take the time to say, "Now class, Pluto used to be a planet but under the new guidelines yada yada yada..."
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Think of all the posters in elementary school classrooms that are now out of date! Do you really think teachers are going to take the time to say, "Now class, Pluto used to be a planet but under the new guidelines yada yada yada..."
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:52 pm Posts: 6822 Location: NY Gender: Male
conoalias wrote:
isn't it gonna be replaced by another bigger one they found?
There were discussions that either Pluto would be removed or 3 other objects (Pluto's moon, an asteroid, and another that I can't remember where it was located) would be added to the list of planets. I've never heard anyone suggest Pluto would be demoted and only one other celestial body would take its place.
I just don't get the last line here:
Quote:
Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "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."
Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.
So if Pluto is DQ'ed cause it has an overlapping orbit, that would DQ Neptune for having one as well. I'm assuming this is just poor reporting and they haven't fully explained the reasoning cause the average non-scientific person either doesn't care or wouldn't get it.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:22 am Posts: 1603 Location: Buffalo
Go_State wrote:
conoalias wrote:
isn't it gonna be replaced by another bigger one they found?
There were discussions that either Pluto would be removed or 3 other objects (Pluto's moon, an asteroid, and another that I can't remember where it was located) would be added to the list of planets. I've never heard anyone suggest Pluto would be demoted and only one other celestial body would take its place.
I just don't get the last line here:
Quote:
Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "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."
Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.
I think it's just bad writing. The DQ is because of the oblong shape to the orbit, not the ovarlap.
So if Pluto is DQ'ed cause it has an overlapping orbit, that would DQ Neptune for having one as well. I'm assuming this is just poor reporting and they haven't fully explained the reasoning cause the average non-scientific person either doesn't care or wouldn't get it.
NASA-JPL
The surface of Pluto had never been seen until this 1994 image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Pluto is two-thirds the size of Earth's moon, but 12,000 times farther away. In this image, Pluto is 3 billion times from Earth.
How Mars Mania Led to the Discovery of Pluto
Aug. 10, 2006
Percival Lowell believed Mars was home to intelligent life, but he couldn't prove it. So he turned to something he thought he could prove: the existence of a ninth planet.
All Things Considered, August 14, 2006 · It's the talk of the International Astronomical Union meeting, now underway in Prague. Astronomers are grappling over whether its small status should cause it to be declassifed as a planet.
Indeed, it's smaller than earth's moon and there are other objects past Neptune that are comparable in size to Pluto.
On the other hand, there are valid arguments to call Pluto a planet. It has an atmosphere, it goes through seasons, and it has three moons.
And what would happen to the mnemonic device for remembering planet names? You know: "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas."
if pluto is not a planet, what is it? a generic celestial body that happens to orbit our sun?
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