Pluto no longer a planet?

What do you guys think of this article?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060824/ap_on_sc/planet_mutiny_9










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I think it's a shame...

As I see it the scientific community had the choice to either:

1) knock Pluto off the list of planets on some spurious grounds (overlapping orbits never used to be a problem, it used to just be mass / gravity as I recall)

2) Add a pile more 'planets', as loads of 'whatevertheyares' had been found since Pluto that have greater mass.

I don't see the advantage - If it had been my choice I would have left Pluto in, and added anything that exceeded it in mass, had it's own orbit and had sufficient gravity to be spherical. I wonder if this decision knocks the wind out of those who want to search for new planets - we'll probably never find anything that qualifies....

I think the more planets we have the better. I freely welcome the addition of such new planets as ceres, ub313, and sedna.

Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system . . .

Pluto got fired? :eek:

I wonder how the prospects are for out-of-work planets.

Personally I never thought it should have full on planet status any way. It's smaller than our moon. If we to classify every lump of **** that flew around the sun we'd have too many planets.

should planets be classified as planets only if they reside inside the orbit of gas planets :rolleyes: discuss..........

I just think this whole thing is gonna be a colossal pain in the arse in terms of changing astronomy books and whatnot.

Originally Posted by: z0s0_jpshould planets be classified as planets only if they reside inside the orbit of gas planets :rolleyes: discuss..........

No. They've found gas giant planets around other stars in much closer orbits compared to ours, which made them question the mechanics of the formation of the solar system, and how they assumed it would be the same for others. So if they found an earth-like planet beyond the giant, but still relatively close as we are, you'd still have to call it a planet. Thus our definition would have to apply in other systems as well.

And yeah, I prolly agree that Pluto doesn't share much of the same qualities that we associate with the other 8. But in that case, maybe we should also make a new sub-catagory for the gas giants as well. I mean, make Jupiter a little bigger and it would ignite into a star itself. Not to mention how many moons it has...it's almost a mini solar system. In the end, I don't really care about the linguistics of it all.

such bull ****.

according to the new definition scientists are considering using for planets-

must be spherical by its own gravity
must orbit a star
and some other stuff i forgot...
there could be actually 12 planets in our solar system :eek:

I've just been reading that the vote to demote Pluto is now in question, with apparently only 4% of the IAU membership in attendance. The suggestion is the vote was hijacked by dynamicist astronomers apparently.

From what I've read, the definition of 'planet' would also relegate Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and EARTH! as none of these have cleared their orbits as the new definition demands (and is the reason cited for Pluto's demotion).

Don't go changing your text books just yet.... :rolleyes:

damn... now i'm gonna have to relearn that song from kindergarten about the nine planets...

I wonder if we stop calling Pluto a planet... if it will spin out of control and wreak havoc on our solar system... yeah, I don't think so either...

Point in case... I don't really care... either way. The last time a thought about Pluto crossed through my mind was probably in kindergarten when I had to learn the solar system... So... it's not that heartbreaking for me.

When something has three moons (charon, nix, and hydra) I call it a planet.

Originally Posted by: aschleman
Point in case... I don't really care... either way. The last time a thought about Pluto crossed through my mind was probably in kindergarten when I had to learn the solar system... So... it's not that heartbreaking for me.

although thats true of me too, Im just pretty pissed that theyve been debating that for years when they could be... I donno... fixing world hunger or something. who knows.

but really now. whats even the point?

Originally Posted by: niccar113damn... now i'm gonna have to relearn that song from kindergarten about the nine planets...

Yep, I was thinkin that too...
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas was the one I learned. I guess we'll just have to have Nachos and leave it at that? :confused:

Originally Posted by: R. ShackleferdYep, I was thinkin that too...
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas was the one I learned. I guess we'll just have to have Nachos and leave it at that? :confused:

Latinos are taking over the f!@#$%g world :eek: Ninja??

nevermind what i said earlier, today at school we have this morning news called "channel one news" and they said pluto is officially no longer considered a planet. its called a "dwarf" planet now.

This debate has been going on for some time. Quite frankly, I think the more planets, the cooler, so I think it's a shame the first plan, add the two other asteroids as planets, wasn't accepted.

Originally Posted by: R. ShackleferdYep, I was thinkin that too...
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas was the one I learned. I guess we'll just have to have Nachos and leave it at that? :confused:

Or else just My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine. :)