Or, should there be 12 planets in our solar system, not 9?

Controversial Pluto and the Plutons ( sounds like a 60's group) is in the news again...thoughts on this?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/16/new.planets.ap/index.html

No. Pluto is not a planet. Pluto is Mickey's dog. Don't you know anything?:hitout:

Thanks for that SCHOLARLY input, Perfesser---what's your favorite planet?
Mine's the sun.:flowers:

Earth, of course.

Thanks for that SCHOLARLY input, Perfesser---what's your favorite planet?
Mine's the sun.:flowers:

Tune in next week when we'll be coming to you from the sun!

We will have to do that at night so we don't burn up.

Well, it's "official"--lowly Pluto is no longer a planet.

So the mobile of the solar system that me and the kids spent many happy hours working on ( in this great work of art, Jupiter is bigger than the sun, and the Mars is a sickly pink, not fiery red)-- is obsolete.
Forgive me for saying so, but this is a load of crapola. Pluto is a planet--it orbits the sun and has a moon.
I am fond of lowly Pluto (and Pluto is fond of me) and I dislike it being delegated to non planet status. This does not seem right.


http://news.yahoo.com/fc/science/astronomy_and_space

If you move Pluto into a closer orbit to the sun, say between Earth and Mars, Pluto will develop a tail much like a comet.

I believe that was the first strike against Pluto's planet status.


It also doesn't help that Pluto's orbit is a bit too eliptical, trading places with Neptune from time to time and it's not on the same plane as the other planets. The weird orbit and the crossing of Neptune's path is something comets and asteroids do. Another strike against Pluto.

It also doesn't help that there are a couple large bodies out there beyond Pluto orbiting the Sun. How many Pluto sized planets are out there in the Kuiper belt? That was another strike against Pluto, dammit.

i really could care less..

the thing that entertains me on the subject are people who are FIERCELY FIGHTING for pluto's status... i mean.. its actually an EMOTIONAL THING for these people. They are actually PISSED OFF that Pluto isnt a planet LOL.. and i think that's hilarious.

Decka, Pluto has been considered a planet all our lives. We grew up with the mneumonic that helped us remember the nine planets. Of course it's an emotional thing with us. Something we were brought up to believe, something basic, 'There are nine planets in the solar system and they are....', has been taken away from us. People like to think there is some consistency in the world and if something as basic as the number of planets is inconsistent it jars us.

Decka, Pluto has been considered a planet all our lives. We grew up with the mneumonic that helped us remember the nine planets. Of course it's an emotional thing with us. Something we were brought up to believe, something basic, 'There are nine planets in the solar system and they are....', has been taken away from us. People like to think there is some consistency in the world and if something as basic as the number of planets is inconsistent it jars us.
Maybe if your shallow. Me, I really don't care what they call Pluto. After all, its still there. Just becuase its not a planet doesn't mean there is no Pluto. Now, if scientists had come and said "There are now only 8 planets. Pluto has mysteriously dissapeared out of space", then you can start getting a little jarred and emotional. :D

Yes, Pluto is a planet.
Religious fundamentalists like the Director at the Museum of Natural History in New York do not like having a planet named after Pluto - lord of the underworld. If the 9th planet were named Jesus or Joseph or Mary this whole thing would not have happened and the new planetoids would have joined their larger partners.

Six of one, half dozen of another.
Astronomers aren't really scientists. They are observers.

Religious fundamentalists like the Director at the Museum of Natural History in New York do not like having a planet named after Pluto - lord of the underworld. If the 9th planet were named Jesus or Joseph or Mary this whole thing would not have happened and the new planetoids would have joined their larger partners.

It's a conspiracy!

wow poor Pluto what is Mickey going to do know.
Ok all kidding aside. lol

here is a bit of a update with all of this a few links for info purposes.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/24/pluto.ap/index.html


then just a few days ago

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/01/0412215

Yeah I just can't picture pluto not being in the solar system. lol

Pluto is an odd rock .. orbiting our solar system.. all alone and dormant.. we're a friendly solar system. Jupiter is the daddy, Mars and Venus are the annoying brothers and sisters, the asteroid belt is the auntie (so annoying!), the Sun is the mother (flaming with anger ... time of the month and stuff. :p)

*shrugs*

I say we keep it. :D Expand our solar system. :D

People Aren't Taking this Lying Down....!!!


Details of a "Protest for Pluto" rally:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/09/02/pluto.protest.ap/index.html

And here locally, a similar protest was held at the local planetarium, attended mostly by old coots like myself, but there were many young folk there too.
One kid carried a sign reading--"God Loves Pluto Too".

You haven't heard the last of this yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe if your shallow. Me, I really don't care what they call Pluto.

Seems you're the shallow one, not caring. While it is not a life altering thing to drop Pluto as a planet it is something that non-shallow people can care about. I guess you are too busy worrying about important things like, how to get into that cool club and what Justin Timberlake's next hit song will be, Real Sorceror. I wish I was a deep as you are.

Seems you're the shallow one, not caring. While it is not a life altering thing to drop Pluto as a planet it is something that non-shallow people can care about. I guess you are too busy worrying about important things like, how to get into that cool club and what Justin Timberlake's next hit song will be, Real Sorceror. I wish I was a deep as you are.
:rolleyes: Justin Timberlake never had a hit song to begin with, so he can hardly have a "next" one. He will always suck.
Like I said, Pluto is still there and it's still named "Pluto". The only difference is that they're calling it a "Dwarf Planet". Oh noes!

I think Saturn is a cool looking planet.
Sorry about pluto, seems like some astronomers need to get a life.

Here you go, Dan...taken from Voyager in 1981.


http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/6332/saturncq3.jpg

Thanks Rendova, beautiful photo.

Funny stuff..."size doesn't matter"...

Do these people really have nothing better to squabble over?

How about trying to figure out if the Big Bang is a viable theory?

http://www.physorg.com/news76314500.html

Lets just imagine that the planets or whatever huge mass out there has a conscious (mind), do you believe that these conscious masses give a damn about what those miserable humans on Earth think and/or decide what to call them?
F...!, no!
Now, I would certainly suggest that ALL the right wingers get on board a huge space ship and go to Pluto and colonize it, and be happy ever after with their archaic minds.

If the term planet is precisely defined and Pluto does not fit that definition then it shouldn't be called a planet. In this case it was mistakenly called a planet because not enough was known about it and it seemed to fit the definition. So in order to successfully protest, the definition of planet will have to be changed. Then there might be too many planets. It's a simple matter. Either you have eight planets or you have possibly way more than 10. Or you propose an exception to be made specifically for Pluto to be called a planet without fully qualify by def. I don't think astronomers would be very fond of that. One of the important things they do is to classify space objects precisely by def.

Thanks for that SCHOLARLY input, Perfesser---what's your favorite planet?
Mine's the sun.:flowers:
Outside of the obvious, please tell me you were just being clever.

The sun isn't a planet - it's a star.

Outside of the obvious, please tell me you were just being clever.

The sun isn't a planet - it's a star.

That's a quote from SNL - specifically Will Ferrell imitating Harry Carey.

That skit with Will Farrell as Harry Carey and Jeff Goldblum as the astrophysicist from Cal Tech was one of the funniest ever.

The look of bewilderment on Jeff's face when "Harry Carey" asked and then answered the question "What's your favorite planet?" made me laugh for an hour.

i cant wait till jupiter becomes a star...they say if enough meteorites(or meteors...whatever...cant remember what one is correct) add to jupiters mass (roughly a little more then the combined mass of earth and its moon) it could possible collapse upon itself and become a star.... wont that be a wonderfull year... i believe it would only hit red dwarf status was what i read..but this was circa 1997 when i was into earth science and space stuff... i got back into chemostry the year later...hehe..so i may be misquoting and stuff...but hey..look into it more and im sure im close :-)

Seems like that's not gonna happen, sorry. But hey, why would it make any difference to you if Jupiter becomes a star? It's just a name, afterall.

"Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is only
0.001 masses solar. This makes the smallest possible stars roughly 80
times more massive than Jupiter; that is, Jupiter would need something
like 80 times more mass to become even one of the smallest and feeblest
red dwarfs. Since there is nothing approaching 79 Jupiter masses of
hydrogen floating around anywhere in the solar system where it could be
added to Jupiter, there is no feasible way that Jupiter could become a
star."

http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/4218/plutoportraitsr0.jpg

well like i said..that was what i heard a long time ago...so i guess my information was faulty.. heck dont we all get faulty information now and then

Favorite planet: Any with any kind of living creature but humans.

Who cares if anyone calls it a planet or whatever to that unreachable (nowadays) rock or piece of ice far far from this planet. Whatever it is won't change in anyway.

Favorite planet: Any with any kind of living creature but humans.
Gee, a "socialist" who's a misanthrope - go figure...:rolleyes:
Who cares if anyone calls it a planet or whatever to that unreachable (nowadays) rock or piece of ice far far from this planet. Whatever it is won't change in anyway.
You didn't like science (or English, for that matter) much as a child, did you?

I mean, seriously - if that's what you honestly believe, then it pains me to inform an adult that he has the intellectual curiosity of a mongoloid.

pluto lost its planetary status because astronomers were trying to make a definition for "planet" There was a planet, that they didn't beleive was a planet, outside our solar system that was bigger than Pluto. So they made Pluto a dwarf planet, and not for nothing. A dwarf planet CAN orbit the sun AND it can have a moon. (Or a dwarf moon?)


~Sean

Or even a moonlet.:)

I say we keep it. :D Expand our solar system. :D

yes! lets gather a galactic strike force to conquer other planets and add them to our solar system!