Pluto gets booted out of the family of planets!!!

[ShackO]

Will there be riots and demonstrations protesting Pluto's removal from the family of planets...........:spin

Solar System Shrinks with Pluto's Demotion (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5703014)



An illustration of Pluto. Credit: NASA, ESA and G. Bacon.
Enlarge
G. Bacon

This illustration shows the Pluto system from the surface of a nearby moon-like object. Pluto is the large disk. Charon, the system's only confirmed moon, is the smaller disk to the right of Pluto. NASA, ESA



Morning Edition, August 24, 2006 · Leading astronomers declare that Pluto is no longer a planet, shrinking the solar system from nine planets to eight.

Pluto was discovered in 1930. It lost its planetary status when the International Astronomical Union approved a definition for planets that Pluto fails to meet.

Pluto will now belong to a new category of "dwarf planets," similar to what long have been termed "minor planets."

Earlier this year NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft on a 9 1/2 year journey to Pluto. The probe will allow scientists to better understand the distant body.

[zeleni]

And that is not all.

The Earth has 3 more satelites. Beside the Moon we all know and love, in last 3 years they found 3 more.

Now nor horoscope nor moon calendar can be valid. What to do, what to do? ;)

[cheguevara]

fucking scientists. have nothing better to do than fuck up our solar system

[Spurminator]

Damned liberal activist/revisionist scientists.

[boutons_]

What does God say about this?
What has He revealed to the Southern Baptists about Pluto?
Surely His vote counts?

[zeleni]

Damned liberal activist/revisionist scientists.

:lmao

[Hook Dem]

Never liked Pluto anyway.........it was a Mickey Mouse planet. :lol

[sabar]

About time. It's like calling Rhode Island a state.

Alright bad example.

[velik_m]

It was long obvious that Pluto does not have enough "weight" in the planetary system, it was just a matter of time before he got kicked out.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Is there anything about this in Joseph Smith's golden tablets?

[boutons_]

BBC NEWS

Pluto vote 'hijacked' in revolt

By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News

A fierce backlash has begun against the decision by astronomers to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.

On Thursday, experts approved a definition of a planet that demoted Pluto to a lesser category of object.

But the lead scientist on Nasa's robotic mission to Pluto has lambasted the ruling, calling it "embarrassing".

And the chair of the committee set up to oversee agreement on a definition implied that the vote had effectively been "hijacked".

I have nothing but ridicule for this decision
Alan Stern, Southwest Research Institute

The vote took place at the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) 10-day General Assembly in Prague. The IAU has been the official naming body for astronomy since 1919.

Only 424 astronomers who remained in Prague for the last day of the meeting took part.

An initial proposal by the IAU to add three new planets to the Solar System - the asteroid Ceres, Pluto's moon Charon and the distant world known as 2003 UB313 - met with considerable opposition at the meeting. Days of heated debate followed during which four separate proposals were tabled.

Eventually, the scientists adopted historic guidelines that see Pluto relegated to a secondary category of "dwarf planets".

Drawing the line

Dr Alan Stern, who leads the US space agency's New Horizons mission to Pluto and did not vote in Prague, told BBC News: "It's an awful definition; it's sloppy science and it would never pass peer review - for two reasons.

"Firstly, it is impossible and contrived to put a dividing line between dwarf planets and planets. It's as if we declared people not people for some arbitrary reason, like 'they tend to live in groups'.

"Secondly, the actual definition is even worse, because it's inconsistent."

One of the three criteria for planethood states that a planet must have "cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit". The largest objects in the Solar System will either aggregate material in their path or fling it out of the way with a gravitational swipe.

Pluto was disqualified because its highly elliptical orbit overlaps with that of Neptune.

But Dr Stern pointed out that Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune have also not fully cleared their orbital zones. Earth orbits with 10,000 near-Earth asteroids. Jupiter, meanwhile, is accompanied by 100,000 Trojan asteroids on its orbital path.

These rocks are all essentially chunks of rubble left over from the formation of the Solar System more than four billion years ago.

"If Neptune had cleared its zone, Pluto wouldn't be there," he added.

Stern said like-minded astronomers had begun a petition to get Pluto reinstated. Car bumper stickers compelling motorists to "Honk if Pluto is still a planet" have gone on sale over the internet and e-mails circulating about the decision have been describing the IAU as the "Irrelevant Astronomical Union".

'Inconvenient arrangements'

Owen Gingerich chaired the IAU's planet definition committee and helped draft an initial proposal raising the number of planets from nine to 12.

The Harvard professor emeritus blamed the outcome in large part on a "revolt" by dynamicists - astronomers who study the motion and gravitational effects of celestial objects.


PLUTO - A 'DEMOTED PLANET'
Named after underworld god
Average of 5.9bn km to Sun
Orbits Sun every 248 years
Diameter of 2,360km
Has at least three moons
Rotates every 6.8 days
Gravity about 6% of Earth's
Surface temperature -233C
US probe (above) visits in 2015

"In our initial proposal we took the definition of a planet that the planetary geologists would like. The dynamicists felt terribly insulted that we had not consulted with them to get their views. Somehow, there were enough of them to raise a big hue and cry," Professor Gingerich said.

"Their revolt raised enough of a fuss to destroy the scientific integrity and subtlety of the [earlier] resolution."

He added: "There were 2,700 astronomers in Prague during that 10-day period. But only 10% of them voted this afternoon. Those who disagreed and were determined to block the other resolution showed up in larger numbers than those who felt 'oh well, this is just one of those things the IAU is working on'."

E-voting

Professor Gingerich, who had to return home to the US and therefore could not vote himself, said he would like to see electronic ballots introduced in future.

Alan Stern agreed: "I was not allowed to vote because I was not in a room in Prague on Thursday 24th. Of 10,000 astronomers, 4% were in that room - you can't even claim consensus.

"If everyone had to travel to Washington DC every time we wanted to vote for President, we would have very different results because no one would vote. In today's world that is idiotic. I have nothing but ridicule for this decision."

He added that he could not see the resolution standing for very long and did not plan to change any of the astronomy textbook he was currently writing.

But other astronomers were happy to see Pluto cast from the official roster of planets. Professor Iwan Williams, the IAU's president of planetary systems science, commented: "Pluto has lots and lots of friends; we're not so keen to have Pluto and all his friends in the club because it gets crowded.

"By the end of the decade, we would have had 100 planets, and I think people would have said 'my goodness, what a mess they made back in 2006'."

Shaking hands

Robin Catchpole, of the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, UK, said: "My own personal opinion was to leave things as they were. I met Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto, and thought, it's nice to shake hands with someone who discovered a planet.

"But since the IAU brought out the first draft resolution, I was rather against that because I thought it was going to be very confusing. So the best of the alternatives was to keep the eight planets as they are, and then demote Pluto. I think this is a far superior solution."

The need for a strict definition was deemed necessary after new telescope technologies began to reveal far-off objects that rivalled Pluto in size.

The critical blow for Pluto came with the discovery three years ago of an object currently designated 2003 UB313. Discovered by Mike Brown and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology, 2003 UB313 has been lauded by some as the "10th Planet".

Measurements by the Hubble Space Telescope show it to have a diameter of 3,000km (1,864 miles), a few hundred km more than Pluto. 2003 UB313 will now join Pluto in the dwarf planet category.

Mike Brown seemed happy with Pluto's demotion. "Eight is enough," he told the Associated Press, jokingly adding: "I may go down in history as the guy who killed Pluto."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/5283956.stm

Published: 2006/08/25 07:31:49 GMT

© BBC MMVI

[Ya Vez]

wow a boutons post without blaming republicans or bush.... it's going to F***ing snow..

[boutons_]

ya vez throws his rotten tomato, without any reference to the thread topic.

If Rove thought the Repug rabble could be roused with a pro-Pluto position, or if some OT verse mentioned God personally creating Pluto on Thursday afternoon at 4:30, Rove would have had his dirty tricksters over there subverting the election, had dubya and other Repug slimebags sliming the anti-Pluto crowd as faggots and terrorists, and yet another doomed, election-year litmus-test bill in Congress suppporting Pluto with a Constitutional amendment.

[cheguevara]

I'm just happy the're still a planet called uranus

[Hook Dem]

I'm just happy the're still a planet called uranus
Toilet paper and the starship Enterprise have a lot in common. They both go around uranus looking for Klingons. :lol

[Phenomanul]

I don't agree with the IAU's decision. We should have just added Xena as planet 10 (and named the other two objects) rather than make up fuzzy criteria to strip pluto of it's status as a planet.

Some people were opposed to adding another female planet to the fray... (Venus being the other) :lol :lol

[Taco]

I'm just happy the're still a planet called uranus

I think Pluto was demoted because it was smaller that Uranus :lol

[ShackO]

Anyone see a conspiracy here…………???? LOL

[ShackO]

I don't agree with the IAU's decision. We should have just added Xena as planet 10 (and named the other two objects) rather than make up fuzzy criteria to strip pluto of it's status as a planet.

Some people were opposed to adding another female planet to the fray... (Venus being the other) :lol :lol


I heard one of those others was going to be the gay planet… And that was the real reason…………
:rollin

[spurster]

Pluto sucks!

[Phenomanul]

How many millions of dollars will have to go in to update publically funded school-books because of this decision....

I'm sure sticky tabs won't cut it.

[sabar]

Only two people care about this. Okay three.

-Ordinary people that don't realize how out of place pluto is (tiny, erratic orbit, not a gas giant)
-The people working on the project to send a probe to Pluto
-The family of the guy that discovered Pluto

This thing is a giant rock. It should never have been a planet in the first place. About time it got fixed. For crying out loud the thing is a quarter the size of some of the smaller moons. Titan and Europa are more planets than Pluto ever was.


How many millions of dollars will have to go in to update publically funded school-books because of this decision....

Probably zero, since our education system seems to update textbooks as late as humanely possible. Seriously, you can't teach present day history with a 12 year old text book, but it happens anyways, at least here in Texas.

[Phenomanul]

Only two people care about this. Okay three.

-Ordinary people that don't realize how out of place pluto is (tiny, erratic orbit, not a gas giant)
-The people working on the project to send a probe to Pluto
-The family of the guy that discovered Pluto

This thing is a giant rock. It should never have been a planet in the first place. About time it got fixed. For crying out loud the thing is a quarter the size of some of the smaller moons. Titan and Europa are more planets than Pluto ever was.



Probably zero, since our education system seems to update textbooks as late as humanely possible. Seriously, you can't teach present day history with a 12 year old text book, but it happens anyways, at least here in Texas.


Pluto was pretty spherical by many standards... and had it's own moon. Not even Mercury has a moon. Pluto was much more than just a rock...

[ChumpDumper]

present day history[Insert public shool education joke here.]

[cherylsteele]

This thing is a giant rock. It should never have been a planet in the first place.
How it the world do you know it is "just a rock?" Not even the best scientists and astronomers know for sure.

Have you been there? What do you have to back up that statement?


not a gas giant
New flash:
Neither is Earth, Mars, Mercury, or Venus, I guess that rules out Earth being a planet according to you.

For crying out loud the thing is a quarter the size of some of the smaller moons
Here again so is Mercury...so it is not a planet?

Titan and Europa are more planets than Pluto ever was.
This is just a stupid statement.....Titan and Europa are in the gravitational pull of a larger body and orbit around that (Jupiter).
Pluto is a totally different situation.

[Obstructed_View]

Pluto is believed to be 70% rock and 30% ice. Its orbit is reverse from the planets, and from 1979 to 1999, it was the eighth planet from the sun. In addition to having a unique elliptical orbit, and not qualifying as either a terrestrial or gas giant planet, as every other planet in the solar system does, Pluto and Charon are by definition a double planet system, due to their orbit around a center of mass that lies between them.

The worst part is I now have to teach my three year old to stop after Neptune.

[jochhejaam]

Pluto is believed to be 70% rock and 30% ice. Its orbit is reverse from the planets, and from 1979 to 1999, it was the eighth planet from the sun. In addition to having a unique elliptical orbit, and not qualifying as either a terrestrial or gas giant planet, as every other planet in the solar system does, Pluto and Charon are by definition a double planet system, due to their orbit around a center of mass that lies between them.

The worst part is I now have to teach my three year old to stop after Neptune.
There used to be a line that was supposed help to you identify the Planets

Mary's Violet Eyes Made Johnny Stay Up Nights Planning.
They'll have to find a new one now.

[Obstructed_View]

There used to be a line that was supposed help to you identify the Planets

Mary's Violet Eyes Made Johnny Stay Up Nights Planning.
They'll have to find a new one now.
My kid knew the planets when he was two; I'd say that someone who needs a crutch to memorize eight planets shouldn't qualify for a driver's license. :)

[RandomGuy]

My kid new the planets when he was two; I'd say that someone who needs a crutch to memorize eight planets shouldn't qualify for a driver's license. :)

Heh, that's nothing, MY two year old could name 12 different makes of cars by their grill ornaments. He thought it was very cool that each one of those symbols had a name, and asked constantly after we parked at the playground we take him to. Made for a neat trick to show off to the guys. :lol

[Fillmoe]

Pluto >>>>>>>>>>>>> Earth you fucking beezys!

this is the worst news i have heard all day!

[MannyIsGod]

How it the world do you know it is "just a rock?" Not even the best scientists and astronomers know for sure.

Have you been there? What do you have to back up that statement?


New flash:
Neither is Earth, Mars, Mercury, or Venus, I guess that rules out Earth being a planet according to you.

Here again so is Mercury...so it is not a planet?

This is just a stupid statement.....Titan and Europa are in the gravitational pull of a larger body and orbit around that (Jupiter).
Pluto is a totally different situation.Pluto and Charon share a center of gravity they both orbit. Neither is an orbit around another. Pluto has an orbit much closer to that of a comet.

But really, in the end, does it matter what its called? The thing is closer to Kupier belt object - its a big comet - so what is the real effect of calling it what it is?

Damn, I can't believe I'm arguing this shit.

[cherylsteele]

Pluto and Charon share a center of gravity they both orbit. Neither is an orbit around another. Pluto has an orbit much closer to that of a comet.

But really, in the end, does it matter what its called? The thing is closer to Kupier belt object - its a big comet - so what is the real effect of calling it what it is?

Damn, I can't believe I'm arguing this shit.
I know that about the gravity part...this is a fairly recent discovery.

I grew up learning that there are 9 planets in the solar system...and now saying there are 8......that would be like saying there are 6 continents and now Australia is only an Island.


I was replying to sabar and his post where according to him/her alot more the of the planets would not be planets.

[boutons_]

I grew learning that the earth if flat ... now they are saying it is round ... that would be like saying the earth rotates around the sun.