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Mickey has got to be PISSED!
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/0....ap/index.html
Pluto gets the boot
Pluto no longer a planet, say astronomers
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.
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.
Although astronomers applauded after the vote, Jocelyn Bell Burnell -- a specialist in neutron stars from Northern Ireland who oversaw the proceedings -- urged those who might be "quite disappointed" to look on the bright side.
"It could be argued that we are creating an umbrella called 'planet' under which the dwarf planets exist," she said, drawing laughter by waving a stuffed Pluto of Walt Disney fame beneath a real umbrella.
The decision by the prestigious international group spells out the basic tests that celestial objects will have to meet before they can be considered for admission to the elite cosmic club.
For now, membership will be restricted to the eight "classical" planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
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.
Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets," similar to what long have been termed "minor planets." The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun -- "small solar system bodies," a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites.
It was unclear how Pluto's demotion might affect the mission of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which earlier this year began a 91/2-year journey to the oddball object to unearth more of its secrets.
The decision at a conference of 2,500 astronomers from 75 countries was a dramatic shift from just a week ago, when the group's leaders floated a proposal that would have reaffirmed Pluto's planetary status and made planets of its largest moon and two other objects. (Watch why some think planet size doesn't matter -- 3:39)
That plan proved highly unpopular, splitting astronomers into factions and triggering days of sometimes combative debate that led to Pluto's undoing.
Now, two of the objects that at one point were cruising toward possible full-fledged planethood will join Pluto as dwarfs: the asteroid Ceres, which was a planet in the 1800s before it got demoted, and 2003 UB313, an icy object slightly larger than Pluto whose discoverer, Michael Brown of the California Ins ute of Technology, has nicknamed "Xena."
Charon, the largest of Pluto's three moons, is no longer under consideration for any special designation.
Brown was pleased by the decision. He had argued that Pluto and similar bodies didn't deserve planet status, saying that would "take the magic out of the solar system."
"UB313 is the largest dwarf planet. That's kind of cool," he said.
Mickey has got to be PISSED!
Vertically challenged, talk about an ego blow. When the ship gets there in 9 and a half years the aliens are going to blow it up for the downgrade.
My universe no longer makes sense.
Nerds need to be able to do something.
This is just the kind of insult that will provoke an attack from the Plutonians. We are so screwed.
Apparently this DID provoke a Wiki-war...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto
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Pluto. I'm glad it's not a ing planet anymore.
Well, this means we'll need all new neumonics to remember the planets.
m v e m s j u n
Remember kids:
My violent elderly mother spanks junkies using needles.
Many vaginas' extremely musty smells jam up noses.
My very eager monkey steals Java upgraded notebooks.
Does this mean I can name it after somebody?
Sincerely,
The Name A Star After Somebody Guy
They don't have interplanetary weapons of mass destruction. Learn from Iraq.
u cant do that dammit... how im i supposed to just forget about ing pluto? how bout all the ing science tests i failed bacause i couldnt remember neumonics "my mother blah blah pizza my in her mouth columbian bukkake blah" or whatever it was that the teacher kept blabbing about.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Say what ?
Plutos such a poser.
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