Posted on 08/29/2006 9:09:46 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The IAU chose not to take that route, at least this time around, leaving us with the mess we have today, the result of the collision of scientific discoveries about our solar system with the expectation from popular culture about the number of planets the solar system "should" have. Abandoning the generic term "planet" for several more specific classes might not seem very simple or elegant, but has the advantage of offering a better description of the nature of our solar system, and potentially other solar systems as well. Winning the general public over to such a system might be difficult, but as the last few days have shown, even a modest change like demoting Pluto will generate a strong reaction. If we're going to raise the ire of the public by reclassifying the solar system, we might as well do it for a good cause, and with a strong scientific basis.
(Excerpt) Read more at thespacereview.com ...
The new IAU definition reclassifies Pluto (illustrated above with its largest moon, Charon, as seen from one of its newly-discovered smaller moons) as a "dwarf planet", a decision that has raised the hackles of many in the astronomical community and the general public. (credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI))
Pluto will always(in my book) be the ninth planet in our solar system.
:')
In other news: millions of idiots will still read tomorrow's horoscope.
The L.A. Times ran a headline: "If it's round and orbity, it's a planet." Beside the fact that this makes the Moon a planet, look up 'orbity' in your OED and observe the depths of the Times' ignorance...
This reminds me of nothing so much as the removal of St. Christopher from the canon merely because there is absolutely no historical basis to believe any such person ever lived. Fussy, fussy, fussy. At least Pluto exists. So he ate meat on Friday, once, for Cripe's sake. Is that any reason to decanonize him, if he asks for forgiveness?
I figure all those Soviet era artists employed airbrushing out Trotsky and other "non-persons" can find work airbrushing Pluto out of old text books and encyclopedias.
Well put.
Pluto won't be reviewing the Mayday parade this year, he's staying in his dacha on the Black Sea spending time with his grandchildren.
There are millions of kids simply heartbroken over Pluto. I personally know several who cry themselves to sleep every night over Pluto's fate. Evidently, the people in the IAU are heartless and they probably want to take away school lunches and strip the elderly of their social security. How could they do this to an innocent, defenseless planet? John Kerry would NEVER let this happen. If he was to run again on a platform based on restoring Pluto to its rightful place of honor in our solar system, he would win in a landslide.
Another retroactive Kerry campaign promise! Pluto would never have been decanonized if John Kerry were elected president.
Planetary Politics: Protecting Pluto
Space dot com | 7 September 2006 | Edna DeVore
Posted on 09/09/2006 11:17:25 AM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1698389/posts
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