[PatrickHenry]

Uranus seems secure.

In other Plutonian news: Pluto's newest moons get names: Nix, Hydra.

[wolfcreek]

This is what happens when you let a lot of out-of-staters move in!

[wattojawa]

Well Pluto's tilted eccentric orbit is more like a comet's orbit than a planet's orbit and most likely it was originally one of Neptune's moons that somehow got free of Neptune's gravity.

[CrazyIvan]

But if we get rid of one planet, won't that effect the orbits of the others? If you're an astrologist will this mean a cut in pay? Less reliable horoscopes?

[N. Theknow]

Pluto Could Lose Planet Status

?????

That's just goofy.

[poobear]

Mickey and Goofy might have something to say about this!

[Doohickey]

This is clear bias against circumfrencially-challenged bodies. When do the protests start?

[Aquinasfan]

What is the nature or essence of a planet?

I like it when scientists argue in Aristotelian/Scholastic terms.

[clyde asbury]

Clyde Tombaugh was still quite a man.

[Tanniker Smith]

Okay, you tell her that she's being demoted.

[DannyTN]

Both definitions seem vague to me.

Re: star vs planet
if we think it's big enough to burn it's on matter, but isn't doing so? What if it's doing so but only on a very limited basis and doesn't look like a star?

Re: small end of planet
How round is round? We have mountains, does that mean our gravity isn't stronger than our material? Does an asteroid of fine particles that assumes a round shape qualify as a planet?

I think on the small end they should set a specific mass. On the large end, it should not be burning it's own material and it should be orbiting something.

What do we call a planet that's not orbiting a star? Is it still a planet?

[Sloth]

Interesting. Both Titan and Ganymede are larger than the planet Mercury...

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

I can see the headline in the NY Times: Pluto Stripped of Planetary Status; Women and Minorities Most Affected

[cynicalman]

I was dated a women, in college, who thought there were only 7 planets in the entire universe. 35 years later my friend, who sent me up with this blind date, still refers to her as "7 planet women". Maybe she was just ahead of her time.

[Maurice Tift]

Pluto not a planet!!! This is terrible!

Just yesterday, someone asked me if Goofy was really a dog?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

The 10th planet is nicknamed Xena until it is officially named.

Unfortunately, 2003 EL61 doesn't have a name yet.

[DustyMoment]

Pluto Could Lose Planet Status

Should we take up a collection to help Pluto maintain its status?? Is there a license or something that has to be renewed?

[Disambiguator]

This means I have to get a new moonbat non-sequitur bumper sticker: "US out of solar system".

[xp38]

What!?

[Tanniker Smith]

And the Intergalactic Union of Planets will be meeting to decide whether or not to move Earth from its Official Listing of Planent Dominated by Intelligent Lifeforms to its Official Listing of Planent Inhabited by Intelligent Lifeforms (if only for the dolphins, of course).

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Pluto's an undocumented planet. Just doing the rotating around the Sun that our Solar System other planets won't do.