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Pluto Rivals Earth in Geological Complexity
crev.info ^ | 9-14-18 | David F. Coppedge

Posted on 09/14/2018 10:51:40 AM PDT by fishtank

Pluto Rivals Earth in Geological Complexity

September 14, 2018 | David F. Coppedge

Call it what you will, Pluto is a planet of surprises. Its active geology is second only to Earth’s, say two planetary scientists.

What were they thinking? (A-hyulk)

There’s another push to re-classify Pluto as a planet. According to Science Daily, Philip Metzger of the University of Central Florida thinks the IAU (International Astronomical Union) thinks they acted a bit goofy when they downgraded Pluto to “dwarf planet” in 2006. They used a “sloppy definition” that a body must “clear its orbit” to be considered a true planet. “They didn’t say what they meant by clearing their orbit,” Metzger retorts. “If you take that literally, then there are no planets, because no planet clears its orbit.”

But Metzger’s preferred definition – a body that is large enough to become spherical in shape – opens the door to classifying all kinds of moons as planets. Surprisingly, that’s OK with Metzger and his colleague Kirby Runyon of Johns Hopkins University. He thinks calling Titan and Ganymede “planets” is “functionally useful,” and has historical precedent, too.

This academic debate means little in the long run. Bodies are what they are, regardless of what humans call them. It just goes to illustrate a philosopher’s critique of taxonomy in science: Do scientists really carve nature at its joints? How arbitrary are human classification schemes? What are the costs and benefits of lumpers and splitters? Do names of reference confuse or enlighten? Is one culture’s classification scheme “better” than another’s?

(Excerpt) Read more at crev.info ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: pluto
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To: Jamestown1630

An hour and 27 minutes...

Can you sum up in a sentence or two, please?


21 posted on 09/14/2018 11:40:43 AM PDT by treetopsandroofs
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To: messierhunter

I personally assumed the /s was implied.


22 posted on 09/14/2018 11:42:15 AM PDT by treetopsandroofs
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To: fishtank

We must fight back against those reactionary Sizists!!!


23 posted on 09/14/2018 11:42:53 AM PDT by Shady (We WON the Battle, Now let's WIN THE WAR!!!!)
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To: fishtank
Pluto follows a regular elliptical orbit around the sun and has enough mass to form a sphere.

Size is irrelevant. It's a planet.

24 posted on 09/14/2018 11:47:39 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
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To: fishtank

And Saturn's moon is wll camouflaged.

25 posted on 09/14/2018 12:06:51 PM PDT by seawolf101 (Member LES DEPLORABLES)
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To: treetopsandroofs
It’s basically a humorous but interesting summary of his book by the same name, including how his discovery of the largest trans-Neptunian object, Eris, resulted in ‘killing Pluto’ in terms of planet status . From his Amazon biography:

“He specializes in the discovery and study of bodies at the edge of the solar system. Among his numerous scientific accomplishments, he is best known for his discovery of Eris, the largest object found in the solar system in 150 years, and the object which led to the debate and eventual demotion of Pluto from a real planet to a dwarf planet.”

https://www.amazon.com/How-Killed-Pluto-Why-Coming/dp/0385531109/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536951317&sr=8-1&keywords=how+i+killed+pluto+and+why+it+had+it+coming
26 posted on 09/14/2018 12:10:38 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it")
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To: seawolf101
Better view of Iapetus

Notice the many unexplained near-perfect hexagonal craters ... True surface color is a brownish bronze. The unexplained moon-encircling ridge is on the geologic equator, 20 miles wide and 8 miles high.
27 posted on 09/14/2018 12:24:08 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: Jamestown1630

Keiichi pointed and asked, “What’s that one?”

His guide expkained, “That is the dwarf planet Ceres. It was formerly called an asteroid. It is the largest object in the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter.”

“A dwarf planet? It’s not an asteroid anymore?”

“No. It was because around 2007 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) had a little problem. You see, astronomers kept discovering more and more large objects floating in the Kuiper belt, the region of space beyond the planet Neptune. Astronomers have so far found over 1000 of these Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), including some rather large ones, such as Sedna, Quaoar, Orcus, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris. That last one, Eris, is actually larger than Pluto itself. So the number of planets in the solar system threatened to grow ever larger: 10 planets, 12, 13? Where do you stop?”

“Yeah, sounds like a problem. What did the IAU do?”

“They busted Pluto down to ‘dwarf planet’ status. A dwarf planet is defined as a solar body whose gravity is large enough to mold itself into a spherical shape, and it is not the moon of another satellite, but it is not large enough to clear out all of the debris in its own orbit. Pluto is basically just another Kuiper Belt object. A dwarf planet.”

“So that’s why Ceres got promoted from asteroid to dwarf planet too, because it’s large enough to be round.”

“So round is the determining factor?”

“Yep.”


28 posted on 09/14/2018 12:26:22 PM PDT by Gideon7
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To: Gideon7

I don’t have a ‘side’ in the fight; but it is interesting to me how so many of us were strangely disturbed to have our understanding of the planets, inculcated since childhood, all interfered-with.

Mike Brown actually received ‘hate mail’ over this ;-)


29 posted on 09/14/2018 12:37:57 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it")
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To: Jamestown1630

Thanks much!


30 posted on 09/14/2018 12:48:28 PM PDT by treetopsandroofs
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To: CivilWarBrewing
Nibiru was a major plot element in the recent “Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc.” cartoon.

I am not making this up....

31 posted on 09/14/2018 1:01:28 PM PDT by Simon Green ("Arm your daughter, sir, and pay no attention to petty bureaucrats.")
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To: PIF

It’s a seed. A cannabis seed.


32 posted on 09/14/2018 1:38:46 PM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason.)
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To: TigersEye

It’s a seed. A cannabis seed.


Nope. Try Again ... you are up against the ‘finest scientific minds’ Earth can find ... but the Death Star comparison is getting close ... remember the Death Star image was first, then years later the Cassini–Huygens probe snapped the photo .... which means ... ?


33 posted on 09/14/2018 1:45:06 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: PIF
... which means ... ?

That the truth is out there.

34 posted on 09/14/2018 1:50:28 PM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason.)
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To: webheart
Geology is the study of the earth (ge). Shouldn't the study of Pluto be plutonology?
35 posted on 09/14/2018 2:02:37 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Gideon7

So, if the earth is flat then it would not be a planet anymore...

36 posted on 09/14/2018 2:10:03 PM PDT by seawolf101 (Member LES DEPLORABLES)
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To: TigersEye

... which means ... ?

That the truth is out there.


The Truth fleet is maneuvering just outside of the Ort Cloud using Iapetus as an intel gathering device; the strike will be launched from there (they don’t want to get too close, just in case) soon. Then we will know the Truth ...


37 posted on 09/14/2018 2:12:35 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: fishtank

Those large objects are at the fringe of the solar system where the gravity of the sun is inadequate to pull them together.

Acretion however is relentless. Those small planet like objects will one day fall toeard the sun and be acreted into larger masses.


38 posted on 09/14/2018 2:13:23 PM PDT by bert ((KE. N.P. N.C. +12) Muller..... conspiracy to over throw the government)
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To: PIF
...the strike will be launched from there...

Skin that laser wagon, alien! See what happens. :)

39 posted on 09/14/2018 2:39:17 PM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason.)
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To: TigersEye

Laser are used for teaching youngsters the art of aiming. The fleet uses effector weapons mainly. The effectors have a range of just over 5 light years ... so you see they do not have to get too close to pull everything apart before they begin the CAM dusting (Compact Anti-Matter) which will break down the remaining rocks to molecules and the molecules to atom before the whole shebang totally disintegration - quite a sight I’m told ...

Hold tightly on to you laser weapon, point it at your head, and pulling the trigger .... that would spare you the painful and gory bits, but you’d miss the show ...


40 posted on 09/14/2018 3:32:37 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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