Pluto loses status as a planet

[Deleted]

Well, the one thing I'm certain of, that's arisen throughout all this, is how grateful I am they didn't have the internet when they decided the Earth revolved around the sun rather than the other way round. Could you imagine the hooplah?

[Kella]

And the time that scientists figured out that the Earth was round. I bet if they had had the internet we would still be made to think that it was flat. We would have a million Conspiracies floating around hiding it.

[Lix]

rilla said:

Well, there goes "My Very Excited Mother Just Saw Uncle Ned's Pigs"...

Maybe she's just very excited to see uncle ned....

[Wh|te Fyre]

gah! that's totally unfair! utterly rediculous! it's been a planet for [?] years! They're just going to change that? It has moons! It orbits the sun! 4%! MVEMJSUNP! *flashback of Saved By The Bell*! They can't do this! *sour grumble* So what, they discover a new planet and the old one goes out the window? PLUTO ISN'T A TELEVISION!

*realises the post made no sense* nice...

[Siryn]

im just confused over the 'Charon' thing -its Pluto's moon but someone wanted to make that a planet too?

[Wh|te Fyre]

it doesn't orbit around the sun! it's not a planet! *sticks to firm belief on what a planet is*

[Siryn]

lol!! i know that, but was that true? did someone wanna make it a planet too?

[Kella]

I thought that Charon was Jupiters moon? And they want to make it a planet because of its size. They also wanted to make an asteroid a planet too which is completely stupid.

[Cat-Eyes]

Can't we just kind of stick to 'It definately orbits the sun, doesn't just go flying around any way it feels like or orbiting something else that is orbiting the sun, therefore it is a planet' ?

Imagine being a little kid who learnt the planets like last week and then suddenly your teacher comes in one morning going 'Remember how we said there were nine planets and we all started building our models of the solar system? Well, turns out Pluto got kicked out, so we're all going to have to start again...'

Also, you guys are being very anti-progress, aren't you? Next time we discover something big it'll be 'You can't do that, cause I learnt it the other way!'

Poor Pluto...

[Siryn]

i agree -and yes, poor pluto etc. i just think it would be really funny if people went overboard with this 'criteria' business so much so that Earth didn't even class as a planet.

oh, and the thing about making some asteroid a planet too...Pluto is practically an asteroid isnt it...? apart from the size of it?

clearly i dont know heaps on the subject.

[Min]

Anti progress to me seems more like reducing the size of the solar system

All this is making me wonder, too, what's the deal with the asteroid belt? Was it once a planet..? And they want to make Ceres a planet too...?? Gah, messy.

*tries to be optimistic now*

[Siryn]

thats true! the belt is a smooshed planet! it would be strange if that were to happen to one our (other) planets in this lifetime, and we would HAVE to accept it.

[Cat-Eyes]

But it's obviously not a planet anymore, is it?

I think it would be quite funny if we had to rule out Earth as being a planet to fit in with some criteria we'd made. 'Whoops...'

[Deleted]

I think the Asteroid belt could have been a planet, but never actually was one. Something to do with Jupiter (its gravity, I think) stopped all the smaller asteroids from forming together when they were in their molten state. And I'm pretty sure that not only would we just have to accept a smooshed planet, we'd probably all be dead from the release of that much energy, so there would be no scientists left to debate over planetary classification. ...Which, you know, might not be such a bad thing. ;D

[Dark One]

Thats right Galli, Jupiters gravity stopped a planet forming in the space between itself and Mars

They were considering making Ceres a planet because one of the criteria of planet status is that it has to have sufficient gravity to create a spherical shape

[Kangaruth]

Charon is actually pretty much the same size as Pluto, but the original photographs couldn't distunguish between them. It's a binary system - they orbit each other.

I think they should have added the new planets - and called the new one Rupert.

On mnemonics, one of my lecturers made us make up our own for the laws of thermodynamics. Mine was Gandalf Pegs Hobbits' Socks Under Very Fine Thimbles. I forget what it meant now, though...

[Roland]

I believe the issue was that Charon was bigger than Pluto. There are also apparently other objects out there that may be bigger as well that are orbiting...

I saw one quote that said that if they did in fact change the rules, there might be twenty planets eventually, as technology gets better and we can detect the size of things further away.

But hey, meh, change is as good as a holiday right? Besides as long as WE remember Pluto, it will still be a planet

[Dark One]

Charon is smaller than Pluto, but one of the recently discovered Kupier Belt objects was bigger than Pluto

[Cat-Eyes]

I wonder how long it'd take the message to reach Pluto. Imagine if there were people out there, who in like 10 years or something, finally found ou they'd been demoted to Dwarf Planet.

I'll stop now

[Cookie Lover]

galligaskins said:

How come everyone else was taught a planetary mnemonic that made sense? My grade three teacher taught us: "My Very Energetic Ma Just Sat Up Nee Pa" which sounded like he started out with good intentions at making a memorable sentence, but just gave up towards the end. Although I can't really complain because my Periodic table mnemonic was "High Heels Like Betty Bought Can Not Occupy French Neanderthals." ;D

Just a random note on the periodic table, I was taught the symbols for the first twenty by memorising them as a really long word. hhelibebknofnenamgalsipsclarka

I remember the word, but not the spelling. The double 'h' at the begining in pronounced huh-he

[esspess]

gahh this is outrageous pluto was always my favorite planet...what am i supposed to say now..pluto is may fav demoted planet/dwarf planet/asteroid/large rock thingy etc.... my poor poor pluto i still love you!

[Siryn]

llama said:

galligaskins said:

How come everyone else was taught a planetary mnemonic that made sense? My grade three teacher taught us: "My Very Energetic Ma Just Sat Up Nee Pa" which sounded like he started out with good intentions at making a memorable sentence, but just gave up towards the end. Although I can't really complain because my Periodic table mnemonic was "High Heels Like Betty Bought Can Not Occupy French Neanderthals." ;D

Just a random note on the periodic table, I was taught the symbols for the first twenty by memorising them as a really long word. hhelibebknofnenamgalsipsclarka

I remember the word, but not the spelling. The double 'h' at the begining in pronounced huh-he

i learned it as a really big long word too! everyone else seems to have an easier way to remember -i wish i knew those ways when i was in school!

i learned the planets as: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.
i guess i could change it to: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos.

[Dark One]

cateyes said:

I wonder how long it'd take the message to reach Pluto. Imagine if there were people out there, who in like 10 years or something, finally found ou they'd been demoted to Dwarf Planet.

I'll stop now

I'm not sure about Pluto, but our Sun is 8 light-minutes away. Basicaly, if the sun suddenly dissapeared we wouldn't find opurselves in darkness till about 8 minutes later

[Roland]

Oh what a sunny day here in Aus....


ARGH! Who turned out the light?

[Dark One]

not just the light. it would suddenly get bitterly cold.

Have you ever noticed the temperature change during an eclipse?