Twelve planets?

[nrc]

Now wait just a ding dang minute here! Twelve planets? Over 50 more candidates in the hopper? :saywhat:

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/08/16/nine_no_longer_panel_declares_12_planets/

An asteroid 1/3 the diameter of the moon is now a planet? This is why foriegners shouldn't be allowed to do Science.
http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Third_Party_Graphic/2006/08/16/1155725464_7597.gif

[cameraman]

Ceres was a planet before it got demoted.

At least it looks like a planet, even if it is a little one.

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/127040main_image_feature_404_ys_full.jpg

And 2003 UB313 has its own moon and is bigger than Pluto so I can't see any problem with that. Not too sure about calling it Xena tho'

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/Xenaandgabrielle.jpg

[Gnam]

Affirmative action for asteroids.

Is "planetoid" a real classification? If it is, that's how they should classify these large rocks with funky orbits. Bigger than an asteroid, smaller than a planet.

[racer2c]

Plutons.

[Lizzerd]

I just read recently that some were wanting to declassify Pluto as a planet. WTF?

[cameraman]

I just read recently that some were wanting to declassify Pluto as a planet. WTF?

That is the other side of the fight. It is a lot like PT fans vs PT haters

[Gnam]

Over 50 more candidates in the hopper?
How many Greek gods are left?

[Wabbit]

If it has a moon, it should be classified as a planet. If it doesn't have a moon, they need to set rules.

[extramundane]

That is the other side of the fight. It is a lot like PT fans vs PT haters

Yeah, well, if Pluto would stop leaving its own orbit to crash into Neptune... Neptune's out of moons!

[Dr. Corkski]

Plutofanatics.com

:gomer:

[SteveH]

French Lick IN was the home of Pluto Water (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto_Water) :gomer:

[Opposite Lock]

Affirmative action for asteroids.



:rofl: :thumbup:

[TKGAngel]

How can a moon be a planet when a planet orbits the sun and a moon orbits a planet? :confused:

[KLang]

Affirmative action for asteroids.


:laugh:

Weird, just the other day the headlines were that Pluto was to be demoted.


How can a moon be a planet when a planet orbits the sun and a moon orbits a planet?

I think they figured out that Pluto and Charon actually orbit each other.

[oddlycalm]

I think they figured out that Pluto and Charon actually orbit each other. See, that's just wrong... :gomer:

oc

[RichK]

I'm truly disappointed in the lack of Uranus jokes so far in this thread. :(

[extramundane]

I'm truly disappointed in the lack of Uranus jokes so far in this thread. :(

Dear Sir,

I agree wholeheartedly.


Sincerely,
Dan Wheldon

[datachicane]

I just read recently that some were wanting to declassify Pluto as a planet. WTF?

Yep. Eight planets. Pluto was a mistake- it's just one of the nearest rocks in the Kuiper Belt. Let Pluto in, and there's thousands more in the Kuiper waiting to be included. Pluto's inclusion is a historical artifact of the state of astronomical knowledge in 1930- if we accepted it as such, and acknowledged its planetary status as merely traditional rather than factual, we'd have no problem, but since god only know how many others are actually larger than Pluto, we can't very well exclude them if we stretch the definition to include Pluto. We might as well include the bloody asteroids.

Eight planets. It's the right thing to do.

[SteveH]

I'm truly disappointed in the lack of Uranus jokes so far in this thread. :(

If the French Lick set up didn't start it, nothing will. :D

[EDwardo]

Never mind about that Pluto thing




August 24, 2006

PLUTO was looking more and more like a goner on Tuesday as astronomers meeting in Prague continued to debate the definition of a planet. "I think that today can go down as the day we lost Pluto," an astronomy professor at Williams College in Massachusetts, Jay Pasachoff, said in an email from the Czech capital. Under fire from other astronomers and the public, a committee appointed by the International Astronomical Union revised a definition proposed last week that would have expanded the number of official planets to 12, locking in Pluto as well as the newly discovered Xena in the outer solar system, the asteroid Ceres and Pluto's largest moon, Charon. The new definition now offered would set up a three-tiered classification scheme with eight "planets" and a group of "dwarf-planets" that would include Pluto, Ceres and Xena.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/pluto-on-the-outer-in-space-debate/2006/08/23/1156012614024.html

[coolhand]

3rd grade projects are getting much much harder now :gomer:

[IlliniRacer]

See, that's just wrong... :gomer:

oc

HATER!!

You're probably one of those Parents for Planet Decency people. ;)

[devilmaster]

3rd grade projects are getting much much harder now :gomer:

Hell, i'm wondering how i'm going to be able to listen to Interplanet Janet anymore.... all those years that she lied to me.... :flame:

[eiregosod]

I found this :gomer:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c74/theborderfox/galaxy.jpg

[KLang]

I guess it's offical now. Down to 8 planets.

Link (http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/24/pluto.ap/index.html)

[racer2c]

It's just more of the US hater club comin' down on the empire. Pluto was the only planet discovered by an American (sure the rest were discovered before there was an 'America', but that's not the point! :mad: )
Let's start a petition! We'll fight this until this injustice until it's made right again!
On second thought, I never cared for that planet anyway. :gomer:

[datachicane]

:rofl:

[dando]

Oh boy. Someone wanna break the news to this guy:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

:gomer: :D

-Kevin

[oddlycalm]

Oh boy. Someone wanna break the news to this guy:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

:gomer: :D Bet they're glad now that they fought for funding to make sure we are first to get to a dwarf non-planet 9yrs from now.... :gomer:

Oh well, at least that Ceres/Xena business is out the window. Think of what that would have meant for grade school science teachers who already have to deal with the giggles over Uranus. :laugh:

oc

[KLang]

Oh well, at least that Ceres/Xena business is out the window.

Not so fast (http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.nl.html?pid=20725)

This debate will probably take decades. :laugh: