Hilander72 Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 They are digging a big and very deep hole... (narrow minded politicians are involved) The Definition of a Planet is going to be revised quite soon I think. Planets are being discovered at an increasing rate orbiting other stars besides our own. To date all of these are large planets, but the methods of detection are improving and soon they'll be able to detect tiny planets and some of these are most certainly going to be small rocky planets. And... The name "plutons" is awful, they should change that asap to something more dignifying. May I suggest Minor Planet or Rogue Popsicle. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mrthumps Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 Well, as of today it's a moot point since they've decided that Pluto is no longer a planet. Pluto no longer classified as a planet the gist is that leading astromers of the IAU voted this week and now have taking us down to 8 offical planets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TetsuoShima Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 Ah, nice, so they made the right decision after all. I'm quite happy with this arrangement. :) edit: you know, this article popped up on another site too and something hit me (auch), no really: Pluto does not clear the neighborhood around its orbit because its orbit overlaps with its much larger neighbor Neptune. This therefore disqualifies it from planet status according to the IAU. Why doesn't this disqualify Neptune as a planet? Neptune doesn't clear Pluto from its path either... Either the 'definition' I read was a little short (they might have left out a few minor details explaining my 'problem') or they're making arbitrary decisions again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilander72 Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 Well they made an effort to exclude Pluto... :( ...who cares if Neptune is a planet or not. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilander72 Posted June 14, 2007 Share Posted June 14, 2007 Pluto status suffers another blow Pluto has suffered yet another blow to its status. Not only has it been demoted from planet to "dwarf planet", research now shows that it cannot even lay claim to being the biggest of these. A study has confirmed that the dwarf planet Eris - whose discovery prompted Pluto's relegation from planet to dwarf - outranks it in mass. The US team, whose work is published in the journal Science, described their finding as "Pluto's last stand". Eris: - First seen in 2003 but finally recognised in 2005. - Given the designation 2003 UB313 until formal naming - Highly elongated orbit around Sun lasting 560 years - Currently positioned some 14.5 billion km from Earth - Has extremely frigid surface temperature of -250C - May have thin atmosphere when closest to Sun - Is accompanied by a satellite called Dysnomia Eris = 2003 UB313 Read the rest at the source: BBC News ------------------------ I've locked the poll, since Pluto is no longer a planet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TetsuoShima Posted June 14, 2007 Share Posted June 14, 2007 That linky seems to be a bit dead. LOL Good for me, that means I'm not the only one who forgets to put the url's in links. :D Anyway, I was allways a strong opponent of the planetary status of Pluto, so I don't mind if they demote it really and why not give it another kick when it's down allready. haha gotta love science, no room for inanimate object morals. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now