INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: Doof on August 24, 2006, 12:58:03 pm
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I wonder what this sort of thing does to Astrology... :P
Pluto gets the boot
Pluto no longer a planet, say astronomers
Thursday, August 24, 2006; Posted: 10:27 a.m. EDT (14:27 GMT)
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto
is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar
system from nine planets to eight.
After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the
International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has
held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is -- and isn't --
a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since
Copernicus without one.
Although astronomers applauded after the vote, Jocelyn Bell Burnell -- a
specialist in neutron stars from Northern Ireland who oversaw the proceedings
-- urged those who might be "quite disappointed" to look on the bright side.
"It could be argued that we are creating an umbrella called 'planet' under
which the dwarf planets exist," she said, drawing laughter by waving a stuffed
Pluto of Walt Disney fame beneath a real umbrella.
The decision by the prestigious international group spells out the basic tests
that celestial objects will have to meet before they can be considered for
admission to the elite cosmic club.
For now, membership will be restricted to the eight "classical" planets in the
solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "a
celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its
self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly
round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."
Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with
Neptune's.
Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets," similar
to what long have been termed "minor planets." The definition also lays out a
third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun -- "small solar system
bodies," a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural
satellites.
It was unclear how Pluto's demotion might affect the mission of NASA's New
Horizons spacecraft, which earlier this year began a 91/2-year journey to the
oddball object to unearth more of its secrets.
The decision at a conference of 2,500 astronomers from 75 countries was a
dramatic shift from just a week ago, when the group's leaders floated a
proposal that would have reaffirmed Pluto's planetary status and made planets
of its largest moon and two other objects. (Watch why some think planet size
doesn't matter -- 3:39)
That plan proved highly unpopular, splitting astronomers into factions and
triggering days of sometimes combative debate that led to Pluto's undoing.
Now, two of the objects that at one point were cruising toward possible
full-fledged planethood will join Pluto as dwarfs: the asteroid Ceres, which
was a planet in the 1800s before it got demoted, and 2003 UB313, an icy object
slightly larger than Pluto whose discoverer, Michael Brown of the California
Institute of Technology, has nicknamed "Xena."
Charon, the largest of Pluto's three moons, is no longer under consideration
for any special designation.
Brown was pleased by the decision. He had argued that Pluto and similar bodies
didn't deserve planet status, saying that would "take the magic out of the
solar system."
"UB313 is the largest dwarf planet. That's kind of cool," he said.
from http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/24/pluto.ap/index.html
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Weeeellllllllllll it is smaller than our moon
First thought was 'but it orbits the sun' so it's got to go into the planet category, but I think they're right - otherwise, so much other flying junk would be defined as a planet
But you could get a really good argument goig with astrologers about it
Just spinning my wheels here, but couldn't you define a planet but the amount of gravitational influence it has
If you did, then I'd have to classify it as a planet - after all, that was how it was discovered ?
(SEE!!! I told you that your posts were always interesting ;D )
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Pluto gets the boot
I know, dang
My life is forever changed
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OT KingSparta - I love your posts - they are always so ambiguious that they always crack me up
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Hey, dlone. I love your posts, too. They're always so flattering. ;)
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Group hug?
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Since Pluto has the only solar orbit inclined more than a trivial amount to the eclipitic it's very likely not to have been formed in the proto disc like the rest of the planets which makes it easy to count it out...
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I for one am glad I can finally listen to Holst's The Planets without feeling like it was missing something.
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Carl Sagan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan
who died about 10 years ago always made space exploration interesting
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Pluto is dead. Long live Pluto.
(http://www.jriver.com/~jriver/2006/misc/Plutodog.gif)
http://lnx.ginevra2000.it/Disney/pluto_index.htm
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Pluto is dead. Long live Pluto.
http://lnx.ginevra2000.it/Disney/pluto_index.htm
A clear Disney IP Violation. They would not be impressed. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse_Protection_Act) ;) ;D
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We here at the "Friends of Pluto" are demanding that Pluto be reinstated to planetary status, have a manned or unmanned mission for closeup photos (this has NEVER happened, is it too ugly?), receive a full apology from the IAU, and above all quit with the Disney theme in spacial matters. 'Dwarf' planets indeed!
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We here at the "Friends of Pluto" are demanding that Pluto be reinstated to planetary status, have a manned or unmanned mission for closeup photos (this has NEVER happened, is it too ugly?), receive a full apology from the IAU, and above all quit with the Disney theme in spacial matters. 'Dwarf' planets indeed!
You may be closer than you think - there's kind of an arguement going off over there
<grin> Scientists in a hissy fit - you gotta love it
Clipboards at dawn!!
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have a manned or unmanned mission for closeup photos (this has NEVER happened, is it too ugly?)
Ummmm.... (http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/)
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In honour of the departed planet, maybe MC should include a Tribute-to-Pluto theatre view skin...