Well, not really.



Quote:

Pluto is not a Planet, Astronomers say. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060824-pluto-planet.html news.nationalgeographic.com/news/images/thumbs/060824-pluto-planet_170.jpg Pluto has been voted off the island. The distant icy ball is no longer a true planet, according to a new definition of the term voted on by scientists today. Whoa! Pluto's dead," said astronomer Mike Brown, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, as he watched a Web cast of the vote. "There are finally, officially, eight planets in the solar system." In a move sure to generate controversy even as it forces textbooks to be rewritten, Pluto will now be dubbed a "dwarf planet." But it's no longer part of an exclusive club, since there would be more than 40 of these dwarfs, including the large asteroid Ceres and 2003 UB313, nicknamed Xena—a distant object slightly larger than Pluto discovered by Brown last year. Researchers voted on the definition at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Prague, in the Czech Republic. This group decides on the official names of all celestial bodies. The tough decision comes after a two-year search for a scientific definition of the word "planet." The term never had an official meaning before. In the new definition, to qualify as a full-fledged planet, an object orbiting the sun has to be large enough that it has become round due to the force of its own gravity, and it also has to dominate the neighborhood around its orbit. Pluto would be demoted, because it does not dominate its neighborhood. Charon, its large "moon," is about half the size of Pluto and orbits along with it. All the true planets are far larger than their moons.

Wow!  Those guys just destroyed a planet with a wave of their hands!  They're pretty powerful!

Downsizing is a pain in the butt.  Do you think they'll break the news to Pluto on Friday afternoon?  Of course, if downsizing is bad, just wait until they start outsourcing planets.  Before long, space rocks from outside our solar system will sneak in to take the orbits legal planets don't want.

So, I'm thinking it might make a great investment property!  Sooner or later, mass civil unrest will cause the consortium to upgrade Pluto to a planet once again, causing land values to soar!

-b0b
(...thinks this is further proof that everything we know is wrong.)

Not that suprising really, astronomers have been debating for forever whether or not Pluto constitutes itself as a Planet.  It's about time they sat down and decided one way or another.

I wonder how many years it will take for people to finally realize that our solar system only has 8 planets now though :)

like most people knew how many planets we had anyway

Briney why are you typing on the forums?  I thought you had a contact table to make for your good friend Wes.

Is this going to turn into the next Battlefield Earth?

See this is the problem I have with scienctists.  They say, "Well we don't really have a clear working definition of what a planet is."

Then they say, "But we know Pluto isn't a planet!"

It's like saying...I don't know what a mammal is...but I know a Dolphin with gills isn't one!

I also am not going to buy this ruling by "astronomers".  Who are these loft astro-men?  Are there 3 of them who say...naw...not anymore!  Be gone Pluto!

Also how will I end my pneumonic device:

Many Very Excited Mutts Jumped Swiftly Over Neighbor's...

Without Pluto I have no Porch!  There is nothing for those excited mutts to jump swiftly over!!!

I think scientists today are getting too big of a head of who they are.  They allow person feelings, poltics, and dogma into their jobs.  I thought they were against religion...not trying to start their own!

X
(Bah ha ha ha ha...Battlefield Earth!!!  Kinda like our Creationism Seminar...Ha ha ha ha!)

they just needed an excuse for why they are getting payed.  they come up with important facts like determining if Pluto is a planet.

Yanno, I swear I read an article a couple years back about astronomers discovering a tenth planet in the solar system.  Did that one disappear, too?

-b0b
(...ponders this conundrum.)

The body they found is called Xena, b0b, and along with the new defination, it classifies as a pluton, not a planet.

Nope you are correct there...but of course, like scientists of today they gave it some gay name and didn't stick with the Greek/Roman plan of naming.

Yes, they did name it Xena but only to be funny because it was a good sci-fi show.  I say, why ruin a good streak.  I'm a Christian and I don't mind them using a dead religion in naming.  I wouldn't want them to name it planet Jesus (alhough I bet the Mormons would love that).


Quote:

The ruling effectively settles a year-long controversy about whether the spherical body announced last year and informally named "Xena" would rise to planetary status. Though somewhat larger than Pluto, the body has been informally known as "Xena" since the formal announcement of its discovery on July 29, 2005 by Brown and his co-discoverers, Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory and David Rabinowitz of Yale University. Xena will now be known as the largest dwarf planet.

The question I have...if both Xena and Pluto are now dwarf planets...doesn't that mean they are still planets?  Isn't the size just an arbitrary variable.

Also, and most importantly, this entire talk about Pluto has done everything but one very important thing.  Instead of voting on whether or not Pluto is a planet, shouldn't they have decided the criteria for what consisted of a planet...or is that arbitrary too.

Because if we decided that only celestrial bodies that contain life are planets then aren't we just going back to the geocentric version of the universe (that is that the Earth is the center of the universe)?  Is it just me or does it sound more and more like this planet is trying to find a god again?

X

You left out one of the parts of the defnition Pat.  "It also must dominate the area around it."  Pluto does not dominate the gravitational field around itself.  It's moon Charon, does NOT orbit Plut, instead Charon orbits the sun and Pluto simply pulls the planet back and forth along the back side of it.

I'm not super familiar with Xena, but seems its classified as a Pluton, or Dwarf Planet, it probably doesn't have the gravitational pull to alter objects around it.

If you leave off that part of the definition, half the object in the solar system would be planets.

That's what I'm saying...we don't have a clear definition of what a planet is.  Why was Pluto classified as a planet first of all if it wasn't sure of it's properties?

X

Well thats why these guys got together.  Before there WAS no definition for the word Planet.  People just decided one way or the other.  It was cats marrying dogs, pure craziness.

Kinda a good thing they got together and made a scientific definition for the word, clears things up.

You also have to understand the "secondary intentions" of the original discoverers.  It's much cooler to say "I'm the scientist that discovered the ninth planet" than merely "I'm the guy who found Random Space Object #4,145,321."

-b0b
(...wink wink, nudge nudge.)