OT: Pluto Not A Planet!

[Atrocities]

Its true, Pluto is no longer considered a planet persay.

Link (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/51606)
NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/24/science/space/25pluto.html?ex=1172030400&en=cfe4d03207c823f2&ei= 5087&excamp=GGGNplutoplanet)

Today they say Pluto is NOT, repeat, NOT a plant now. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[Slick]

Imagine all the text books that are now wrong...

[Captain Kwok]

Slick said:
Imagine all the text books that are now wrong...

Burn them all!

It's a sad day for Plutonians.

[Atrocities]

What exactly is a darf planet and how will that relate to SEIV? Is it smaller than a tiny planet? Will we have to update all of the stellor files? Oh and poor Fyron, I fear an update for FQM and FQM D is needed now.

Darf Planets... ROTFLMAO

[Caduceus]

Science textbooks are always out of date by the time they are published anyway.

[Kamog]

Well, Pluto being demoted I think is better than making Charon into a planet like they were proposing earlier.

Maybe oneday they'll discover another planet beyond Pluto and bring the total up to 9 again, though that's unlikely.

[Azselendor]

Nah, we'll just take Chauron, Pluto, and a few old russian sats and duct tape it together to get the mass required for a planet.

[Renegade 13]

Seems to me like this is one big beaurocratic screw up.

The IAU put together a special committee to define the word "planet" two and a half years ago!

Several days ago they release what they finally came up with, after two and a half years of painstaking (yeah right) debate and research...and what happens? A few astronomers get together, slap a different definition together and that's the one they go with!

I just find it so utterly stupid that a committee could debate this on and off for so long, and have their careful definition fall victim to a quickly slapped together definition. Oh how horrible beaurocracy can be!

On a slightly more serious note, I think the definition they've gone with is utterly senseless. From what I've heard, the new definition relies on some vague terminology to work. For example, for a planet to be a planet it has to be the dominant body in its "neighborhood"...OK, so what is a planet's neighbourhood? What do they mean by has to be the "dominant body"? Does this mean that, if we discover two planets the size of Jupiter sharing the same orbit (could easily happen around some other star), does that mean that neither one fits the definition of "planet" since neither one really dominates it's neighborhood? After all, two objects can't "dominate" the same neighborhood, can they?


Personally, I highly favor a definition based upon gravity or mass. Either one, it sets a definite limit.

Heh, and they still haven't defined the upper limit on planetary size...wonder how they'll screw that one up??

[Black_Knyght]

KlvinoHRGA said:
Nah, we'll just take Chauron, Pluto, and a few old russian sats and duct tape it together to get the mass required for a planet.




ROTFLMAO !!!

[Raging Deadstar]

I can't remember who said it but yesterday was an "undiscovery" for the human race http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

At least now I can grow up to be a crotchety and ripe age and tell my grandchildren that "when I was a lad we had 9 planets!"

[narf poit chez BOOM]

...I didn't vote for them.

[geoschmo]

It's all ridiculous anyway. From a scientific perspective it really doesn't matter if you call something a planet or not. It's not as if what you call it affects the reality of what it is.

The most truly assinine thing I read was the article on CNN...
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.



I mean really, come on now. "Sorry guy's. Pluto is no longer a planet so let's turn that ship around and bring her back here." http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[PvK]

OMG that CNN quote ... ack! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

They may well have meant that the information may be given less attention. It's a sound byte.

[PsychoTechFreak]

Found a funny quote today...


You IAU bastards! Now, My Very Educated Mother no longer Just Sat Under Napoleon's Picture. Now, My Very Educated Mother Just Sat Under Napoleon.

You guys are sick. Leave my mother out of this.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

That's what I love about this forum. There isn't a serious thread which doesn't eventually devolve into teh funny http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Renegade 13]

Another that doesn't work anymore:

My Very Excellent Man Just Showed Us Nature's Plan. Now it's just:

My Very Excellent Man Just Showed Us Nature

[NullAshton]

Today they say Pluto is NOT, repeat, NOT a plant now. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif



Since when was Pluto a plant? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[TerranC]

Renegade 13 said:
My Very Excellent Man Just Showed Us Nature



Ugh. Just ugh. God, I hope that one doesn't end up in textbooks or teaching material, parents everywhere would never hear the end of the giggles or the snickers.

[AngleWyrm]

Maybe Very Evil Mutant Jellyfish Stash Uranium Nearby?

My Violent Ex Mutilated Joseph Stalin's Unmentionable Nailer?

[TurinTurambar]

More Victory Ensures More Justice Says United Nations...

... it's a right-wing headline.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

...The united nations? Victory?

[Renegade 13]

Many Very Eloquent Men Just Shut Up Needlessly

[AngleWyrm]

Maraschino Velvet Entices Many Jeweled Sinners Unto Naughtiness

[Makinus]

Slick said:
Imagine all the text books that are now wrong...



In Brazil the government will only substitute the public schools books from 2008 onwards (they said it was too huge a cost to substitute for books already bought and printed)...

[geoschmo]

I would think most decent textbooks printed in the last decade would have at least a passing mention of the ongoing discussions about Pluto's status. It's really a non-issue. I guess if the teacher is incompetant and unable to teach without reading rote from the textbook it might be a problem. But if that's the case the students aren't getting a decent science education anyway.

[Artaud]

Well, future generations may be comfortable with the new definition. But I grew up during the 1960s, and was taught that Pluto is a planet. It's hard for me to think of it as anything but.

[Black_Knyght]

Pluto demotion draws protest (http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/09/02/pluto.protest.ap/index.html)

[Wade]

I heard this on Nova. That if Pluto were in Earth's orbit it would have a tail. "Now what kind of behavior for a planet is that?"