Its a planet.
Its a planet. There are 9 planets in the solar system, and always have been. Pluto has moons, and its exactly where it should be according to the titus-bodes law.
Its not just an ice world, its a planet.
Nah, nah. Not listening.
NASA’s New Horizons camera-probe has sent back humanity's first closeup images of Pluto as the spacecraft heads toward the ice world at a blistering 31,000 miles an hour. The photos, taken 126 million miles from the dwarf planet, show a dot along with its largest moon, Charon. The aim of the mission is to better map Pluto …
But Eris also has a moon (Dysnomia), and it's around 27% more massive than Pluto so, if the criteria are size and satellites, then why has the argument for its reclassification never arisen then, eh, eh…? Riddle me that then, Smartarse!
Ya can't, can ya…?!
But there appear to be some who'd agree; Pluto's Wikipedia entry is locked to all but admin, and I assume it's because there are some who'd like to see it regain its planetary status and edit its entry to reflect that.
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Not necessary. The ecliptic is not the path of the Sun; it's the path the Earth takes around the Sun. Why does an object have to follow Earth's path to be a planet? Is Earth the center of anything? Many giant exoplanets orbit their stars in orbits far more elliptical than Pluto's.
Pluto's Wikipedia being locked is a travesty and an affront to free speech. It is why I will never contribute any money to Wikipedia.
Eris is a planet too. Arguments have been made for its planet status since its discovery. To those of us who prefer a geophysical planet definition, which does not require an object to "clear its orbit" to be a planet, Eris is a planet because it is a non-self-luminous spheroidal body orbiting a star.
Only four percent of the IAU voted on the controversial demotion, and most are not planetary scientists. Their decision was opposed by hundreds of professional astronomers in a formal petition led by New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern. Why does Wikipedia have a problem acknowledging that this issue is an ongoing debate?
Yes, Pluto is a planet because dwarf planets are simply a subclass of planets. That was the intention of New Horizons Principal Investigator when he first coined the term dwarf planet back in 1991. Our solar system actually has 13 planets and counting--14 if Charon is considered a binary companion planet to Pluto. These are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, (Charon), Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.
Honestly as a Yank I couldn't give a shit about Pluto and Eris either really. Sedna and its orbit going 900 AU away from the sun on the other hand is very interesting. That one is unlike all the others (so far) and it will probably tell us more about what's in the immediate neighborhood of our solar system and about its history than all the other planetoids (or whatever) combined.
This comes as no surprise - most Yanks couldn't give a shit about 95% of the planet they're standing on, let alone any others.
These celestial designations are silly and discriminatory. On a universal scale, we're all just a bunch of rocks huddling around the same fire.
Titus-Bodes law? Good grief you are behind the times, that hypothesis was discounted a long while ago.
Moons? Some asteroids have moons, but no-one was suggested that thet are planets. Also some planets do not have moons (Venus & Mercury for starters) but no-one has suggested that they are not planets.
With the discovery of dozens of Kuiper-Belt Objects (KBOs), some of which are larger than Pluto, the astromical community decided that they had to get a proper definition of what is a "planet" - up to then there was no definition, just an informal agreement. Rightly or wrongly the definition they eventually came up with excludes Pluto, but you have to draw the line somewhere.
Not very complicated at all! It's not like they've got to negotiate the M25, take into account variable queuing traffic, variable speed limits and unpredictable accidents. That along with delays for sudden pee stops from the smallest, having to go back after five minutes because one of the kids pieces of homework was somehow forgotten and then missing a turning due to an argument breaking out in the back of the car.......
On top of that I bet no-one has been asking "are we there yet for the last 3 billion miles.......
Getting to Pluto seems fairly straightforward in comparison.
Reading the likes of Jet Ace Logan (RAF in Spaaaace!) and Dan Dare, we all thought by the 21st century we would be zipping around in Spaaaace and mining asteroids or living on Mars, which makes the achievements of teams like New Horizons all the more remarkable.
They don't have a handy two man rocket they can jump into and whizz off to Pluto they have to do a lot of HARD sums and basically use very complicated ballistics to get to where they are going, more amazing is the fact that after 3 billion miles and 9 years they are on time and on target.
Why aren't they running our governments?
Can't wait to see the pics later in the year.