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Pluto No Longer Planet

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  • Pluto No Longer Planet

    I personally favored this decision as there are bigger objects in the Quiper (sp?) Belt that are bigger.

    Originally posted by USATODAY
    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...
    http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science...o_x.htm?csp=24

  • #2
    Could have been expected, as some other planets have moons that are bigger than Pluto. That said, this'll mean a huge sh!tload of books, primarily school books, will have to be updated .

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    • #3
      Originally posted by scramjet
      I personally favored this decision as there are bigger objects in the Quiper (sp?) Belt that are bigger.
      Well, obviously bigger objects are bigger

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      • #4
        Originally posted by avro_arrow_25206
        Well, obviously bigger objects are bigger
        Typing too fast, lol.

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        • #5
          I read about this on metroexpress morning newspaper

          It has been degraded to a dwarf-planet kinda cracked me up.., and are not categorized among these "8" planets that used to be 9 planets with Pluto.

          Check the link. Amazing how little pluto is.

          Inactive from May 1 2009.

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          • #6
            This is actually rather shocking news for me having grown up with 9 planets and done several projects on Pluto as a planet.
            sigpic
            http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=170

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