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Topic: Pluto is no longer a planet! Poor Fwiffo! (Read 14056 times)
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Anthony
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Star Control Lives!
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I was about to make a post about this.... 
Anyways, it's not really that fatal that Pluto is no longer a planet. It's just that now every video game, book, television show, and movie set in the future are now incorrect.
Which makes me wonder... Will they include this little fact in the new Star Control game?
And those three new planets that have been discovered, maybe that will make some interesting new adventures if this was also added to the new Star Control.
But about Pluto, it's just another interesting fact to think of when you're thinking about space...
And yea, poor Fwiffo.
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Arne
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Yak!
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XR-something> No. I didn't necessarily cut out Mercury, I said 'potentially'. To clarify:
It's a planet if:
A.) The body has a significant atmosphere.
or
B.) The body is massive enough to potentially have a significant atmosphere, but does not have one.
(and it's not a black hole, sun, artificial object or moon, etc.)
(Note that the 'or' will allow for bodies not massive enough to have an atmosphere but still has one because of some freaky setup.)
I have no idea where to put the threshold for atmosphere. Maybe a bit under Mars. Mercury might not qualify as a planet with my definition. When I think of planets I think rather large things that Star Trek away teams land on, not rocks. Mercury is a rock. Mercury is boring.
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Deus Siddis
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That is the only reason this happened. If Pluto didn't have a lot of friends around, it'd be fine. But at the rate they're finding them, we'd expect to find around 100 pluto-scale objects out in the kuiper belt. . .Got it?
Yes, I do. Scientists are afraid they would have to think of more names for planets so they changed the definition of "planet" to an illogical one so that pluto, its neighbors, and everything else discovered henceforth would be excluded from it.
Anyways, it's not really that fatal that Pluto is no longer a planet. It's just that now every video game, book, television show, and movie set in the future are now incorrect.
Except for Starflight, which had only the first 8 planets orbiting Sol.
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« Last Edit: August 26, 2006, 03:55:28 pm by Deus_Siddis »
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Terrell
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Fwiffo still has something to park his ship on, Pluto just isn't called a planet anymore. Perhaps it should be called a Kuiper Belt Object, since that makes the most sense based on what we currently know, same for 2003 UB 313 (Xena). Had Pluto been discovered today, based on current knowledge we wouldn't have classified it as a planet.
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Death 999
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We did. You did. Yes we can. No.
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Not only that, but Fwiffo's hiding place is better since it is less popularly known-of!
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Terrell
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One thing's for sure, I'm glad that the New Horizons spacecraft has been launched before the demotion, but I do think that the demotion was the correct decision.
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Death 999
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We did. You did. Yes we can. No.
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What, you don't seriously think New Horizons would have been cancelled just because they demoted Pluto, surely? It would be the first mission to a Kuiper Belt Object, which is even more presigious!
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Death 999
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We did. You did. Yes we can. No.
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Beats me... google... launched January 19, 2005... arrival July 2015.
It'll fly by Jupiter to get a gravity assist next year.
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RTyp06
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Do you guys realize we are finding many new planets in the kupier belt? Quoar, Xena(2003 UB 313 ) and her moon Gabrielle,Sedna, Quoar etc. etc. They expect to possibly even find mars size planets out there. The planet definitionary waters will be muddied further in years ahead.
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/planet_like_body.html
I may be the minority, but I don't have a problem with the International Astronomical Union 's planetary definitions.
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« Last Edit: September 06, 2006, 02:41:51 am by RTyp06 »
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RTyp06
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Well we should know much more about Pluto, Charon and other kupier belt objects if the New Horizons, Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission is successful. Hopefully that will finally settle the case.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/
I'm looking forward to 2015!
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