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Is {pluto|sedna} A Planet?
Dr. Zowie writes "NASA's announcement last week of Sedna's discovery reignited the debate
over whether Pluto is a planet. Dr. Alan Stern a noted planetary scientist and leader of the New Horizons mission to Pluto, pours on some gasoline with this
article in which he skewers the various arguments against Pluto-as-planet. Choice quotes include 'You wouldn't deny a chihauhau a place among dogs because it is too small,' and 'if your brain was so completely full of names of people that it just couldn't take any more, would anyone new who you met after that, therefore not be a person?'"
Although you have to admit that we NEED a planet named after the god of the dead. Perhaps we can put some trash out there and christen it.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
Err, by 'FP', I am of course refering to 'Final Planet'.
Of course. What did you think I meant?
Huxley
The two-legged things in my office have names?! Not just email addresses?
".. pours on some gasoline with this article..."
You haven't seen squat until you've seen astronomers argue.
...a pluto. And Sedna a sedna. The solar system would have 8 planets, a pluto and a sedna, then. :)
by growl you must mean an ear-drum piercing yip ;)
I guess it's good that we are concerned about this because that should mean that there is nothing more important to worry about. On the other hand no we are going to have to setup a whole new set of laws for planetary equal rights.......uh....anyone up for a nice mindless video game? :P
Behold the mighty monochrome sig.
0
Nope. Guess not.
"You wouldn't deny a chihauhau a place among dogs because it is too small."
Dog? I always that chihauhaus were large rats.
My charts are going to have to all be recalculated if Sedna is a planet. What a PITA if there ends up being 900 planets! How will I ever be able to calculate this week's horoscope before the week is up?
We should have stuck to the original five. Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. Earth doesn't count, since all these revolve around it.
Let's not mess with our destinies. Don't upset the natural systems any more.
Lucky for us we didn't discover a 'planet' with a completely liquid surface yet, to limit the 'round' criterion even more. This way astronauts making water bubbles on ISS can claim they're planet-makers ;-)
(hint: surface tension also makes things round)
Oh, ok, I suppose it's in space, and space is usually a pretty good vacuum, so doesn't smell. Unless you're in a space suit. In which case it wouldn't necessarily smell sweet. Might smell as sweat; but that's the smellor not the smellee asteroid. Hmm. Right.
But my point remains I think. Glad to have made it I think. Worth saying. Right. Good. Yes.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"chihauhaus are clearly rodents, not dogs. Therefor, Sedna is not a planet, but a rodent.
One future, two choices. Oppose them or let them destroy us.
planot
Anyone think to ask Disney?
SNIFF
A truly lovely bit of poetic art.
grub
It isn't Sedna, get it right, it's Rupport. They practice astrology, and we really do need some sort of planetary shielding right about now!
Astronomer: "oh oh oh, yeah, well, you have your head up Uranus"
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
My
Very
Evil
Mother
Just
Sent
Us
Nothing
What!? As any child can tell you, fruit tastes good, whereas vegetables are ucky. Therefore, the tomato is a vegetable. (Unless it's used in pizza sauce, at which time it is cast as a fruit)
Therefore, tomatoes are vegetables, just like apples, peas, and pine trees.
Pluto by 2 Skinnee J's
With depravity I break laws of gravity
Blast past the atmosphere to the last frontier
I go boldly through space and time
The skies the limit but they're limiting the sky
I break orbit by habit, ignite satellites and leave rings round the planet
A flying ace like that beagle
Nevertheless this alien remains illegal
'cause their discovery don't cover me
the immigrant's been left in the cold to grow old and disintegrate
discriminate against the distant and disclaim this
cause small minds can't see past Uranus
But I shun their rays, 'cause stuns just a phase
And my odyssey runs in two thousand and one ways
And I can see clearly now like Hubble,
Shoved off the shuttle, here's my rebuttal
It's a planet
Who you represent? I represent the smallest planet
Attorney in this tourney versus those who've tried to ban it
If you don't agree go see Interplanet Janet
Cause sun is star, like Pluto is planet
Lend me all your ears and let me state my case
About all the types of satellites you must embrace
Cause like my parents, great grandparents
This planet was an immigrant
To deport it makes no sense
It's an upstanding member of the solar system
Apply the laws of earth and make it a victim
Of Proposition 187
When Pluto spawns a moon it will apply to the heavens
I will damn thee like Judas of Iscariot
If you demote this mote remote to affiliate
It's like taking ET's custody from Elliot
Support your Lilliput, cause simply put
Pluto is a planet
Do it for the children
Lyrics - MP3
-prator
Planets were originally named "planets" because they wandered around the sun. We should define a planet, then, by the movements it makes in the sky. If it moves around in a funny way and makes loop-de-loops, it's a planet. And since we can't classify every speck of dust that goes around the sun a planet, we'll have to restrict ourselves to what's visible. That's right, the only planets in existance are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
Two individuals are generally recognized to be of the same species if they can mate and produce fertile offspring.
;-)
I remember back in high school I caused a bit of a fuss when the teacher came out with this definition. I held up my hand, and pointed out that, according to that definition, he and I were not the same species. (It may not be obvious in this forum, but I'm male.
Funny thing was that he was flustered for a bit, and didn't quite know how to answer. He obviously hadn't ever thought about it, and really hadn't noticed that this definition misses something really important.
Myself, I like the astronomer's daughter's reasoning. Similarly, most of the supposed countries in the world shouldn't be considered countries at all. Who can remember them all? They just cause problems for school children who have to deal with tests that ask about them. Only countries that I remember should be allowed to exist.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
This excludes stars and any gas giants so massive that they could become stars at some point in their existence.
Ummmm... given that the only difference between a gas giant and a star is their mass, does this statement make any sense at all? If a planet has "enough mass to become a star at some point" then it will immediately ignite. If it doesn't, it won't.
It's not like planets get a choice in the matter. It's not like Jupiter might get ambitious one day and decide to get lit.
Clear, Dark Skies
But then we'd have to define "big".
Let's just call them all "marklars" and be done with it.
Tomatoes are planets.
Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.