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IAU Proposes 3 New Planets
IZ Reloaded writes "Sources tell SPACE.com that the International Astronomical Union is preparing to include three new entries to the current list of planets in our solar system. From the article: The asteroid Ceres, which is round, would be recast as a dwarf planet in the new scheme. Pluto would remain a planet and its moon Charon would be reclassified as a planet. Both would be called "plutons," however, to distinguish them from the eight "classical" planets. A far-out Pluto-sized object known as 2003 UB313 would also be called a pluton."
How long until we can get Cowboy Neal reclassified as a pluton?
liqbase
Pluton politely asks media corporation not to use His name as a generic noun.
I hope there isn't life on 2003UB313 (which is very highly unlikely) because then we would have to talk about the 2003UB313ians and that would just be annoying.
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
Somewhere, Space Fonzie is jumping over an Astro-Shark.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
....what do they smell like?
Fry: Did you build the Smellescope?
Farnsworth: No, I remembered that I'd built one last year. Go ahead, try it. You'll find that every heavenly body has its own particular scent. Here, I'll point it at Jupiter.
[Fry sniffs.]
Fry: Smells like strawberries.
Farnsworth: Exactly! And now Saturn.
[Fry sniffs.]
Fry: Pine needles. Oh, man, this is great! Hey, as long as you don't make me smell Uranus.
[Fry laughs.]
Leela: I don't get it.
Farnsworth: I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.
Fry: Oh. What's it called now?
Farnsworth: Urectum. Here, let me locate it for you.
Let's see the good side of things, maybe Ceres with its new status will gain some more interest, *maybe* even enough for it to have the honour to be probed by us. Would surprise me a bit tho.
Edit : seems that there's already a probe destinated to Ceres (among others) nammed Dawn
Edit #2 : yeah I know, you can't actually edit your posts
You just got troll'd!
Yo' momma's so fat, the IAU had to convene to discuss her planetary status!
...just classify those other things as whatever you want to call them.
I'm still holding out for "Big Ass Round Things." The acronym is a bit troubling though and I don't think calling them BARTons will help.
KFG
The sun shines
And Pluto orbits
The spray flies as the comet glides
And planets orbit, orbits they're hiding
The IAU smile
And Pluto orbits
The system packs as the commity tracks
And planets orbit, orbits they're hiding
Behind an Astronomers front
Astronomers front - it's a pluton
(to the tune of Eminence Front by The Who - don't ask me why this song jumped into my head while reading the article)
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
"Why is the idea of over 50 planets so abhorent?"
Think of the complexity of the new astrology that would be needed to cater for 50 planets that then influence our fortunes, I would like my destiny be determined by just 9 planets...
--
Karma 50, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt.
Corporate sponsorship is running rampant... how did they get naming rights to the 9th planet in the first place?
Having had both land on me at one point or another in my life, I beg to differ.
This was covered on the local version of KBBL, and the commentary was spot on:
"These guys are in serious need of a girlfriend."
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
I thought sub-stellar balls of gas came from Uranus.
Orbjects: noun. contraction of ORBiting oBJECTS (with the repeated B collapsed to a single character). Any object in a solar system that orbits. Focus of such orbit must be another object or center of gravity derived from two or more objects.
Further classification:
Little Orbjects: Wee orbjects that require only a passing flock of waterfowl to achieve escape velocity. Can only contain volcanos, sheep, roses, and possibly a child, tippler, king, or accountant.
Big Orbjects: Orbjects that would require an actual propulsion system including significant amount of reaction mass to achieve escape velocity.
Huge Orbjects: Orbjects whose mass is so great that a human being could not survive its gravitational pull. Or better stated, orbjects that you might have sex with, but wouldn't introduce to your friends.
When they discovered that Uranus had rings, like Saturn, I was so excited that I ran out the front door and announced it VERY loudly to my little brother, at the far end of the driveway, by saying something along these lines: "Hey, they discovered that Uranus has rings!"
It was a classic example of realizing, only too late, that something might have been phrased much differently, or, perhaps, privately...
Mmmmmm... Bold, yet refreshing!
I for one will already welcome our 2003UB313ian overlords.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I think they'd be called "Warrior Princesses".
Hi! I wanted to say that I can't believe 2500 renowned astronomers would come up with that ill-considered, 12 planet proposal. It's horrible! The methodology of planetary designation you have chosen and the results it will entail are pretty awful. I have a proposal for you to vote on. It's very simple:
"There are nine planets in the Solar System: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto".
How simple is that! Sometimes -- as in the weight of the standard kilogram -- a definition is more of a tautology than an expression of some empirical standard. In the case of the nine planets I think that is how you have to go. Call the other bodies planetoids or to be more elegant call them heavenly bodies. Don't trash science with a huge number of asteroids, moons, and Kuiper Belt objects just so you have some meaningless "standard" to fall back on. The planets are the planets and that is good enough for everyone. Even the world's best astronomers! Please submit my proposal for review. Thank you, I do appreciate all your hard work to discover everything there is to know about our world and the massive stretch of space that surrounds it.
Sincerely,
Kevin M. Hebert
Regular Meta Moderators are not more likely to get mod points.
I propose this controversy is solved by forming a committee. It could be called the:
Committee for the Renaming of Astronomical Phenomena
An appropriate acronym for such an important thing.
I for one mourn the loss of our traditional 9 planet system, and with it, "My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas."
It's not going to be easy making a pneumonic device that includes 2003 UB.
Many Virtuoso English Majors Continued Serving Us Nonsensical Pneumonics. Circa 2003? Doesn't quite flow . . .
"By the time they had diminished from 50 to 8, the other dwarves began to suspect 'Hungry.'" -Gary Larson
Now you can't remember it as "My very elegant mother just served us nine pies". It would instead be "My very elegant mother caught Jack singing us naughty pussy/coochie...2003UB"