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Pluto — a Complex and Changing World
astroengine writes "After 4 years of processing the highest resolution photographs the Hubble Space Telescope could muster, we now have the highest resolution view of Pluto's surface ever produced. Most excitingly, these new observations show an active world with seasonal changes altering the dwarf planet's surface. It turns out that this far-flung world has more in common with Earth than we would have ever imagined."
Is it just me, or do the photos look like a big blob of yellows and grays?
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
It's not just the seasons that change: In those four years Pluto has gone from being a planet to not being a planet to being a planet again to being kind of a planet... Complex and changing indeed.
Pluto IS a planet. It was a planet when I was in school, so it will always be a planet, dadgummit.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
if you grant me the other seven dwarves are planets: eris, makemake, haumea, sedna, orcus, 2001OR10, and quaoar
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/EightTNOs.png
and the other 100 or so such objects of pluto size likely to be found in the coming decades in the oort cloud
or keep it easy and say its not a planet
your choice, but the third graders of 2080 who have to memorize 80 planets might not be too happy with you
face it, pluto is chump change
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The solar system only has four planets worth distinguishing, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The rest of the objects in the solar system are too small to retain significant hydrogen and can be dismissed.
If Pluto's a dog, then what's the deal with Goofy?
"...more in common with Earth than we would have ever imagined."
If this is going to be along the lines of the the "Earthlike" exoplanets, it means something like Pluto has a surface, and probably some elements.
Why is it every planet that's not obviously entirely unlike Earth is "Earthlike"? Are we really that desperate for a refuge should we ruin this planet completely?
Hell no. Most people with even a slight interest and modest education know better, and don't try to make a point anything like that. No, these asinine statements are almost invariably made by 'science journalists' which are rapidly becoming less and less of both of those. They know they can't keep your interest recounting the bare facts so they have to come up with some bullshit that they're probably not even aware how bag of hammers stoopid it sounds. Pluto has an axial tilt, therefore it has seasons... like Earth. Sure, seasons with an average summer of 60 degrees Kelvin and winters at 30 Kelvin. How very Earthlike.
See, there's a downside to all these magazines and other media making stuff available on the net. Since they're making it available for free, they're not making anything directly from them, so they have nothing to lose by making them crap. Then they can get you to subscribe for the better stuff. In theory. Rather than paying some real and knowledgeable science journalists, or even specialists in that field, to write better material, they go the cheap route and use the same mediocre hacks for their print versions as for their e-versions.
So, naturally Pluto is Earthlike. It's because the source is Sciencelike. Sure, and those writers' and editors' asses are Hatlike.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Awesome! That means my desk is a planet as well!
Brain surgery - it's not rocket science!