So they now say Pluto is not a planet!

Purple HawkPurple Hawk Posts: 1,300
edited August 2006 in A Moving Train
I don't know why, but I'm really amused by this. I grow up, study the solar system....then one day they say..."wait...actually, Pluto isn't a planet."

How does that go? And now I guess they found some other possible planets?

How do you go from deciding that some big mass of rock is a planet, and believing in this for years, then one day saying...you know, it really isn't???? I think once you decide to declare something as a planet, you have to be REALLY sure.
And you ask me what I want this year
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
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  • tybirdtybird Posts: 17,388
    It's all about gravity and orbits..........
    All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
  • dharma69dharma69 Posts: 1,275
    *sigh*
    As the world turns...

    So we begin with Mercury (a potentially toxic metal) and end with Ur-anus....

    Any wonder that life is in the shape that it's in?
    "I'm here to see Pearl Jam."- Bono

    ...signed...the token black Pearl Jam fan.

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  • I don't know why, but I'm really amused by this. I grow up, study the solar system....then one day they say..."wait...actually, Pluto isn't a planet."

    How does that go? And now I guess they found some other possible planets?

    How do you go from deciding that some big mass of rock is a planet, and believing in this for years, then one day saying...you know, it really isn't???? I think once you decide to declare something as a planet, you have to be REALLY sure.

    Why call it something it is not just because we were wrong about something in the past. Now we greater technology to determine this things.
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde
  • Purple HawkPurple Hawk Posts: 1,300
    Why call it something it is not just because we were wrong about something in the past. Now we greater technology to determine this things.


    I guess that's right, I'm just not sure what the definition of a planet is. To me, it's like the day I found out that a tomato is a fruit and not a vegetable. Very perplexing. I hate the 'hard' sciences.
    And you ask me what I want this year
    And I try to make this kind and clear
    Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
    Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
    And desire and love and empty things
    Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
  • HoonHoon Posts: 175
    yep, I think they actually have names for "different" types of planets.

    They might add back pluto and a few others to make 13 planets! Thats got my vote.

    Eight is a good number for many reasons.....

    but here is that other proposal I guess failed:

    Nine Planets Become 12 with Controversial New Definition
    http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060816_planet_definition.html
    Nine Planets Become 12 with Controversial New Definition
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Overall I am really happy with eight, it took a while to digest fully
    If you keep yourself as the final arbiter you will be less susceptible to infection from cultural illusion.
  • catefrancescatefrances Posts: 29,003
    i always thought pluto was an escaped moon. i remember hearing that when i was little. but it's very unfair to withdraw its planet membership.
    hear my name
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    this could be the day
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    lie beside me
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  • Puck78Puck78 Posts: 737
    dharma69 wrote:
    *sigh*
    As the world turns...

    So we begin with Mercury (a potentially toxic metal) and end with Ur-anus....
    no, the last one before Pluto is Neptune. Remember that all the names come from the Greek gods, both for the chemistry elements and planets
    www.amnesty.org
    www.amnesty.org.uk
  • prismprism Posts: 2,440
    Puck78 wrote:
    no, the last one before Pluto is Neptune. Remember that all the names come from the Greek gods, both for the chemistry elements and planets

    wait, there was a Greek god named Uranus? betcha the reason that we never heard anything about him was because he was such an asshole.
    *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
    angels share laughter
    *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
  • OutOfBreathOutOfBreath Posts: 1,804
    Thing is they discovered Pluto a long time ago, and thought it a planet like the others. Planet being a categorization that we do of course. The problem is that more recently they have found thousands of rocks out there, and some of them are larger than Pluto, and many are about the same size. So we had to either drop Pluto as the ninth planet, or add like 20 more or something. Dropping Pluto as planet seemed the easier route, since it anyway diverges from other characteristics we attach to planets.

    Peace
    Dan
    "YOU [humans] NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?" - Death

    "Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." - Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965
  • HoonHoon Posts: 175
    Puck78 wrote:
    no, the last one before Pluto is Neptune. Remember that all the names come from the Greek gods, both for the chemistry elements and planets

    Yeah, if Uranus was the last one it would probally join all the damn snake jokes for a few weeks.


    Long live Neptune!
    If you keep yourself as the final arbiter you will be less susceptible to infection from cultural illusion.
  • PaperPlatesPaperPlates Posts: 1,745
    Sometimes science isnt much more than guess work. Keep that in mind, when you sell your soul to the next great scientific breakthrough declared to be fact.
    Why go home

    www.myspace.com/jensvad
  • ByrnzieByrnzie Posts: 21,037
    Definitions of planet on the Web:

    (astronomy) any of the nine large celestial bodies in the solar system that revolve around the sun and shine by reflected light; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in order of their proximity to the sun; viewed from the constellation Hercules, all the planets rotate around the sun in a counterclockwise direction
    satellite: a person who follows or serves another
    any celestial body (other than comets or satellites) that revolves around a star
    wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

    A planet (from the Greek πλανήτης, planētēs which means "wanderer" or more forcefully "vagrant, tramp") is an object in orbit around a star that is not a star in its own right. Much like "continent," "planet" is a word without a precise definition, with history and culture playing as much of a role as geology and astrophysics (see Definition of planet). ...
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet

    Overview of the Planets in the Solar System.}
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_(Table)

    Planet is a literary magazine based in Wales.
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_(magazine)

    An object orbiting a star that is not a brown dwarf but bigger than an asteroid. This is somewhat ambiguous. In our solar system it is really an historical definition which boils down to "a planet is a member of the set {Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto}". All the known planets orbiting other stars are large gas planets so no ambiguity yet arises there. ...
    http://www.astro.uio.no/ita/TNP/nineplanets/help.html

    is the term used for a body in orbit around the Sun. The word comes from the Greek planetes, and means "wanderers." Our solar system has nine planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. An easy way to remember their names in the correct order is to keep in mind the following sentence: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles. The first letter of each word is the first letter of each planet. ...
    http://www.teachervision.fen.com/page/1513.html

    A major object which orbits around a star. In our solar system, there arenine such objects which aretraditionally called "planets'': Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. (There are no "official'' specifications for how big an object must be to be called a planet rather than, for example, an "asteroid.'') While no individual planet has ever been seen orbiting around another star, we wouldn't expect to see them, given the limits of current technology. ...
    http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/14/14.html

    A spherical ball of rock and/or gas that orbits a star. The Earth is a planet. Our solar system has nine planets. These planets are, in order of increasing present distance from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto, and Neptune.
    affy50.tripod.com/Glossary.html

    describes any heavenly body which when viewed from Earth appears to move, as distinguished from fixed stars.
    http://www.findyourfate.com/faq/p-glossary.htm

    One of nine major bodies that orbit the Sun, visible to us by reflected sunlight.
    astronomy.nju.edu.cn/astron/AT3/GLOSS_P.HTM

    low-mass body that orbits a star.
    school.discovery.com/curriculumcenter/solarsystem/glossary.html

    there is no set scientific definition for planet (from the Greek planetes “wanderers”), but as a rule of thumb, a planet: 1) must directly orbit a star or an object that has nuclear fusion; 2) must be small enough that it has not undergone internal nuclear fusion (ie, it is not a star or starlike object); and 3) must be large enough that its self-gravity gives it the general shape of a sphere.
    http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004425.html

    Referred in Astrology as any one of the 10 heavenly bodies situated along the ecliptic. The Sun is a star, and the Moon is the Earth's satellite but they too are referred to as planets, for sake of ease of use. The ten planets are in their natural order from the Sun: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Image at right: The planet Saturn. Named for the Greek god Cronus and ruler of the astrological sign Capricorn.
    http://www.elore.com/Astrology/Glossary/astrology.htm

    a heavenly body other than a comet, asteroid, or satellite that travels in orbit around the Sun; also such a body orbiting another star
    whyfiles.larc.nasa.gov/text/kids/Problem_Board/problems/galactic/glossary.html

    Any of nine solid, nonluminous bodies revolving about the Sun.
    http://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/school/clc/visits/glossary.asp

    An object orbiting the Sun and visible by reflected sunlight. There is no official lower limit to the size of a planet, but the name has not been applied to small objects such as comets or asteroids. The name comes from the Greek word for "wanderer" and was applied to the visible planets that were observed to move relative to the fixed stars. In contrast to comets and asteroids, planets tend to be in quite regular orbits that are usually close to a single plane.
    http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/ss_tour/glossary.shtml

    A major body (not a comet or asteroid) orbiting around a star.
    http://www.mdk12.org/instruction/curriculum/science/glossary.shtml

    Originally, an object in the sky which moved against that background of stars. Now it is used for any object that circles a star, and shines by reflected light.
    http://www.wro.org/ras/glossary/n-r.htm

    Just like the Earth! A planet is a sphere of either rock or gas that orbits the Sun. There are nine planets in our Solar System, and the Earth is the third planet out from the Sun. There is a diagram in the book that gives a good overview. There are also a number (actually tens of thousands) of 'minor planets' that move around the Sun, mostly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The Moon and all the planets we see in the sky do not glow in their own right. ...
    http://www.quasarastronomy.com.au/article08.htm

    A natural satellite of the sun or another stellar system.
    http://www.astronomy.org/astronomy-survival/solterm.html

    An object bigger than an asteroid orbiting a star. Our solar system has nine
    http://www.kidzworld.com/site/p1267.htm

    A relatively small, speherical body that orbits a star – for instance, the Earth. (See solar system.)
    outreach.atnf.csiro.au/education/senior/astrophysics/astrophysics_glossary.html

    An astronomical body too small to make its own energy. Planets are seen by light reflected from the Sun. The largest planet, Jupiter, is only one one-thousandth as big as the Sun; but it is huge compared to the Earth (a thousand Earths could fit into it).
    http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/stark/ASTRO11/terms.html

    A body that shines by reflecting sunlight. Planets can be made out of rock and metal, like Earth, or out of gas, like Jupiter.
    inkido.indiana.edu/a100/glossary1.html

    a system of billions of stars and other matter held relatively close to each other by gravity and separated from other such systems by vast distances.
    http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/science/space/quiz/

    Literally, a "wandering star". To the unaided eye planets look just like stars. To ancient peoples the only obvious difference between a star and a planet was that planets moved through the constellations, while stars remained fixed on the celestial sphere.
    www3.cerritos.edu/ladkins/a106/glossary_celestialsphere.htm

    Planets are objects that orbit around solar-type stars and have true masses less than the limiting mass for thermonuclear fusion of deuterium (currently calculated to be 13 Jupiter masses for objects of solar metallicity). See the definition from the Working Group on Extra-Solar Planets
    bell.mma.edu/~mdickins/Cosmos/GlossaryCosmos.html

    a large body in space that orbits a star and does not produce light of its own
    http://www.mrs-twedt.com/fcat_science_glossary_part_1.htm
  • gabersgabers Posts: 2,787
    Sometimes science isnt much more than guess work. Keep that in mind, when you sell your soul to the next great scientific breakthrough declared to be fact.

    I detect a thinly veiled attempt to take a jab at the 95% of the educated world who realize global warming is indeed influenced by human activity. :rolleyes:
  • tybirdtybird Posts: 17,388
    Byrnzie wrote:
    Definitions of planet on the Web:
    Were any of these the "new" definitions agreed upon this very week??????
    All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
  • even flow?even flow? Posts: 8,066
    I heard that Pluto is now seeking out to enrich its uranium and show the rest of the solar system that they just screwed with the wrong planet. Or rock, or piece of ice. Either way humankind has pissed off Pluto.


    From the world of the strange. A little off topic. But the other day I had the nephew over and was watching some kiddy show and to my amazement there is a thing called a Liger. Half tiger and half lion and it was huge. Now if my nephew would have drew it or told me about it, I would have thought that he got into my stash. What this has to do with the fact we lost a planet from the solar system I don't know. But I do have to wonder if the planets on the OTHER SIDE of Pluto kept them happy by keeping the term planet for them?
    You've changed your place in this world!
  • tybirdtybird Posts: 17,388
    even flow? wrote:
    I heard that Pluto is now seeking out to enrich its uranium and show the rest of the solar system that they just screwed with the wrong planet. Or rock, or piece of ice. Either way humankind has pissed off Pluto.


    From the world of the strange. A little off topic. But the other day I had the nephew over and was watching some kiddy show and to my amazement there is a thing called a Liger. Half tiger and half lion and it was huge. Now if my nephew would have drew it or told me about it, I would have thought that he got into my stash. What this has to do with the fact we lost a planet from the solar system I don't know. But I do have to wonder if the planets on the OTHER SIDE of Pluto kept them happy by keeping the term planet for them?
    Good stuff..............:D
    All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
  • sweet adelinesweet adeline Posts: 2,191
    i bet the people on pluto are pissed. no one ever likes to be excluded from things.

    i hope they find another solar system that will be more tolerant of them.
  • know1know1 Posts: 6,794
    I don't know why, but I'm really amused by this. I grow up, study the solar system....then one day they say..."wait...actually, Pluto isn't a planet."

    How does that go? And now I guess they found some other possible planets?

    How do you go from deciding that some big mass of rock is a planet, and believing in this for years, then one day saying...you know, it really isn't???? I think once you decide to declare something as a planet, you have to be REALLY sure.

    It's science. They never actually prove anything and here is a perfect example.
    The only people we should try to get even with...
    ...are those who've helped us.

    Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
  • Sometimes science isnt much more than guess work. Keep that in mind, when you sell your soul to the next great scientific breakthrough declared to be fact.

    Science is an ever evolving study of life based on neverending research and study. Science doesn't come to one conclusion and then decide to just stick with that mindset no matter what new evidence comes to light. No one came claim absolute knowledge of anything, all we can do is base our decisions on the current amount of evidence that's out there in the present time based on new research and study.
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde
  • sweet adelinesweet adeline Posts: 2,191
    Science is an ever evolving study of life based on neverending research and study. Science doesn't come to one conclusion and then decide to just stick with that mindset no matter what new evidence comes to light. No one came claim absolute knowledge of anything, all we can do is base our decisions on the current amount of evidence that's out there in the present time based on new research and study.

    bravo, great post abook.
  • know1know1 Posts: 6,794
    Science is an ever evolving study of life based on neverending research and study. Science doesn't come to one conclusion and then decide to just stick with that mindset no matter what new evidence comes to light. No one came claim absolute knowledge of anything, all we can do is base our decisions on the current amount of evidence that's out there in the present time based on new research and study.

    Very true. That's why it should be taught in the schools as philosophy.
    The only people we should try to get even with...
    ...are those who've helped us.

    Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
  • know1 wrote:
    Very true. That's why it should be taught in the schools as philosophy.


    Philosophy is based on one's opinion and perspective. Science is based on current evidence and knowledge.
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde
  • No one came claim absolute knowledge of anything

    That seems odd because you just did.
  • know1 wrote:
    Very true. That's why it should be taught in the schools as philosophy.

    Science should not be taught in schools as philosophy. Philosophy is a system of systems of thought: a set of standards by which one approaches knowledge and truth.
  • know1know1 Posts: 6,794
    Philosophy is based on one's opinion and perspective. Science is based on current evidence and knowledge.

    You mean it's based upon the current opinion and perspective of scientists that is subject to change at any time as you said above. Sounds like philosophy to me....
    The only people we should try to get even with...
    ...are those who've helped us.

    Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
  • sourdoughsourdough Posts: 579
    Much different kind of "opinion". Science is based on tested hypothesis and scrutinized through a stringent scientific method. Philosophy is untested and theoretical, but not practically applied.
  • Uncle LeoUncle Leo Posts: 1,059
    I don't believe that "Pluto" or these other "Planets" are even acknowledged in teh Bible, so they should not be taught in school as science, philosophy or anything else.
    I cannot come up with a new sig till I get this egg off my face.
  • RainDogRainDog Posts: 1,824
    know1 wrote:
    Very true. That's why it should be taught in the schools as philosophy.
    So, next time someone needs serious surgery, or the government wants to contruct a new rocket, they should call up graduates of Harvard's philosophy program?
  • RainDog wrote:
    So, next time someone needs serious surgery, or the government wants to contruct a new rocket, they should call up graduates of Harvard's philosophy program?

    This is the most important post I've ever seen on this board. Quite seriously. It speaks volumes.
  • tybirdtybird Posts: 17,388
    Uncle Leo wrote:
    I don't believe that "Pluto" or these other "Planets" are even acknowledged in teh Bible, so they should not be taught in school as science, philosophy or anything else.
    "The heavens and the earth"-notice the plural on "heavens"...it's not referring to Heaven (singular)...........This blanket statement covers stuff in space.
    All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
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