Pluto demoted

[metadigital]

Officially now only a "dwarf planet"

[Gfted1]

In that case, werent they going to "promote" a few of Jupiters moons to "dwarf planets"?

[metadigital]

Probably, though there are a few in Saturn's orbit, too.

[Judge Hades]

Well, Satrun has a moon witha full atmopshere so it should definitely count as a dwarf planet.

[SteveThaiBinh]

So they've expelled it from the main series, but softened the blow by creating a spin-off, Pluto and the Plutons.

 

This has been a long time coming. I wonder if it will stick.

 

And now we get to see the astrologers dance. Between Pluto, Ophiuchus and Sedna, they're in trouble.

Edited August 24, 2006 by SteveThaiBinh

[metadigital]

Aug 24, 9:49 AM EDT

Astronomers say Pluto is not a planet

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.

 

After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is - and isn't - a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.

 

Although astronomers applauded after the vote, Jocelyn Bell Burnell - a specialist in neutron stars from Northern Ireland who oversaw the proceedings - urged those who might be "quite disappointed" to look on the bright side.

 

"It could be argued that we are creating an umbrella called 'planet' under which the dwarf planets exist," she said, drawing laughter by waving a stuffed Pluto of Walt Disney fame beneath a real umbrella.

 

The decision by the prestigious international group spells out the basic tests that celestial objects will have to meet before they can be considered for admission to the elite cosmic club.

 

For now, membership will be restricted to the eight "classical" planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

 

Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."

 

Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.

 

Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets," similar to what long have been termed "minor planets." The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun - "small solar system bodies," a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites.

 

It was unclear how Pluto's demotion might affect the mission of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which earlier this year began a 9 1/2-year journey to the oddball object to unearth more of its secrets.

 

The decision at a conference of 2,500 astronomers from 75 countries was a dramatic shift from just a week ago, when the group's leaders floated a proposal that would have reaffirmed Pluto's planetary status and made planets of its largest moon and two other objects.

 

That plan proved highly unpopular, splitting astronomers into factions and triggering days of sometimes combative debate that led to Pluto's undoing.

 

Now, two of the objects that at one point were cruising toward possible full-fledged planethood will join Pluto as dwarfs: the asteroid Ceres, which was a planet in the 1800s before it got demoted, and 2003 UB313, an icy object slightly larger than Pluto whose discoverer, Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena has nicknamed Xena.

 

Charon, the largest of Pluto's three moons, is no longer under consideration for any special designation.

 

[Darth Drabek]

In that case, werent they going to "promote" a few of Jupiters moons to "dwarf planets"?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm no astronomer, but shouldn't a planet (even a dwarf one) have to revolve around the sun on its own, not as a larger planet's moon? Even though Pluto's orbit was a little erratic, that little guy was struggling to make it all the way around the sun on his own! You didn't see Pluto hitching a ride with Neptune, did you?

[Walsingham]

I think we should declare all all sub-size entities bereft of their original designations. Particularly midgets. We'd need to enact a whole new set of laws just for them. The possibilities for awesomeness are legion.

[Gfted1]

In that case, werent they going to "promote" a few of Jupiters moons to "dwarf planets"?

 

I'm no astronomer, but shouldn't a planet (even a dwarf one) have to revolve around the sun on its own, not as a larger planet's moon? Even though Pluto's orbit was a little erratic, that little guy was struggling to make it all the way around the sun on his own! You didn't see Pluto hitching a ride with Neptune, did you?

 

 

Thats pretty much the consensus of the IAU.

 

Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."

 

Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.

[metadigital]

Good point, but maybe they could be "binary planets".

Pluto and its satellite Charon have often been considered a binary planet because they are more nearly equal in size than any other planet/moon combination in the Solar System, and because the two bodies orbit a point not within the surface of either. Under the rejected planet definition proposal, since they orbit each other around a center of mass that is outside either body, they would have been officially considered a binary planet system.[4]

...

Pluto (bottom right) compared in size to the largest moons in the solar system: Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, Earth's Moon, Europa, and Triton.

Pluto is not only smaller and much less massive than any planet, but at less than 0.2 lunar masses it is also smaller and less massive than seven moons: Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, Earth's Moon, Europa and Triton. However, Pluto is more than twice the diameter, and a dozen times the mass, of Ceres, the largest minor planet in the asteroid belt, and it was larger than any other object known in the trans-Neptunian Kuiper belt until 2003 UB313 was announced in 2005. See List of solar system objects by mass and List of solar system objects by radius.

...

Pluto's thin atmosphere is most likely made up of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide, in equilibrium with solid nitrogen and carbon monoxide ices on the surface. As Pluto moves away from its perihelion and farther from the Sun, more of its atmosphere freezes and falls to the ground. When it returns to a closer proximity to the sun, the temperature of Pluto's solid surface will increase, causing the nitrogen ice to sublimate into gas

[Checkpoint]

I always wondered what'd happen if Pluto and Neptune collided.

[Krookie]

Wasn't there a huge ball of ice that they found a while back? Wasn't that supposed to be a new planet? But then like...It was to small. So maybe it'll be a dwarf planet too!

[Gfted1]

^Yes, beyond Pluto and slightly bigger, nicknamed Zena.

 

What we really have to watch out for is when planet X returns from its extended orbit and smashes the Earth.

Edited August 24, 2006 by Gfted1

[Krookie]

I thought a comet was supposed to do that? In like 2010?

[Pidesco]

I always wondered what'd happen if Pluto and Neptune collided.

 

Pluto would be completely destroyed, and Neptune would go on as usual (perhaps with some sort of blot on its surface).

[taks]

between this and all the dinosaur revelations over the past couple decades, i feel cheated. now all we need is for newton and einstein to be refuted somehow.

 

taks

[Surreptishus]

Which dinosaur revelations?

[Checkpoint]

I think he's talking about that meteor that's supposed to have killed all the dinos.

[mkreku]

Ohno. Pluto was the only "planet" that was discovered by an american, therefore it was kind of "the american planet". Now America has no planets.

 

A dwarf planet?! How degrading is that? "Your **** isn't big enough to be called a ****, but don't worry about it, we'll just call it a dwarf ****, it's just as good!".

[Arkan]

No, no no...this just won't do.

 

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine.......

 

NINE WHAT

!?!?!

[SteveThaiBinh]

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Naff-all?

[alanschu]

Is this relevant though?

 

If the people of the world still say it's a planet, then people will still refer to it as a planet, regardless of what this vote concluded.

[Judge Hades]

No American planets?!?!?!?

 

DAMN YOU, OSAMA!

 

 

What?

[SteveThaiBinh]

As one of the links pointed out, Ceres the asteroid was misclassified as a planet for a while. I certainly hadn't heard about that before. Within a decade or two the notion that there are nine planets will have been forgotten, as will Pluto itself, most likely.

 

The real victim in all of this is Colin Matthews.

[mkreku]

Books will be rewritten, people will forget, Pluto will cease to exist as a planet in people's minds.