Pluto isn't a planet anymore?

[NaptownKnight]

I just read an article that states that since 2006, Pluto has not been classified as a planet and is considered "dwarf-planet". So our Solar system has eight planets now?

[Hells Bells]

they are always adding more, itll be back up to nine soon enough

[Ulyaoth]

They decided they hated Pluto and made an ultimatum, either Pluto wasn't a planet anymore, or they'd call 1000 pieces of ice and rocks 50000 miles away from outside of the solar system planets and they'd name them all and require all our children to learn the names. in the hopes of keeping American test scores high, they caved and called Pluto a dwarf, but they decided to not leave him all lonely by himself, so they gave him 2 other dwarf friends, albeit far away and much less noble, the lowly Ceres, really just a large rock in the midst of the asteroid belt, and Eris, although larger than Pluto, just another rock in a bigger asteroid belt. Poor old Pluto.

[Bootsiuv]

....or they'd call 1000 pieces of ice and rocks 50000 miles away from outside of the solar system planets....

I think something like 50,000,000,000 miles would be more accurate.

I've also heard that Pluto is now considered part of the Kaiper Belt, which is basically an Asteriod belt between the outer gas giants and Oort Cloud, which is where many comets come from.

[Duke_of_Bavaria]

They decided they hated Pluto and made an ultimatum, either Pluto wasn't a planet anymore, or they'd call 1000 pieces of ice and rocks 50000 miles away from outside of the solar system planets and they'd name them all and require all our children to learn the names. in the hopes of keeping American test scores high, they caved and called Pluto a dwarf, but they decided to not leave him all lonely by himself, so they gave him 2 other dwarf friends, albeit far away and much less noble, the lowly Ceres, really just a large rock in the midst of the asteroid belt, and Eris, although larger than Pluto, just another rock in a bigger asteroid belt. Poor old Pluto.

They could have made an exeption with Pluto for the one and only simple reason that it has been concidered a planet so long as most, if not all, people can remember.
Scientists are *******s!

[monkeyman]

ya the astronomic community always like to keep you confused

[Ullerius Tiberius]

Calling Pluto a, "Dwarf-planet" doesn't really keep it from being a planet, it just throws it into another group of planets in my opinion.

[Syron]

Yes, there are only 8 planets now.

Before there was never a proper definition of what a planet is. This didn't matter for a long time since all the major bodies discovered previously excepting comets were large spherical bodies.

The problem is that the more astronomers have looked the more they have seen a wide variety of objects out in space and so the neeed to classify them specifically arose.

The main problem came because of the discovery of an object bigger than pluto. Is it also a planet or should pluto not be a planet at all?

It was decided that to be a planet an object has to be in hydrostatic equilibrium (roughly spherical) and to have cleared it's orbit of all major debris. Pluto does not pass the second criterion and so is not a planet.

[NaptownKnight]

I was interested when they mentioned Eris, which apparently is larger than Pluto, it just orbits way, way far out in the outer asteroid belt. Does it have it's own atmosphere I wonder.

[mightyfenrir]

I was interested when they mentioned Eris, which apparently is larger than Pluto, it just orbits way, way far out in the outer asteroid belt. Does it have it's own atmosphere I wonder.

Wouldn't want to visit anyhow... must be dreadfully cold!

uh oh... post number 666... gotta find iron maiden...

[Banned]

They keep modifying the definition of Solar System and sometimes,they add newly discovered heavenly bodies to it,no matter how less they resemble a planet's structure.

[sgtgoody]

It was purely a case of scientific arrogance. It was a planet for decades and that was what the public knew it as. What possible harm would it have done to let it remain so. It is just another excuse for the scholarly community to show off their degrees.

They pulled the same BS with the Brontosaurus when they decided that because the original fossiles of it had the wrong skull they needed to rename it the Appatosaur. No one calls it that except paleontologists who are trying to sound superior.

I am a part of the scholarly community and feel that it is more beneficial to try to be inclusive rather than elitist and actions such as this are total elitism. If it is something that needs to be changed then by all means change it but if it is something that makes no difference but has become part of common culture then leave it alone. People were happy with 9 planets with one that shared the name of a cartoon dog, I don't see a problem with that.

[chris_uk_83]

I grew up calling Pluto a planet and I will continue to do so. I don't care much for the astronomical community, it's not real science

[sgtgoody]

Do you mean the astrological community. The astronomical community brought you such unscientific things as satilites and the Big Bang.

[chris_uk_83]

No, I meant the astronomical community. I was joking because a lot of 'space physics' is questionable. This really only applies to cosmology though, astrophysics is pretty sound. Anyway, it came from a friendly banter between different branches of physics; us 'pure' physicsits like to tell the astrophysicsts that they're making it up since it's impossible to directly measure anything they predict.

[sgtgoody]

Now I get it.

When I was a physics major we used to say that chemistry majors were people who just couldn't handle physics.

I have noticed that cosmologists seem much more dogmatic than other scientists. Even when simple explainations will work they feel the need to invent some new force or dimension or something to rescue their pet theories. Most of the objections to the question of dark matter fall into this category.

Don't double post, use the edit button ~ Scorch

[chris_uk_83]

Haha, exactly. Dark matter and Dark energy have been made up by cosmologists because they haven't got a proper theory of gravity which actually works yet!

[Gary88]

or they'd call 1000 pieces of ice and rocks 50000 miles away from outside of the solar system

the solar system is much bigger than you think, it doesnt just end at pluto it goes way out to something called the oort cloud which is lots of massive rocks some of which are the size of pluto.

It was purely a case of scientific arrogance. It was a planet for decades and that was what the public knew it as. What possible harm would it have done to let it remain so. It is just another excuse for the scholarly community to show off their degrees.

thats exactly right, did you know people used to call 'cars' horses until some smart arse proffesor pointed out that they werent in fact horse but something different. this is just one more example of damned intellectuals asserting their authority.

I grew up calling Pluto a planet and I will continue to do so. I don't care much for the astronomical community, it's not real science

i start a degree in astrophysics next year so **** you...
come on though you've got to give them credit, all the information obtained by radio telescopes in the last 40 years equates to less energy than a snowflake hitting the ground, we might be glorified astronomers but we make damn good instruments

[Gary88]

I think something like 50,000,000,000 miles would be more accurate.

thats a slightly embarassing mistake considering i micopied the number out of a book right in front of me as i made that post

[danzig]

I just read an article that states that since 2006, Pluto has not been classified as a planet and is considered "dwarf-planet". So our Solar system has eight planets now?

Yep down to eight planets and 3 dwarves though most likely Charon will be tagged as dwarf as well instead of moon sooner or later. Pluto isnt even the biggest dwarf planet either Eris is.