8 planets it is then

[Ric]

In the year 3006 when Pluto is voted the best Exclusive Off World Ski Resort for the 6th year straight, will anyone really care what the boffins decided on today.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

More Vigorous Examination Make Jury Scientists Useless ...

Amen to that AJ

[Jackson42South (Paul)]

The International Astronomy Union could not have been any meaner
Reclassifying planets because their orbits are less cleaner.

Little Pluto, once a mighty planet, now classified as a dwarf
You failed to sweep you orbit clean, now just a planet list cast off.

So band together all dwarfs, including little Xena
What you need to become a Planet now is an orbital vacuum cleaner.

[astro_nutt]

With the study of planet formation for goodnes knows how long..I've always wondered about Pluto..the closest to our Sun are rich in iron..further out..iron, silica, rocks..further still gas...and still further..gas, ice..then Pluto..rocks and ice!..and for some it has been a puzzle on how this should be?...was Pluto an inner world at one time then flung out from coliding with another??..(and maybe smacked into Uranus on the way!)..then settled into orbit?...but even if it's not classed as a planet..I will still regard it as the ninth world from our Sun!!

[fringe_dweller]

@ jackson42south, nice one they are a bunch of bullyboys and killjoys arent they beating up on the little planets like that BOO!

great thread everybody, keep 'em coming - Asi and others of the same sentiment - I agree it will always be the 9th planet to me

[fringe_dweller]

whats this!! - we've moved on already?? wheres the momentum of the rage against the fascist bully boys of the IAU gone - spent already??? geez ya pussies, we are getting walked all over here gggrrrrrr

[Miaplacidus (Brian)]

Personally, I think we should go back to the original meaning. A planet (from the Greek word for "wanderer") must fulfil the following:

1.) it is an easily seen naked eye object that can be easily mistaken for a star
2.) repeated observation by an ordinary observer clearly demonstrates that it moves against the background stars.

After all, planets have been around a lot longer than the IAU.

[netwolf]

I agree Miaplacidus this is the orgin of the word and so it should remain that way.

One would think ther are more important matters than symantics. Anyway why not use something like what they introduced in Startrek (Trekkie alert), M-Class , J-Class etc.

Regards

[glenc (Glen)]

Astronomy Picture of the Day


Eight Planets and New Solar System Designations

2006 August 28

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

An image for those that missed it

[Sausageman (Mike Boggan)]

Who gave the 420 odd members of the IAU the right to determine what is and what is not a planet. Not very Democratic is it! It orbits the Sun doesn't it, who cares if it hasn't swept up the debris in the orbit.
Surely there are hundreds of thousands of professional Astronomers and millions of us around the World, why didn't we get a say!!!!!
Why wasn't there a WWW referendum of Astronomers, professional and Amateur alike, and Teachers.
Does this mean that all the extra solar system planets discovered over the last few years cannot be ratified because it can't be proven that they have swept up all the debris in their orbits?
This would mean that all the research and and papers written on the subject are a load of you know what........

I rest my case.

Mike

[mickoking]

420 members of the IAU voted not to call Pluto a planet anymore, so what. To me and many others Pluto remains a planet. The universe isnt owned by a handfull of Astronomical bureaucrats

[fringe_dweller]

well, after reading just some of the thousands of forum and forum type pages on the net on this hot topic, (including here) I have to say this has been one of the most fascinating and sometimes hilarious discussions regarding popular astronomy I have ever seen.
After all, surely the now defunct 70 odd yr old fact 'the solar system has 9 planets orbiting the sun' and third rock from the sun and all that - would be one of the few astronomical facts that has grown larger and passed and been accepted into the collective human landscape and soul, sentient view of our place in the scheme of things ect., and maybe the nomenclature rights are no longer the property of scientists and the IAU?.

And it is now redundant!! - or some say at least temporarily?, but obviously has had absolutely massive media coverage anyway (whoops?), declaring it permanent and sanctified, so maybe too late? to reverse in the publics mind. And further playing around with it would possiby damage or reinforce the wider public's sometimes negative? image of the astronomy game, and the people who play it? Its madness to toy with their publics affections like that!
I cant believe the IAU couldnt of shown a little bit more sensitivity, just get around the reclassification/definition of a planet without coming across as the grinch's that stole christmas - and making all the little kids cry -
and do it on the sly, after all does it really matter to science that much does it? They just give them some sort of sub classification, which we already have - I mean one good example, one of the many great posts I have read, pointed out that with that sort of logic Jupiter should be called a dwarf brown dwarf then (hehe)
And btw Phil I agree with your point, why banish and put down a planet coz its mainly ice?, with that logic the giant gas planets are only gas (and pressurised liquid form gas) after all? (could create a new gas planet out this debate? ) and you cant play footy on them, ie: thats not a planet, this is a planet
Also as I read somewhere (BAUT i think) the other classical planets arent even planets/worlds in the biblical, garden of eden sense of the word either ask an ID'er

I have to mention one very funny one I read out there, its something along the lines of ... NEWSFLASH: the PAU (plutonian astronomical union) in retaliation, has just reclassified earth as now no longer a planet, but merely just one of the inconsequental inner Trans Jovian Rocky Belt Objects or TJ RBO's (hope I got thats kinda right - as I cant find it now - bugga)
too many funny ones out there (and in here to) to mention although I would like to

EDIT: almost forgot - Ceres seems to be the big winner out this - after 150 years as an asteroid, its promoted permanently to a dwarf planet!! congrats are in order!?
ps to those who said it was briefly a real planet there for a while, I missed that one? when was it a planet?

[ving (David)]

ceres

congrats dude!

[mickoking]

Dwarf planet, what is that? A Red or White Dwarf star is still a star so by the same logic a dwarf planet is still a planet.

[glenc (Glen)]

If they call Pluto a planet they have to call 2003 UB 313 a planet too.
Do we want that?
It would make it really hard for us to see all the planets.
It was hard enough to see Pluto.
And what if they find more like UB?

[astroron (Ron)]

Why carn't we have lot's of planets? A planets is a planet however big it is. The Sun is a sub dwarf star, but is still a star
As one who has seen Pluto I still count myself as seeing 9 planets, counting the one I am standing on Go Pluto

[mickoking]

Originally Posted by glenc

If they call Pluto a planet they have to call 2003 UB 313 a planet too.
Do we want that?
It would make it really hard for us to see all the planets.
It was hard enough to see Pluto.
And what if they find more like UB?

I would consider 2003U313 a planet. 10 planets makes more sense than 8

[glenc (Glen)]

UB is mag 18.9.
I don't want it as a planet!!!

[mickoking]

Here is something interesting I found in one of my old Astronomy books; Worlds without end, H Spencer Jones (The Astronomer Royal of the day) Printed in 1938. It seems Pluto's identity as a planet has always been a tenuous one.

[glenc (Glen)]

Astronomers fight to restore Pluto's planet status

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...9/s1731323.htm

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/planetprotest.

Its not over yet??