Sackboy sez, make Pluto a planet again...

[Rincewiend]

Proposition Initiative: Save Pluto
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union declassified Pluto, the littlest big planet of the solar system, from a real planet
to a dwarf planet. This is a tragedy of monumental proportions and SackBoy, along with your support, is fighting
to reclaim Pluto as the ninth planet.

http://www.propositionpluto.com/index.html

 

[dragunzng]

Saw this earlier and had a laugh, very inventive marketing and he's soooo cute behind that news desk!

Also, I HAVE A RETAIL VERSION!

 

[Twilight]

Astronomer here.

And my position on Pluto has always been this:

If you want to call Pluto a planet, fine! But then, by your own definition, there are hundreds of thousands of planets in the solar system.

So there are eight planets, or hundreds of thousands. Either way, it's your call, and it's merely a matter of semantics.

I, for one, am thrilled that the IAU weighed in just so that we could settle this one way or the other - I wouldn't have cared at all had they come down on the other side of the argument, either.

Because it's not an 'argument' , it's just semantics.


Edit: whoops - I posted this without clicking the link first - so it occurs to me that I may have been taking this thread a bit too seriously - I didn't know this was about LBP.

 

[dragunzng]

Twilight, hilarious stuff. I read the first couple of sentences thinking "boy he's really serious about this!"

 

[Twilight]

I feel sheepish.

 

[captcalhoun]

Pluto is a planet no matter what the IAU says, the decision was a mistake and should be overturned. if anything, it should be redefined as a twin planet with Charon as they orbit a barycenter. if hat means adding Makemake, Sedna, Ceres and the rest, so what?

 

[Twilight]

^No problem!

We'll just have to revamp the "My very excellent mother ..." mnemonic into something approaching the length of War & Peace so that our second graders can spend only a year or so memorizing every known Kuiper belt object.

 

[Brian]

They had better make Pluto a planet again, else the aliens won't know where to find us!

 

[Christopher]

I like the "dwarf planet" designation; it makes sense to have it. The only thing that doesn't make sense is the IAU's claim that a dwarf planet is not a planet. Huh? A dwarf star is a star. A dwarf tree is a tree. A dwarf human is a human. How can a dwarf planet not be a planet? It says "planet" right there in the name.

So we should ditch this legalistic, nonproductive debate over planet vs. dwarf planet and just accept that dwarf planets are a specific subcategory of planets, just as giant planets are. Instead of saying our system has nine planets, or eight planets, or whatever, let's say it has four terrestrial planets, four giant planets (two Jovian, two ice giant), and hundreds (or thousands?) of dwarf planets.

 

[firehawk12]

Sooooo cuuuuuuute.

 

[dragunzng]

Missing the point!

 

[firehawk12]

The point is that Sackboy is cute!

 

[Goliath]

I like the "dwarf planet" designation; it makes sense to have it.

Yes. But I like Asimov's term better: "mesoplanet."

 

[Kryton]

I like the "dwarf planet" designation; it makes sense to have it.

Yes. But I like Asimov's term better: "mesoplanet."

Or even 2LiveCrew's "mesohorny".

 

[dragunzng]

I like the "dwarf planet" designation; it makes sense to have it.

Yes. But I like Asimov's term better: "mesoplanet."

Or even 2LiveCrew's "mesohorny".

, I was trying to pronounce that in my head for about a minute before it hit me.

 

[Christopher]

I like the "dwarf planet" designation; it makes sense to have it.

Yes. But I like Asimov's term better: "mesoplanet."

I favored that one at first -- even before the whole IAU controversy, in fact -- but "dwarf planet" has the advantage of consistency with existing terminology. We commonly refer to dwarf stars and giant stars, and we have giant planets (now the preferred term for "gas giants," since we know now they're mostly liquid), so why not complete the set and have dwarf planets?

 

[Goliath]

^You're right, I suppose.

But in my heart, they'll always be mesoplanets.

 

[firehawk12]

http://www.propositionpluto.com/images2/book_sackboy.jpg

Anyone see that picture? The Astronomy of Hope. Awesome.

 

[Cicero]

I like the "dwarf planet" designation; it makes sense to have it. The only thing that doesn't make sense is the IAU's claim that a dwarf planet is not a planet. Huh? A dwarf star is a star. A dwarf tree is a tree. A dwarf human is a human. How can a dwarf planet not be a planet? It says "planet" right there in the name.

So we should ditch this legalistic, nonproductive debate over planet vs. dwarf planet and just accept that dwarf planets are a specific subcategory of planets, just as giant planets are. Instead of saying our system has nine planets, or eight planets, or whatever, let's say it has four terrestrial planets, four giant planets (two Jovian, two ice giant), and hundreds (or thousands?) of dwarf planets.

I agree entirely.

It seems odd that the current system considers Jupiter and Mercury more alike than Mercury and Ceres.

 

[RJDiogenes]

So there are eight planets, or hundreds of thousands. Either way, it's your call, and it's merely a matter of semantics.

It doesn't matter to me, as long as the categories are defined for scientific reasons; this "demotion" was a political decision to prevent there being too many planets. What the heck?

So we should ditch this legalistic, nonproductive debate over planet vs. dwarf planet and just accept that dwarf planets are a specific subcategory of planets, just as giant planets are. Instead of saying our system has nine planets, or eight planets, or whatever, let's say it has four terrestrial planets, four giant planets (two Jovian, two ice giant), and hundreds (or thousands?) of dwarf planets.

This is my thought exactly.

It seems odd that the current system considers Jupiter and Mercury more alike than Mercury and Ceres.

And this exactly the argument I've been using.