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Off Topic Forums => Off Topic Forum => Topic started by: angels4kelly on August 24, 2006, 10:56:15 am

Title: Pluto? :(
Post by: angels4kelly on August 24, 2006, 10:56:15 am


Astronomers Give Pluto the Boot as Planet

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (Aug. 24) - 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.

   
 

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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.

   
 In the Planetary Club 
   
   
   
   
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.


8/24/2006 09:50:33


Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL. 
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: ACinKC on August 24, 2006, 11:02:31 am
I always thought it was a little wierd calling him a PLANET and all. 

(http://www.mda.dds.nl/film/shorts/pluto.gif)
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: Cliff on August 24, 2006, 11:09:47 am
NOOoooooooooooooooo!  Why?  Why? Why?

oh well, I'm off to the grocery store.
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: Lwood on August 24, 2006, 11:18:04 am
Bummer....  
I hereby submit :


Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: ACinKC on August 24, 2006, 11:31:20 am
Lwood you are such a TOOL!  LOL I love it!
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: Cliff on August 24, 2006, 12:09:05 pm
Lwood, your Pluto could use a splash of Gin. 

But to add insult to injury, Pluto is now known as a dwarf planet.  Well that's a guaranteed boost to the ego.
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: ACinKC on August 24, 2006, 12:15:46 pm
Lwood, your Pluto could use a splash of Gin. 

But to add insult to injury, Pluto is now known as a dwarf planet.  Well that's a guaranteed boost to the ego.

Someone should probably tell the people in Mouse's thread they now have a place to call home!
http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=3163.0
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: Mouse on August 24, 2006, 02:29:01 pm
Someone should probably tell the people in Mouse's thread they now have a place to call home!
http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=3163.0

Cheap shot.
 :D
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: ACinKC on August 24, 2006, 02:30:34 pm
yeah----sorry!
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: Mouse on August 24, 2006, 02:32:31 pm
Besides. You're just heightening your risk of getting attacked at the ankles.
 ;D
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: Shawn Decker on August 24, 2006, 03:11:15 pm
Look for the use of Pluto in Viagra ads soon...
I can't believe we allowed this to happen!
Shawn
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: whizzer on August 24, 2006, 06:38:15 pm
DAMN THEM for this !!  Let them buy their own friggin' telescopes from now on.

And if Pluto hasn't cleared it's orbit ('cuz it crosses orbits with Neptune), then I submit Neptune hasn't cleared it's orbit either.

My conclusion:

The planets end at URANUS

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

-Whizzer
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: Cliff on August 24, 2006, 07:36:03 pm
...making a mockery out of Pluto and the other crap recently discovered, this scientist had this to say about their new dwarf planet status...

Quote
Brown was pleased by the decision. He had argued that Pluto and similar bodies didn't deserve planet status, saying that would "take the magic out of the solar system."

"UB313 is the largest dwarf planet. That's kind of cool," he said.
No, actually it's not.
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: fearless on August 24, 2006, 07:59:14 pm
I hate the term 'dwarf planet'. Poor little Pluto.

I wonder what happened to their proposal to call Pluto and pluto-like objects Plutons. It would sure help to soften the blow to poor little Pluto's self esteem.
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: Matty the Damned on August 24, 2006, 08:59:02 pm
I wonder if the 8 big planets will start tossing Pluto around the cosmos for laughs?

MtD ;D
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: jkinatl2 on August 24, 2006, 09:00:29 pm
We only wanted a Plutonic relationship with it.

Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: Jody on August 24, 2006, 09:22:37 pm
I'll kind of miss Pluto, it has been there all my life as the last planet, now we have to change that to Neptune, I don't think i'll ever be able to make such a major adjustment, I shall forever be in denial, I insist - BTW -  Is there a Save Pluto movement yet for recovering Plutoists???   ;).....Oh well at least there's always Ur anus already.


Jody  :D
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: Life on August 25, 2006, 12:16:58 am
It will always be Pluto for me.... Its like when they tried to teach me the Metric system back when I was alittle school boy.... FUCK THAT SHIT....

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: fearless on August 25, 2006, 03:05:18 am
Agh, I've thought about this some more.

The only way to have Pluto reinstated as a planet would be for Pluto to catch HIV. If Pluto was HIV+ it would have no problems 'clearing the neighbourhood around its orbit' and therefore the only objection to it being a planet would be removed.
Title: Re: Pluto? :(
Post by: Matty the Damned on August 25, 2006, 09:11:48 am
Remember science class geek films? (http://www.youtube.com/v/qrUQboKx_KE) I got a boredom woody just watching this one.

Ah, good times.

MtD