Pluto may lose its "planetary" status
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4789531.stm

Some interesting stuff here if you're into astronomy. Apparently Pluto may not be known as the 9th planet in our solar system much longer.

Some experts are arguing that Pluto should either be "demoted" from planet, or else they have to add like 20 more bodies out there that are at least as large as Pluto, if not larger ("Class, how many planets do we have in our solar system? And if you say 9, you're wrong!").

Personally, I would rather have it stay, simply cause it's been called one for so long now, and I'm sure a lot of people would feel the same way. But I can understand if they decide to say Pluto is no longer a planet (cause of its weird orbit, and why it's not a gas giant when the other planets in the outer solar system are, etc.).

What's your thoughts/opinions on this?

I'll agree with you Gecko. We're all already used to having this planet in our system. Getting rid of it now would be like adding a 51st state to the US.

Puerto Rico is totally the 51st state.

8 planets ftw!

I'd not give if not for the fact that that two of my faveroute Chraracters of ever have namesakes in Pluto.
Namely Setsuna (Sailor Pluto) and Pluto of Astroboy fame.

Isn't it Neptune that has an irregular orbit?

Pluto has it worse.

Well, aren't we trying to broaden our knowledge of outer space? We are spending bamajillions of dollars sending crap out there so why not add 20 more planets to the list. Is it suppose to be like some secret only "space smart people" should know about? I'd sure like to know what other kind of planets are in our solar system. Who cares if the orbit is weird. It's like people are discriminating against planets now. "Oh, it has a strange orbit so it's technically not part of us..." Bastards!!

I dont think it's the orbit that makes some want to demote Pluto. It's the fact that it's size isn't as big as what we would normally call a planet. There are many objects beyond pluto that are about the same size or larger. Some even have thier own moons like Pluto. If.. you can even consider Pluto's moon a moon. (Isn't it the same size as Pluto or close enough or something?)

So if you call such a small rock a planet then you have to call every other rock that size a planet as well. Which would increase our solar system alot. Also, how far do you go out? To the point that our sun can't hold onto something? If that's the case our solar system is going to get much, much larger.

Personally, I dont really care if they no longer consider it a planet. I also do not care if they decide to just add the rest of the large objects out there to the list of planets. As we explorer further out and advance we're going to only encounter more and more. Sooner or later we're going to discover things that change our outlook on our little part of the galaxy. It's happened in the past and it's only going to happen again.

If they decide to keep Pluto, then they should include the other Kuiper belt objects that are larger or the same size as Pluto, effectively giving us many planets.

As it stands, since Pluto is more a part of the Kuiper belt, then it should be demoted from a planet. The Kuiper belt houses many icy rocks, almost like the Asteroid belt, but we don't include those as planets.

I've always wondered about our right to name something that's out of our solar system a name that's of Earth origin. I mean, how geocentric is that??? I'm sure there's a civilization out there that's far more entitled to name it something of their own design than us.

Nope, were the only ones.


As for whether or not it should still be considered a planet, I think they should leave well enough alone. Its almost like astronomers are getting bored, and they need some big thing to spice up theyre bad career choice.

At least people won't point out the omission when listening to Holst anymore.

In summation of a Discover Magazine Article:
There are 9 PLanets and a Double PLanetoid:
Mercury
Venus
Earth
.
.
.
.
.
Pluto/Charon
Zena The Warrior Princess

But Pluto-is- a planet. That's the new home of the Heaven's Gate cult, a safe haven from the Luciferians. :)

But it has to be a planet, my mommy told me so. :(

In all honesty though, I really couldn't care less. Pluto has been a planet for 70 some years and I don't really see what all the fuss is about. I personally think that we should take all of the money for that little gathering of theirs and spend it on something useful, like me for example.

The big debate has come up because Voyager spotted a big rock that was larger than Pluto. There are also seven moons that are larger than Pluto--Ganamyde, Titan, Callisto, our moon, Io, Europa, and Triton--and those first two are even bigger than Mercury.

Asteroids were originaly thought to be planets as well. After the first four were found, astronomers thought of them as planets because there was no way to find out how big they were. The fifth asteroid to be discovered was just a year before Neptune was, and then more and more asteroids were being found.

Well, then in that case, lets ask the dogs what they prefer to call their species. I'm sure that dolphins would also object to our bastardization of whatever they call themselves. It's not like we can just give the fine people who live on a planet orbing Alpha Centauri A a call and ask what they want things to be renamed as.

Of course they can't be titled as planets though.

this is perfect! Now there will have to be a magic school bus in space 2 to correct the out dated facts of the greatest educational pc game ever!

anyways if Pluto does get stripped of its title i'll still call it a planet but the subject hardly ever comes up so I don't really care. Oh and there are 10 planets , what about planet X.... jeez guys...

This debate on whether Pluto is a planet or isn't has been going on almost since it was found. "Is it big enough?" That's the main question. To me, it doesn't matter that we have twenty-some-odd objects just as big or bigger (including Xena and Sedna). Pluto has been a planet. It should remain a planet. Changing its title confuses people. Besides, we don't have to add planets to the solar system if we just say the solar system cuts off at Pluto.

Wern't they talking about doing this a few years back? Personaly I think it's stupid to drop Pluto as a planet. I mean just because of it's orbit paterns doesn't make it any less a planet...or atleast I think so.

No, but I think it's a better decision. And besides, the only reason this would make things more "scientifically accurate" is by making their devised scale match that of the objects in the solar system. Something tells me that it would be easier just for them to change their scale.

These damn popularity contests are everywhere now. I blame both Disney and Hollywood. Pluto the dog faded into obscurity with a lack of anything and there are no big budget box office smash violence movies set on Pluto. Everyone goes to fucking Mars or the Sun.

"GONNA GO KICK SOME ALIEN ASS ON THE SUN BOOOOYS, LET'S GOOOO!"
*End of movie*

Rename Pluto to Pokemon or Pepsi or something. It'll become bigger than Earth, we'll all leave in the hope of being cool and living on the planet for about two and a half seconds.

You react like the decision has something to do with emotional attachment. "Planet" is a technical classification, either an object is one or it is not and unfortunately believing something does not make it so.

And what's to stop them from changing that technical classification?