Author Topic: There are now 12 planets!  (Read 11588 times)

Offline punkboi

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Re: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #20 on: 08/17/2006 05:16 pm »
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RedSky - 17/8/2006 4:41 AM
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punkboi - 16/8/2006 10:36 PM

 

Err, you DO realize that the IAU DID designate Pluto and everything else beyond it "Plutons", right? ;)

Um, well... yes. That's why I said it... as in: OK, call them Plutons if you must. But that designation should not have been given the full status of "planet", but "minor planet" instead.

Planet, minor planet... They're both planets.  Technicalities sure are annoying :)


Offline PlanetStorm

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Re: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #21 on: 08/17/2006 06:17 pm »

The definition based on gravitational force overcoming mechanical strength makes a whole lot of sense to me. It is a good attempt to take the arbitrariness out of what constitutes a planet and what doesn't. The main oddity arising from the new definition to my mind is that our moon is artificially excluded from being called a planet, simply because of its current orbit about the earth (CM of the earth/moon system is inside the earth). Give it another billion years of slowly spiralling outwards, and bingo, we will have to re-write the textbooks again...


Offline zinfab

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Re: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #22 on: 08/17/2006 06:45 pm »
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Give it another billion years of slowly spiralling outwards, and bingo, we will have to re-write the textbooks again...

They better start saving money for the book manufacturing, then. ;)

Offline RedSky

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RE: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #23 on: 08/24/2006 04:25 am »
Thursday is D-Day for Pluto.  ... any bets?   I'm thinking deadlock... no decision.

http://skytonight.com/news/3707031.html

Offline punkboi

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RE: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #24 on: 08/24/2006 05:06 am »

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RedSky - 23/8/2006 9:12 PM Thursday is D-Day for Pluto. ... any bets? I'm thinking deadlock... no decision. http://skytonight.com/news/3707031.html[/QUOTE]

I supported the 12-planet concept...but I've read reports about the IAU going with the 8-planet/Pluto-as-a-dwarf-world resolution.  Which, in my opinion, is WEAK.

I wanted to see Ceres as a planet ;)


Offline Sergi Manstov

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RE: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #25 on: 08/24/2006 05:31 am »
Really not sure Astonomy is at all relevant to this site, moving to General.

Offline Mark Dave

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Re: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #26 on: 08/24/2006 12:01 pm »
Ceres is tiny isn't it?

I also began wondering what of Pluto-Charon? One problem people have is the orbit of the double planet compared to the rest of the solar system. Pluto-Charon's orbit is not in line with the rest. This is also why many go so far as to not add the double planet to a solar system display.

Online Spiff

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RE: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #27 on: 08/24/2006 01:12 pm »
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RedSky - 24/8/2006  6:12 AM

Thursday is D-Day for Pluto.  ... any bets?   I'm thinking deadlock... no decision.


My bet as well. At least on this occasion. Maybe they'll come up with something in a year or so...

In my personal opinion I think they should go with 8 planets. But I am not a professional astronomer. ;)
I always consider space to be the FIRST frontier.

Offline Wisi

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Re: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #28 on: 08/24/2006 01:46 pm »
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MarkD - 24/8/2006  1:48 PM

Ceres is tiny isn't it?

I also began wondering what of Pluto-Charon? One problem people have is the orbit of the double planet compared to the rest of the solar system. Pluto-Charon's orbit is not in line with the rest. This is also why many go so far as to not add the double planet to a solar system display.

Yes Ceres is realy tiny. Not even 1000 km (620 miles) in diameter... Much smaller than many moons in the solar system and not even half the size of pluto.  

and for the rest: this is why neither pluto-charon  (inclination 13°) nor 'Xena' (inclination 44°!!) should be a planet.

Offline Jim

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Hold, the presses, there are now only 8 planets!
« Reply #29 on: 08/24/2006 02:14 pm »
Pluto downgraded

Offline Wisi

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Re: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #30 on: 08/24/2006 02:23 pm »
Is that 'official' now?

Offline PlanetStorm

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RE: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #31 on: 08/24/2006 02:32 pm »

Yes, the decision was made today by the International Astronomical union.

Offline DeJaVu4U

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RE: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #32 on: 08/24/2006 02:32 pm »
Its official that Pluto isn't a planet anymore  :(  

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14489259/from/ET/

Offline PlanetStorm

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RE: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #33 on: 08/24/2006 02:50 pm »

The good new is that we have now completed the exploration of the solar system :)

Offline punkboi

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RE: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #34 on: 08/24/2006 03:58 pm »

Michael Brown argued that Pluto and similar bodies didn't deserve planet status, saying that would "take the magic out of the solar system."

What the heck is this, Harry Potter?  I'm disappointed. :o


Offline rsp1202

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RE: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #35 on: 08/24/2006 04:20 pm »
NASA just spent several hundred million bucks on New Horizons to explore a dwarf planet. Time to re-target to Vulcan.

Offline punkboi

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RE: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #36 on: 08/24/2006 04:59 pm »
Vulcan's too far.  What about Hoth?

Offline Zoomer30

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RE: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #37 on: 08/24/2006 06:03 pm »
Pluto is a planet...nuff said :)

In my book if a body is round (not a lumpy potato) and is able to have another body orbit it, then its a planet.....oh wait....that means the moon will be a planet someday....so be it :)

Offline RedSky

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RE: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #38 on: 08/24/2006 06:24 pm »
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rsp1202 - 24/8/2006  11:07 AM

NASA just spent several hundred million bucks on New Horizons to explore a dwarf planet. Time to re-target to Vulcan.

FYI... there once was a planet Vulcan... (and not Spock's homeworld, and a lot closer than that)... but in the opposite direction New Horizons is going to be able to re-target it  ;)    This is a pic taken of a page from an 1880 college text I own, that was basically used for an intro to astronomy course.   (and NO, its wasn't MY textbook... I'm not THAT old)



Offline Zoomer30

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RE: There are now 12 planets!
« Reply #39 on: 08/24/2006 06:34 pm »
People may feel strongly about Pluto being a planet, but I think we can all agree it was not "part" of the solar system at conception.  Its very odd orbit that goes far about and below the elliptic of the solar system suggests it was not formed in the dust disk that formed the other planets.  

Of course the opposite view could hold also, pluto could have been formed in the disk and had a normal orbit, but what ever casued Uranus to tip over on its axis may have messed up Pluto as well.

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