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STSF Seiben

The Milky Way got a bit smaller

After decades of enduring scorn for being a pint-sized poseur, leading astronomers sealed Pluto's galactic fate on Thursday by declaring it is no longer a planet.

 

CTV.ca News Staff

 

Pluto and its moon Charon are seen in this image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on March 2, 2006.

 

After a turbulent week of spirited debate that bitterly divided astronomers, experts at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) convention in the Czech capital of Prague voted on historic new guidelines that set out the universal definition of a planet.

 

Under the new galactic guidelines, the much-maligned Pluto was stripped of its planetary status.

 

The new regulations say a planet is defined as: "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 neighbourhood around its orbit.''

 

Pluto is automatically excluded from the definition because its orbit overlaps with Neptune's.

 

Instead, it will be classified in a new category of "dwarf planets,'' similar to what long have been designated "minor planets.''

 

The decision effectively downsizes the solar system from nine planets to eight.

 

Jocelyn Bell Burnell -- a specialist in neutron stars from Northern Ireland who oversaw the proceedings - appealed to those who might be "quite disappointed'' to look on the bright side, The Associated Press reported.

 

"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.

 

It's unclear how the planetary demotion could affect the mission of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which earlier this year began a 9 1/2-year journey to Pluto.

 

The decision at a conference of 2,500 astronomers from 75 countries marked a galactic shift from just a week ago, when the IAU's leader proposed a scheme that would retain Pluto's status and bring three other objects into the planetary posse.

 

Under the draft definition that would have created a new class of planetary objects, Pluto's largest moon Charon; the asteroid Ceres; and a recently discovered object known as 2003 UB313 were also to become planets.

 

But the proposal prompted days of often lively, sometimes combative debate that led to the suggestion to demote the ninth rock from the sun.

 

Ceres and UB313 still stand a chance of becoming planets, while Charon is no longer under consideration.

 

Experts have long been bitterly divided over whether Pluto -- which is the smallest of the planets and farthest from the sun -- should keep its membership in the cosmic club.

 

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by the American Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona.

 

The debate about Pluto's status as a planet has been ongoing for decades after the planet was found to be only one four-hundredths of the mass of Earth.

 

Still, Pluto remained planet No. 9 because it was the only known object in the Kuiper Belt -- a disc-shaped zone where thousands of comets and planetary objects float beyond Neptune.

 

When it was confirmed in the 1990s that the Kuiper Belt was sprinkled with numerous bodies similar to Pluto, some scientists voiced their doubts about its status.

 

The debate intensified last summer when astronomer Michael Brown and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology announced the discovery of a celestial object larger and farther away than Pluto.

 

The Hubble Space Telescope measured the bright, rocky object, known as UB313, at about 2,400 kilometres in diameter, roughly 710 kilometres longer than Pluto.

 

Pluto's underdog status has inspired scores of tributes, including one by folk singer Christine Lavin that laments: "I guess if Pluto showed up at a planet convention, the bouncer at the door might have to ban it."

 

From CTV News

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Also here on Yahoo! NewsPlanet Mutiny!!!!.

 

Well, so much for the classical view of the solar system.

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Of course, if it is now classified as a dwarf planet, classicalists could still (and will still) argue that it is a planet. Jupiter is a gas giant, yet is still a 'planet'. Throwing Pluto out of the planet club on the grounds of stature is surely heightist.

 

Why, if I were a plutonion I'd...I'd...I'd...well, I'd be on Pluto and not care.

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If it doesn't count because it overlaps Neptune's orbit, doesn't that mean Neptune doesn't count because it overlaps Pluto's orbit?

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Ooh good point.

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Not quite, because the new IAU definition cheats a bit, by appealing to pre-1900 history. Interestingly, the appeal does reference that *all* of the eight classical planets have nearly circular orbits and reside close to same plane, whereas Pluto-Charon is in a more elliptical and inclined orbit. Other than by this exception, ellipticity and plane aren't part of the definition.

 

Of course, this is still a debate over definitions and terminology, not over anything real.

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Now scientist have to create a new way for kids to learn the planet. You cant use that, now out dated, saying they teach you in elementry.

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If it doesn't count because it overlaps Neptune's orbit, doesn't that mean Neptune doesn't count because it overlaps Pluto's orbit?

 

I'll go you one better. By that definition we have NO planets, not even Earth, because Haley's Comet is still floating around out there and hasn't been snaped up by one of the so-called planets yet.

 

But what really irritates me about this whole planet-naming thing is "Xena" might become a planet but there is no Batman planet. :D

 

 

Now scientist have to create a new way for kids to learn the planet. You cant use that, now out dated, saying they teach you in elementry.

 

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Ceres 2003-UB313?

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Elementary school kids are still going to be taught that there are nine planets for a while still. They re-use the school books, and the teachers don't know anything except what the books say...

 

Personally I don't care if it's not considered a planet. It's still basically labeling. Pluto's still there.

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This is all kinda dumb... who really cares what its called. Its a big floating rock in a whole lot of nothing. whoopty flippin do if its called a planet or a dwarf or w/e lol

Edited by Chell Reno

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Elementary school kids are still going to be taught that there are nine planets for a while still. They re-use the school books, and the teachers don't know anything except what the books say...

 

Personally I don't care if it's not considered a planet. It's still basically labeling. Pluto's still there.

ROFL!!!

This is all kinda dumb... who really cares what its called. Its a big floating rock in a whole lot of nothing. whoopty flippin do if its called a planet or a dwarf or w/e lol

Acually, it seems more ice then rock.

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OH I feel sorry for Pluto. It just got kicked out of the cool kids group. Well I still love you Pluto, keep your chin up. Wel...if Pluto had a chin of course.

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Every group has to have a poser... Pluto is now the Emo kid of the preppy planets.

 

On a side note, I always loved to show up the other kids in science back in middle school when I'd name off pluto before neptune. They'd call me stupid. They got F's.

 

Serves them.

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I'n going to call up my 6th grade science teacher and demand full credit for that 8 planet model I did.

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Well they could make a revised edition on Star Trek, taking everything about Pluto out.

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Well they could make a revised edition on Star Trek, taking everything about Pluto out.

 

True, but that's like editing Tom & Jerry to either A] make it less violent, or B] get rid of the smoking scenes that were socially accepted when the cartoons were made, all in the name of making them "politically correct" for todays youth, who spend most of their time playing violent games on consoles and PCs, or out on the streets. It's bad enough Turner edited out Tom's blackface in the 1943 Oscar-winning "Yankee Doodle Mouse".

Edited by will_marx

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Weeeeeeelll maybe I'm old-fashioned but I will ALWAYS think of Pluto as a planet.

 

 

Besides, people are worried that by demoting Pluto that it will lose stature. If we are true explorers, we are not going to let a title stand in the way of us doing some real invesigations and some real scientific research on this rock that's orbit intersects Neptune's. Let's hope they don't demote Neptune soon, or start renaming planets. Like Uranus because it's offensive.

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Ok............CSCI,And planetary depts. put an away team togrther to do the exploration of Pluto,and then Uranus, retreive as much intel as possible,forward your collective reports to the xo,...we will be leaving this solar syatem as soon as your reports are filed and approved.... :P

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So does that mean Charon technically is a planet as well? I mean.... If Charon and Pluto orbit each other and they orbit around the sun, doesn't that make them both planets? Or is it just a big floating asteroid?

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Pluto pretty much is just an icy rock from the Kuiper belt, believed to be the biggest one even. Whether Pluto and Charon form a double dwarf planet or whether Charon is Pluto's moon really depends on which astronomer you ask.

Pluto's always been a bit odd, planet wise, as it's small and has an eccentric orbit around the sun. Clive Tombaugh (the guy who found Pluto) and many other of his astronomer collegues had actually expected to find another gas giant out there.

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maybe that's silly of me but I'm stoked we have another "dwarf planet" :P

Edited by LadyHitchhiker

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