Poor Pluto

[Ory]

Apparently Pluto is no longer a planet. I'll have to go unlearn some stuff now.

According to the article in my local paper, the main reasone Pluto was dumped is because it "does not keep its orbit clear" (as it passes through Neptune's orbit). If this is so, why should Neptune still be called a planet?

I'm sure there are those here much more knowledgable than I in astronomy. Any insights?

[OPTIDONN]

Our local paper said Pluto will keep it planetray status and two other will gain planetray status! Well that was a week ago and they mentioned and international comitee to vote...maybe Pluto losing is status is the result of that meeting.

[RGC_man]

Did the international committee have anything to say about the correct pronounciation of Uranus?

[chm2023]

Well I am too old to be unlearning planets, high falutin' international committee or no. (This is what comes from naming a planet after a Disney cartoon character.....)

[chip anderson]

Did Coffe Anon have anything to do with this?

[For-Life]

Well the other two planets and Pluto will be considered something else (I think called Junior planents). Pluto was considered a moon of Neptune.

[chm2023]

Did Coffe Anon have anything to do with this?

I say we blame him regardless. Unless we can find some French person....damned French people, messing with our planets.

[OPTIDONN]

I'm about a week behind in my news:hammer: I guess the comittee did reject Pluto and the other two as planets.

[Cindy Hamlin]

PLuto was always my favorite.....oh, that was Mickey's dog and not the planet!

Here is a link to the CNN article about it:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/24/pluto.ap/index.html?section=cnn_space&ref=google

[mlm]

So now, instead of learning:
My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas,

Will students use:
My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos? :confused:

[Nettie]

That's just goofy.

[EyeManFla]

First they can Plout. Who's next? Scooby Doo? Snoopy? Rin Tin-Tin?

[rinselberg]

Planet or not, by 2020 there will be more new information about Pluto than any of us would probably ever want to know - if all goes well ...

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/1482/plutonewhorizonsfu1.gif

Test image received from Pluto-bound space probe:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14629151/

Image gallery for New Horizons Pluto-bound space probe:
http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?imgid=3778&gid=275


See why computing with those tedious, old-fashioned bits (binary digits) is becoming so 20th century ...
http://www.optiboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17515

[Cindy Hamlin]

Say it ain't so....

The planet formerly known as Pluto is now a number:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060911/sc_space/plutoisnowjustanumber134340

It takes me a long time to learn this stuff and now I have to learn a new name/number?????? OMG!:hammer:

[Grubendol]

So now, instead of learning:
My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas,

Will students use:
My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos? :confused:

It's the further Mexification of the Nation!

[rinselberg]

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/6497/070309plutohmed3prp420xrf7.jpg
This photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA shows the planet Pluto, center, with its two newly named moons, from far right, Hydra and Nix, respectively. Pluto's other moon, Charon, is seen closest to Pluto. AP Photo/NASA. 6:04 p.m. ET 070903.

A resolution has been put before the New Mexico House of Representatives to restore Pluto to "planethood".

The resolution also calls for March 13, 2007 to be declared "Pluto Planet Day".

Pluto - currently designated Dwarf Planet 134340 - was discovered by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh on February 18, 1930. Tombaugh taught astronomy at New Mexico State University from 1955 until 1973. He died in Las Cruces in 1997. The photographs that first captured the image of Pluto were taken at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.

According to the resolution:

"WHEREAS, New Mexico state university and Dona Ana county were the longtime home of Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto; and WHEREAS, Pluto has been recognized as a planet for seventy-five years; and WHEREAS, Pluto's average orbit is three billion six hundred ninety-five million nine hundred fifty thousand miles from the sun, and its diameter is approximately one thousand four hundred twenty-one miles; and WHEREAS, Pluto has three moons known as Charon, Nix and Hydra; and WHEREAS, a spacecraft called New Horizons was launched in January 2006 to explore Pluto in the year 2015 ..."

If the resolution is passed, it will move to the Senate for further consideration.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17541809


Latest news stories from rinselberg™ ... "Landmark" experiment with light delves into mysteries of quantum physics (http://www.optiboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22340)

[Dave Nelson]

FYI, in the corporate world, demoting someone with the hopes that the demotion will be humiliating enough to make the person quit, rather than outright firing them is now referred to as being "pluto'ed"

[mlm]

FYI, in the corporate world, demoting someone with the hopes that the demotion will be humiliating enough to make the person quit, rather than outright firing them is now referred to as being "pluto'ed"Too funny! :D