Movement to restore PLUTO's planetary status: Time to start one.

[Surya Gayatri]

Looks like a planet to me, dammit! How much more 'planety' can you get?

PLUTO - PLUTO - PLUTO - PLANET - PLANET - PLANET

Just because it's out there all alone at the edge of the solar system, doesn't make it a "solar pariah".

If MERCURY can be a planet, so can PLUTO!!!

So say I!

[Wilms]

1. .

[Surya Gayatri]

9. Good one! What would Walt do? He'd buy Pluto! LOL!

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. It can look very planety, especially if the artist wants it to

like your 3rd image:
http://www.sci-news.com/space/science-new-horizons-polar-cap-pluto-02749.html

Your 1st image is not of Pluto, but of Eris (called, at first, 'Xena') - are you campaigning for that too?

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/hst_xena_20060410.html
http://www.universetoday.com/13573/why-pluto-is-no-longer-a-planet/


Pluto is smaller than our Moon. What makes it look more planety than the Moon?

Ironically, it was the discovery of Eris that got people thinking "maybe we've got loads of these out there, and this one's more massive than Pluto - do we want to call them all planets?"

Pluto's orbit crosses Neptune's, and is locked into a resonance with it because of Neptune's far larger gravity - for every 3 times Neptune goes round the Sun, Pluto goes round twice.

[Surya Gayatri]

5. Who knew? Google came up with the 1st pic for 'Pluto'. Hard to tell them apart at that distance!

If Eris is a candidate, why not?

If it's not a moon, not a comet, not an asteroid, then what is it? A "planetary entity", a "solar left-over"?

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Pluto is a Kuiper Belt Object

along with over 1,000 other bodies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt

Eris is technically a Scattered-Disk Object (it goes even further out from the Sun than Pluto does).

They are both dwarf planets.

[Surya Gayatri]

12. So, they may correctly be referred to as 'second league' or 'pee-wee' planets?

Not big enough for the premier league - sorry fellas.

[AlbertCat]

36. Pluto is a Kuiper Belt Object

Indeed.


Pluto went from being a the smallest planet...


to the largest Kuiper Belt object.

That's not a demotion!

[tkmorris]

3. "It looks like a planet" isn't a reason

Is Eris a planet? Haumea?

[Surya Gayatri]

6. Existential question...

'If it's not a moon, not a comet, not an asteroid, then what is it? A "planetary entity", a "solar left-over"?'

[GreatGazoo]

4. .

[Surya Gayatri]

7. Saw that before! LOL!

[AlbertCat]

37. Is 36,373 mph "real slow?"

I suppose in cosmological terms it is.

[Cha]

40. Cute! I never dumped Pluto.. did not agree it wasn't one of the Planets in our Solar System.

[gollygee]

8. I don't know, it looks a little scary

OTOH maybe it's just Pluto:

[Bad Thoughts]

13. The Spock Test

I think that Allen Stern, one of the lead astronomers on New Horizon, is right: the status of an object should be judged from its innate qualities. The Enterprise needs to go into orbit, look at it, and judge what it is. Spock should not go about arduously calculating all the orbits of all the objects in the solar system to see if this one objects "clears its orbits."

[longship]

14. That's the issue. It is definitely not "out there all alone"

So the IAU had a choice.

1. Eight planets.

2. Twelve planets with likely uncountable more to come.

Also, the IAU did not define the word planet as much as they made it a concept.

Anyway, Pluto is definitely different from all the planets, both in character and in behavior. Now it is true that the eight planets have different characteristics. That is why Pluto not being a "planet" is because of its behavior.

"Pluto. Get over it." (Neil deGrasse Tyson)

[Bad Thoughts]

15. Third choice--classes of planets: Terrestrial, Gaseous, Icy. eom.

[longship]

17. Well, that's true. And we already do that.

We have terrestrial: MVEM
Gas giants: JS
Ice giants: UN
Dwarf planets: quite a few, including Pluto, which is apparently the largest of them.

Pluto is also classified as a Kuiper Belt Object.

But your point is well taken. But remember, Pluto's status is not about its appearance or its make up, but about its behavior.

My regards.

[Bad Thoughts]

18. The choice to demote Pluto had more to do with having a Pantheon

They members of the association wanted to keep the number of planets limited, and found qualities (not belonging to dwarf planets themselves) that allowed them to do so.

Three problems. First, the solar system is much messier, much more complex than eight planets and some minor objects. Second, it's going to get harder to convince the public to fund research on "Kuiper belt objects" or "scattered disc objects" than it would be for planetary research. Third, getting less money for research on these areas means that they will deny themselves the resources to look at the current frontier in planetary research.

[longship]

22. Your second claim seems dubious.

Especially given both the currently active New Horizons and Dawn probes, which neatly and simply falsifies your claim.

[Bad Thoughts]

23. New Horizons funded when Pluto was a planet

And the funding for Ceres and Pluto probes were cancelled many times, their budgets slashed.

[longship]

25. All planetary science funding (which includes KBOs and dwarf planets) is tough.

The funding issue has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the classification of the objects. It is about the fact that cutting edge science is difficult to do and thus expensive. Your claim is just not credible.

A counter example. The James Webb Space Telescope, also under funding stress.
Sorry.

[Bad Thoughts]

26. Fair enough. eom.

[Surya Gayatri]

19. Not literally 'all alone', but imagine how lonely it must feel, having been

ignominiously demoted to 'object' status, after so many years in the big league?

[gollygee]

20. I have to admit I'm on team Neil DeGrasse tyson

I don't think it should be considered a planet either. It seems like the only excuse to do so is nostalgia over the days it was a planet, and that's an incredibly weak scientific argument.

[backscatter712]

35. There we have it.

If Pluto becomes an Official Planet again, we'd have to do the same for Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Ceres, Sedna, Orcus, Quaoar, Varuna, etc....

[Princess Turandot]

16. There's already a petition for this on change.org...

addressed to the International Astronomical Union.

Dr. Stern calls it a planet and since he actually went and took a look at it, that's good enough for me.

https://www.change.org/p/international-astronomical-union-declare-pluto-a-planet-plutoflyby

[Surya Gayatri]

21. Dr. Stern sounds like a man after my own heart!

He knows a planet when he sees one!

[Volaris]

30. If Science were rooted in the number of people who signed a petition,

The Earth would still be flat and Gravity would be subject to Trickle-down economics.
Pluto's not a planet.
Get over it.
=)

[Cha]

41. I'm on Team Stern, too! mahalo PT

[Tommy_Carcetti]

24. Suck it, Neal Degrasse Tyson. nt

[DetlefK]

27. You think THAT's a planet?

some diameters:

Ceres 963 km
Pluto 2370 km
Luna 3476 km
Callisto 4821 km
Io 3643 km
Europa 3122 km
Ganymede 5262 km

Mercury 4879 km
Venus 12,103 km
Terra 12,756 km
Mars 6792 km

Now, which of those are planets and which are moons?

[Surya Gayatri]

28. Forever relegated to the second league? What a come down for a once

proud, proper planet. Always to be referred to as a "pee-wee" or dwarf?

Oh, the ignominy!

[Orrex]

31. Other moons don't count.

That eliminates Luna, Callisto, Io, Europa and Ganymede (and Titan as well, though it wasn't on the list).

That means that of all the known objects in the solar system, Pluto is among the largest whose primary orbit is around the sun rather than the host planet.

[Adrahil]

29. And Ceres! Make Ceres a planet too! nt

[Cha]

42. Ceres is our largest beautiful asteroid!

https://anastrologicalapproach.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/perfect-time-for-ceres/

[HuckleB]

32. How about we let the scientists figure it out?

[longship]

38. I guess some folks don't like scientists figuring shit out.

Amazingly, those same folks manage to get online using the fruits of that same shit.

I have to shrug, too.




Also, there's no law that says Pluto is not a planet. This is just for how science sees things. (Some scientists disagree, as usual.)

My best to you.

[Glassunion]

33. Not a planet. Sorry... Not a planet.

[olddots]

34. this movement is kinda Goofy

[LiberalAndProud]

39. Plutoids -- look it up.

It's done. Get over it.

[Cha]

43. Pro Pluto here.. raises hand.

Mahalo for these Pluto pics and information, Surya

[madokie]

44. I agree

ETA: it is so awesome that we can build and send a space craft that is over 9 years in the journey in order to get these photos. I forgot how long it takes for the signals to travel from here to there. Those signals are traveling at the speed of light so that little bugger is a long ways away.

Planet Pluto indeed. it will always be to me as I lived most of my life knowing it was anyway.

[Surya Gayatri]

46. Hey there, good buddy. Pluto's had a bum rap for too long! LOL!

Seriously, I don't care what they call it--it's still cool.

Have you seen this?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026979204

'Historic image of Pluto, with 10 times the resolution of anything ever seen before...'

[madokie]

47. Thank you,

I have now seen this. To me this is the crown jewel of what we as humans can do. This space craft has been over 9 years in getting there. What an achievement that is let alone send back these awesome pictures.

[Orrex]

45. Now is the time to revisit our plan to bomb the moon.