Do you think it's possible that Pluto is NOT a dwarf planet?

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Adamantium
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15 Jul 2015, 4:26 pm

Mordor!



Tollorin
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15 Jul 2015, 6:29 pm

ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo wrote:
All I can say is it's about time Lil Ole Pluto got his due. He mostly just gets ignored but that's in the past! The term for small planets is planetoid and Pluto got demoted to that but maybe seeing him will enable an upgrade to planet?

If Pluto is defined as a planet then the number of planets in the solar system become ridiculously large and could be seen as a downgrade of the term. Even defined as a dwarf planet Pluto is not ignored anyway.



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15 Jul 2015, 11:23 pm

Not necessarily---you can change the definition of planet so it reads the same as it does now, with the addition of "or Pluto".


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15 Jul 2015, 11:35 pm

ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo wrote:
All I can say is it's about time Lil Ole Pluto got his due. He mostly just gets ignored but that's in the past! The term for small planets is planetoid and Pluto got demoted to that but maybe seeing him will enable an upgrade to planet?


The reason for it's "demotion" can be seen here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleared_the_neighborhood

Eris, for example, is larger than Pluto. The five currently recognized dwarf planets are Eris, Pluto, Ceres, Haumea, and Makemake. New candidates that will probably be included are 2007 OR10, Quaoar, Sedna, Orcus, 2002 MS4 and Salacia, just to name a few in the beginning of the first link. Once we've more fully explored the Kuiper belt, it is expected that we will have at least around a hundred in this category.

They are considered planetesimals left over from the formation of the solar system, which may not be moons but are still don't have enough mass to "clear their own neighborhood". Other larger bodies have enough gravity to pull objects into orbit, right into them, or slingshot them out of proximity. The minimum requirements for mass are such that the body has hydrostatic equilibrium under it's own gravity and it can attractive other objects purely through mutual gravity.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_S ... ts_by_size

Quote:
Not necessarily---you can change the definition of planet so it reads the same as it does now, with the addition of "or Pluto".


Note the important distinctions I've made. As Pluto cannot "clear it's own neighborhood", it deserves it's own category of which there appear to be quite a few members. This is not a "demotion". Instead it establishes that Pluto is interesting for different reasons, as dwarf planets have much more irregular orbit patterns and are actually helping us to better understand the early stages of the solar system.

Btw, this was a fun 1000th post.


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16 Jul 2015, 12:14 am

I can not speak intelligibly about Pluto being a dwarf planet of not; all I know is that it's real name is Yuggoth, and that it has for eons been used as an outer outpost by winged crustacean/fungus creatures called the Mi-Go, who fly on the solar winds to earth, and are worshiped and feared by New England hill folk. They have kidnapped humans - are rather, their heads in metallic canisters - for some dark purpose.
Is it only coincidence that that huge dark spot on the planet has been recently named Cthulhu?!?!?


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17 Jul 2015, 6:07 pm

I think Pluto may or could be something else and possibly one of these things:

1) A Mass Relay in a big transportation system (used by the Reapers)

This was done in Mass Effect and it sounded cool. It would be easy to do some radar scans of Pluto if the satellite had the equipment and so we could learn what materials made up Pluto. I do recall one of the moons of Pluto being a Mass Relay, rather than Pluto, and we could find that out.

2) An Alien construct or listening post

Maybe some aliens want to observe us after some ancient war was fought. It could transmit data back and be reassuring that humans are pretty harmless.

3) A sentient robot that is napping that eats planets

Umm, Unicron maybe?

4) A generation ship of some kind, abandoned

Maybe some aliens showed up from somewhere else and decided to colonize, so they dumped their ship out where Pluto is. That would be rather pointless though.

5) Something more interesting than being another dwarf planet

Just being a dwarf planet or a former planet sounds somewhat boring. What happened to aliens and other fun things? Why are we such a boring non space exploring species?



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18 Jul 2015, 5:46 am

Lukecash12 wrote:
Quote:
Not necessarily---you can change the definition of planet so it reads the same as it does now, with the addition of "or Pluto".


Note the important distinctions I've made. As Pluto cannot "clear it's own neighborhood", it deserves it's own category of which there appear to be quite a few members. This is not a "demotion". Instead it establishes that Pluto is interesting for different reasons, as dwarf planets have much more irregular orbit patterns and are actually helping us to better understand the early stages of the solar system.


I'm well aware of the scientific reasons why the first definition of planet astronomers have agreed on excludes Pluto. They don't invalidate what I say: change that definition so it reads, "A planet is an object that meets these conditions or is Pluto", and, voilà, Pluto is a planet again, simply because we want it to be, for the hell of it. This definition would be scientifically useless, but what people wanting back their nice and seemingly timeless nine-planet list, despite dating back only to 1930, closed forever by American Mr Clyde Tombaugh's discovery, seek is not scientifical usefulness. They won't be convinced by scientific arguments, even in the unlikely event that they care to listen to them.


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18 Jul 2015, 8:59 am

Spiderpig wrote:
Lukecash12 wrote:
Quote:
Not necessarily---you can change the definition of planet so it reads the same as it does now, with the addition of "or Pluto".


Note the important distinctions I've made. As Pluto cannot "clear it's own neighborhood", it deserves it's own category of which there appear to be quite a few members. This is not a "demotion". Instead it establishes that Pluto is interesting for different reasons, as dwarf planets have much more irregular orbit patterns and are actually helping us to better understand the early stages of the solar system.


I'm well aware of the scientific reasons why the first definition of planet astronomers have agreed on excludes Pluto. They don't invalidate what I say: change that definition so it reads, "A planet is an object that meets these conditions or is Pluto", and, voilà, Pluto is a planet again, simply because we want it to be, for the hell of it. This definition would be scientifically useless, but what people wanting back their nice and seemingly timeless nine-planet list, despite dating back only to 1930, closed forever by American Mr Clyde Tombaugh's discovery, seek is not scientifical usefulness. They won't be convinced by scientific arguments, even in the unlikely event that they care to listen to them.


The Sun and the Moon were once classified as planets. Then it was discovered that they were not. Pluto is the same way.



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18 Jul 2015, 10:08 am

Pluto appears to have internal convection, there are mountains of water ice and maybe an internal ocean. I believe its status as a planet should be restored especially when we consider history on top of these new discoveries.



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18 Jul 2015, 10:40 am

We could also blow up Eris.


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18 Jul 2015, 5:44 pm

That which we know as 'Pluto' is actually one of Great A'Tuin's eggs.

When it does hatch, the hatchling may very well choose the name 'Pluto'.

Or 'Gwendoline'.


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NewTime
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18 Jul 2015, 7:56 pm

Should we consider the Sun and the Moon planets? After all, that was traditional. It was also traditional not to consider Earth a planet.



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18 Jul 2015, 11:59 pm

Jacoby wrote:
Pluto appears to have internal convection, there are mountains of water ice and maybe an internal ocean. I believe its status as a planet should be restored especially when we consider history on top of these new discoveries.


There are a number of planets that don't meet those criteria. What they do meet, however, is the actual criteria for being a planet.


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21 Jul 2015, 11:21 am

I think Venus was once considered to be Neptune, but I find it hardly surprising, and when I link it to my first post, I can state that Neptune rules the mind and body of the subconscious realm/matter, and that my birth chart says I have Venus in Aries supplied by the house planet influence of Pluto, the Scorpion planet which is now referred to as the red planet, yep, Mars. No wonder my nocturnal self control mirrors my cosmos need for self realisation under a microscopic lens and awaken self interest in matters relating to insomnia and wild imaginings..


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21 Jul 2015, 11:34 am

Moonshine wrote:
I think Venus was once considered to be Neptune, but I find it hardly surprising, and when I link it to my first post, I can state that Neptune rules the mind and body of the subconscious realm/matter, and that my birth chart says I have Venus in Aries supplied by the house planet influence of Pluto, the Scorpion planet which is now referred to as the red planet, yep, Mars. No wonder my nocturnal self control mirrors my cosmos need for self realisation under a microscopic lens and awaken self interest in matters relating to insomnia and wild imaginings..


Venus was never considered "to be" Neptune (unless you mean astrologers assigned the roles of Neptune to Venus at some point in the past).

Astrology was invented in ancient times when they only had the original "seven planets": Sun, moon, mercury, Venus, mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. They didn't discover Neptune and Uranus until the nineteenth century. Pluto was discovered in the 20th. The Sun is now known to be a star. The Moon got demoted to "a moon", and we now know that earth is itself "a planet".



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21 Jul 2015, 11:48 am

naturalplastic wrote:
Moonshine wrote:
I think Venus was once considered to be Neptune, but I find it hardly surprising, and when I link it to my first post, I can state that Neptune rules the mind and body of the subconscious realm/matter, and that my birth chart says I have Venus in Aries supplied by the house planet influence of Pluto, the Scorpion planet which is now referred to as the red planet, yep, Mars. No wonder my nocturnal self control mirrors my cosmos need for self realisation under a microscopic lens and awaken self interest in matters relating to insomnia and wild imaginings..


Venus was never considered "to be" Neptune (unless you mean astrologers assigned the roles of Neptune to Venus at some point in the past).

Astrology was invented in ancient times when they only had the original "seven planets": Sun, moon, mercury, Venus, mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. They didn't discover Neptune and Uranus until the nineteenth century. Pluto was discovered in the 20th. The Sun is now known to be a star. The Moon got demoted to "a moon", and we now know that earth is itself "a planet".


And to think, on some other planet, someone has their astrology chart including the earth! :lol:


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