Board index › General Discussion › News and Current Events

Astronomers now claim that Pluto should be a planet

Page 4 of 4 [ 53 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4

Previous topic | Next topic

naturalplastic
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Aug 2010
Age: 69
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,098
Location: temperate zone

12 Sep 2018, 2:58 pm

Fnord wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
... You could go by Fnord's criteria. The trouble is that if you did you would have to promote objects like the asteroid Ceres up to planet status. Ceres is only 480 miles wide (but it has a circular orbit around the Sun, and is spherical shaped).
Yes, and I see no problem with that.


The problem is that you would then hafta promote fifty or a hundred other objects in the solar system to the status of "planet".

Planet should be reserved for a small number of objects that grade school kids can learn and memorize.



naturalplastic
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Aug 2010
Age: 69
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,098
Location: temperate zone

12 Sep 2018, 4:41 pm

Neil DeGrasse Tyson weighs in during the first few seconds here with Stephen Colbert.



auntblabby
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 113,699
Location: the island of defective toy santas

14 Sep 2018, 12:22 am

naturalplastic wrote:
Fnord wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
... You could go by Fnord's criteria. The trouble is that if you did you would have to promote objects like the asteroid Ceres up to planet status. Ceres is only 480 miles wide (but it has a circular orbit around the Sun, and is spherical shaped).
Yes, and I see no problem with that.


The problem is that you would then hafta promote fifty or a hundred other objects in the solar system to the status of "planet".

Planet should be reserved for a small number of objects that grade school kids can learn and memorize.

mebbe if schoolkids could be taught how to memorize a few dozen other planetary things, it might make for a smarter citizenry? :idea:



RetroGamer87
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Jul 2013
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 10,970
Location: Adelaide, Australia

18 Sep 2018, 1:52 am

Fun fact about Pluto. When I was in primary school in the mid 90s, my teachers told me that Pluto was the most distant planet. They were wrong. Between 1979 and 1999 Neptune was more distant than Pluto.


_________________
The days are long, but the years are short


RetroGamer87
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Jul 2013
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 10,970
Location: Adelaide, Australia

18 Sep 2018, 1:56 am

mrspock wrote:
It all boils down to this: Define PLANET. Pluto was stripped of this status because it lacks sufficient gravity to clear its orbit of all debris...but in order to clear that orbit of all debris, Jupiter would lack enough gravity, in fact you would need a body FOUR TIMES as massive as Jupiter to do it.

In that case we should reclassify Jupiter as a dwarf planet.


_________________
The days are long, but the years are short