Pluto Pissoffment!!!
I am rip-ROARING angry about the whole Pluto not being a planet bullshit. This isn't about science, its about definitions. Definitions are ARBITRARY Hewman constructs that allow us to classify reality as we see fit. Just because a few astronomers find this new, exclusionary definition more convenient does not give them the right to force it upon the 6 billion other inhabitents of this solar system.
Earth is nothing like Jupiter or Neptune, yes astronomers have arbitrarily decided that a planet does not have to be something you can walk on. There is no problem with the old definition of "spherical through its own gravity and in some sort of orbit around the sun". This isn't like calling Pi to be equal to 3, this isn't a measurement or something testable, it's whatever we want it to be and thanks to a handy little thing called QUALIFIERS, making the definition of planet very inclusive doesn't hurt anything. Earth is a rocky planet, Jupiter is a gas giant planet and Neptune is a slush planet. Pluto and its cousins can simply be Ice type planets. A compact car is still a car and a midget is still a hewman so why can't Pluto be a planet.
Moving on to practical considerations, finding a new planet in our solar system is like the holy grail of astronomy. How is it fair to new astronomers if they are forever locked out the recognition and naming rights of a new planet that will go in all the textbooks and science museums??? Why should a bunch of dead guys have a monopoly on local planetary discovery? Moreover, this might come back to haunt us in thousands of years when we need to establish the boundary of our solar system in respects to whatever other lifeforms are running about out there. I can just see some intergalactic UN pointing out that we decided that way back in 2006 we said Pluto wasn't a planet so therefore we loose out on billions of miles worth of exclusive mineral rights.
I guess in the nearer term Pluto could become sort of like the Isle of Man or Old Jersey, not really part of the UN cause its not a planet and therefore becomming a tax haven / pairate enclave / terrorist base. This is why scientists shouldn't be making this decision. The definition of planet has a HUGE regulatory implications that put such a decision within the perview of public policy and our elected officials.
At the very least they could have grandfathered Pluto into being a planet. Thanks to those wonderful Grandfather clauses The PATH train is still an FRA Railroad and you can still buy some assault rifles in New Jersey. I heard a wonderful quote on Niteline tonight where someone said that Planets should be like supreme court justices...you're there for life no matter how unqualified you turn out to be.
One final thought. Is it just me, but all those little exceptions and corner cases really made learning in elementary school fun. Like pluto was the 9th planet...but sometimes it was the 8th. Just like Y is sometimes a vowel and sometimes not or that Dolphins aren't fish. It was one of those things that when you learned it it made you feel smart and you;d go around telling people. Life isn't simple, there's always a corner case and ppl need to learn to be aware of them.
Earth is nothing like Jupiter or Neptune, yes astronomers have arbitrarily decided that a planet does not have to be something you can walk on. There is no problem with the old definition of "spherical through its own gravity and in some sort of orbit around the sun". This isn't like calling Pi to be equal to 3, this isn't a measurement or something testable, it's whatever we want it to be and thanks to a handy little thing called QUALIFIERS, making the definition of planet very inclusive doesn't hurt anything. Earth is a rocky planet, Jupiter is a gas giant planet and Neptune is a slush planet. Pluto and its cousins can simply be Ice type planets. A compact car is still a car and a midget is still a hewman so why can't Pluto be a planet.
Moving on to practical considerations, finding a new planet in our solar system is like the holy grail of astronomy. How is it fair to new astronomers if they are forever locked out the recognition and naming rights of a new planet that will go in all the textbooks and science museums??? Why should a bunch of dead guys have a monopoly on local planetary discovery? Moreover, this might come back to haunt us in thousands of years when we need to establish the boundary of our solar system in respects to whatever other lifeforms are running about out there. I can just see some intergalactic UN pointing out that we decided that way back in 2006 we said Pluto wasn't a planet so therefore we loose out on billions of miles worth of exclusive mineral rights.
I guess in the nearer term Pluto could become sort of like the Isle of Man or Old Jersey, not really part of the UN cause its not a planet and therefore becomming a tax haven / pairate enclave / terrorist base. This is why scientists shouldn't be making this decision. The definition of planet has a HUGE regulatory implications that put such a decision within the perview of public policy and our elected officials.
At the very least they could have grandfathered Pluto into being a planet. Thanks to those wonderful Grandfather clauses The PATH train is still an FRA Railroad and you can still buy some assault rifles in New Jersey. I heard a wonderful quote on Niteline tonight where someone said that Planets should be like supreme court justices...you're there for life no matter how unqualified you turn out to be.
One final thought. Is it just me, but all those little exceptions and corner cases really made learning in elementary school fun. Like pluto was the 9th planet...but sometimes it was the 8th. Just like Y is sometimes a vowel and sometimes not or that Dolphins aren't fish. It was one of those things that when you learned it it made you feel smart and you;d go around telling people. Life isn't simple, there's always a corner case and ppl need to learn to be aware of them.