Astronomers Vote to Strip Pluto of Planetary Status

chcr

Too cute for words
I agree with 'em. It's never been a planet. :shrug:

chcr said:
Pluto's orbit is so eliptical that it's inside Neptune for about a 20 years of it's circuit (250 years). :shrug: It's also inclined seventeen degrees form the ecliptic and it's less than a fifth the size of the moon. It's a big ass comet, not a planet.
 

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
Couldda been worst...we could've kept Pluto and gotten planet Xena (with a moon named after Xena's lesbian lover) in the mix.
:rofl:
 

chcr

Too cute for words
Professur said:
Actually, it well was, since there wasn't an official definition for it not to be part of.
They called it one, but IMO it always failed to meet the criteria.

Edit: It's kind of nice to have the rest of the astronomical world at large agree with something I've felt since I first started learning astronomy back in the dim reaches of antiquity.
 

Inkara1

Well-Known Member
They called it one, but IMO it always failed to meet the criteria.

Edit: It's kind of nice to have the rest of the astronomical world at large agree with something I've felt since I first started learning astronomy back in the dim reaches of antiquity.

So you've seen us go from 8 planets to 9 and back to 8? ;)
 

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
I can just see the retail store employees, sitting around all the Milky Way mobiles, opening them up, cutting off Pluto & reclosing them just to hear that Pluto may be back. :lol:
 

Inkara1

Well-Known Member
IS it just me, or does this picture look wrong?

_42013520_tom_ap_203.jpg
 

unclehobart

New Member
Now the name 'Pluto' itself has been stripped.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14789691/

Pluto is now just a number: 134340

The former 9th planet was assigned an asteroid number

Pluto has been given a new name to reflect its new status as a dwarf planet.

On Sept. 7, the former 9th planet was assigned the asteroid number 134340 by the Minor Planet Center, the official organization responsible for collecting data about asteroids and comets in our solar system.

The move reinforces the International Astronomical Union's recent decision to strip Pluto of its planethood and places it in the same category as other small solar-system bodies with accurately known orbits.

Pluto's companion satellites, Charon, Nix and Hydra are considered part of the same system and will not be assigned separate asteroid numbers, said MPC director emeritus Brian Marsden. Instead, they will be called 134340 I, II and III, respectively.

There are currently 136,563 asteroid objects recognized by the MPC; 2,224 new objects were added last week, of which Pluto was the first.

Other notable objects to receive asteroid numbers included 2003 UB313, also known as "Xena," and the recently discovered Kuiper Belt objects 2003 EL61 and 2005 FY9. Their asteroid numbers are 136199, 136108 and 136472, respectively.

The MPC also issued a separate announcement stating that the assignment of permanent asteroid numbers to Pluto and other large objects located beyond the orbit of Neptune "does not preclude their having dual designations in possible separate catalogues of such bodies."

Marsden explained that the cryptic wording refers to the future possibility of creating a separate astronomical catalogue specific to dwarf planets. There might even be more than one catalogue created, he said.

The recent IAU decision implies "that there would be two catalogues of dwarf planets—one for just the trans-Neptunian Pluto type and the other for objects like Ceres, which has also been deemed a dwarf planet," Marsden told SPACE.com. "That's why that statement was put there, to reassure people who think there would be other catalogues that this numbering of Pluto doesn't preclude that."
 
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