Astronomers remove Pluto's 'planet' status

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

PRAGUE, Czech Republic

Leading astronomers on Thursday approved historic new guidelines under which distant Pluto is no longer defined as a planet.

After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. It is the first time that scientists have had a definition of what is - and is not - a planet .

this is indeed sad news for poor lonely little pluto and her tiny daughter moon , charon.

forever locked in its lonely orbit , 6,000 million miles from the sun , in the icy wastes at the edges of our solar system , hoping one day for acceptance and warmth , yet to be cruelly denied after waiting for 200 million years by a bunch of dusty old frizzy haired ( and probably german ) scientists.

The uniqueness of Pluto's orbit, rotational relationship with its satellite, spin axis, and light variations all give the planet a certain appeal.

Pluto was officially labeled the ninth planet by the International Astronomical Union in 1930 and named for the Roman god of the underworld. It was the first and only planet to be discovered by an American, Clyde W. Tombaugh ,( but now even that dubious honour has been denied to the americans. )

Pluto was my favourite planet , it did its own thing , it looked after little charon , it kept its distance from others and it never bothered anyone .

not for pluto the gaudy rings of saturn , the foul brown methane gases of uranus , the "come and look at me then " of venus or the "try and land on me if you think you're hard" of mars.

pluto was the quiet one , a diamond among planets , and now it has been excommunicated , for the heinous crime of being too small.

i , for one shall shed a little tear as i look skyward tonight.

Pluto

Come wander with me, she said,

Into regions yet untrod;

And read what is still unread

In the manuscripts of God.

- Longfellow

r.i.p. pluto.

I thought Mickey Mouses dog had died!

thought Mickey Mouses dog had died!

you need to shower more

thought Mickey Mouses dog had died!

you need to shower more

thought Mickey Mouses dog had died!

you need to shower more

As in a "Meteor Shower"

Just be glad you got to keep Uranus.

What was once the last of the planets shall now be the first of the plutons.

And Mars will be visable next to the Moon for the next week or so, the best time should be arount 12.30am on the 28th August, Should look the same size as the moon.

A touching soliloquy to the magic that was Pluto, tax…

Pluto…. Our beautiful, ex-9th planet….

Sleep peacefully…

Looks like Aberdeen. All grey, bleak and miserable

Looks like Aberdeen. All grey, bleak and miserable

Pluto is probably better.I drove through Aberdeen...once!

Pluto, the planet of sex and power according to astrologists. What, pretell, are we going to do now that's it's gone? Venus, the conventional planet of love and beauty, simply doesn't cover everything.

Liked your homage Tax

Our solar system now officially has 12 planets.... And two large planetoids, withmore to be added on later.....

I hope the IUA keeps the name "Xena" for Kupier belt body 2003 UB313..

Pluto is being recalssified with the bodies known as "Plutons", or dwaft planets. another reclassified solar body is Ceres, the largest asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is finally regaining it's planetary status after being demoted around two hundred years ago in the 19th century.

I guess we now have to come up with another mnemonic to memeorize them now... From " My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos,

to

Many Vibrating Energetic Monkeys Can Just Sound Unpleasant Playing Cheap Xylephones ......

I've heard a rumor that the term "pluton" will not be used for the sub-planet things because geologists have a copyright on the word....it seems that Ayer's rock is a pluton.

A touching soliloquy to the magic that was Pluto, tax…

Pluto…. Our beautiful, ex-9th planet….

Sleep peacefully…

Just to keep scientific ignorane to a minimum....this is not a picture of pluto...it is an artists interpretation...Pluto is too far away to take clear pictures of it from earth. Even from the Hubble space telescope the surface of Pluto can only be seen to have large areas of dark and light contrast and features can not be discerned.

A touching soliloquy to the magic that was Pluto, tax…

Pluto…. Our beautiful, ex-9th planet….

Sleep peacefully…

Just to keep scientific ignorane to a minimum....this is not a picture of pluto...it is an artists interpretation...

... and just to keep English language ignorance to a minimum, it IS a picture of Pluto, but it is not a photograph, which is not something it was purported to be anyway.

"Pluto.....RIP"

" Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated....."-Oscar Wilde.

Just to be boring, here is a real photograph of Pluto.

the other bright light is its moon, Charon.

Photo taken from Hubble.

A touching soliloquy to the magic that was Pluto, tax…

Pluto…. Our beautiful, ex-9th planet….

Sleep peacefully…

Just to keep scientific ignorane to a minimum....this is not a picture of pluto...it is an artists interpretation...

... and just to keep English language ignorance to a minimum, it IS a picture of Pluto, but it is not a photograph, which is not something it was purported to be anyway.

...and just to keep spelling ignorance to a minimum.

Ignorance is spelled “i-g-n-o-r-a-n-c-e” not “i-g-n-o-r-a-n-e”

Anything else we imbeciles might have missed?

I am still too happy they let us keep Uranus.

Just to be boring, here is a real photograph of Pluto.

the other bright light is its moon, Charon.

Photo taken from Hubble.

Since we are starting to get a bit anal on this thread (especially with all this talk about Uranus);

Is it a light or a reflection of light?

Was the picture take “from” Hubble, or “by” Hubble, or both?

who said the world of astronomy was boring ???

Pluto vote 'hijacked' in revolt

By Paul Rincon

Science reporter, BBC News

A fierce backlash has begun against the decision by astronomers to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.

On Thursday, experts approved a definition of a planet that demoted Pluto to a lesser category of object.

But the lead scientist on Nasa's robotic mission to Pluto has lambasted the ruling, calling it "embarrassing".

And the chair of the committee set up to oversee agreement on a definition implied that the vote had effectively been "hijacked".

The vote took place at the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) 10-day General Assembly in Prague. The IAU has been the official naming body for astronomy since 1919.

Only 424 astronomers who remained in Prague for the last day of the meeting took part.

An initial proposal by the IAU to add three new planets to the Solar System - the asteroid Ceres, Pluto's moon Charon and the distant world known as 2003 UB313 - met with considerable opposition at the meeting. Days of heated debate followed during which four separate proposals were tabled.

Eventually, the scientists adopted historic guidelines that see Pluto relegated to a secondary category of "dwarf planets".

Dr Alan Stern, who leads the US space agency's New Horizons mission to Pluto and did not vote in Prague, told BBC News: "It's an awful definition; it's sloppy science and it would never pass peer review - for two reasons.

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by the American Clyde Tombaugh

"Firstly, it is impossible and contrived to put a dividing line between dwarf planets and planets. It's as if we declared people not people for some arbitrary reason, like 'they tend to live in groups'.

"Secondly, the actual definition is even worse, because it's inconsistent."

One of the three criteria for planethood states that a planet must have "cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit". The largest objects in the Solar System will either aggregate material in their path or fling it out of the way with a gravitational swipe.

Pluto was disqualified because its highly elliptical orbit overlaps with that of Neptune.

But Dr Stern pointed out that Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune have also not fully cleared their orbital zones. Earth orbits with 10,000 near-Earth asteroids. Jupiter, meanwhile, is accompanied by 100,000 Trojan asteroids on its orbital path.

These rocks are all essentially chunks of rubble left over from the formation of the Solar System more than four billion years ago.

"If Neptune had cleared its zone, Pluto wouldn't be there," he added.

Stern said like-minded astronomers had begun a petition to get Pluto reinstated. Car bumper stickers compelling motorists to "Honk if Pluto is still a planet" have gone on sale over the internet and e-mails circulating about the decision have been describing the IAU as the "Irrelevant Astronomical Union".

He added: "There were 2,700 astronomers in Prague during that 10-day period. But only 10% of them voted this afternoon. Those who disagreed and were determined to block the other resolution showed up in larger numbers than those who felt 'oh well, this is just one of those things the IAU is working on'."

Professor Gingerich, who had to return home to the US and therefore could not vote himself, said he would like to see electronic ballots introduced in future.

Alan Stern agreed: "I was not allowed to vote because I was not in a room in Prague on Thursday 24th. Of 10,000 astronomers, 4% were in that room - you can't even claim consensus.

"If everyone had to travel to Washington DC every time we wanted to vote for President, we would have very different results, because no one would vote. In today's world that is idiotic. I have nothing but ridicule for this decision."

He added that he could not see the resolution standing for very long and did not plan to change any of the astronomy textbook he was currently writing.

But other astronomers were happy to see Pluto cast from the official roster of planets. Professor Iwan Williams, the IAU's president of planetary systems science, commented: "Pluto has lots and lots of friends; we're not so keen to have Pluto and all his friends in the club, because it gets crowded.

"By the end of the decade, we would have had 100 planets, and I think people would have said 'my goodness, what a mess they made back in 2006'."

The critical blow for Pluto came with the discovery three years ago of an object currently designated 2003 UB313. Discovered by Mike Brown and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology, 2003 UB313 has been lauded by some as the "10th Planet".

Mike Brown seemed happy with Pluto's demotion. "Eight is enough," he told the Associated Press, jokingly adding: "I may go down in history as the guy who killed Pluto."

GO PLUTO GO , SOME OF US LOVE YOU !!

ye gods and little fishes,you wouldn't want to be stuck at a party talking to a bunch of propeller heads like that......

Just to be boring, here is a real photograph of Pluto.

the other bright light is its moon, Charon.

Photo taken from Hubble.

Since we are starting to get a bit anal on this thread (especially with all this talk about Uranus);

Is it a light or a reflection of light?

Was the picture take “from” Hubble, or “by” Hubble, or both?

Ooh, you are getting anal.

Anyway, I always liked Pluto, sad to see it relegated to the dwarf section, I always thought that was Sneezy, Grumpy and Doc, but what do I know?

Just to be boring, here is a real photograph of Pluto.

the other bright light is its moon, Charon.

Photo taken from Hubble.

And another:

this is a picture of pluto, it is not a photograph, i am not ignorane..........

Still a planet those whacky astronomers can go stuff themselves. There are 9 planets not 8.

those whacky astronomers

you'd think that they would be regular down to earth types , but you wonder what planet some of them are living on.

Well, there are 9 named planets. From what they're saying, there are hundreds of illegitimate ones

Just to be boring, here is a real photograph of Pluto.

the other bright light is its moon, Charon.

Photo taken from Hubble.

And another:

hmmm.... are you sure those didn't come from CMU's engineering faculty by mistake? They look more like ball-bearings....

I thought this thread would be about the grey wolf at CM Night Safari who died of pneumonia.