Illinois Declares Pluto a Planet

[n122vu]

:blink: Huh?

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/03/05/illinois-plutocrats/

 

[Urwumpe]

They could also declare Pluto Capital Planet of the solar system - it does not matter. The only authority is the IAU.

 

[TMac3000]

For goodness sake, it's a planet. A double planet, maybe, but a planet just the same. It may be the size of one of Neptune's moons, but it has a nice round shape and it's own gravity field, and even a moon.

What ever would we do if the IAU in their infinite wisdom decided to declare the sun a comet or something?

 

[Rathelm]

Well Illinois has Chicago. Not exactly the brightest part of the country.

 

[agentgonzo]

For goodness sake, it's a planet. A double planet, maybe, but a planet just the same. It may be the size of one of Neptune's moons, but it has a nice round shape and it's own gravity field, and even a moon.

So Io, Titan etc are planets are they? They fulfill your above criteria for planetship.

 

[TMac3000]

So Io, Titan etc are planets are they? They fulfill your above criteria for planetship.

Io and Titan don't have moons of their own, and don't have their own orbital tracks around the sun.

I don't mean to make fun of or offend anyone, but it just disturbs me how these big organizations can just say something, and it is.

 

[agentgonzo]

Io and Titan don't have moons of their own, and don't have their own orbital tracks around the sun.

Venus and Mercury don't have moons either. Pluto was thought to be the only thing out beyond Neptune, so it was called a planet. It was only later that they discovered that there are loads and loads of similar objects out there and that Pluto was nothing special, so they demoted it from platethood. The same thing happened with Ceres back in the 1800s. I've yet to hear anyone who claims that Pluto is still a planet claim that Ceres is a planet too.

I don't mean to make fun of or offend anyone, but it just disturbs me how these big organizations can just say something, and it is.

I doubt that anyone is taking this state law seriously.

 

[Zachstar]

The IAU demoted pluto to make a scene and get people interviews in the news media.

Despite all the little technicalities that were fathomed just to get Pluto off the list. Pluto is still a planet and that is now law in a state. Bravo!

 

[Urwumpe]

For goodness sake, it's a planet. A double planet, maybe, but a planet just the same. It may be the size of one of Neptune's moons, but it has a nice round shape and it's own gravity field, and even a moon.

And it is part of a group of many other objects, being less than 10% of the total mass of objects in it's orbital region (Not even the full Kuiper Belt, just Plutos path). All remaining 8 planets are 95-99% of the total mass inside their orbital region - they dominate it with their gravity and either capture other objects in the region or push these objects outside their orbital region by resonances.

Also, many much smaller asteroids also have moons. It is not that special at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/243_Ida

And some planets (Venus, Mercury) have even no moons.

The IAU demoted pluto to make a scene and get people interviews in the news media.

Despite all the little technicalities that were fathomed just to get Pluto off the list. Pluto is still a planet and that is now law in a state. Bravo!

The IAU made sure, that Planets are special dominant objects in a solar system. Pluto is neither special, nor dominant. It is just a big dirty snow ball, inside a large cloud of other dirty snow balls, which orbit inside the Kuiper Belt.

You are just clinging to sentimentalities. I also disliked demoting Pluto, but after learning more about the reasons and implications behind this first scientific definition of what a planet is, I can only support it.

Remember: When Pluto was made the 9th planet, there was no formal definition what a planet is. The people just said: Pluto is a planet. And Ceres is an asteroid, because it orbits inside the asteroid belt.

Now Pluto got demoted from Planet to Dwarf Planet and Ceres promoted from asteroid to Dwarf Planet. A far better solution as keeping Pluto as Planet and having to expect around 100 planets in the solar system by 2050.

You should also see this from a spaceflight point of view: If it is a planet, it's gravity matters, even if you are still far away from it. If it is a Dwarf planet, you can ignore it's gravity unless you plan to visit it.

 

[Mandella]

Despite all the little technicalities that were fathomed just to get Pluto off the list. Pluto is still a planet and that is now law in a state. Bravo!

Actually, it's only considered a planet during the times it passes over the state of Illinois, according to the article. Which happens how many times in a century (considering the latitude of the state and the angle of the orbit)?

Oh, and Illinois didn't make the proclamation over any real disagreement with the science of the classification, but because Tombaugh, Pluto's discoverer, was a Illinoisan.

 

[Linguofreak]

Venus and Mercury don't have moons either. Pluto was thought to be the only thing out beyond Neptune, so it was called a planet. It was only later that they discovered that there are loads and loads of similar objects out there and that Pluto was nothing special, so they demoted it from platethood. The same thing happened with Ceres back in the 1800s. I've yet to hear anyone who claims that Pluto is still a planet claim that Ceres is a planet too.

Me!

Then again, I don't really care that much, and the linguist in me is annoyed by all the pedantry on either side. In 1000 years or so, the language will have changed to the point that we might not recognize the word "planet," and even if we did, it may by that point mean something totally different. By that point there may even be two totally seperate words for gas giants and solid planets.

 

[T.Neo]

I've yet to hear anyone who claims that Pluto is still a planet claim that Ceres is a planet too.

Heheh.

I'd regard Ceres as a planet.

If it orbits a star and it's round, it's a planet. (By my definition anyway. )

 

[RocketMan_Len]

For goodness sake, it's a planet. ... but it has a nice round shape and it's own gravity field, and even a moon.

Sure it is - just like Ceres, Vesta, and Juno are planets.

In the *strictest* sense of the word, EVERY object in the Solar System (excluding the Sun) is a 'planet'... since the word translates into 'wanderer' - every body in orbit around the Sun does that... from the smallest pebble to the biggest Jovian world.

But there has to be a limiting point SOMEwhere... and the IAU just drew a line. Asteroids are called 'minor' planets, there are eight 'major' planets, and Pluto belongs to a category of 'dwarf' planets.

Accept it.

 

[T.Neo]

Accept it.

We will never surrender! Never, you hear me?

 

[2552]

Heheh.

I'd regard Ceres as a planet.

If it orbits a star and it's round, it's a planet. (By my definition anyway. )

Agreed. Anything in hydrostatic equilibrium (round due to gravity) that orbits the sun is a planet. I even put the [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3620"]Ceres addon[/ame] before Jupiter in my sol.cfg, making Jupiter the 6th planet, Saturn the 7th, Uranus the 8th, and Neptune the 9th. If both Rhadamanthus (10) and Orcus (11) are round, then Pluto would actually be the 12th planet. BTW, Rhadamanthus and Orcus are in the Kuiper Objects Pack addon.

 

[Linguofreak]

Sure it is - just like Ceres, Vesta, and Juno are planets.

In the *strictest* sense of the word, EVERY object in the Solar System (excluding the Sun) is a 'planet'... since the word translates into 'wanderer' - every body in orbit around the Sun does that... from the smallest pebble to the biggest Jovian world.

Not Vesta or Juno, which aren't in hydrostatic equilibrium and thus aren't on the current list of dwarf planets.

But I would consider everything on the current list of dwarf planets to be a planet.

But there has to be a limiting point SOMEwhere... and the IAU just drew a line.

That's pretty much what it comes down to, although I'm not quite sure whether you *really* need a hard and fast line *that* much. Maybe that's just the linguist in me.

One thing that might be better is to have overlapping classifications. "Dwarf planet" could be so defined as to cover the upper half of "asteroid/KBO, etc," and the lower half of "planet." With such a classification scheme, you might be unsure if an object counted as an asteroid or a planet, but you would know that it was most certainly a dwarf planet.

 

[RisingFury]

For goodness sake, it's a planet. A double planet, maybe, but a planet just the same. It may be the size of one of Neptune's moons, but it has a nice round shape and it's own gravity field, and even a moon.

In fact, it's got 3 moons. The moon you're familiar with is Charon. The two other, small ones are Nix and Hydra iirc...

The IAU didn't wanna take Pluto out specifically. The word "planet" was never strictly defined before. The new definition states that for an object to be a planet, it has to have a nice round shape, has to be the primary object in orbit around the Sun (not a moon) and has to clear it's orbit of orbital debris.

If the definition included only being round and primary body around the orbit of the Sun, we'd have to include quite a lot of asteroids into the list of planets.

What ever would we do if the IAU in their infinite wisdom decided to declare the sun a comet or something?

As much as you wanna mock them for it, this was a wise decision in my opinion.

 

[Notebook]

Although it has been claimed that the Disney studio named the dog after the planet (rather than after the mythical god of the underworld), this needs further verification. Disney animator Ben Sharpsteen has said that, "We thought the name [Rover] was too common, so we had to look for something else. [...] We changed it to Pluto the Pup, [...] but I don't honestly remember why. I think we were stoned."

I'm deeply shocked.

N.

 

[Ghostrider]

The only authority is the IAU.

Is the IAU prepared to defend its authority in a contest of arms should a challenger arise to reclaim it?

 

[RisingFury]

Oh by the way... since this is a blog, I wouldn't think it to be 100% accurate... maybe someone is just joking. But I have seen a California bill that kinda did the same thing