so long pluto and thanks for that weird orbit
Thursday, August 24, 2006
So it's official. Er, maybe not official exactly. Maybe its more of a recommendation. Or a dictum. Or something.
But it is at least officially time for people the world over to get into raging debate over what constitutes the criteria for planethood. About 2500 folks on the final day of The International Astronomical Union's meeting in Prague have decided that for the good of modern science, all planets and planetoids that share Pluto's size and attributes will henceforth not be included in the official list of planets in our solar system.
And all I can think is how glad I am that I held off on buying that ceiling mobile of The Solar System for Trinity's room. There ought to be some good sales shortly.
That and that 76 years is a pretty good run. It also happens to be my life expectancy, so I guess I am just now in better company.
Links:
Honey, I Shrunk the Solar System - NASA's tepid endorsement
Pluto loses planet status - Wikinews' entry
Planet tag not in the stars - Courtesy of the Toronto Star
Scientists decide Pluto’s no longer a planet - and the debate starts
Pluto Demoted (MSNBC Video) - the best part of this clip is the little girl saying 'I think it doesn't matter about the size'. You won't be saying that in a few more years, sweetheart.
posted by raistlinsghost at 8/24/2006 10:40:00 PM
3 Comments:
Just to say HELLO !
Happy to visit your blog.
Greetings from Belgium.
Reno
Funny you bring up the orbit - that was my first comment after Pluto was "struck from the record".
There will be a whole lot more happy astronomers now that all the planets have regular orbits again, instead of that freak at the fringes with its elliptical orbit.
Course without it we'd never have had Isaac Asimov's Nightfall which would have been a real tragedy.
Shout out to reno. Nice site. I was going to submit a pic, but your site's too fucking big to load on my PSP.
And iiq (what's with that name anyway?): I totally agree with you about Nightfall. Awesome short story. The later novel blew but the original story was one of his best.
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