What about Pluto?
By vokey9472
@vokey9472 (1486)
United States
April 1, 2007 7:35pm CST
A couple of thousand astronomers in Europe decided that Pluto was not a planet anymore. I think that is ridiculous. Our grandparents, our parents and even most of us all grew up being taught that Pluto was the ninth planet in our solar system. Now, a few tiny brained so-called scientists, get to tell the whole world that Pluto isn't a planet anymore and really never was.
Hello!! What am I supposed to do with all those solar system models and posters that we all had growing up? What do I tell my kid when he looks at those ancient (20 years old) encyclopedias that the library has and sees Pluto listed as a planet. How do you explain that while the accepted theory for the last century was that Pluto was a planet, that theory can just be dismissed by a few people and become the new truth overnight?
Thanks to the press now there is an argument about what is true or not regarding Pluto's planetary status. Is it or isn't it a planet? Since no one has actually been there and we cannot verify whether or not it has moons, no one can make a decision as to whether or not it truly is a planet.
What are your thoughts on this?
2 people like this
4 responses
@kathy77 (7486)
• Australia
2 Apr 07
Oh come on of course Pluto is a planet. Yes you are right we were taught all about Pluto as a planet and have many pictures to prove it, yes and it is in the encylopedia telling us about Pluto, I still believe that Pluto is a planet.
@vokey9472 (1486)
• United States
2 Apr 07
Right on sister. Pluto is a planet and no one is ever going to convince me otherwise. Ok, so Pluto could be a dog too, if want you want to get all Disney trivia, but he was named for the planet! :)
1 person likes this
@Destiny007 (5805)
• United States
2 Apr 07
What qualifies a planet to be a planet?
What are they using as a guide?
What do scientists know anyway?
They say we are responsible for global warming while at the same time saying that Mars is going through global warming too.
Now, I not 100%, but I am fairly sure that man didn't do that.
We should be thankful that they decided the earth was round before they made all those flat globes...:)
2 people like this
@66jerseygirl (3877)
• United States
11 Apr 07
you said it all! I can't believe they are de classifying pluto as a planet! jeez!How ridiculous is that.now they are saying they might reclassify it! What is going on with these astronomers? Do they even know what they are doing?
@mattithyahu (389)
• United States
29 Apr 07
Their decision makes sense. (And unless you were taught about Pluto before 1979 or after 1999, you SHOULD have been taught that it was the 8th planet from the Sun since it was crossed in front of Neptune at that time.)
Science isn't based on sentiment. New objects needed to be classified, when they were, Pluto fit with their category. The criteria that Pluto fails to meet is that it does not "clear its neighborhood" - there are thousands of objects called plutinos that reside in Pluto's orbit that would have to be cleared in order for Pluto to be considered a planet.
All the science books and posters and what-not would have to change anyway. It was either keep Pluto as a planet and let in 2 more as planets (with 50+ more to follow) or reclassify. The reclassification made sense.
It has been verified that Pluto has 3 moons (Charon, Nix and Hyrda). The criteria for being a planet were not met by Pluto, it is really as simple as that.
If you want more info about the reclassification, you can read my post: http://url.mattjonesblog.com/pluto/1/
@FireHorse (293)
• United States
5 May 07
What a crock! From what I've seen on your site's deffinition of a planet, I don't believe ANYTHING fits that def anymore, even Jupiter hasn't cleared it's own path. Therefore there must be NO planets in this solar system.
@vokey9472 (1486)
• United States
6 May 07
So, in other words every school I went to from 1978 until 1991 was teaching me wrong. I was taught that Pluto was the 9th planet from the sun my entire life. When I was in high school (1987-1991) we were taught that Pluto was the 9th planet. Heck I even have some old enclyopedias from my high school years that show Pluto as the 9th planet. So based on what you are saying, all my teachers were wrong and all their teachers were wrong and even the enclyopedias were wrong. Huh. Interesting.
@mattithyahu (389)
• United States
7 May 07
@ Forehorse: Having small objects that happen to cross paths with the planets is significantly different than having the thousands of plutinos in Pluto's orbit.
@ vokey: I'm not surprised that at a younger age they didn't tell you it was actually the 8th planet at that time because it would just add confusion to things, but for your high school teacher to tell you that Pluto was the 9th planet at that time is pretty irresponsible!! And if an encyclopedia didn't mention that Pluto crosses in front of Neptune, it isn't a very good encyclopedia.
