Submitted 8 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/9f49e346-87a7-4026-b5be-ee56d1a97d08.jpeg
Back in school we used to have a book with an illustration of the solar system with all the planets in neat almost circular orbits in a plane around the sun. And there was Pluto with its skewed orbit that was all over the place. My teacher couldn’t convince me that it should be lumped in with the rest of the planets.
I felt satisfaction when Jim Carrey’s kids in Me, Myself and Irene complained that it shouldn’t be a planet. That was the first time I ever heard a person say that.
It you class it as a planet you can have to do it for all the others
And who wants to memorize more than eight or nine planets.
I will
The rocks, ice, and gas out there doesn’t give a shit what we think.
Arguing that a planet must have cleared its orbit of other major bodies invokes an arbitrary size and location judgement for what constitutes a planets orbital space and what constitutes a major body.
The argument that the inclusion of Pluto would require the inclusion of a lot of other planets and that that is obviously bad/wrong is absurd. Why can’t a system have a whole lot of planets?
I propose an unoriginal definition of a planet:
Large enough to become spherical under its own mass.
Too small to fuse hydrogen, regardless of its presence.
I think we should really consider the term “planet” to be somewhat vague, and use the term “proper planet” when referring to all the things that match my proposed definition. The proposed definition includes things we have other names for and that’s okay; we just use those other names when we need the extra specificity, like moon, rouge planet, dwarf planet, etc.
Well said. This is my take on it too. It’s really the only reasonable approach.
Our moon would be a planet under that definition
Yes that’s right. It would also be a moon. I see no reason why it can’t be both.
Pluto isn’t a planet but Phobos is still a moon. Seems unfair.
new planet definition is dumb and i don’t subscribe to it. pluto is always a planet as far as im concerned
Then you must accept at least 5 more and up to a couple hundred. Are you prepared?
me knowing pluto is a hecbear user
@pluto@hexbear.net
Hello there.
Me who knows Pluto is a manga
The stupidest consequence of the definition is not the classification of Pluto, but that there are only eight planets in the entire universe.
a planet is a celestial body that:
- is in orbit around the Sun
*a sun
No. I copied and pasted that. The definition says ‘the Sun’. There was a proposal to classify ‘exoplanets’ but the IAU never accepted it, and so those large masses orbiting other stars remain undefined.
Hi.
Go away, Pluto. You are not a planet. /s
Always “Pluto, Pluto, Pluto”. Why does no one ever remember Ceres, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake? They’re each as much of a “planet” as Pluto is.
Yeah, dwarfs.
Gas giant planets, ice giant planets, rocky planets, dwarf planets.
I don’t see what the big deal is.
The “big” deal is that a ton of celestial bodies of comparable size to pluto would have to be considered either as planets or as general debris. Finding a clear definition which would include pluto as a planet and not include other stuff would be very impractical and possibly nearly impossible.
But the biggest fuck up was to name a non-planet a “dwarf planet”.
Sounds like just another kind of planet to me.
The deal is the weird part where they made a specific point of and big deal out of the new classification not being a type of planet despite having the word planet in the name.
Are dwarf stars not stars?
No, because they aren’t undergoing hydrogen fusion due to their insufficient mass.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_star
That doesn’t seem to be entirely accurate.
Seems to be an appropriate thread for this absolute banger: youtu.be/EuRjmzz6qL0
False. Pluto is the greatest robot on Earth.
Only USA are arguing against it be cause of national pride, it’s the “planet” they had discovered. Among astronomers the consensus is established.
What a weird take.
You overestimate how many of us even know that. It was probably mentioned in school I guess, but this is the first I remember hearing it. I did do kindergarten to 2nd grade in a different country though.
Why do you think you were taught about it? What you learn at school is heavily influenced by the “national myth”. It’s most visible in your history lessons, but science is also impacted, it will be biased towards your culture’s scientists and discoveries. I am observing that in Europe too, I’m not saying the USA are worth on that.
Instead of being proud of having discovered the first of a new type of celestial body so far out.
CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 8 months ago
Me, who misread the caption at first, who knows Plato is a philosopher
WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I thought it was a kind of modeling clay.
univers3man@lemmy.world 8 months ago
No, you’re thinking of play doh, a type of starchy tuber.