Tell me the truth.

Comments

• cholesterol@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Taxonomists will be the first to tell you the field itself isn’t an exact science. I think some people find that to be more exiting.

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• technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Nice meme. I think this is true of taxonomy in the broadest sense as well.

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  • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨45⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    I can’t even describe how much I hate adjectives.

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• fubarx@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Yet it’s always the unclassified stuff that makes life fun.

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• higgsboson@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  This applies to so very many human endeavors.

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• traches@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  And the IAU got it wrong when they reclassified Pluto. Jupiter and mercury belong in the same category but the moon and mercury don’t? Get the fuck outta here

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  • craftrabbit@lemmy.zip ⁨47⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    You sound like a lunatic traumatised war veteran. The war has been over for a long time, the decisions have been made and there is no going back, my friend.

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  • sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    And to add,Jupiter and Mercury belong in the same category as in they both orbit a star (the Sun in this case), both have enough mass to be spherical, and both have clear most of their orbits.

    But the category of planets has sub-categories. Mercury is a rocky terrestrial planet while Jupiter is a gas giant as the former is smaller and rocky while the latter is large and made of mostly hydrogen and helium gas. Gas giants can also be called “Jovian planet”, but Jove is just an alternate name for Jupiter (the god) so you’re basically calling Jupiter a “Jupiter planet” which I think is a bit ridiculous but whatever it’s fine. Both are still, of course, planets. It’s like a large tree and a sunflower. Both are still considered plants, but certainly in different subclasses of the category of plant.

    Dwarf planets, although not proper planets, are still very interesting objects that could even harbour life in oceans below their icy surfaces. Also, Pluto is not alone in the dwarf planets classification. There’s also Eris, Ceres, Makemake, and probably thousands more we haven’t discovered yet!

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    • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      There’s also plenty of classifications of plants based on form! Non-vascular plants, woody plants, herbaceous plants, algae and lichen…

      Most of our “rocky” planets are pretty wet though. Mars is drying out, but Venus is caked with volatile chemicals and Earth is downright infected. Only Mercury is really barren, partly due to it’s small size. I could easily see three categories for gravitationally rounded bodies that can’t fuse hydrogen: Dry planets (usully smaller), Wet planets (usually larger), and Gaseous planets (gas giants).

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  • sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I’m pretty sure Pluto doesn’t orbit a planet, so it’s not a moon. And the Moon, not only is it named a moon, but also orbits a planet, so therefore is a moon. One is a moon and the other is not a moon. Moon, not moon.

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    • traches@sh.itjust.works ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Why does the definition involve location? Intrinsic properties make more sense. Who cares what it orbits or what else is is in a similar orbit?

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    • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Pluto and Charon orbit each other. The barycentre (the center of mass they both orbit) is far outside of Pluto. The Earth-Moon barycentre is still inside Earth, though this could be changed by moving the Moon further out.

      Either way, Earth, the largest rocky planet, could be made into a moon by sending it to Jupiter, so I don’t think being a moon should disqualify a celestial body from being a planet.

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  • frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I’ve heard (from people who have credentials in this stuff) that the people in the room at the time were mostly orbital mechanics people. The planetary scientists weren’t there. That’s why you have this “cleared its orbit” rule. If there were more planetary science people in the room, Pluto might still be considered a planet. And it may yet change back.

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  • rockerface@lemmy.cafe ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It’s either remove Pluto or add a dozen other “planets” to the list, most of them in the middle

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    • traches@sh.itjust.works ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      They should have done that

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