CNN Breaking News - Pluto No Longer a Planet

[Guest]

What else did you learn in elementary school now know to be wrong?

For me, Jane Goodalls' discovery that Chimps make tools rendered the definition I learned of Man as being the tool user, wrong.

I learned electrons circle the nucleus--WRONG!

 

[Aurora Black]

What the hell are we going to do with just eight planets now? Oh, that's right. Nothing.

 

[cloudy]

What the hell are we going to do with just eight planets now?

and if it's not a planet, then what is it?

 

[Selena_Kitt]

huh!

Throws astrology into a tailspin....

Edited to add: Will it be known as the planet formerly known as Pluto?

 

[Aurora Black]

Poor Mickey. He's lost his friend forever.

 

[Guest]

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.

After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930.

The new definition of what is -- and isn't -- a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/24/pluto.ap/index.html

I'd read they were thinking of creating a class call "Plutons" which are non-planetary bodies.

 

[R. Richard]

[Instead, Pluto will be reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets," similar to what long have been termed "minor planets." The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun — "small solar system bodies," a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites.]

I have just one question. Will it now be "Snow White and the Seven Dwarf Planets?"

 

[Zeb_Carter]

And now that the planet formerly known as Pluto is gone, will the solar system be thrown into chaos? Will Venus collide with Mars? Will the moon disappear or hit you in the eye like a big pizza pie?

 

[Aurora Black]

And now that the planet formerly known as Pluto is gone, will the solar system be thrown into chaos? Will Venus collide with Mars? Will the moon disappear or hit you in the eye like a big pizza pie?

That's amore!

 

[Zeb_Carter]

That's amore!

Uh, a more what?

 

[Guest]

When a fish bites your hand, that's a moray.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

When a fish bites your hand, that's a moray.

ouch!

 

[Guest]

One of the funniest things I heard about this, was in a TV interview a few months ago when defrocking Pluto was first being considered, an astronomer was talking about all the letters he'd gotten from school children wanting Pluto to remain a planet.

Paraphrasing, "When I was working on my Ph.D. in Astronomy, the last thing I thought my career would bring me was a flood of letters from angry third graders."

 

[shereads]

Science, my derriere! This is a blatant attempt to sidestep international agreements that limit strip-mining on unpopulated planets. I smell Halliburton.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Science, my derriere! This is a blatant attempt to sidestep international agreements that limit strip-mining on unpopulated planets. I smell Halliburton.

Why would I want to see an unpopulated planet strip?

 

[S-Des]

Why would I want to see an unpopulated planet strip?

A really cold one at that.

 

[Straight-8]

huh! Will it be known as the planet formerly known as Pluto?

No, it will be known as 'Pluto' formerly known as a planet!

I lost $2 to my kid on this one...somebody's got to pay!

And what will happen to the planetary memnonic I learned in grade school "Man Very Early Made Jars Stand Upright Nearly (Perpendicular)". I'm beginning to think I'm the only person who was ever forced to learn this silly memnonic anyway!

 

[shereads]

Isn't it strange that here, of all places, the Pluto controversy hasn't inspired any references to Uranus?

And you people call yourselves pornographers!

 

[AngeloMichael]

Isn't it strange that here, of all places, the Pluto controversy hasn't inspired any references to Uranus?

And you people call yourselves pornographers!

What does toilet paper and the Starship Enterprise® have in common?

They both circle Uranus looking for Klingons.


This whole Pluto not being a planet debate, it happens every few years. There's always such an angry public outcry about it the astronomers capitulate and keep Pluto as a planet.

"You can't do that! I mean, it'll like totally mess up the 'My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.' memoronic* device!"

*I know it's pneumonic.

We'll see if it sticks this time.

 

[Guest]

Isn't it strange that here, of all places, the Pluto controversy hasn't inspired any references to Uranus?

And you people call yourselves pornographers!

And what will happen to the planetary memnonic I learned in grade school

My very elderly Master, James, sucked uranus numb.

 

[Aurora Black]

What does toilet paper and the Starship Enterprise® have in common?

They both circle Uranus looking for Klingons.

 

[Straight-8]

My very elderly Master, James, sucked uranus numb.

Thanks, that'll help!

 

[kendo1]

Size matters.

Ken in woad.