Pluto the Planet :D

[Justicier]

EDIT: I feel rather small...

Apparently, instead of reading properly, my weary sleep-deprived eyes read "radius" when the article actually read "diameter." Wishful thinking and weariness = Derp.

Had Pluto's radius been 2370km, that would have been something. Sorry aboot my hastily put together excited post, misleading was not my intent.

Pluto the planetoid

Edited July 14, 2015 by Justicier
DERP

[HoloYolo]

You Pluto fanboys. IT CAN'T BE A PLANET! Just because it has an atmosphere does not give it full status. Look up classification of a planet and come back.

http://www.universetoday.com/13573/why-pluto-is-no-longer-a-planet/

I rest my case.

Edited July 14, 2015 by HoloYolo

[NFUN]

If Pluto is so desperate for attention, maybe he should've made like Triton and moved to become the only interesting moon around a giant, specifically Uranus. Instead, the cocky body decided to gamble in trying to have its cake and eat it too in having five other bodies in its system while still being in the Kuiper Belt. Arrogant snowball doesn't even have it's barycenter inside itself, and still wants to be an actual planet? Pfft, my response to the poll:

[PakledHostage]

So, thanks to New Horizons... current measurements: 2370km (+/-20km) radius for Pluto. Still small compared to the Earth, but no where near the tiny snowball it was believed to be.

Erm... You mean diameter. Today's new diameter measurement differs from a 2014 estimate by a mere 2 km and it differs from a 2011 estimate by only 10 km. Today's measurement is also 20 km SMALLER than a 1993 estimate. But hey, don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Edited July 14, 2015 by PakledHostage
Corrected one quoted diameter value

[Kilmeister]

You got the numbers wrong. Pluto has a DIAMETER of 2370 km, not radius. Meaning it is still smaller than our own Moon (3,475 km). Yes, the new observations make it bigger than we once thought, but it is still quite small. And as Neil Degrasse Tyson puts it... It's still the largest Kuiper belt object. So let it reign as king of the Kuiper belt instead of runt of the planets

Edit: I'm too slow on the fact checking... So Repeat post.

[AngelLestat]

You call that an "atmosphere" ? It has 0,000003 bar on pressure... It does not matter how thick it is, I would not notice the difference with vacuum.

[YNM]

Nein !

For :

1. Still a small ball anyway.

2. I don't want to have too much planet, the same as I don't want Ceres to be a planet, then Vesta etc will be a planet too. Planets must be very remarkable on it's own (moons and rings doesn't justify it).

3. It doesn't matter whether it's going to be a planet or not, its still SCIENCE!!! for the solar system !

[regex]

I am literally a facist German dictator because of Pluto.

[Kilmeister]

A thought: I assume most of us grew up with a 9th planet in our solar system. So we will always have a special place in our hearts for Pluto. Future generations won't have the same admiration for Pluto as we all have. They will simply see it in textbooks as one of the many dwarf planets in our solar system. They will simply view it in the same vein that we see people in the past who assumed that the Sun revolved around the earth. So enjoy this moment, future generations won't ever understand our joy with finally seeing the entirety of our solar system.

[vger]

A thought: I assume most of us grew up with a 9th planet in our solar system. So we will always have a special place in our hearts for Pluto. Future generations won't have the same admiration for Pluto as we all have. They will simply see it in textbooks as one of the many dwarf planets in our solar system. They will simply view it in the same vein that we see people in the past who assumed that the Sun revolved around the earth. So enjoy this moment, future generations won't ever understand our joy with finally seeing the entirety of our solar system.

If any future generations play classic video games that involve traversing the solar system for (insert reason here) they're going to be a little confused.

[Streetwind]

You can make some arguments against the somewhat clumsy definition drafted up by the IAU, and in favor of different definitions that would put Pluto and also Eris as the 9th and 10th planets of the solar system. Unfortunately for their proponents, I've yet to see it argued really well. Every single "Pluto should be a planet" essay I ever saw starts off with "it was a planet when I was a kid, I don't see why it isn't still one now", then manages to make one halfway decent argument that's logically sound, and then devolves into constructing the rest of its arguments on the basis of misrepresenting facts in an attempt to be more convincing. That's not how you do it, folks.

You need to convince not an easily influenced layman audience of this, but and audience of diehard astronomists at the IAU. Whether or not you agree with them, they have the official right to make these definitions, recognized by pretty much every scientific institution on the planet, as well as pretty much every nationstate and the United Nations to boot. If you want a different definition, you need to get the IAU to change it. It's not a hard definition to overrule; it was passed with just a tiny fraction of the assembly on the last day of a conference after almost everyone had already gone home. It's really not that hard. But you need to convince scientists, so please act like you want to, and present facts only.

As for myself, I think it's just a label. It doesn't change the way Pluto is. I know humans have this strange desire to force smoothly scaling things into a small number of discrete categories, but I don't think it's really that important.

[Teilnehmer]

99999!

[Frida Space]

Fine, let's make Pluto a planet again! But then we also have to add Eris, Makemake, Haumea, Quaoar, etc.

- - - Updated - - -

current measurements: 2370km (+/-20km) radius for Pluto. Still small compared to the Earth, but no where near the tiny snowball it was believed to be.

Actually, the IAU considered Pluto's diameter to be 2390 km, so according to them the new measurements have made it smaller

[Albert VDS]

Let's clear something up. Pluto is only considered the biggest Kuiper Belt object because it's flyby size measurement is compared with Eris' non-flyby size measurement.

It's "nr1 place" is based off an accurate vs less accurate measurements. After all Pluto's suggested size has changed a lot since it was discovered and even in the recent years.

It might as well be knocked of it's "nr1 place" if 1 a Eris fly by is every done(highly doubtful*) or 2 a bigger object is found, like an Earth sized object that has been speculated about.

* Like what was said before in this thread; this flyby's might be the last one.

Also, I doubt NASA would get enough support to send a probe to Eris with the possibility of dethroning Pluto again.

Edit: Eris not Sedna.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Albert VDS

[vger]

or 2 a bigger object is found, like an Earth sized object that has been speculated about.

....nibiru? *cough*

[Streetwind]

Let's clear something up. Pluto is only considered the biggest Kuiper Belt object because it's flyby size measurement is compared with Sedna's non-flyby size measurement.

It's "nr1 place" is based off an accurate vs less accurate measurements. After all Pluto's suggested size has changed a lot since it was discovered and even in the recent years.

Sedna is not a Kuiper Belt object. Don't you mean Eris?

[Justicier]

Well it turns out I was all excited for nothing... my eyes read "Radius", when the text actually was "Diameter". Sleep deprivation + romantic notions of Pluto is not good people.

[Albert VDS]

Sedna is not a Kuiper Belt object. Don't you mean Eris?

Thank you, don't know why I mixed them up.

[KerikBalm]

Sedna is not a Kuiper Belt object. Don't you mean Eris?

Yea, he's confused Sedna with Eris... Eris is the one that they thought was bigger... Sedna is known to be smaller... as to what Sedna is... I'm not sure where the line is drawn between the kuiper belt, and the scattered disk... and then there are soem that say Sedna is really from the innermost portions of the Oort cloud...

I am also a bit skeptical that pluto is bigger.

If the previous measurements shower Eris was bigger with a good confidence interval... then I'd trust that rather than comparing two different measurement systems...

but sometimes you have to make do with murky data...

Its not like they can do all the controls one can do in a biology lab. In a bio lab, you'd make sure to do all the measurements with the same protocol and same instrument...

[lajoswinkler]

All this "Pluto is bigger" ... It's not like it was 500 km larger. We're talking about statistical errors and predictions. It is still possible Pluto is not the largest known, and definitively possible not the largest Kuiper belt object out there. Thousands of very similar objects are waiting to be discovered. It's like an asteroid belt, but icy.

And no, it will not be a planet. Nothing this mission offers will change it and that's for the best.

Edited July 14, 2015 by lajoswinkler

[Darnok]

You should add 3rd option "The name we give doesn't change what Pluto is", for you it may be dwarf planet for other person planet it doesn't change anything.

[georgTF]

I care not wheter it's called a planet or plant, i just wish it's historic significance were recognised. It shouldn't be reclassified because romantic notions cannot overrule scientific fact and proven falsehood. Also, what kind of mess would the classification system be if any planet were classified according to fact AND romanticised indulgencies.

I am only sad that a representation of the solar system counts 8 planets and stops at Neptune because i am so used to there being a lonely and out of place ....ty little rock at the end of the list. Put a big asterisk next to it, refer to it by an insulting or silly classification, i don't care just put it back on the list.

We no longer draw silly mermaids, giant squids or Lovecraftian monsters on maps of oceans and we certainly shouldn't but at the same time we killed off a little bit of romance and made the style way to factual and boring. We can't will ourselves to believe the Earth is flat nor should we make any special dispensation for the fact we believed it to be flat for so long and for the same reason we cannot include Pluto among the planets when it became obvious it doesn't meet the requirements of actually being one. But it has been at the tail end of every model of the solar system before it was demoted and there is no scientific, statistical, encyclopedic or whatever-elsic reason it cannot still occupy it's place especially since other small person planets are also included. And they should be, why make the thing less interesting.

Voted no, still cling on the the "Classical 9 planets" model of the solar system even if one of them isn't a planet but is satan's droppings or something.

[Albert VDS]

The fact that we as the human race sent a spacecraft to it should be enough indication that it's historic significance is being recognized.

Just look at all the other options with far more scientific value than Pluto.

It's been said a lot of time before, but what about Ceres? It was once a planet, "no one" even cares that it doesn't even have complete dwarf planet status.

It was demoted from planet to asteroid, has it's astronomical symbol removed and it was reclassified as dwarf planet but it's still classified as an asteroid in various academic textbooks and even by NASA.

[peadar1987]

I said it in the other thread, but I don't particularly care what Pluto is classified as, it's still a significant solar system object, and nothing anybody says or does can change that. When I'm listing planets, I usually include the dwarves as well anyway. All together now: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Orcus, Pluto, Haumea, Quaoar, Makemake, Eris, Sedna. (and possibly Varuna, Ixion and Huya soon as well)

[Camacha]

And no, it will not be a planet. Nothing this mission offers will change it and that's for the best.

It still might be a planet. Not because of this mission, but because the scientists here on Earth cannot seem to make up their mind about things. We try to design categories for something we only barely know and that is bound to lead to adjustments down the line.